"Words are...our most inexhaustible source of magic."

The bright side of the planet moves toward darkness

And the cities are falling asleep, each in its hour,

And for me, now as then, it is too much.

There is too much world.

-Czeslaw Milosz, The Separate Notebooks

Such were my thoughts last night though I could not pen it. Those thoughts have lingered with me today.

My wish to write more blog posts has been stifled by events that have shaken the world. I have found comfort, not surprisingly, in the books that stock my shelves. Earlier today, I reached for an unread Newberry Medal book The One and Only Ivan. The story begins with a quote from George Eliot, “It is never too late to be what you might have been.”

A smile broke through as I contemplated the appearance of hope in that statement. I continued reading the story, yet the memory of other stories led me to take out other books from the shelf. I found the poem by Milosz (above) in the beginning of the current novel I am reading, Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel.  It struck me differently from the first time I read it. Now, the last two lines speak of the overwhelming news of tragedy that struck around the world this past week. Simply stated, “it is too much” to bear. 

As I continued to grab books from the shelf, I came across this pertinent nugget from The Open Conspiracy by H.G. Wells—

"Our battle is with cruelties and frustrations, stupid, heavy, and hateful things from which we shall escape at last, less like victors conquering a world than like sleepers awaking from a nightmare in the dawn... A time will come when men will sit with history before them or with some old newspaper before them and ask incredulously, ‘Was there ever such a world?' "

We know the answer to that incredulous question. Despite the affirmative response, the solidarity demonstrated by people around the world is encouraging. I am not bearing this sadness alone. Dumbledore said in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, “Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.” 


I purposely titled this blog post with another Dumbledore quote from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Dumbledore tells Harry, "Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it." The professor was right. Words from authors of different eras, gender, and nationalities have provided meaning to the emotions that I was at a loss to describe.