READING is THERAPY WRITERS CATEGORIES ABOUT

FEATURED POSTS
“Why Are Americans Afraid of Dragons?”
by Ursula Le Guin (excerpts) “DO NOT BE TOO
MORAL” (THOREAU)

To be free, after all, is not to be undisciplined … It “THE CHILD AND THE

“ SHADOW” BY URSULA
is our Puritanism, insisting that discipline means LE GUIN, EXCERPTS

repression or punishment, which confuses the subject.

To discipline something, in the proper sense of the word, JAMES CARSE ON ART
does not mean to repress it, but to train it—to encourage
it to grow, and act, and be fruitful, whether it is a peach
tree or a human mind.
RILKE’S ADVICE TO
THE YOUNG

The kind of thing you learn from reading about

“
the problems of a hobbit who is trying to drop a “FREEDOM” BY
URSULA LE GUIN
magic ring into an imaginary volcano has very little to (EXCERPT)

do with your social status, or material success, or

income. Indeed, if there is any relationship, it is a
“A THOUSAND NAMES
negative one. There is an inverse correlation between FOR JOY” BY BYRON
KATIE (EXCERPTS)
fantasy and money… [J]ust give a lift to one of those
people along the roads who own nothing but a
“CRUELTY IS A
backpack, a guitar … a smile, and a thumb. Time and MYSTERY” (ANNIE
DILLARD)
again, you will find that these waifs have read The Lord
of the Rings – some of them can practically recite it….
“TEACHING A STONE
TO TALK” (ANNIE
I believe that maturity is not an outgrowing, but a DILLARD)

growing up; that an adult is not a dead child, but a child

who survived. I believe that all the best faculties of a
THE DALAI LAMA ON
mature human being exist in the child, and that if these THE EMPTINESS OF
PHENOMENON
faculties are encouraged in youth they will act well and
wisely in the adult, but if they are repressed and denied
in the child they will stunt and cripple the adult A LEFT HANDED
COMMENCEMENT
personality. And finally, I believe that one of the most ADDRESS (URSULA LE
GUIN)
deeply human, and humane, of these faculties is the
power of imagination…[I]t is our pleasant duty as URSULA LE GUIN ON
ART
librarians, or teachers, or parents, or writers, or simply
as grownups, to encourage that faculty of imagination in
our children, to encourage it to grow freely … by giving
it the best, absolutely the best and purest, nourishment JOAN DIDION “ON SELF
RESPECT”
that it can absorb. And never, under any circumstances,
to squelch it, or sneer at it, or imply that it is childish, or
unmanly, or untrue.
THE SEARCH FOR
HAPPINESS: ON
“ACTUALIZING OUR
For fantasy is true, of course. It isn’t factual, but it is true. TRUE NATURE”
Children know that. Adults know it too, and that is
precisely why many of them are afraid of fantasy. They “MY SON SHOULD DO
HIS HOMEWORK” — IS
know that its truth challenges, even threatens, all that is THIS TRUE?

false, all that is phony, unnecessary, and trivial in the life

they have let themselves be forced into living. They are
THE WISDOM OF
afraid of dragons, because they are afraid of freedom. RAINER MARIA RILKE:
LETTERS TO A YOUNG
POET

I believe that we should trust our children. Normal

children do not confuse reality and fantasy – they
confuse them much less often than we adults do (as a TOP POSTS
certain great fantasist pointed out in a story called “The
Emperor’s New Clothes”). Children know perfectly well “Why Are Americans Afraid of
that unicorns aren’t real, but they also know that books Dragons?” by Ursula Le Guin
about unicorns, if they are good books, are true books … (excerpts)
It is by such statements as, “Once upon a time there was "Give Me Truth" (Thoreau)
Ursula Le Guin on Abortion:
a dragon,” or “In a hole in the ground there lived a
“The Princess" & “What It Was
hobbit”—it is by such beautiful non-facts that we Like”
fantastic human beings may arrive, in our peculiar “The Operating Instructions”
fashion, at the truth. by Ursula Le Guin (excerpts)
Dorothy Rowe on Depression &
Goodness
Excerpts from “Why Are Americans Afraid of
Lao Tzu on Fear
Dragons?” by Ursula K. Le Guin, from the essay “A Deer at Providencia” (Annie
collection, The Language of the Night: Essays on Dillard)
Fantasy and Science Fiction (1979). The Dalai Lama on Afflictive
Emotions
David Whyte On Marriage
You may also like: “Freedom” by Ursula Le Guin
(excerpts)
“The Child and the Shadow” Dorothy Rowe on Anxiety

○( URSULA LE GUIN RECENT POSTS

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(WORDSWORTH)
2019-08-19

% PREVIOUS POST NEXT POST &

“POWER” BY AUDRE
LORDE
2019-08-16
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OLSEN (EXCERPTS)
2019-08-03
“The Child and the Shadow” by Ursula Le Guin,
excerpts
RILKE ON LOVE
2019-08-01

Ursula Le Guin on Art

SUSAN BLACKMORE
ON THE “HARD
PROBLEM” OF
“Bryn Mawr Commencement Address” (Ursula Le CONSCIOUSNESS
2019-07-30
Guin)

ON “TRUE
MEDITATION”
A Left Handed Commencement Address (Ursula Le (ADYASHANTI)
2019-07-17
Guin)

DAVID WHYTE ON
MARRIAGE
(EXCERPTS)
2018-12-19

“HOW CAN I LEARN TO

LOVE MYSELF?”
2018-11-24

DOROTHY ROWE,
“BEYOND FEAR”
(EXCERPTS)
2018-09-25

“BRYN MAWR
COMMENCEMENT
ADDRESS” (URSULA LE
GUIN)
2018-09-16

“THE ROOTS OF SELF

ESTEEM”: THE DALAI
LAMA IN DISCUSSION
2018-09-15

THOREAU’S ADVICE TO
THE YOUNG
2018-09-10

“MY SON SHOULD DO

HIS HOMEWORK” — IS
THIS TRUE?
2018-09-04

“I NEED MY FAMILY’S
 APPROVAL” — IS THIS
TRUE?
2018-09-03

“CRUELTY IS A
MYSTERY” (ANNIE
DILLARD)
2018-08-30

“A SCIENCE OF THE
MIND”: MATTHIEU
RICARD ON BUDDHIST
INQUIRY
2018-08-25

BUDDHISM AND THE

WEST: MATTHIEU
RICARD & JEAN-
FRANCOIS REVEL
2018-08-18

“GIVE ME TRUTH”
(THOREAU)
2018-08-18

DOROTHY ROWE ON
PRIDE & FEELING
RESPONSIBLE FOR
OTHERS
2018-06-10

FEATURED WRITERS

Annie Dillard Audre Lorde

Byron Katie Dalai
Lama David Whyte
Dorothy Rowe
Henry David
Thoreau James Carse
Joan Didion Lao Tzu

Matthieu Ricard
Rainer Maria Rilke Susan
Blackmore Tillie Olsen Ursula
Le Guin

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"Who would call a day spent reading a good day? But a life spent reading—that is a good life." Annie Dillard