Falling in Love With the World

Two Cups of Tea at Hope’s Cafe

I read a poignant story this week about Maurice Sendak, author of the classic children’s book Where the Wild Things Are.  Sendak grew up the son of Polish Jews, who had lost essentially all their relatives during  the holocaust .  He was a very sickly child who spent a lot of time in bed, his sole entertainment being reading.  His childhood was marked by loss and pain, and thus he learned early that childhood could be marked by darkness.

As an adult he wrote the story of Max, a little boy sent to bed without supper because of angry behavior.  There he sailed away to a place where wild things roared and gnashed their teeth and rolled their terrible eyes. He became king of his feelings in this wild place.  And when the “wildness” was finished he came home. 

This was published at a time in the early 1960s when children’s books were typically sweet stories with brightly colored pictures and happy endings.  There were those who did not welcome it, despite its earning the 1964 Caldecott medal. Some librarians pulled it from the shelves.  Bruno Bettelheim, Austrian psychologist and educator, publicly criticized him in the “Ladies Home Journal” saying a child sent to bed without supper would be traumatizing to a child reader.  Ironically, Bettelheim went on to publish his book Uses of Enchantment, which promoted the use of fairy tales, once considered too dark, such as those by the Brothers Grimm, with their themes of abandonment, witches and death, to help children cope with fears in remote, symbolic terms. 

Towards the end of his life, in what would be his final interview with Terri Gross of National Public Radio, he said he had “fallen deeply in love with the world” in his last years, that he had “nothing but praise for his life.”

Is that not striking, a stunning admission?  Falling in love with a world that to all appearances is falling apart?  More wars and conflicts than we can keep track of?  Cruelty and racism and incivility?  That world? And yet I identify.  I ache for the world because I love this world with which we are entrusted.  And I, too, along with Sendak ,recognize that life can be dark, happy endings are not guaranteed, that suffering is abundant.  Yet I also  realize the blessing of the life I have and the goodness and love in close proximity as well as existing in the larger world.

As Mohammed Ali said:  “Our only hope lies in the power of our love, generosity, tolerance and understanding and our commitment to making the world a better place for all.”

Or, as the poet Mary Oliver wrote: “Love yourself….then love the world.”

The invitation is open to share two cups of tea anytime at Hope’s Café or anywhere you share companionship and conversation.

May we be bearers of hope, the “wait staff” at Hope’s Café, for each other and all those we encounter.  Shalom, Kate