Thank you for this! Prentis is one of my all-time favorite thinkers, has been for years, and when I read their book it just cemented that status for me. I underlined SO MANY lines, took furious notes in the margins, and broke out in audible AMENS! on the regular.
Growing up Quaker meant growing up around a lot of very earnest and intellectual folk who were super committed to changing the world outside themselves but not always (often) great at grappling with their own, private need for healing and embodiment. It created so much dissonance and disillusionment for me, but also a powerful drive towards integrity, as in integration, as in wholeness and healing. Prentis has helped me appreciate how that experience of dissonance can be a powerful motivation for change, not just in my own, little corner of the world but for the whole world. Helping folks acknowledge and work through it with a deep sense of mercy and compassion is the most important work I will ever do.
This awesome wisdom from PH about pain and healing couldn’t be more timely and helpful. Thank you!
The part about loving recalls James Baldwin’s eloquent appeal to his nephew at the end of his Letter to him in Fire Next Time. Then bell hooks complements PH as well. I’m sure that you’re familiar with these books and I’d like to remember as well Plato’s classic on love entitled The Symposium that Courtney and I studied together at Barnard 25 years ago. DD
Thank you for introducing me to the work of Prentiss Hemphill. I did not like the video because the interviewer barely allowed the author to speak for herself.
Thank you for this! Prentis is one of my all-time favorite thinkers, has been for years, and when I read their book it just cemented that status for me. I underlined SO MANY lines, took furious notes in the margins, and broke out in audible AMENS! on the regular.
Growing up Quaker meant growing up around a lot of very earnest and intellectual folk who were super committed to changing the world outside themselves but not always (often) great at grappling with their own, private need for healing and embodiment. It created so much dissonance and disillusionment for me, but also a powerful drive towards integrity, as in integration, as in wholeness and healing. Prentis has helped me appreciate how that experience of dissonance can be a powerful motivation for change, not just in my own, little corner of the world but for the whole world. Helping folks acknowledge and work through it with a deep sense of mercy and compassion is the most important work I will ever do.
This awesome wisdom from PH about pain and healing couldn’t be more timely and helpful. Thank you!
The part about loving recalls James Baldwin’s eloquent appeal to his nephew at the end of his Letter to him in Fire Next Time. Then bell hooks complements PH as well. I’m sure that you’re familiar with these books and I’d like to remember as well Plato’s classic on love entitled The Symposium that Courtney and I studied together at Barnard 25 years ago. DD
Hope this helps..
This helped me to relate just one of many thoughts about the here after to those in grief.
Rest in clouds, paper, and green,
fireflies, family, and the unseen,
sweet Sesame.
It is a Thich Nhat Hahn meditation:
https://youtu.be/AwoTsoeIfcQ?si=F5XTV0vzeDRKv8JP
Thank you for introducing me to the work of Prentiss Hemphill. I did not like the video because the interviewer barely allowed the author to speak for herself.
Great conversation! I'm really excited to read this book!