The Ladies Literary Society meets on a beautiful September evening. Nicole gathers us in her secret garden room, past the blackberry patch, the hanging gardens, and cozies us in between the purple walled shed and the clematis vine.
As light succumbs to night, our conversation follows the retreating light and becomes more serious, more deep and dark. We are here to discuss, the Republic of Imagination, Azar Nafisi's writings on the importance of imagination, books and freedom--the power of fiction, the importance of fiction to America and the world.
Nafisi is the author of Reading Lolita in Iran, a memoir of reading forbidden Western classics with other women in secret---a daring act during the Iranian Islamic revolution.
One woman wants to explore the regime-mentality in her own religion. The purpose of this literary society is to challenge the way we think, to dare to ask questions and explore with imagination answers that will enlighten our lives and elevate openness. I like this challenge; I love this challenge. However, I find myself withdrawing from this tiny part of the night's discussion. I step back and I am content to be a listener.
While driving home, I discover why I needed to withdraw. We are a logical group of women, trying to hypothesize, justify, and extrapolate various thoughts and ideas. When religion entered the conversation, we entered a territory that is not always logical and incapable of being dissected and annotated like a piece of literature.
Religion is of the heart.
It is confirmed in the heart.
We feel religion.
Though it can be and is for many people, religion is not always logical. Our love and devotion to the sacred does not always come from inductive nor deductive reasoning. Our willingness to make Godly sacrifices cannot always be explained in clear terms and with the empirical evidence needed in a Master's defense or in a lab report.
It is with the heart that we see clearly. It is with the heart that we love and feel.
I love both endeavors: heart seeking and mind seeking and many times they belong together; but there is a difference, and it's important to discern the time and place when feeling with the heart or reasoning with the mind, may or may not make the best conversation.
“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
As light succumbs to night, our conversation follows the retreating light and becomes more serious, more deep and dark. We are here to discuss, the Republic of Imagination, Azar Nafisi's writings on the importance of imagination, books and freedom--the power of fiction, the importance of fiction to America and the world.
Nafisi is the author of Reading Lolita in Iran, a memoir of reading forbidden Western classics with other women in secret---a daring act during the Iranian Islamic revolution.
One woman wants to explore the regime-mentality in her own religion. The purpose of this literary society is to challenge the way we think, to dare to ask questions and explore with imagination answers that will enlighten our lives and elevate openness. I like this challenge; I love this challenge. However, I find myself withdrawing from this tiny part of the night's discussion. I step back and I am content to be a listener.
While driving home, I discover why I needed to withdraw. We are a logical group of women, trying to hypothesize, justify, and extrapolate various thoughts and ideas. When religion entered the conversation, we entered a territory that is not always logical and incapable of being dissected and annotated like a piece of literature.
Religion is of the heart.
It is confirmed in the heart.
We feel religion.
Though it can be and is for many people, religion is not always logical. Our love and devotion to the sacred does not always come from inductive nor deductive reasoning. Our willingness to make Godly sacrifices cannot always be explained in clear terms and with the empirical evidence needed in a Master's defense or in a lab report.
It is with the heart that we see clearly. It is with the heart that we love and feel.
I love both endeavors: heart seeking and mind seeking and many times they belong together; but there is a difference, and it's important to discern the time and place when feeling with the heart or reasoning with the mind, may or may not make the best conversation.
“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince