Quote Detail

Everybody tries to protect this vulnerable two three four five six seven eight year old inside, and to acquire skills and aptitudes for dealing with the situations that threaten to overwhelm it... Usually, that child is a wretchedly isolated undeveloped little being. It__ been protected by the efficient armour, it__ never participated in life, it__ never been exposed to living and to managing the person__ affairs, it__ never been given responsibility for taking the brunt. And it__ never properly lived. That__ how it is in almost everybody. And that little creature is sitting there, behind the armour, peering through the slits. And in its own self, it is still unprotected, incapable, inexperienced...And in fact, that child is the only real thing in them. It__ their humanity, their real individuality, the one that can__ understand why it was born and that knows it will have to die, in no matter how crowded a place, quite on its own. That__ the carrier of all the living qualities. It__ the centre of all the possible magic and revelation. What doesn__ come out of that creature isn__ worth having, or it__ worth having only as a tool__or that creature to use and turn to account and make meaningful...And so, wherever life takes it by surprise, and suddenly the artificial self of adaptations proves inadequate, and fails to ward off the invasion of raw experience, that inner self is thrown into the front line__nprepared, with all its childhood terrors round its ears.And yet that__ the moment it wants. That__ where it comes alive__ven if only to be overwhelmed and bewildered and hurt. And that__ where it calls up its own resources__ot artificial aids, picked up outside, but real inner resources, real biological ability to cope, and to turn to account, and to enjoy.That__ the paradox: the only time most people feel alive is when they__e suffering, when something overwhelms their ordinary, careful armour, and the naked child is flung out onto the world. That__ why the things that are worst to undergo are best to remember.But when that child gets buried away under their adaptive and protective shells__e becomes one of the walking dead, a monster. So when you realise you__e gone a few weeks and haven__ felt that awful struggle of your childish self__truggling to lift itself out of its inadequacy and incompetence__ou__l know you__e gone some weeks without meeting new challenge, and without growing, and that you__e gone some weeks towards losing touch with yourself.