The child in each of us Knows paradise. Paradise is home. Home as it was Or home as it should have been. Paradise is one's own place, One's own people, One's own world, Knowing and known, Perhaps even Loving and loved. Yet every child Is cast from paradise- Into growth and new community, Into vast, ongoing Change.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the idea that each person carries a sense of paradise within themselves, rooted in their childhood, but as they grow, they face changes that lead them away from that paradise.
Octavia Butler's quote emphasizes the concept that every individual possesses a child's innate understanding of paradise, which represents the ideal state of being, characterized by love, belonging, and familiarity. However, as people mature, they are inevitably exposed to change and new communities that can lead them away from this initial sense of paradise, highlighting the tension between holding onto the past and embracing growth and transformation in life.
In practice
During a speech about personal development, one could reference this quote to illustrate the balance between nostalgia and progress.
What I'm working on now - I'm back to fantasy, although considering that it's me, I'm turning it into a kind of science fantasy. It's a vampire story - but my vampires are biological vampires. They didn't become vampires because someone bit them; they were born that way.
Slavery was a long slow process of dulling.
Here I was into astronomy, and here into anthropology, and there I go into geology. It was much more fun to be able to research and write about whatever I wanted to.
There is no end To what a living world Will demand of you.
You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it. That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.
Better to stay alive," I said. "At least while there's a chance to get free." I thought of the sleeping pills in my bag and wondered just how great a hypocrite I was. It was so easy to advise other people to live with their pain.
Ojibwe prophecy speaks of a time during the seventh fire when our people will have a choice between two paths. The first path is well-worn and scorched. The second path is new and green. It is our choice as communities and as individuals how we will proceed.
Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have.
I want to grow. I want to be better. You Grow. We all grow. We're made to grow.You either evolve or you disappear.
Beginnings are sudden, but also insidious. They creep up on you sideways, they keep to the shadows, they lurk unrecognized. Then, later, they spring.
The truth is that a number of us have been saying for quite some time that it was only a matter of time until someone went to a gun show, bought a military-like semi-automatic assault weapon with a large capacity magazine, and did enormous damage.
We are here to change the world with small acts of thoughtfulness done daily rather than with one great breakthrough.
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