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.
The question, I've come to think, is not what inspires one to change, but what inspires one to remain changed.
We think we can't become a minimalist until our lives have settled down. But it's actually the other way around; we won't be able to settle down until we're living a minimalist life.
Women may be the one group that grows more radical with age.
To change bad habits, we must study the habits of successful role models.
Reaching a general understanding that sustainability is the ultimate issue will finally bring us face-to-face with the political challenge of forging a sustainable society during the next few decades. It is a challenge we can meet if we have the leadership and the political will to do so.
I am still committed to building a movement to end mass incarceration, but I will not do it with blinders on. If all we do is end mass incarceration, this movement will not have gone nearly far enough.
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