Thinking about how Toni Morrison double refuted her own story for her Nobel Prize in Literature acceptance and lecture speech in 93’ about a group of kids trying to trick an old blind lady into thinking they were holding a dead bird in their hands to test her clairvoyance. The children questioning the critique of the elder after her response was just special to me. Just for the elder to come back in the story to tell the children they did exactly what she wanted them to do:

Create their own story and reality for the bird. Plead for the birds passage. Don’t allow her to decide what is or is not. Do not question my clairvoyance, my mythology. Instead explore and live in it with me.

When I read this a couple of years ago it flew right over my head. Now I get it, “It is in your hands.” I’ve heard this speech on video and in text for years and my brain has finally caught up. This is why we never read a text and turn our heads. We read it again and again until it penetrates.