Epiphanies aren’t lightning bolts. They are a hummed note, a prayer mumbled constantly, brought to the surface given the right conditions. It’s as if I am always hearing three ways, first shallowly, collecting, then one level deeper as I’m processing, and finally, I am hearing with my body, which is when I’m hearing myself. That’s one way, for me, information combines with experience and becomes knowledge. I wish there were a shortcut.
— Stephanie Danler, Stray: A Memoir (Knopf, May 19, 2020)
Notes: New York Times Book Review on “Stray: A Memoir” – “In ‘Stray,’ Stephanie Danler Asks How a Victim Becomes a Perpetrator
Sounds a complicated way of having an epiphany…. mine tend to hit me ad lightnings, but she goes describe them ever do eloquently! The book’s title makes you wonder at the depths she is scraping there. A bit scary!
She does scrape depths, hers and her family’s.
I can actually see this as true – now that I’ve been made to pay attention…
Me too!
Definitely no shortcuts! 😜
There is not….
Interesting. Like Kiki, I tend to experience epiphanies as a bolt of lightning, but this is an intriguing alternative interpretation.
Kiki is a bolt of lightning!
Ha, you’ve seen nothing yet…. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Lori, and contrary to me, there is nothing wrong with your grammar…. My only ‘excuse’ (read Explanation) is that I typed this on my smartphone, that I’m getting blind, that I’m wearing plasters on some fingers, that I’m clumsy….. all of these!
They’ve come in every way. As long as they keep coming…
And for you, from all angles.
and I see how precious life is…and others have different responses…thanks for the connection ~ smiles Hedy
Yes. Every breath.
that is such a perfect description of this process, i’ve always just thought of it as instantaneous magic, like getting hit over the head with something, but this does make sense, i’ve never really broken it down
I felt the same Beth.
I think my kind of epiphany is a bolt, but then if I intellectualize it a bit, I can see Stephanie’s process. Perhaps her way, I’d recognize more epiphanies.
Smiling. Bolt for me too, like a 2 x 4 across forehead.
Hhmmm …. interesting perspective. I believe that there’s always something under the surface waiting for the opportunity to become known. It usually happens when my mind is quiet and I am in my body. Like when doing yoga or taking a shower!
With you on that. Or a walk. Or a run.
Wow, that’s how I think of reading Bible passages! They are written in at least 3 levels of understanding, and one understands them in at least 3 levels — and some indeed become epiphanies. There seems no shortcut but saints and angels. 🌷
3 levels. No wonder I could never get it. 🙂
If only some kind soul would’ve told me to start with the Gospel of John, the most contemplative fellow in the whole bunch.
Hmmmm. So that the way forward. Thanks!
to be grateful that we can be reached no matter what form it takes to get through to us!
So agree. Let there be Light!
Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
True indeed … ” It’s as if I am always hearing three ways, first shallowly, collecting, then one level deeper as I’m processing, and finally, I am hearing with my body, which is when I’m hearing myself. That’s one way, for me, information combines with experience and becomes knowledge. I wish there were a shortcut.”
— Stephanie Danler, Stray: A Memoir (Knopf, May 19, 2020)
What a deep, thoughtful, revelation. Personally, I’m not sure there need be a shortcut. Doesn’t what comes for us come as its accepted? Sometimes a piece here and there, other times, all at once.
Now this Jen, was thoughtful. Thank you.
You are very welcome. 😉
The beauty of an epiphany is that once you have it, you can’t ‘unhave’ it – so no matter how you come to it, or it to you, the magic is in the presence of all that happened to bring you to the epiphany. That ‘aha!’ moment that includes all the ins and outs it took to get you there… so, no shortcuts… ’cause an epiphany needs the long and winding road to become what it is. 🙂
Can’t unhave it. Love that Louise.