“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” – Flannery O’Connor
She really deserved mention March 25
That’s the day she came into this wide and restless world, in 1925. But this year, her birthday fell on Good Friday, and I was just emerging from my blogging fast and not quite in birthday mode.
It didn’t surprise me, though, that a woman who’d suffered so much, though smiling still (even though through gritted teeth on occasion), would have a birthday landing on that particular day every once in a while. It fits.
She would have been 91, had her life gone long. Instead, it was cut short by a disease that took her down low and slow. But what she did with that life made a difference
Today, I just want to celebrate my friend Flannery O’Connor. No, I never met her. And yet I did, through her writing; writing that left me changed. Could we raise a glass together in her honor? (Clink!)
Here, find a post from another who was greatly influenced by her — a woman I had the pleasure of meeting over pound cake and lemonade in the summer of 2014 — Kaye Park Hinckley — and in Flannery’s home no less.
Within that post, you’ll reach a link to my ruminations during that summer, as well as a video clip offering a glimpse of Flannery’s reading voice
Happy 91st, Flannery. And keep us in your prayers down here. We need them.
Q4U: Have you ever visited the home of your hero/oine?
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