I have a habit of rereading old favorites from childhood, and have been working through the series in more or less chronological order (according to when I first remember reading them). One of my absolute favorites is Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising sequence. I’m on the last book, and already mourning the loss of this world (until I read it again). Silver on the Tree describes the final rise of the Dark, and the Light trying to rid the world of it.

While I didn’t want to get in to politics, there are so many bits of text in this book that just… speak to me, in the current political climate here in the US. I will say that I am an unapologetic liberal, perhaps a bit extreme in my views for some, but firm in my beliefs and political leanings. If you can read between the lines there, you will see why these quotes have spoken to me recently, as we grapple with the, well, dumpster fire that is the current presidency. (I tried, I really did, but really, that’s what it is to me…)

Here are a few that I have marked thus far… 

• “…and for a time the world will seem to vanish beneath the shadow of the Dark. And emerge, and vanish again, and again emerge, as it has been done through all the length of what men call their history.” (Merriman, to Will)

Quite honestly, this one gives me a bit of hope that we will emerge from this era. Perhaps not unscathed, but changed, and (I hope) stronger in our determination to care for our fellow human beings.

• “You know how many there are. You can’t convince them and you can’t kill ’em. You can only do your best in the opposite direction.” (Mr. Stanton, after encountering the racist dad)

A reminder, which I need most days, to put as much good and joy into the world as I possibly can… that small acts, accumulating over time, will “bend the arc” towards the good. Someday.

• “All life is theatre. We are all actors, you and I , in a play which nobody wrote and which nobody will see. We have no audience but ourselves…” (Gwion)

Not as much on politics, but a reminder to myself to be true to me, to remember who I am in the midst of day to day nuttiness and seemingly endless reminders that I am not like everyone else.

• “Why should some of the Riders of the Dark be dressed all in white and the rest all in black?…” …”Without colour… I don’t know. Maybe because the Dark can only reach people at extremes – blinded by their own shining ideas, or locked up in the darkness of their own heads.” (Bran and Will)

To better days, to light, and life, and love.