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The Monday Morning Memo

The Wisdom of Barbara Kingsolver

February 5, 2024

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https://podcasts.captivate.fm/media/d16411f7-97b9-4dae-a043-3154183a5cbe/MMM20240205-TheWisdomeOfBarbaraKingsolver-converted.mp3

How to Shear a Sheep
by Barbara Kingsolver

Walk to the barn
before dawn.
Take off your clothes.
Cast everything
on the ground:
your nylon jacket,
wool socks and all.
Throw away
the cutting tools,
the shears that bite
like teeth at the skin
when hooves flail
and your elbow
comes up hard
under a panting throat:
no more of that.
Sing to them instead.
Stand naked
in the morning
with your entreaty.
Ask them to come,
lay down their wool
for love.
That should work.
It doesn’t.

I lectured them into the night, many hours past my bedtime, telling them how to continue the dazzling success of their father. He was there, listening, nodding his head, making sure they would never forget this night.

He and I have worked together since 1989, when we were both very young and our sons were very small. Today he is a rich and famous jeweler in a well-known city. I am the man 500 miles away who writes his ads.

His hard-working sons listened intently when I said, “People you trust and admire; people who care about you and your success, will come to you, pull you aside, and tell you with deep concern, ‘You need to change your advertising. You’re not doing it right.’ People who studied advertising in college; friends who feel certain they know what you should do, will say to you, ‘You need to change your advertising. You’re not doing it right.'”

I told the sons of my friend about the heart-piercing lessons I learned as a young ad writer. I told them about the clever things I did that I knew would would, had to work, were certain to work, that didn’t work.

I told them about all the clever things that I was taught, and trusted, and believed, that didn’t work.

I told them about the millions of dollars of other people’s money I had wasted year after year on ideas that didn’t work.

And then I told them what I finally noticed, and watched, and understood 35 years ago. I told them the counterintuitive truth that I finally had the eyes to see.

I told them what always works. I told them why it never fails to work. And I told them why no one who sees it working ever believes that it will work.

Their father nodded his head up and down. The four of us looked at each other and smiled.

And then I went home to bed.

Next week I’ll tell you the second half of this story.

Roy H. Williams

PS – “How to Shear a Sheep” is just one of the many delightful poems in a little-known book by the legendary novelist, Barbara Kingsolver. If you haven’t read her novels, you should.

Danny Heitman, during the Covid lockdown in 2020, published this book review in The Christian Science Monitor:

“Barbara Kingsolver is best known for her novels, including ‘The Bean Trees’ and ‘The Poisonwood Bible,’ and her essay collections, such as ‘Small Wonder’ and ‘High Tide in Tucson.’ She’s not as well known for her poetry, though she should be. ‘How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons)’ collects her best poems from the past few years. It’s a tonic for these pandemic times, reminding us of Robert Frost’s definition of poetry as a ‘momentary stay against confusion.’ Kingsolver’s poems are like that, though their clarity is less a matter of sudden revelation than the slowly ripening insight of age. The title poem, with its ironic parenthetical promise that we can learn to soar after ‘ten thousand easy lessons,’ sounds a winking dissent from all those how-to bestsellers that offer quick mastery of life’s essentials in a handful of effortless steps.”

Like I said, I really like Barbara Kingsolver. – RHW

Rebecca Davison was a banker – a financial advisor to multimillionaires – who went on to build a global following among female entrepreneurs, many of whom are important business leaders. Rebecca teaches them how to earn more money, but that’s not what makes them love her. Like many of you, Rebecca can feel what others are feeling, and she uses this ability to help people experience spiritual and monetary abundance through the development of their intuition: that inborn ability to communicate with the universe. Roving reporter Rotbart – ever the investigative reporter – says, “Whether or not you buy into the notion of metaphysical pathways to success, there is no denying that Rebecca’s methods are delivering results for a lot of people.” It’s happening, and it’s happening right now, at MondayMorningRadio.com

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Random Quote:

“

In the very earliest time,

when both people and animals lived on earth,

a person could become an animal if he wanted to and an animal could become a human being.

Sometimes they were people and sometimes animals and there was no difference.

All spoke the same language.

That was the time when words were like magic.

The human mind had mysterious powers.

A word spoken by chance

might have strange consequences.

It would suddenly come alive

and what people wanted to happen could happen-all you had to do was say it.

Nobody could explain this:

That’s the way it was.

“

- "Magic Words," by Edward Field, inspired by the Inuit

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