In the absence of time to write

I will simply quote from the most intriguing thing I've read lately - everything else has been swallowed up by the California budget crisis, and oh yeah, the rest of the country is falling apart too. I wonder if it would be better if the US had to come up with a balanced budget every year or not?

Anyway, did you know that Caroline Stephen was Virginia Woolf's aunt? I didn't. Apparently others did. But the connection goes deeper.

"When Woolf further records that 'my aunt's legacy unveiled the sky to me, and substituted for the large and imposing figure of a gentleman, which Milton recommended for my perpetual adoration, a view of the open sky' she hints at more than one level of what Caroline's legacy meant to her. Obviously, Caroline's money gave her financial security and independence from the domination of any larger-than-life 'gentleman' playing god.

"But Caroline also gave another sky-opening legacy to Virginia. She gave her a sense of freedom from the power of patriarchy and showed her an open, feminine space where the 'inner voice' is heeded rather than the priest's or the father's, and where a feminine silence held truth that was beyond any argument with words. The model of a woman taking control of her own life and writing her own books with a view toward the greater good helped to give Woolf the confidence that she later expressed when she said 'I feel that by writing I am doing what is far more necessary than anything else'."

A Quaker Influence on Modern
English Literature:

Caroline Stephen and her niece, Virginia Woolf

By Alison M. Lewis

From Types and Shadows: JOURNAL OF THE FELLOWSHIP OF QUAKERS IN THE ARTS, Issue #21, Spring 2001

I'm grateful today for online links and people who are still finding my blog for the first time.