Wednesday, July 26, 2023

Safekeeping the items of enchantment

 In 1956, the circus came to town, and a writer went to watch a young woman, a trick rider, practice with a horse for 10 minutes.

E.B. White’s essay “The Ring of Time” captured the moment. The essay has a line that gets to question of why we human beings write.

 

As a writing man, or secretary, I have always felt charged with the safekeeping of all unexpected items of worldly or unworldly enchantment, as though I might be held personally responsible if even a small one were to be lost.

 

The world has many items of enchantment. It takes different types of writers — different kinds of human beings — to see and appreciate them all. 

• E.B. White’s “The Ring of Time” in The Art of the Personal Essay, edited by Philip Lopate; New York: Anchor Books, 1995, pp. 538-44. The quotation is on p. 539. The essay is online here:

http://www.brunswick.k12.me.us/hdwyer/the-ring-of-time-by-e-b-white-3/

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