Meredith Sisson's blog

By the time we’d reached about age five, we had all come to the realization that the sing-song echo of kids on the pre-school playground, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” was complete and utter bullshit. And once we were old enough to listen to the radio, we realized that the grown-up world had known this all along. No where else beyond the fence of that playground will anyone challenge the concept that feelings can be “hurt”, hearts can be “broken”, spirits can be “bruised”. If you ask our dear Miss Dickinson, she’ll claim it’s everywhere:

The finest emotion of which we are capable is the mystic emotion. Herein lies the germ of all art and all true science. Anyone to whom this feeling is alien… is no longer capable of wonderment and lives in a state of fear… To know that what is impenetrable for us really exists and manifests itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty… this knowledge, this feeling… that is the core of the true religious sentiment. In this sense, and in this sense alone, I rank myself among profoundly religious men. --Albert Einstein (1)