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feff8a1
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Alas. What have we done to our good, bawdy, Anglo-Saxon four-letter words? ...We have blunted them so with overuse that they no longer have any real meaning for us. ...When will we be able to redeem our shock words? They have been turned to marshmallows. ...We no longer have anything to cry in time of crisis. 'Help!' we bleat. And no one hears us. 'Help' is another of those four-letter words that don't mean anything any more.
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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adb25fe
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In a moment of crisis we don't act out of reasoned judgment but on our conditioned reflexes. We may be able to send men to the moon, but we'd better remember we're still closely related to Pavlov's dog. Think about driving a car: only the beginning driver thinks as he performs each action; the seasoned driver's body works kinesthetically . . .A driver prevents an accident because of his conditioned reflexes; hands and feet respond more quic..
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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f409a31
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If I'm confused, or upset, or angry, if I can go out and look at the stars I'll almost always get back a sense of proportion. It's not that they make me feel insignificant; it's the very opposite; they make me feel that everything matters, be it ever so small, and that there's meaning to life even when it seems most meaningless.
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stars
life
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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13b1e94
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We must pray when prayer seems dry as dust; we must write when we are physically tired, when our hearts are heavy, when our bodies are in pain.
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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4a5dd62
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I am slowly coming to understand with all my heart as well as my head that love is not a feeling. It is a person.
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love
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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4d7f0fd
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Charles Wallace and the unicorn moved through the time-spinning reaches of a far glazy, and he realized that the galaxy itself was part of a mighty orchestra, and each star and planet within the galaxy added its own instrument to the music of the spheres. As long as the ancient harmonies were sung, the universe would not entirely lose its joy.
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universe
stars
joy
music
musical-instrument
orchestra
planet
singing
harmony
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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ba72767
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Now the red eyes and the light above seemed to bore into Charles, and again the pupils fo the little boy's eyes contracted. When the final point of black was lost in blue he turned away from the red eyes, looked at Meg, and smiled sweetly, but the smile was not Charles Wallaces smile.
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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5e52a0f
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Who makes you least confused?" "Calvin" There was no hesitation here. "When I'm with Calvin, I don't mind being me" "You mean he makes you more you, don't you?" "I guess you could put it that way."
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love
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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4f2e681
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I've always thought about the theatre like a Christmas tree, all shining and bright with beautiful ornaments. But now it seems like a Christmas tree with the tinsel all tarnished and the colored balls all fallen off and broken...' Sure, I know what you mean...And it's both ways...Some of the ornaments fall and break and some stay clear and bright. Some of the tinsel gets tarnished and some stays shining and beautiful like the night before C..
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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a587ecd
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And it came to me as I stood on the desert sand, looking at the Great Pyramid, that what any civilization says about God tells us more about that civilization than it does about God.
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faith
god
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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45d136c
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But I did feel, and passionately, that it wasn't fair of God to give us brains enough to ask the ultimate questions if he didn't intend to teach us the answers.
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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5bafcd1
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Lords of melody and song, Lords of roses burning bright, Blue will right the ancient wrong, Though the way is dark and long, Blue will shine with loving light.
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wrong
song
roses
melody
right
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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ffb07d0
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We are a generation which is crying loudly to tear down all structure in order to find freedom, and discovering, when order is demolished, that instead of freedom we have death.
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institutions
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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3195c4a
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We want them to see their home planet," Mrs. Whatsit said. The Medium lost the delighted smile she had worn till then. "Oh, why must you make me look at unpleasant things when there are so many delightful ones to see?" Again Mrs. Which's voice reverberated through the cave. "There will no longer be so many pleasant things to look at if responsible people do not do something about the unpleasant ones."
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goodness
truth
standing-up-for-what-is-right
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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04452c2
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When I get this feeling, this compulsion, I always do what it tells me. I can't explain where it comes from or how I get it, and it doesn't happen very often. But I obey it. And this afternoon I had a feeling that I must come over to the haunted house. That's all I know, kid. I'm not holding anything back. Maybe it's because I'm supposed to meet you. You tell me.
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feelings
intuition
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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fae11fa
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It's my worst trouble, getting fond. If I didn't get fond I could be happy all the time.
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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05ed719
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to look at a work of art and then to make a judgement as to whether or not it is art, and whether or not it is Christian, is presumptuous.
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christianity
christian
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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a3c1e2b
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Love does not triumph easily or without pain, but story gives us the courage to endure the pain.
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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4c650ba
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For the things which are seen are temporal. But the things which are not seen are eternal.
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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dd62f5e
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Are you fighting the Black Thing?" Meg asked. "Oh, yes," Aunt Beast replied. "In doing that, we can never relax. We are called according to His purpose, and whom He calls, them He also justifies. Of course we have help, and without help it would be much more difficult."
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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8284df4
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The more a man knows, the less he talks.
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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3ca8d2c
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Even travelling at the speed of light it would take us years and years to get here." "Oh, we don't travel at the speed of anything," Mrs Whatsit explained earnestly. "We tesser. Or you might say, we wrinkle."
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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3efa7ec
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I get glimmers of the bad nineteenth-century teaching which has made Mother remove God from the realm of mystery and beauty and glory, but why do people half my age think that they don't have faith unless their faith is small and comprehensible and like a good old plastic Jesus?
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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b0550dd
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From the shoulders, slowly a pair of wings unfolded, wings made of rainbows, of light upon water, of poetry. Calvin fell to his knees. "No," Mrs. Whatsit said, though her voice was not Mrs. Whatsit's voice. "Not to me Calvin. Never to me. Stand up."
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love
christian
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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88a4fb9
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In your language you have a form of poetry called a sonnet...It is a very strict form of poetry, is it not? ...There are fourteen lines, I believe, all in iambic pentameter. That's a very strict rhythm or meter, yes?...And each line has to end with a rigid rhyme pattern. And if the poet does not do it exactly this way, it is not a sonnet, is it?' 'No.' 'But within this strict form the poet has complete freedom to say whatever he wants, does..
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philosophy-of-life
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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3e3e3d2
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the joy and love were so tangible that Meg felt that if she only knew where to reach she could touch it with her bare hands.
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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3589235
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The refusal to love is the only unbearable thing.
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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2d75e74
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If I never had another book published, and it was very clear to me that this was a real possibility, I still had to go on writing. I'm glad I made this decision in a moment of failure. It's easy to say you're a writer when things are going well. When the decision is made in the abyss, the in is quite clear that it is not one's own decision at all.
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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013e204
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Somehow or other, the loving parents had swallowed one of the Tempter's hooks, and the child was given total self-indulgence, which is far from free will. He still tempts. The ancient, primordial battle to destroy Community, to shatter Trinity, still continues. Creation still groans with the pain of it. Like it or not, we're caught in the middle.
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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39f3929
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Lords of blue and Lords of gold, Lords of wind and waters wild, Lords of time that's growing old, When will come the season mild? When will come blue Madoc's child?
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old-growing
season
gold
child
water
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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455b3ec
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He knew what she wanted, and he wanted it, too; he was ready, but not, despite her gorgeousness, with Tiglah. Tiglah was not worth losing his ability to touch a unicorn.
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sex
unicorns
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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f129b6e
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Charles Wallace, the danger here is greatest for you." "Why?" "Because of what you are. Just exactly because of what you are you will be by far the most vulnerable. You must stay with Meg and Calvin. You must not go off on your own. Beware of pride and arrogance, Charles, for they may betray you."
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pride
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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3b48ff3
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Meg took a batch of forks from the drawer and turned them over and over, looking at them. "I'm all confused again." "Oh, so 'm I," Calvin said gaily. "But now at least I know we're going somewhere."
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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058c03a
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The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has obtained liberation from self.
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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670eed5
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The very young woman can be charming and delightful and pretty but only a mature woman can be beautiful; and only a mature man can be strong enough to be tender.
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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f9647d4
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The truly great books are flawed: The Brothers Karamazov is unwieldy in structure; a present-day editor would probably want to cut the Grand Inquisitor scene because it isn't necessary to the plot. For me The Brothers Karamazov is one of the greatest novels ever written, and this is perhaps because of, rather than in spite of, its human faults.
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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1632473
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There are forces working in the world as never before in the history of mankind for standardization, for the regimentation of us all, or what I like to call making muffins of us, muffins all like every other muffin in the muffin tin. This is the limited universe, the drying, dissipating universe, that we can help our children avoid by providing them with "explosive material capable of stirring up fresh life endlessly."
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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7c10c7f
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Do you know how lucky you are?" She smiled rather wryly. "Not most of the time."
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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9f1f96c
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If we knew each morning that there was going to be another morning, and on and on and on, we'd tend not to notice the sunrise,or hear the birds, or the waves rolling into shore. We'd tend not to treasure our time with the people we love.
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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8e2d157
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What happens to what's happened?
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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056c1d4
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Right now I am like the unborn baby in the womb, knowing nothing except the comforting warmth of the amniotic fluid in which I swim, the comforting nourishment entering my body from a source I cannot see or understand. My whole being comes from an unseen, unknown nurturer. By that nurturer I am totally loved and protected, and that love is forever. It does not end when I am precipitated out of the safe waters of the womb into the unsafe wor..
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god
love
second-coming
nurturing
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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e17417e
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If God's peace is in our hearts, we carry it with us, and it can be given to those around us, not by our own will or virtue, but by the Holy Spirit working through us. We cannot give what we do not have, but if the spirit blows through the dark clouds, and enters our hearts, we can be used as vehicles of peace, and our own peace will be thereby deepened. The more peace we give away, the more we have.
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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862952e
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In the act of creativity, the artist lets go the self-control which he normally clings to and is open to riding the wind.
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Madeleine L'Engle |
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4c0ca43
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Love, she insisted, is not power, which she considered always coercive. To love is to be vulnerable; and it is only in vulnerability and risk--not safety and security--that we overcome darkness.
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Madeleine L'Engle |