Maurice Sendak

Terry Gross recently had a thought provoking interview with Maurice Sendak, author and illustrator of Where the Wild Things Are and many other books. Like in many of Ms.Gross's interviews, her celebrated guest is very open and honest with her. Mr.Sendak even remarks that with no other interviewer does he find himself opening up and sharing as deeply as he does on Fresh Air. A dear friend of Mr.Sendak's had died just two days before, following that man's wife who had died only several weeks earlier.

A Jewish atheist, Mr.Sendak is resolute in his belief that there is no live after this one. I found the interview to be a moving and, ultimately, sad depiction of an intelligent, uninhibited old man approaching the end of his earthly life with a mixture of joy for what life has given him, an enduring love for this life, sorrow for deep brokenness of the past distant and near, despair as his friends and loved ones perish around him, terror at the resulting loneliness, and the vain hope of seeing his deceased beloved brother once again.

This is refreshingly honest. Though never really naming them as such, Mr.Sendak expresses the contradictions within many (everyone?) who moves through life feeling deeply and with an alive imagination. I recognize these contradictions within myself and sometimes grieve that they are spoken of by others so little, sometimes making me feel that it is some defect to be so conflicted.

Yet what of God's light I have eyes to see illuminates enough of this universe to provide glorious order within and without, redemption of all that is broken, and radiant hope in the not distant future, even as the failings and fallenness of this life seem to increase.

Mr.Sendak, there is more beauty, more glory, deeper mysteries, greater love, and a meaning both grand and simple which you do not know. The teller of this story has brought through his son a complete redemption and a satisfying resolution to the marvelous narrative. Seek him before your story ends.