The one woman who writes this series of meditations/reflections, was 83 at the time of writing. She was a playwright and a Jungian analyst of formidable intellect and presence. Her observations and conclusions, will not suit everyone, but her very point as indicated in her subtitle, is that this individual thinks this way; this individual takes courage to wrestle with life’s great predicaments and commits to paper her views, firstly for her own edification and secondly for us to take or leave. We too are urged to be individual, to take courage to stand outside of the masses, to think for ourselves.
Where Maxwell ends as she unravels her thoughts on so many issues may not be where you may choose to end, but there are so many challenging, uplifting, comforting or even critical statements to savour. Consider, for instance, “Love is honoured and hate condemned but love can do harm”; picture, “My kitchen linoleum is so black and shiny that I waltz while I wait for the kettle to boil; marvel at “Another secret we carry is that though drab outside – wreckage to the eye, mirrors a mortification – inside us we flame, with a wild life that is almost incommunicable”.
We at my manifesto are so glad she does find a way to communicate; we are privileged to ‘eavesdrop’ on her hard-won destinations. We are aware that she is often at odds with some present day thinking, that she also expresses disappointment with humanity, but still she sees that “ greatness is required of us”. We thank her for her courage to wrestle with so much of what we all wrestle with; we take on her admonishment to do the work, to create our own identity, which she sees as our life’s work. We support you while you do that work.