Ted Hughes on the Universal Inner Child, in a Moving Letter to His Son

"The only calibration that counts is how much heart people invest, how much they ignore their fears of being hurt or caught out or humiliated."

"The analogy between the artist and the child is that both live in a world of their own making," wrote Anaïs Nin in her diary in 1945. Four decades later, 23 years after Sylvia Plath took her own life at the age of 30, Ted Hughes (1930-1998) wrote to their 24-year-old son, Nicholas. The letter, found in Letters of Ted Hughes (public library), is superb in its entirety and a worthy addition to history's finest fatherly advice, but this particular passage speaking to the beautiful vulnerability of our inner child and its longing to be seen, heard, let loose is an absolutely exquisite articulation of the human condition -- don't let the length and density deter you from absorbing it, for once you do, it'll saturate every cell of your soul.

Read the full piece at Brain Pickings Weekly