Thoughtful Thursday: He Was Brilliant in HIS Way

"Why doesn't Dad understand?" Blade burst out. "He let Shona go to Bardic College. Why is he so set against me going to the University? I've told him and told him that I need to get there and get some training NOW in the junior section if I'm going to be properly grounded, and all he says is that he'll teach me himself. And he CAN'T, Mum! You can't. The things I can do are all quite different from yours or Dad's. So WHY?"

"Well, there are two reasons," Mara said. "The first is that the University didn't understand Derk, or treat him at all well, when he was there. I was there with him, so I know what a miserable time he had. Your father was full of new ideas - like creating the griffins - and he wanted nothing so much as to be helped to find out how to make those ideas work. But instead of helping him, they tried to force him to do things THEIR way. It didn't matter to them at all that he was brilliant in HIS way..."

~ Excerpt from Dark Lord of Derkholm, by Diana Wynne Jones

A thoughtful quote can help us understand more about ourselves and the world.