Flannery, Come to the Rescue

When the hermit was encouraged to write once more for publication, the hermit mentioned Flannery O'Connor as an inspiration. The confessor mentioned that Flannery was a favorite of his, and that she would make a very good mentor for the hermit for various commonalities of circumstance.

It was mentioned that Flannery was quite a controversial figure.

The hermit supposes this is one of the shared traits, although the hermit has never tried to be in the thick of problems. The hermit just ends up in the swirl, unbidden.

Here is a favorite Flannery quote:

"There are some of us who have to pay for our faith every step of the way and who have to work out dramatically what it would be like without it and if being without it would ultimately be possible or not." (Flannery O'Connor to novelist John Hawkes)

For awhile the hermit thought the only thing to write about would be "Suffocation."

But now, the hermit is opening up to the possibility that if God desires not the hermit to be utilized in any active or interactive sense in the Church, to not serve in that manner, and that God is opening doors in the secular world, then perhaps God desires the hermit to write more for the secular market.

The novel has never been a favored genre of the hermit, and all has been spiritual and Catholic writing, but perhaps Flannery holds a key here, as she wrote for the secular market but with deep religious (and Catholic) themes.

The call to Flannery is made, late at night and on-going off and on.

In her correspondence, Flannery once referred to herself as a literary hermit. Indeed she was, living with her mother amidst hired hands and her peacocks on their rural Georgia farm. Flannery suffered much physically, and yet she had a PLACE--a place amidst the literary geniuses of the '50's and early '60's.

She died of lupus at age 39 in 1963 or 1964--August 4, the hermit thinks. And there is great kinship with her on many levels. And also with Caryll Houselander who was a mystic who never fit in, not really, until she found her PLACE with a group in London, a group of Catholics including Frank Sheed.