I read her science fiction works as a child, but I didn't really come to appreciate her until I read her journals as an adult. She told the stories of her life in such a vulnerable, honest way; while I didn't agree with everything she said, I loved her for the way she said it. Reading about her struggles as a writer encouraged me to keep plugging at my OWN manuscripts and plotlines. Even though my talent is not equal to hers, I never felt ashamed of my own desire to write when I sat down with one of her books. I felt her writing was PUSHING me to continue.
Mrs. L'Engle and I were almost diametrically opposite in our views of God; while I believe that she is with God now, her writings bespoke a person immersed in liberal culture struggling to figure out where the God of the Bible fit into all that. She was raised by an art critic and a musically gifted mother; they lived in New York City surrounded by actors, musicians and playwrights. Her husband was an actor (He played Dr. Tyler on All My Children) and she even acted for a short while before devoting her energy to children and writing. I think being in that artistic world hindered her from understanding the Bible in a literal way and seeing Christianity as exclusive.
All that being said, her vehement desire to understand the world and find her place in it left a mark on me. I look forward to meeting her one day.
"There are three ways you can live your life. You can live life as though it's all a cosmic accident; we're nothing but an irritating skin disease on the face of the earth. Maybe you can live your life as though everything's a bad joke. I can't.
Or you can go out at night and look at the stars and think, yes, they were created by a prime mover, and so were you, but he's aloof perfection, impassible, indifferent to his creation. He doesn't care, or, if he cares, he only cares about the ultimate end of his creation, and so what happens to any part of it on the way is really a matter of indifference. You don't matter to him, I don't matter to him, except possibly as a means to an end. I can't live that way either.
Then there's a third way: to live as though you believe that the power behind the universe is a power of Love, a personal power of Love, a Love so great that all of us really do matter to Him. He loves us so much that every single one of our lives has meaning; He really does know about the fall of every sparrow and the hairs of our head are really counted. That's the only way I can live."
-- Madeleine L'Engle, Circle of Quiet
