A Claim on You

"She was such a little bit of a thing.  But while I was holding her, she opened her eyes.  I know she didn't really study my face.  Memory can make a thing seem to have been much more than it was.  But I know she did look right into my eyes.  That is something.  And I'm glad I knew it at the time, because now, in my present situation, now that I am about to leave this world, I realize there is nothing more astonishing than a human face.  Boughton and I have talked about that, too.  It has something to do with incarnation.  You feel your obligation to a child when you have seen it and held it.  Any human face is a claim on you, because you can't help but understand the singularity of it, the courage and loneliness of it."

-Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

Pennsylvania