4 Heron Road • suffering

When I consider my mother and her decision to marry my stepfather, I remember a story about Salvador Dali. As a budding artist he painted with stones, attaching tiny rocks to his canvas. He glued cherry stems to a still life. His parents supported his creative efforts and hung his stone sky painting in the dining room. Every once in a while a pebble would dive to the floor with a tap. Salvador's father assured people, "It's nothing; it's just another stone that has dropped from our child's sky." Then he added, "The ideas are good, but who would ever buy a painting that would eventually disappear while the house grew cluttered with stones?"

Backstory Extra: Beloved Child talk