Just now learning that Doris Lessing died in London this morning. Her Golden Notebook and Canopus in Argos series made a significant impression on me when I read them in graduate school, as did her set of essays entitled Prisons We Choose to Live Inside. I found her journey from Marxism to Sufism fascinating, as I did her deep humanity and compassion for those on the margins of society, including those stigmatized as mentally ill.
Because of my own upbringing in the American South as a draconian system of legal segregation gave way to federally mandated racial integration, I identified with what she had to say about her experiences growing up in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and I felt an affinity for her as she engaged in a constant lifelong search for a more humane world in which all who are born have a chance to thrive. Though I haven't read Doris Lessing in some years now, after I discovered her with great joy in graduate school, I feel a sense of keen loss this morning as I read of her death.
May she rest in peace.
