#refeek

[refeek]

The upbringing of the rich tends to make them vain and helpless, and their unfolding minds are not strengthened by the practice of the duties that dignify the human character.

Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

[refeek]

My entire life has felt like chance. Random moments of loss and connection. This is the first one that feels, instead, like fate.

Christina Baker Kline, Orphan Train

[refeek]

Time constricts and flattens. It's not evenly weighted. Certain moments linger in the mind and others disappear. The first twenty-three years of my life are the ones that shaped me, and the fact that I've lived almost seven decades since then is irrelevant.

Christina Baker Kline, Orphan Train

[refeek]

And so your personality is shaped. You know too much, and this knowledge makes you wary. You grow fearful and mistrustful. The expression of emotion does not come naturally, so you learn to fake it. To pretend. To display an empathy you don't actually feel. And so it is that you learn how to pass, if you're lucky, to look like everyone else, even though you're broken inside.

Christina Baker Kline, Orphan Train

[refeek]

It's the promise of the warm house, her friendly smile, and the distraction of other lives, other worlds on the pages of the books we read in class, that gets me out the door.

Christina Baker Kline, Orphan Train

[refeek]

She had always thought the Indians rebelled like guerrillas, scalping and pillaging. Learning that they attempted to negotiate with the settlers, wearing European-style suits and addressing Congress in the assumption of good faith - and were repeatedly lied to and betrayed - enrages her.

Christina Baker Kline, Orphan Train

[refeek]

The Indian farmers had greater skill and bounty, and more successful yields, than most Europeans who worked the same land. No, they weren't 'primitive' - their social networks were highly advanced. And though they were called savages, even a prominent English general, Philip Sheridan, had to admit, 'We took away their country and their means of support. It was for this and against this that they made war. Could anyone expect less?'

Christina Baker Kline, Orphan Train

[refeek]

I feel myself retreating to someplace deep inside. It is a pitiful kind of childhood, to know that no one loves you or is taking care of you, to always be on the outside looking in. I feel a decade older than my years. I know too much; I have seen people at their worst, at their most desperate and selfish, and this knowledge makes me wary. So I am learning to pretend, to smile and nod, to display empathy I do not feel. I am learning to pass, to look like everyone else, even though I feel broken inside.

Christina Baker Kline, Orphan Train