[quotes] Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler 1993

 

[I found this book through reading adrienne maree brown's work. Through that, I found out about Afrofuturism as a genre. Looking forward to read more books by Octavia Butler. She was from Los Angeles and wrote books on the bus! That's rad. There's a makerspace in the Los Angeles Central Library named after her.]

All that you touch 

You Change.

All that you Change

Changes you. 

The only lasting truth 

Is Change.

God

Is Change.

"I've never felt that I was making any of this up - not the name, Earthseed, not any of it. I mean, I've never felt that it was anything other than real: discovery rather than invention, exploration rather than creation. I wish I could believe it was all supernatural, and that I'm getting messages from God. But then, I don't believe in that kind of God. All I do is observe and take notes, trying to put things down in ways that are powerful, as simple, and as direct as I feel them. I can never do that. I keep trying, but I can't. I'm not good enough as a writer or poet or whatever it is I need to be. I don't know what to do about that. It drives me frantic sometimes. I'm getting better, but so slowly."

"We'll adapt. We'll have to. God is Change. Strange how much it helps me to remember that."

"'That isn't what God is for, but there are times when that's what prayer is for. And there are times when that's what these verses are for. God is Change, and in the end, God prevails. But there's hope in understanding the nature of God - not punishing or jealous, but infinitely malleable. There's comfort in realizing that everyone and everything yields to God. There's power in knowing that God can be focused, diverted, shaped by anyone at all. But there's no power in having strength and brains, and yet waiting for God to fix things for you or take revenge for you. You know that. You knew it when you took your family and got the hell out of your boss's house. God will shape us all every day of our lives. Best to understand that and return the effort: Shape God.'"