"Weeks before he died, Hillman dictated to his wife, Margot McLean, these words for his friends: "We are following a middle road, neither upbeat nor downbeat. And I am more and more convinced that upbeat tends to constellate its counter, so before wishing for recovery in the old sense, one should think twice. It's what's going on now and not what the imagination conjures regarding a so-called future. I am dying yet in fact, I could not be more engaged in living. One thing I'm learning is how impossible it is to lay out a border between so-called 'living' and 'dying'."
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I've recently been sent the original article on James Hillman by a friend. It was written by Michael Ventura who co-authored a book with him, and who was a good friend of his. I liked reading it, because honestly, I look forward to reading whatever I can about Hillman.I must say I did find it to be less flowery on a feeling level than I might've imagined . I'll take Hillman, and/or a response to him any way I can. Whether embodied in real life or alive in the imagination, I am grateful to have known him. Or, as he might've put it, not known "him ," but known the idea or figure...James Hillman.
me too! I still recall having him autograph my old copy of his masterwork, Re-Visioning Psychology, many years after its first publication. He said with a start, "This will really be worth something some day!"
Helllo Thom...I don't know what kind of "in" you have with James HIllman's "inner"
circle,but whatever and however you have and do, I'm sure glad it is so. Reading what you've recounted regarding HIllman's last words, brought such feeling inside me, such tears to my eyes and from my heart. In that moment, HIllman was palpable, and so was death...and so was and is life.
Judith Harte
you do not cry alone.
Seems Hillman reached an acceptance, of where he truly, actually was, in the present moment. He'd accepted his living and dying as a necessary balance...of Yin and Yang, Light and Dark.
He certainly was a profound thinker!!