Agatha Said, pt. 2
Happy December and welcome to our second Agatha Day! This month’s quote is both lovely and deep.
Agatha Said:
“I was, I suppose, always over-burdened with imagination. That has served me well in my profession – it must, indeed, be the basis of the novelist’s craft – but it can give you some bad sessions in other respects.”
Context: Agatha’s father died when she was eleven, after slowly declining for some years. Following that loss, her mother began to suffer poor health and, as you can expect, young Agatha started to fear losing her mother.
This quote follows an honest account of her anxiety over her mother’s health, a fear that was particularly strong for a couple years. The anxiety faded once Agatha was able to sleep nearby (in her father’s dressing room) so she could hear her mother if she needed help during the night.
Why I Chose It: I love Agatha’s honesty in sharing her childhood struggles with anxiety. That she recognizes a link with her imagination is particularly insightful. Imagination has two sides. It doesn’t just allow a person to imagine positive things; it can lead someone to see all the negative possibilities as well. So often a trait that seems like a gift, from an external perspective, can be quite a burden as well. In this quote, Agatha acknowledges that reality, recognizing the double-edged sword of her own imagination.
