Silence
The philosopher Derrida said that silence is the demon.
This was in the context of a discussion on the Binding of Isaac in the book of Genesis, which the celebrated philosopher didn’t understand. He didn’t understand why Abraham was commanded to murder, and why he obeyed. No one was there to explain it to him. (Well I could have, had he lived long enough to read my book!)
My son Elisha’s initial diagnosis was selective mutism. We didn’t know why our little boy had turned inward and stopped experimenting with speech at age 3.5, but he had.
We didn’t know, and we were very afraid.
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