THe FOUR FRIENDS ACT IV -- "Returning to Deer Hill"

 Act IV is now posted.  (https://montaguewhitsel-4friends.blogspot.com/2026/06/act-iv-returning-to-deer-hill.html)

Thinking about this last part of the story, I recalled these words by John Dunne in his old book The Way of all the Earth (1972), wherein he described a process in and through which people get to know one another--

“The technique of passing-over is based on the process of eliciting images from one’s own feelings, attaining insights into the images, and then turning insight into a guide of life.  What one does in passing over is to try to enter sympathetically into the feelings of another person, become receptive to the images which give expression to his feelings, attain insight into these images, and then come back enriched by this insight to an understanding of one’s own life which can guide one into the future.” (53)

This describes the art of listening, in which the four friends are engaged, and much more.  It necessitates 'attentiveness' to the 'other' with whom you are engaged, the practice of empathy and sympathy, being aware of another; one anothering; and coming--in the end, through knowing another-- to a better knowing of your own self.

This is what I hope to have portrayed going on throughout this dialogue.