Gillian Anderson reads a letter from Margaret Mead to her sister: 'An instrument of joy'
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- čas přidán 28. 05. 2024
- Margaret Mead was one of the leading anthropologists of her time. In 1926, she received a letter from her younger sister, Elizabeth, about her first sexual encounter. Here is her reply, read by Gillian Anderson at the Freemasons Hall, London in 2016.
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"I wil not have my body singing a tune which my soul cannot sing also". Just...wow...
Gillian has a beautiful reading voice, and helped me understand what Margaret tried to express in her life's work,
Every parent should give this letter to their children-sons and daughters-both should heed this message.
A letter that should be read to your teenage children!
A beautiful letter, beautifully read. Thank you👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
I was there, 10th March 2016, the same night my nephew was born, I remember getting the text message in the interval of this show. A memory that will last forever. I remember Gillian and Jarvis Cocker were my favourite readers of the evening 😁
Congratulations! We hope to be able to open our doors to an audience again very soon.
She is a very good reader calming and soothing
This letter should be part of sexual education everywhere. So wise and beautiful!
They would try to burn this letter.
A lovely reply, read with respect and artistry.
2:57 - "The flesh itself is not wise to choose " gets the briefest pause and smile 😍😍
I love her so much, she looks amazing here. She reads this in a way that makes me giggle and makes me want to listen even more. She should start her own podcast or release more audio books, she is so intriguing.
She makes intelligence extremely sexy and attractive.
oh this previous piece of happiness, every time I get a notification from Letters Live I'll always feel very content... but the vids are less and less public *sobs* my last wish would always be I could be there in the auditorium of Letters live show someday
I would listen to her read the dictionary and still feel bliss.
She is one of God's colors y'all!
Gillian is presently the best actor I know, I’m enamoured with, astounded by, unable to comprehend how it’s done, her craft and skills.
i can listen to her all day. 🤗❤️
I could listen to her read the procedure to remove, rebuild, and tune a Holley 850 carburetor or six side draft Webber carbs.
I cried. Thank you.
how very very useful. try to think of boys as individuals first and boys second... no criticism for having had sex, but just very compassionate, practical advice on how to feel about this, and all future encounters. Wish someone had read me this when I was in my teens. Might have saved some time finding someone who my soul agrees with my body about...
Margaret Janet Mead .is such a lovely lady .Santa of the streets .
Pure blessings to her
Margaret Mead and Gillian Anderson together here: Why even bother with a dislike icon?
Great wisdom!
enjoyed listening to this reply from elder sister...much love from india #besafe #gocorona world will be a beautiful place again after this evil ...plz reply to my comment ..thanks
What a beautiful letter. I'd love to know more about Margaret
Margaret is the source of my favourite political quotation:
"never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it's the only thing that ever has"
The woman is a freaking rock star of wisdom.
Beautiful letter.
This feels like Jillian's audition for the role of Jean
AN INSTRUMENT OF JOY
Margaret Mead to Elizabeth Mead
11 January 1926
Margaret Mead was widely regarded as the leading anthropologist in the western world for many years, thanks largely to Coming of Age in Samoa, a groundbreaking and controversial book she wrote after a research trip in 1925. In the book, she sought to shine a light on the previously alien lives and relaxed sexual attitudes of adolescent Samoan girls. Although since contested, Mead’s findings were a revelation at the time and in fact have been credited with influencing the sexual revolution of the 1960s. In 1926, a year after setting foot on the Samoan island of Ta‘ū, Mead learnt of a sexual awakening much closer to home: that of her younger sister, Elizabeth. This letter of advice was her response.
THE LETTER
Elizabeth dear, I’ve a good mind to punish you by writing back in pencil. You’re a wretch to write in pencil on pink paper just when you’re writing something very important that you particularly want me to read. Don’t do it again.
I am glad you told me about the moonlight party, dear. It’s the sort of thing that had to happen sometime and it might have been a great deal worse. As it was, it was a nice boy whom you like, and nothing that need worry you. There are two things I’d like to have you remember - or in fact several. The thrills you get from touching the body of another person are just as good and legitimate thrills as those you get at the opera. Only the ones which [you] get at the opera are all mixed up with your ideas of beauty and music and Life - and so they seem to you good and holy things. In the same way the best can only be had from the joys which life offers to our sense of touch (for sex is mostly a matter of the sense of touch) when we associate those joys with love and respect and understanding.
All the real tragedies of sex come from disassociation-either of the old maid who sternly refuses to think about sex at all until finally she can think about nothing else-and goes crazy-or of the man who goes from one wanton’s arms to another seeking only the immediate sensation of the moment and never linking it up with other parts of his life. It is by the way in which sex- and under this I include warm demonstrative friendships with both sexes as well as love affairs proper with men-is linked with all the other parts of our lives, with our appreciation of music and our tenderness for little children, and most of all with our love for someone and the additional nearness to them which expression of love gives us, that sex itself is given meaning.
You must realize that your body has been given you as an instrument of joy - and tho you should choose most rigorously whose touch may make that instrument thrill and sing a thousand beautiful songs - you must never think it wrong of it to sing. For your body was made to sing to another’s touch and the flesh itself is not wise to choose. It is the spirit within the body which must be stern and say - “No, you can not play on this my precious instrument. True it would sing for you. Your fingers are very clever at playing on such instruments - but I do not love you, nor respect you - and I will not have my body singing a tune which my soul cannot sing also.” If you remember this, you will never be filled with disgust of any sort. Any touch may set the delicate chords humming - but it is your right to choose who shall really play a tune - and be very very sure of your choices first. To have given a kiss where only a handshake was justified by the love behind it - that is likely to leave a bad taste in your mouth. And for the other part - about being boy crazy. Try to think of boys as people, some nice, some indifferent - not as a class. You are[n’t] girl crazy are you? Then why should you be boy crazy? If a boy is [an] interesting person, why, like him. If he isn’t, don’t. Think of him as an individual first and as a boy second. What kind of a person he is is a great deal more important than that he belongs to the other sex - after all so do some hundred million other individuals. I am very proud of the way you are able to think thru the problems which life brings you - and of the way you meet them. And I consider it a great privilege to have you tell me about them. I’m so glad you are happy dear.
Very lovingly,
Margaret
cdn.waterstones.com/special/pdf/9781786895561.pdf
such good advise.
Wonderful
love Gillian
❤❤❤
Started off a little prude, but very quickly turned into wise advice, with a generous serving of art and wit.
Wow
I wish if I had that opportunity to be there listening live
love from INDIA
I wouldnt mind a jam session with Gillian
♥️🌸
How can this woman, that was borne 120 years ago and is dead for over 40, be more forward thinking then such a huge part of the human race today??? I mean, I am a very loyal person, who just isn´t into the modern freedom of open, multiple partner relationships or browsing from one partner to another, but trying to explain that to someone sounds to my own ears like the 80 year old version of myself. And here she is, explaining it so clearly, without religion, without sin, without shame, but as being whole and a form of selfrespect and self love to give your self body and soul. I do hope her sister made good use of theis advice, that should be handed out to all the allmost grownup girls (and boys for that matter) of this world, who have no clue what to do and not to do, because they fear they are uncool if they don´t agree or behave in a certain way . . .
Какая умница стоишь то как переживаешь волнуешься на таком виде стали поч молодец читай читай но я слушаю внимательно
its because of things like this that most people drink before they screw.
Jean Milburn approved!
Come on sweety
Still hit that
😂
And she would hit you too.
Great letter but, c'mon? Gillian read it quite poorly no?
No, I think she read it beautifully :)