The way to innocence,
to the uncreated
and to God
leads on,

not back,
not back to the wolf or to the child,
but ever further into sin,
ever deeper into human life.

Herman Hesse, quoted on the epigraph page of a book called At Play In The Fields Of The Lord, by Peter Matthiessen, published back when I was that child. In 1991 it was made into a film starring Tom Berenger, Aidan Quinn, Darryl Hannah, Kathy Bates, John Lithgow, and Tom Waits as the wolf.

I read it a long time ago and finished re-reading it last night. It is still a superb novel.

Afterwards, I went online to see if I could find the movie, which I’d also seen long ago. The only version I found was terribly cropped, posted in 360p, and voice-overdubbed in Polish.

I watched it anyway. It’s good enough that I cannot even imagine such a movie being made today.

We have fallen so very far from grace.