Maira Kalman on God, the Weather, and Realizing When Enough is Enough

Maira Kalman talks to Paul Holdengraber about the search for meaning, finding your limits, and the pleasures of being a mother and a grandmother.

Maira Kalman on talking about the weather…
It makes us feel insecure and secure. It makes us feel all things. It makes us feel everything, any emotion anybody could feel, which is, I suppose, reasonably inclusive.

Maira Kalman on searching for meaning…
I wanted to see people praying because the worry, or the wonder, or the tragedy of believing that this is it there is no God, there is no hell, and there is no before and there is no after. It’s amazing to me to look at people praying, and not mockingly, but to see what it is they are finding in this moment. Who are they talking to and what is the expectation? Looking at people with compassion and tenderness is something that amazes me. It’s always a question of finding meaning and hope in a place where you don’t think any really exists subjectively.

Maira Kalman on recognizing your limits…
You always wonder what the limits are of what you can take, whether it is personally or globally. What is it that’s going to make me say enough already or I can’t—I don’t have hope left. Then you can understand when you have moments when you don’t have that and then you resurrect or you revise why something happens that makes you say oh, okay.

Maira Kalman on the joy of being a mother and grandmother…
The joy I have of being a mother and adoring my children and the joy of seeing my children have children is a kind of extraordinary epic lead into another part of the world. To watch children and to watch a human being develop and learn is something extraordinary. I’m completely amazed at how happy and wonderful it is.