Le Guin to my mind is one of the greatest writers/minds of our times, not just American ( hard to grasp ) but universally.

What a chilling piece of work which captures an ocean in a thimble, as we say in Urdu.

History is replete with Omelases.

To encounter such horror ( genocide of Palestinians and now gleeful depravity in Lebanon ) in this day and age is enough for me to want fervently not be born human in my next incarnation.

Children! All our children.
This story and your pen are very close to my heart Marc.

I often write about ‘accidents of birth’ in my short short fiction and poetry.

It is only accidents of birth which we the privileged wear as amulets around our fragile necks.

I could’ve been a deliberately mutilated child on all fours begging for Paisas from bejeweled Begums of Lahore who whizz past in black money BMWs and Mercedes.

But here I sit reading beauty spun out of human ugliness by one Marc Barham.

You did justice to le Guin.