The attack on Salman Rushdie is just devastating. I hope he pulls through. If worrying and refreshing newsfeeds were an act of healing, I think we’d all have made him well by now. But I’ve come on here to say a few words about the place where it happened. I was at the the Chautauqua Institution last Friday, giving a lecture about dark nights of the soul. The first picture here is the lovely audience who listened so attentively on that day, and who came and chatted to me while we were wandering the grounds later on. These people are wonderful - open, friendly and welcoming. I had no doubt, as soon as I heard the news, that the assailant must have come to the place specifically to do harm. Of course, that turned out to be true. It makes me sad to think that Chautauqua might be tainted by this terrible event. It’s a very special, gentle place, a kind of utopian summer community that gathers by a beautiful lake to consider the social and spiritual questions of the day. Some families own holiday homes on the estate, and many of these houses have been passed through several generations, with Chautauquans claiming long lineages in the place. Others stay in the hotels and denominational houses, and more still come to work for the summer, just to be a part of the community. Everyone I met had been more than once, and was so proud of what they had there. The majority of the residents are retired from professions like teaching, medicine and law, and my first thought when I heard about the attack was that Rushdie must have got the best first aid available outside a hospital. That turned out to be true. I find it upsetting to think of the wound that has been inflicted on this community, the cloud that will now hang over this place where good people come to recharge before going back out into the world to do good. So I want to wish Salman Rushdie well, and I send my love to the Chautauquans, who I know will be suffering terribly today. And I also want to say: please don’t let the name ‘Chautauqua’ conjure a dark place in your mind. Please, instead, wonder how we can make more Chautauquas, until there is peace in this world. #chautauqua #salmanrushdie @chq1874