“In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners.”- Camus
First, some geography: the field rises at the side of the road 4 or 5 feet and then dips in a long, gradual slope. Move to the verge to make way for a car and you lose the ability to see into the field. This Spring has favored exceptional blue skies and such green-gold beginnings that I find myself looking for any reason to find vistas that give my eye […]
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If I describe the suicide bombers in Sri Lanka as monsters, I hit the end of understanding. Monsters act monstrously. We are not monsters. Therefore how can we make sense of the motivations of those who strap on suicide vests and walk among women and children and among those at worship, utterly vulnerable and trusting, and click a trigger that triggers explosions that smash bodies? All of these are important, […]
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A week or so ago, a man and woman met at the register, and in response to a poster advertising a store event where the author of a book on Trump and golf was to speak, they began a conversation. Both liked Trump. Neither liked what the book purported to describe. After that beginning, I could not hear well. The ambient noise of the store and my own work kept […]
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The second time we visited Notre Dame, we climbed the towers on those steps worn into curves by centuries of pilgrims and tourists. From its parapet one could begin to imagine the Paris that had been when it was initially completed in 1260, a city low to the eye, the spires of other churches crowning the skyline, Montmartre to the north, a region of fields and vineyards, animals everywhere, wood […]
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