Wishing our words were tactile,
we speak of them like textiles:
Dressed-up tales are made
out of whole cloth.
A fibber fabricates
as if his lie were a linen.
Text is cut from Latin: to weave,
what tellers do with tales.
A good yarn has many threads
and few loose ends.
A well-suited phrase becomes
a threadbare cliché.
So words are made fabric
to dwell among us,
metaphors bespoke to
dress the body parts of speech.
—Christopher J. Scalia
You have a decision to make: double or nothing.
For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.
So what will it be, dear reader: double, or nothing?
Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.
