Extra place set at your mind’s table
like Ezekiel’s: empty glass, clean spoon.
Hands that never pointed out the moon,
laid the baby in the Christmas stable,
dried dishes. Voice that doesn’t call
downstairs that he or she will be there
soon. In steam behind a bathroom door,
no one puts on makeup, leaves a towel
for you to find. No hairdryer.
No C in French. No midnight curfew,
no slamming door, no not“speaking“to.
When was it you began to hear
silence? They don’t tell you
about that voice, clear, insistent, steady
as a heartbeat, asking, How weren’t you ready?
Sally Thomas
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
Why the Death Penalty Is a Sore Point for Papal Authority
Pope Leo XIV marked World Day Against the Death Penalty, observed on October 10, with the following…
The Myth of St. Francis
At the beginning of his 2020 encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis speaks of “an episode in the…
Job and Her
It is said that Job lost everything, but she has lost more. All her possessions—the money, the…
