The occasional signs and wonders can, well, do wonders to keep faith alive. In some cases, they actually keep you alive. An Australian newspaper reported just recently that a man who attempted suicide at a notorious cliff in Sydney was saved from death by a rogue wave which—by at least one reporter’s account —shortened the length of his otherwise 600-foot fall and immediately washed him onto the shore below, where he was found unharmed by a rescuers. Quite a second chance indeed.
Notes on Anosmia
One morning several years ago, as my wife, Wendy, and I were having breakfast together, I had…
Empire of Unreality
Shiva Naipaul (1945–1985) was the author of three novels and two books of mordant dispatches from places…
The Dreadful Christ of Pär Lagerkvist
It’s dangerous to meet a god,” says the disgraced Pythia in Pär Lagerkvist’s The Sibyl. Her observation…