My mother, an uneducated woman in her sixties, said she would ask [his murderer] to enter her house and ask God to open his eyes because he was the reason her son entered the kingdom of heaven. —Beshir Kamel, brother of the martyrs Bishoy and Samuel A footnote in my Bible at the end of Genesis reads: “The life that began in Paradise ended in a coffin in Egypt.” What ended was the beginning of a story that commenced when... Read more
I live in the shadows of Washington, D.C. It’s a big place and said to be a very important one in geopolitical matters. I trust them on that. But I’ve found that in most cities its size—in most cities of any size, for that matter—many of the citizens share a rather parochial disposition about the rest of the country. The other day, a longtime resident who comes to this metropolis by way of an even larger one was telling a... Read more
By Paul Mariani Note: We asked the author, one of Image’s editorial advisors, to write a tribute to his longtime friend, the late poet Philip Levine. It was at the Breadloaf Writers Conference back in the late 1980s that I first met Phil Levine. The summer before, Bob Pack had asked me for the names of some poets whom he might invite to the conference, and I mentioned how great it would be to invite Phil. I was deeply drawn... Read more
There is no greater materialist than a Christian observing Lent. You get ashes smeared on your forehead. You hear words like, “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Those words are from the Book of Genesis. This Biblical thought about dust and the dustiness of all living things is taken up again in the third chapter of Ecclesiastes: I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and... Read more
By Ryan Holt For me, there is no more acute reminder of the passing of time than the Academy Awards’ “In Memoriam” montage. Every year, as I watch the parade of faces and names that will never again illuminate the screen, it’s a reminder of the fragility and brevity of life. Even the great icons are inevitably absorbed by the past. Cinema, after all, is a kind of collective memory. Films are both time capsules, preserving the original period of... Read more
An evangelical mutt, I have only in the past few years discovered the allure of the liturgical season, and I dabble in the traditions as my whims dictate. This Lent, I told my husband, we shall be giving up all of our little indulgences: coffees and meals out and little snacks. That should set us up for being nice and spiritual, plus it will be hard enough that we feel it, but not so hard that we are actually tempted... Read more
In memory of my mother “How come we don’t have a maid?” I asked my mother. It was the summer of 1973 and I was five. Across the street at the neighbor’s, Lula wore men’s white cotton socks with sandals and came outside to greet the mailman every afternoon. She was slow moving and wide, with skin the color of wood varnish. “Come and let me love on you,” she’d say, but Mama always stiffened a bit, as though she... Read more
By Suzanne M. Wolfe Twenty one men dressed in orange jump-suits are kneeling in a line on a beach. The ocean is at their backs like eternity waiting. Behind each one stands the angel of death. Not one of them weeps, not one begs. Some lower their heads as if in prayer; most are looking at something far away or something impossibly near, as near perhaps as the knowledge that this, of all moments, is their final one, that all... Read more
Today we are happy to welcome back former Good Letters blogger Sara Zarr as a regular contributor once again. In the church of my childhood and adolescence, we had a tradition at church retreats and evening services of forming a circle, joining hands, and singing, “They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love.” (It was the seventies, okay?) These retreats were held in relatively remote areas, at centers with names like Mt. Hermon and The Lord’s Land, where believers would... Read more
“I left the Church,” my tablemate explains, “because my priest couldn’t answer my questions.” We are at a gathering of scientists, religious leaders, and people who write about science and religion. We are discussing how people in these often counterposed domains can collaborate for the betterment of mankind. I confess I am skeptical about the benefits to mankind that will accrue from elite collaboration. I’m a Madisonian in that regard: our wellbeing is safer when elites keep each other in... Read more
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