The painful things seemed like knots on a beautiful necklace, necessary for keeping the beads in place.

It was one of those perfect fall days when the air is cool enough to wake you up but the sun is also kissing your face.

Biblical names are hot again.

Egypt loved the lotus because it never dies. It is the same for people who are loved.

There's something almost adolescent about Whitman's paean to everything that was and remains good about America.

There's nothing quite like a real . . . train conductor to add color to a quotidian commute

The Bible - it's sort of the other person in the room. There's this book, the reader, and the Bible.