To Jane Austen, every fool is a treasure trove.
Being enthusiastic settles nothing.
Few friendships could survive the moodiness of love affairs.
Psychology keeps trying to vindicate human nature. History keeps undermining the effort.
Spirituality now wanders from sex to drugs to art to revolution to violence--whatever seems to promise deliverance from the quotidian.
Transcendence is something between a metaphor and a miracle.