"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?"

"Saints and poets, maybe. They do some."

- Emily Webb to Narrator, Thornton Wilder's Our Town

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Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection by Robert Farrar Capon

This was a gift from Grady Powell, director of the Trinity Forum Academy, to each of the fellows at commencement. I hope that Capon's reflections on food and table culture push me to heed Grady's charge to practice "astonishment at the ordinary" in this new season of my life.

My Bright Abyss by Christian Wiman

A memoir by the man who wrote this stunning essay, whose honest, compassionate voice serves as a model for me as I grapple with questions of faith and the sorrows of the human experience in my own writing. Wiman is the former editor of Poetry magazine, a poet in his own right, and a man whose great love and great sorrow have given him extraordinary insight into the deep things of our humanity.