Today I am writing not specifically because of Patriot Day, but because of another moment. Yesterday, after having written Within the Steel Orb, I wrote a brief letter and went to send a copy to Madeleine l'Engle, but then I learned the news: she had passed away earlier that day.
I believe it is fitting that during her last days I should be finishing and sharing Within the Steel Orb a work that owes much to her. I owed as much a debt to her as to any living author, and she is the only one of my favorite authors whose lifespan overlapped my own. The news of her death stung.
May her memory be eternal.
But that is not the whole story. I am starting up an excellent job soon, and I look forward to getting to know the people better. The job has God's fingerprints all over it. As I am moving forward, it is in the kairos moments that Madeleine l'Engle wrote of... and other good things as well.
There is a fresh page ahead of me in my life, and I look forward to reading it. Onward ho!
I like a moment in For Better or For Worse which goes roughly as follows:
[In heavy sleet, the father of the family hails a cab.]
Father: What a miserable day!
Cab driver: Actually, to me it is a very good day.
Father: What do you mean?
Cab driver: I am from Sudan. I have seen my friends shot and killed. I have a wife whom I have not seen in two years, and a son whom I have never seen. But each day brings a little money and leaves me that much closer to bringing my wife and child to America.
[The father looks thoughtful as he pays the cab driver.]
[In the next frame, he steps into his house.]
Mother: What a miserable day!
Father [placing an