Saturday, December 27, 2008

Beating a Retreat

Peggy Noonan, her former joy in politics apparently now all gone, has been reading. And reading and reading and reading. And she's sure reading is about to catch on:

...It is a relatively inexpensive (libraries, Kindle, Amazon), peaceful and enriching activity. And we're about to enter an age of greater quiet. More people will be home, not traveling as much to business meetings or rushing out to the new jobsite. A lot of adults are going to be more in search of guidance and inspiration. The past quarter century we've had other diversions, often expensive ones—movies, DVDs, Xboxes. Books will fit the quieter future.
Peg's politics have provided us with expensive diversions too, of course. But somehow she neglects to mention Iran-Contra, impeachment, stolen elections, stupid wars, drowned cities, wrecked economies, etc., etc., etc. Our coming "age of greater quiet" is really just another in this series. And likewise, for what purpose does Peggy suppose people might now seek "guidance and inspiration" but to extricate themselves from the devastation that is the culmination of her politics?

But politics are the furthest thing from Peggy's mind nowadays, honestly. She reads for guidance and inspiration. But who knows that a miracle does not wait amidst the wreckage? Take this line she draws from a book about the life of Mother Teresa:
You must find your own Calcutta. You don't have to go to India. Calcutta is all around you.
May the heavens have mercy on us all...