The most poignant of the unwittingly revealing prefaces of a story that ends badly begins with, ā€œAll I wanted was . . . ā€ This morning, as I was oscillating between the dozing and waking states, there popped into my stream of consciousness the recognition that maybe ā€”just maybe ā€”on a day in which I had nothing else scheduled, I could get some writing done, without interruptions. Fortunately, Iā€™ve a place I can get away to occasionally, as near to a scriptorium as I can hope to find within easy reach. (That fact alone qualifies me for cosmic wrath. Who am I to upset the balance of nature by striving for an unqualified good?)

Read this essay in Touchstone Magazine.