“. . . .what you must see here is just an old man struggling with the difficulty of understanding what it is he’s struggling with."

John Ames is not at peace. For all his wise observations about himself and the world, we find in the middle of the novel that somewhere deep inside there are truths he would rather not convey to his son, wounds and sins and resentments he does not yet know how to name. If a wise elder can at death’s very door discover conflicts in himself that he has hidden from himself, what might the rest of us be suppressing? How much courage would it take for us to unearth the sins and hurts buried within our personal histories? Or is it a matter best directed by an agent from outside--an angel unawares who can surprise or provoke us to actions that might save us from ourselves?

Suggested Readings:Gilead, pp. 126-173