The essential question about a work of art is to know from what depth of life it emerges.” — James Joyce, Ulysses

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“The summit is halfway along the path.”

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There are certain qualities, such as resilience, that seem almost mandatory in the contemporary world. It is well known that to reach a great summit one must accept several conditions:

the willingness to inhabit the position of the apprentice; the cultivation of humility; the understanding of effort as a response to adversity; and an inner labor capable of embracing every phase of the ascent with lucidity and gratitude.

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Yet staying afloat is a challenge.

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In recent years I have witnessed countless wounds open among those affected by the economic crisis — the evicted, those who stand in food lines or hover at the threshold of poverty… those whose lives seem almost inconceivable, and in whom glimpsing light through their fissures is deeply moving. It redefines, in a sober and unadorned way, the true greatness of a summit.