My favorite piece in here is the one called "my fault." Has your idea – that family members take turns accepting blame for the events of a day regardless of true guilt – caught on with others? Do you think it should?
I don't know if anybody else practices my technique, though when I tell that story in public it always gets applause.
My favorite quote is this one: "Stoic wisdom about death and destruction is always proportionate to your distance from the scene of the accident. Sometimes someone is to blame. Not everybody must be excused."
Do you want to say anything about how you reached that conclusion? It seems particularly timely as I write this amid Sept. 11 anniversaries and debate over the war.
Re the quote: It just seems obvious to me. The further away evil is from us, the easy it is to endure. I can't directly affect what happens daily in Iraq.
But that doesn't mean I'm off the hook. To work for officials who can affect that situation – to vote – even if what I do seems small, I still must do that little bit – because the small things accumulate. There's much of this line of thinking in my new book.
Thanks again to Mr. Fulghum for the book and interview.
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