Marilynne Robinson Considers Biden a Gift of God
“I wish that people would do things of beauty and benevolence. When I was teaching at the workshop, we would get a good variety of students, a lot of whom came from difficult backgrounds. And in order to make it through all the hurdles to graduate school, they were probably assisted by individuals or by mechanisms at various points, and then they come and they’re brilliant. I hate to use economic language, but in a sense, we’re creating value for the culture in other human beings — in the degree that we’re generous toward them, in the degree that we are made hopeful by their gifts, to the extent that we step out of these stupid competitive models that we set for ourselves and realize that our well being is something that is achieved collectively by encouraging other people to do beautiful things. Not putting them in situations of grinding lack and resentment that then becomes the argument against the social order and against democracy.”
First I have to say the title of this piece is terrible, which is unfortunate, because it's a bit click baity. I clicked because I love Robinson and read for that reason and it's worth the read and I'm saving it, so I guess I'm getting past that title.