The Sanguine Sixties

My favorite author, David Lodge, died on January 1, 2025. Below is an essay I wrote about him. He would have turned 90 years old today. David Lodge 1935-2025 In Memorium   I have never understood why certain things aren’t more popular: the music of the Bodeans, living in medium-sized Midwestern cities, and the novels of David Lodge. In the case of Lodge’s books, ever since I fortuitously pulled How Far Can You Go? off the shelf of the Peoria Public Library some 35 years ago, his novels have been one of the great joys of my reading life. Funny, accessible, edifying—they hit every sweet spot I have as a reader.   So it was with sadness that I learned from the NY Times (buried many articles down in the book section) that Mr. Lodge died on January 1, 2025, a few weeks shy of his 90 th birthday. Besides writing novels, short stories, essays, and criticism. Mr. Lodge also taught from 1960 to 1987 in the English department at the University of Birmingham in England before he retired ...

"We must maintain and develop the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies."  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In 2012, John, Luke, and I went on what I dubbed our Civil Rights vacation. We were inspired by the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Riders, which had been celebrated the year before. The Freedom Riders rode interstate buses in the south and attempted to use segregated bathrooms to protest the violation of Supreme Court rulings.  On our trip, we visited Montgomery, Alabama, where Martin Luther King got his start. He served as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church from 1954-1960. During his years in Montgomery, Dr. King helped organize the bus boycott in response to the arrest of Rosa Parks. Below are are Luke and John at the pulpit of the church, where Dr. King would have preached. From...