Welcome to Things Worth Remembering, in which writers recall wisdom from the past that we should commit to heart. Last week, Benjamin Carlson revealed the central, chilling lesson of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s masterpiece, Demons. This Easter Sunday, Rod Dreher writes about Europe, that enchanting continent, where even cynical atheists can see the beauty of the Church.
For as long as I can remember, I have loved Europe.
It started with my ancient aunties Lois and Hilda, who had served in the Red Cross during the Great War. As a small Louisiana country boy in the 1970s, I sat between those two birdlike women on their overstuffed couch, leather the color of wine, with a Rand McNally atlas splayed across my lap, and listened to them tell me of their adventures in France when they were young. One time Hilda, an eccentric Episcopalian, read my palm. “This line says you will travel far in your life,” she said. I hoped it was true.