Your Turn: Seymour Glass

From J.D. Salinger's Glass family stories
Nominated by Andrew Schlewitz

I first read the Seymour stories in my mid-twenties, while working in Guatemala as a Peace Corps volunteer. I had been drifting away from my staunch Lutheran roots, feeling a bit spiritually disoriented, and living abroad in a very difficult job added to that feeling.

Seymour didn't make me feel better, but he did encourage me to keep exploring religious texts, to learn to accept that spiritual angst is an integral part of my condition, and he set the bar for "doing the right thing." Seymour's way made me think about all the times I have acted without grace or love -- to the unnecessary pain of others.

And Seymour made me want to get to a place where I might idly stir around cigarette butts in an ashtray with my finger, and see Jesus even there.

Tags: Literature

3:52 PM ET | 02-15-2008 | permalink

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