An uneven yet ultimately useful look at how we learn to be brave by Bishop Mariann Budde.
Writing a book about personal lessons learned in how one becomes brave takes a great deal of, well, courage. Or hutzpah. Skill or delusion. The writer has either been told what they are doing is brave, or they feel that way about themselves based on . . . something. It is a journey fraught with danger.
It is not surprising that the Episcopal Bishop of Washington has tackled this subject. She has been in the news in recent years for taking bold—yes, even courageous—stands. And although there are missteps along the way, what she has produced is ultimately useful, if uneven.
How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith (2023 with a new preface and the 2025 Inauguration Prayer Service) by Mariann Edgar Budde opens with a description of the events on Lafayette Square on June 1, 2020 and concludes with the full sermon from the January 21, 2025 Inauguration Prayer Service. Both events were pivotal moments in the life of the nation and the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. Both involved the bishop and the president. In between those two flashpoints, Bishop Mariann * takes the reader through seven lessons taken from her life and others that helped her navigate these and many other decisive moments. She begins, appropriately, with taking the first step. Deciding to go. She ends with the virtue of perseverance. Picking yourself up after the inevitable fall and placing one foot in front of the other.
The early chapters on decisions to go or stay were uneven at best. There are a few long stories, such as one about Eleanor Roosevelt, that either don’t really resonate or are imperfect fits for the subject matter. Her personal recollections from childhood through her time in ministry are much more relatable. She gains her footing when she moves into chapters on what makes us start on a journey and how we face challenges not of our own choosing. I found her thoughts on dealing with suffering—tending to the weakness in our lives and in the world while surrounding those areas with strength—to be personally affirming. Her final chapter on the hidden virtue of perseverance, beginning with examples from the life of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, tied her thoughts together nicely. The epigraph was a timely reminder.
“And when you get down to it . . . that’s the only purpose grand enough for a human life. Not just to love—but to persist in love.”
Sue Monk Kidd
Full disclaimer: I am an Episcopalian and a member of the Diocese of Washington. Bishop Mariann is my bishop. While I would not say that I know her well, I have had more than a few personal and congregational encounters with the bishop since 2011. Some have been inspiring. Not all have been pleasant. From my personal perspective I found one set of interactions between the bishop and our parish based not so much on bravery and courage but more on expediency and a desire to avoid making the hard call. That’s my perspective and it isn’t shared by all. Bishop Mariann did later return to publicly address the shortfalls in her actions, which took courage.
On the other hand, I have supported her work to speak out for the marginalized in our country on the public stage, which puts her at odds with our current president. I think that’s a key role for a faith leader in troubled times. Again, not everyone will agree with me.
Bishop Mariann is human. Like all humans she has aspirations and failures. I believe this work would be more successful with more joy thrown into the mix. Nonetheless, she has written her book, one that speaks to the many aspects of what it means to persevere in having courage, sometimes in spite of the evidence in front of us.
More to come . . .
DJB
*In the tradition of our church, I always call her Bishop Mariann or occasionally Bishop Budde. I just want to clarify why I don’t simply use her last name in this review, as would be my normal practice.
Grenada’s remarkableAlhambra is a place that unveils overlapping lives and histories which breathe life into an intercultural dialogue. A place in which history’s flame is kept burning.
The Alhambra—which along with the Albaycín constitutes the medieval part of the city of Granada in Spain—is large and imposing. Yet on a recent visit it was a small doorway, almost overlooked, that unveiled the overlapping lives and histories that work together in this remarkable site to breathe life into a fascinating and even hopeful intercultural dialogue.
The doorway had a simple sign, almost missed due to the shadows from a nearby tree, inviting one into The Mosque Baths of the Alhambra.
Stepping through the small door and allowing time for the eyes to adjust to the darker space, one quickly realizes that we are seeing what another sign describes as “dialogue between cultures over centuries.”
Photos by DJB, UNESCO, and Simon Wilkinson via Flickr
A former Nasrid Palace from the final Islamic dynasty to rule in Iberia later became a Franciscan convent, spaces where “new ways of silence, prayer, and living in harmony came into being.” As we wandered through the baths we discovered:
“. . . how time altered each nook and cranny without changing its lifeblood . . . unveiling overlapping lives and histories. The remains of the Nasrid hamman or steam bath, the belltower, and the entrance to the atrium unearthed inside the convent, breathe life into this intercultural dialogue. Each room unearths how the past remains alongside the present, keeping memory alive.”
The Alhambra is so large that it is easy to miss these small hidden gems. An internationally famous UNESCO World Heritage Site, what we may know simply as Alhambra actually includes a fortress, residence, the magnificent gardens of the Generalife, and the former rural residence of the emirs who ruled this part of Spain in the 13th and 14th centuries. It also includes the residential district of the Albaycín—which sits on a facing hill to the palace and gardens and is a “rich repository of Moorish vernacular architecture, into which the traditional Andalusian architecture blends harmoniously.”
Credit UNESCO
Palace (credit UNESCO)
Historic postcard celebrating the World Heritage Site that is The Alhambra
Palace of Charles V (photos above and below by DJB)
The Alhambra has been continuously occupied over time and is currently the only preserved palatine city of the Islamic period. “The Generalife Garden and its vegetable farms represent one of the few remaining medieval areas of agricultural productivity. These palaces were made possible by the existing irrigation engineering and they constitute a real urban system integrating architecture and landscape.” The beauty, scale, and siting of this place, with a backdrop of snowcapped mountains, could take a lifetime to explore.
Photo above by DJB; Photos of Generalife below from UNESCO; Mountain panorama by DJB
The last Islamic state in Iberia ended in 1492, but what remains is a rich legacy of Moorish town planning and architecture. “Here Moorish buildings and constructions of Christian tradition coexist harmoniously. Much of its significance lies in the medieval town plan with its narrow streets and small squares and in the relatively modest houses in Moorish and Andalusian style that line them. There are, however, some more imposing reminders of its past prosperity.”
Alhambra panorama at night (credit UNESCO)
As the UNESCO site reminds us:
“What we see here speaks of the remarkable legacy of Muslim Spain from the 13th through the 15th centuries. It is remarkable that these medieval Islamic examples—even as they adapted to the Christian way of life after the conquest—were not destroyed and haven’t been significantly changed over the centuries.”
Historic places: keeping memory alive.
More to come . . .
DJB
NOTE: This is the first of what will be several posts from our recent National Trust Tours trip to Morocco, Spain, Gibraltar, and Portugal. In addition, I have a number of book reviews resulting from the recent Independent Bookstore Crawl and Reading Challenge sitting in the queue. This is just to warn you that the posts may come fast and furious over the next 2-3 weeks. Just read the ones that interest you. I suspect that no one reads them all.
Top panorama of Alhambra by Alexander Psiuk on Unsplash. All other photos by DJB except where credits to UNESCO or Simon Wilkinson via Flickr are noted.
Celebrating the indefatigable Liz Lyon on her 100th birthday!
Mentors have an oversized influence on our lives. At key moments of growth and opportunity they arrive with wisdom, experience, support, belief, and the occasional unwanted push forward. At a time when too many men are working to silence women’s voices, I am proud to be in the opposite camp. Two of the key individuals who have shaped my career and whatever success I have achieved have been women in positions of power.
One of the most important mentors in my life—both personally and professionally—turns 100 years old today. And I want to take that momentous occasion to celebrate the life and long-lasting legacy of Elizabeth A. (Liz) Lyon, PhD.
A PERSONAL REMEMBRANCE
Liz Lyon on her 95th birthday in 2021. Five years later she’s still going strong!
Early in my career I worked for and with Liz from 1978 to 1981—the last two when I served as a preservation planner in the Georgia State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) where Liz was the director. For those unfamiliar with preservation jargon, the SHPO is the agency responsible for implementing the national preservation program in each state. In Georgia, the Historic Preservation Division serves that function, working “in partnership with federal and state agencies, local governments, preservation organizations, community groups, and individuals to achieve a greater appreciation and use of historic buildings, districts, and archaeological sites in the context of everyday life.”
Liz—as the State Historic Preservation Officer—was my first true role model as an executive leader. I have been telling others of the lessons I learned from her ever since. Liz’s enthusiasm, vigor, and passion are the first things that spring to mind when I think back on those times. It meant a great deal to me, as a young professional, to see her leading the staff with so much excitement for the work we did. It was, frankly, contagious.
I am also thankful to Liz for showing how one supports a staff. Liz was definitely our leader but she also related well to everyone in the office. The main lesson I’ve passed along to others is that Liz would deflect praise when it came her way and instead would give it to the members of her staff; however, she always took responsibility for the hard choices or the wrong choices we may have made. She lifted us up in times of success and had our back when we were being attacked. I have tried to emulate that type of support for others in my career. There were certainly times in those early years when one of us made a decision that put Liz and the state office in a difficult position, but she was always the one there to take the heat. Liz certainly helped guide and educate us, but her willingness to stand up for what was right in a way that protected her younger professionals in public forums was a great gift.
Basically, Liz cared about me as a person, just as she cared for the rest of her team. She wanted to know how I was doing, supported my professional growth (even if it meant leaving the office), and gave me great assignments by putting me in a position to succeed. I am forever grateful that she gave me the opportunity to work in Georgia for four years with the amazing group of professionals she had assembled. And—of course—I can’t begin to thank her enough for having Candice in the office at the same time! We kept our late-blooming romance a secret until I left to go to graduate school. Liz couldn’t make my going away party, so I took her to lunch and told her we were getting married. She couldn’t have been happier for us and she always liked to remind others that she brought us together. Candice and I have had an amazing ride, which all begin as we got to know each other and ourselves in Atlanta.
Later in my career I had a different type of relationship with Liz. As part of the leadership team at the National Trust over two decades, I would hear from Liz when she wanted to make a point—sometimes forcefully—about a position the Trust was taking on a specific issue. She would also call or look me up when she was pleased with the direction the organization was taking. As all thoughtful professionals do, Liz and I would have our occasional disagreements; but neither ever let professional differences get in the way of our long-standing relationship and friendship.
RECOGNITION FROM HER PEERS
When I heard that Liz was turning 100, I reached out to former colleagues and friends, asking for their help in recognizing the amazing personal and preservation legacy Liz has within the movement. My friend and colleague Kathryn Leonard, the SHPO for Arizona and a national leader among state preservation officers; Carole Griffith, the longtime HPD senior director and Liz’s invaluable lieutenant; and the current Georgia Deputy SHPO, Jennifer Flood, who sits on the board of the National Conference of SHPOs, all worked together. Jennifer led the way in having the NCSHPO board approve a resolution in March “In Honor of Elizabeth A. Lyon.”
The preamble reads:
“Longest-serving State Historic Preservation Officer in Georgia history, NCSHPO officer, pioneer in preservation during the formative years of the National Historic Preservation Act, mentor, and friend on the occasion of her 100th birthday.“
What follows is three full pages (!) of accomplishments. I’ll hit the highlights.
Liz served as the State Historic Preservation Officer from 1978 to 1994, making her the longest-serving SHPO in the state’s history. During her sixteen year tenure she led the state office to a place of prominence as one of the most respected and effective state offices nationally. Her leadership was most evident in:
Promoting preservation as a tool for a broader understanding of history;
Effectively using federal and state preservation programs—especially the National Register of Historic Places, historic tax credits, and public education—to help preserve historic places; and
The broad recognition, designation, and interpretation of historic properties, districts and landscapes to strongly reflect the diversity of Georgia history.
Liz developed initiatives such as Georgia Living Places, Regional Preservation Planners (of which I was the first!), Centennial Farms, and a model State Preservation Plan that integrated academic standards, professional criteria, community planning and local priorities into preservation practice.
It was through Liz’s strong and personal relationships with the state’s African American community that the Georgia SHPO became the first state preservation office in the nation to:
Publish a guide—Historic Black Resources—for use in evaluating historic resources associated with African American history and communities;
Create the Georgia African American Preservation Network (GAAHPN), a statewide movement to raise awareness of African American historic resources, and
Establish a full-time staff position to focus on African American historic resources and to provide support to the GAAHPN.
The resolution recognizes Liz’s scholarly accomplishments, her many awards, and the transformation of her 1994 retirement event—attended or supported by over 200 preservationists—from one that only looked backward into a forward-focused celebration that included the establishment of the Elizabeth A. Lyon Fund, an ongoing scholarship program at the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. Designed especially for students and young professionals, the scholarship fund addresses needs and issues that contribute to a better understanding and use of historic preservation.
Here’s how the resolution ends:
“Whereas, Elizabeth A. Lyon, throughout her academic, professional and volunteer life
Displayed passion, integrity, dedication and enthusiasm for the national, state and local programs that preserve community resources, the comprehensive range of historic buildings, landscapes and archeological sites that reflect Georgia history,
Mentored several generations of young professionals who have left their own marks on the preservation field, and
Inspires people to this day; and
Whereas, Elizabeth A. Lyon will celebrate her 100th birthday on May 17 of this year;
Now, therefore, be it resolved that the National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers expresses its appreciation to Elizabeth A. (Liz) Lyon for a lifetime of accomplishments in the field of historic preservation and wishes her the happiest of birthdays!”
NCSHPO got it just right, and I’m forever grateful to Carole, Jennifer, Kathryn, and the NCSHPO board and staff for recognizing one of the most important individuals in my professional life.
Thank you so much, Liz, for all the support and guidance you’ve given to me through the years. You are a real mentor and treasure.
Happy birthday, dear friend!
More to come . . .
DJB
Photo of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Historic District in Atlanta (credit: GeorgiaHistoric Preservation Division)
Anand Giridharadas reminds us that “We are living through a revolt against the future. The future will prevail.”
While I was traveling out of the country the Supreme Court was back in the news. The court’s ruling gutting the last of the landmark Voting Rights Act was not surprising. In many ways this has been the Chief Justice’s mission since his appointment. He began this work in earnest shortly after Congress reauthorized the landmark legislation with overwhelming bipartisan majorities earlier this century. I grew up in the South as the region and the nation were working to overthrow the legacy of Jim Crow (see here and here). I recognize what has changed for the better and the importance of this moment in America where we can change our narrative and our future. Anand Giridharadas reminds us that “We are living through a revolt against the future. The future will prevail.”
One of the best of those commentaries came the night I returned home, via Heather Cox Richardson’s May 13th Letters from an American. After an extensive look at all that’s happened in the two weeks since the ruling came down to recreate a one-party South, she ends with a quote by Georgia Senate minority leader Harold Jones II as reported by Joyce White Vance’s in Civil Discourse:
“If Republicans ever used their power to help Georgians, they wouldn’t have to waste time and money redrawing the maps every few years to keep their majorities.
June will be our third redistricting since 2021. Republicans need to undo their last gerrymander because it wasn’t good enough to keep their waffling political party in power. Most parties would try out some new ideas. Republicans choose to strip political power from Black people and undo the progress the South made in the last 60 years.
Let’s sum it up for everybody. The biggest bloc of middle and working class voters are Black people. When Republicans strip Black people’s political power away, it doesn’t just strip one community of power. It strips political power from every single middle and working class person and hands it over to billionaires and big corporations. That’s what redistricting means for you.”
Georgia Senate minority leader Harold Jones II
Over the past few years I’ve read several books on the lost legitimacy of our top court, and I’ll simply point you to those pieces now.
Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes (2025) by Leah Litman describes in fresh and accessible language how the combination of the court’s power and a poor understanding of its work by the public makes it a dangerous entity in today’s America. If you are among those convinced that Republicans, and especially white male Republicans, are treated unfairly by an increasingly diverse society that no longer shares their views, then the move to make decisions based on conservative grievance, fringe theories, and bad vibes is an easy step to take.
I will also point you to two articles that made the case against the Roberts Court’s claim to legitimacy.
In September of 2024, New York Times investigative and Supreme Court reporters Jodi Kantorand Adam Liptak released a major story entitled How Roberts Shaped Trump’s Supreme Court Winning Streak. It is devastating in showcasing how Chief Justice Roberts and the conservative supermajority have unilaterally blown up the legitimacy of the Court.
KNOWING THE PAST SUGGESTS WAYS FORWARD FOR OUR FUTURE
Many historians, law professors, and journalists have written about this work to cement inequality into American life. I’ve covered some of them in these MTC posts:
The capacity for change (2025)—Jon Grinspan demonstrates how we have seen both extreme ugliness and bold reform through the years when it comes to our democracy.
With fear for our democracy (2023)—includes historian Kevin Kruse’s argument that the Supreme Court is asserting power it does not have.
The continuing fight for the soul of America (2022)—Historian Heather Cox Richardson’s searing, provocative, and masterful How the South Won the Civil War reminds us that the struggle to provide equal opportunity for all is never finished.
Belief in a common purpose (2021)—The New Deal mattered in 1933, writes historian Eric Rauchway, because “it gave Americans permission to believe in a common purpose that was not war.” Although conservatives have fought against the ideals of the New Deal, neither before nor since have Americans so rallied around an essentially peaceable form of patriotism.
The abandonment of democracy (2020)—I was reading Nancy MacLean’s compelling Democracy in Chains at the end of 2020 while watching the attempted coup that took the attempt by the billionaire-backed radical right to undo democratic governance to its logical conclusion. Utterly chilling.
Towards a more perfect union (2020)—Historian Eric Foner’s work on the “second founding” of the country examines why “key issues confronting American society today are in some ways Reconstruction questions.”
History is a teacher (2019)—Historian Joanne B. Freeman’s The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to the Civil War is the riveting tale of mortal threats, canings, flipped desks, and all-out slugfests…and that’s just on the floor of Congress! Only when we stand up to those who would divide us and push for a true reckoning will we break through the polarization.
Telling the full story (2017)—The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalismby historian Edward E. Baptist demonstrates that slavery was not some pre-modern institution on the verge of extinction but was, instead, essential to American development and, indeed, “to the violent construction of the capitalist world in which we live.”
Five books at a minimum. Every month. A variety of topics from different genres. Here is the list from April 2026.
The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson (1974; new 250th anniversary edition published in 2026) by Bernard Bailyn is the history of the native-born royal governor of Massachusetts Bay from 1771–1774 and his fellow American loyalists who found themselves on the losing side of the Revolutionary War. In the preface Bailyn writes that he was taking on this subject to help us see the “tragedy” of the Revolution. Not the sadness, or the error or wrongness of it. But to better understand “the limits within which men struggled . . . the famous and the obscure, the best and the worst, the winners and the losers.” We have to understand those stories—especially of those “who suffered violence and vilification, who were driven out of the land and forced to resettle elsewhere in middle life, and died grieving for the homes they had lost”—if we are to make sense of the Revolution. Thomas Hutchinson was the best-known embodiment of those Americans who still clung to England and who died in exile longing for their native home, a home that was transformed and unrecognizable to them as a result of revolution. This National Book Award-winning masterpiece succeeds in being largely free “of myths, wish fulfillments, and partisan delusion” and also marked “a turning point in historiography, illuminating the overlooked dimensions of American history and the stories that shape nations.”
From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in The Second Half of Life (2022) by Arthur C. Brooks begins with the premise that too many of us believe that the more successful we are the less susceptible we become to the sense of professional and social irrelevance that often accompanies aging. But Brooks asserts that our belief in our ongoing relevance simply isn’t true. Aging and decline are inevitable. A social scientist, Brooks chronicles his own journey, beginning at age 50 at the height of his career, to see if he could transform his future from disappointment to an opportunity for progress in new and unexpected ways. Depending on your perspective and personal experience, he either succeeded or simply finally found wisdom about the world as it works that many intuitively know or find through family, experience, or faith without having to read a self-help book.
Death in the Strike Zone: The Mystery of America’s First Baseball Hero (2026) by Thomas W. Gilbert has been accurately described as “part biography, part detective story, and part time machine.” A baseball historian who has written extensively on the early years of the game, Gilbert brings to life the story of James Creighton, a young Brooklyn ballplayer who shot to prominence during the Amateur Era, forever changed how the game is played, and then mysteriously died at the young age of 21 after suffering an injury. Creighton, who invented something new for the game—modern pitching—threw the first fastball and the first curve ball. Because of his prowess, baseball had to invent the strike zone. The young phenom’s death shocked the sport and inspired the first grand baseball-themed monument, which can still be seen in Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. The story of how those who wanted to grow the game rushed to blame the death on cricket—which Creighton also played—and not baseball opens up Gilbert’s examination of a cover up as well as the nativist roots of our first national sport. As a result of their actions, Creighton’s singular role in changing the nation’s pastime has been largely missing from baseball’s history, until now.
The Great Divorce (1945), by C.S. Lewis is a Christian allegorical tale about a bus ride from hell to heaven. This is the book where Lewis first introduces the revolutionary idea (for some) that the gates of hell are locked from the inside. Amazingly, Lewis tells us, anyone who wants to stay in heaven can. “If we insist on keeping Hell (or even earth) we shall not see Heaven,” Lewis insists. Without getting too deep into questions of judgement, let me just say that I agree with his perspective. Returning to this work written more than 80 years ago, however, I found myself underwhelmed. The tale itself was not particularly compelling. From my perspective the book works somewhat better as a meditation upon good and evil, grace and judgment.
Living in the Present with John Prine (2025) by Tom Piazza was to be Prine’s memoir. But after the songwriter’s untimely death from Covid it became an intimate and personal narrative of the artist’s last few years. In a series of road trips, late night jam sessions, meals enjoyed in John’s favorite diners, and interviews, Piazza succeeds in capturing Prine’s unique voice. As fans we have heard this voice most frequently in his unforgettable songs. The joy of this new work is that we now experience John’s take on life in his everyday speech and off-hand remarks. In the end, Piazza has written a beautiful and personal work about friendship, love, and loss.
Partly Strong, Partly Broken (2026) by Nathaniel Popkin is a work full of compassion and understanding as it explores the difficult questions around politics and racism that vex us today. The novel, told through the eyes of the passionate, inclusivity-minded Rabbi Adinah, focuses on political divisions poisoning an American Jewish community and a multifaith coalition in New Jersey. Set in the fall of 2023, the story unfolds before the attacks on Israel by Hamas and the subsequent devastation of Gaza in retaliation. Rabbi Adinah returns from a trip to Israel to find both her synagogue and her congregation falling apart. Many of the guardrails that guided our life together have been broken and refuge is difficult to find. Popkin creates a story for today’s world in which all can relate, and he examines these tensions with honesty and sensitivity.
WHAT’S ON THE NIGHTSTAND FOR MAY (Subject to change at the whims of the reader)
I have used essentially the same post on Mother’s Day since 2022. It says what I want to say in these times, so I’ll repost it again here, in a slightly edited form. Happy Mother’s Day!
Mother loved the old-fashioned iris. She had them in our garden patch and when I see them today my thoughts inevitably turn to her. As I passed near the Koiner Urban Farm on one of my recent walks I saw my first irises of the year. During what has been a tough time for anyone who cares about rights and democracy in America, my thoughts of Mom went to how she dealt with similar challenges.
Mom passed away on New Year’s Day in 1998, but her life and the lessons she taught me still provide a helping hand here in the 21st century. Lessons such as:
Women are to be respected and valued as people. Mom, the first woman elected as a deacon at First Baptist Church, was a quiet but effective leader who valued other women as leaders. She worked most of her career under a woman, Briley Adcock, our municipal library director. Helen Brown was no radical feminist, but she also did not buy any of the “woman’s place on a pedestal” nonsense. Two of the best bosses in my career were women, and I worked easily in that environment thanks to Mom’s example.
Books are meant to be read, not banned and burned. Mom was a lifelong reader and learner. She loved books and as both a mother and a librarian she loved teaching young children about books. I am appalled at the push by right-wing zealots to ban books today, as if we learned nothing from the fight against the fascists in World War II. Our country is filled with problems. Reading too many books isn’t one of them.
Vote in every election. Mom and Dad were informed citizens with a strong BS detector when it came to politicians. They also voted in every election. Being independent, I know of more than one occasion when they cancelled each other’s votes. I’ve followed Mom’s lead, voting in every election since 1976 when I supported Jimmy Carter for president.
Treat everyone with respect. And that means everyone. We simply were not permitted to be rude to others, no matter how different they were or how marginalized by society. As the country has become more intolerant, I frequently remind myself not to fall into that trap.
Be the person you are meant to be. Mom and Dad probably succeeded with this life principle beyond their wildest dreams. Even when it was tough, they stood by their belief that each child has to figure out what is in store for them in this world. I have tried, generally with success, to follow their example with our children.
You have no right to complain if you don’t do the service. Mom did not like cynics who complained without making a serious effort to work towards a solution. She took her turn as PTA president, even though it was the year our local schools were being desegregated following the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. She did it because she felt it was the right thing to do. Mom was always “in the arena” as Teddy Roosevelt would say. **
When I see the patch of iris, I am reminded that Mom is still here, helping me see that we are facing another moment in America where we can change our narrative and our future for the better. It will not be easy, but we need to see everyone — even the marginalized — as humans of value with the same rights we have. We need to educate ourselves so we don’t blindly follow the tribe. We need to do our duty as citizens in a democracy.
It will not be easy, but we have to continue to try, for ourselves, and for our children and grandchildren. Our mothers are calling us.
**In his famous Citizenship in a Republic speech, Roosevelt railed against cynics who looked down at those who were trying to make the world a better place. “The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer,” he said. “A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticize work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life’s realities — all these are marks, not … of superiority but of weakness.” It is the person (man in Roosevelt’s day) who is actually in the arena, who comes up short but keeps striving, who counts.
Ferenc Molnár’s classic Hungarian young adult novel of the early twentieth century provided an unexpected pleasure in May of 2026.
When a friend loaned me a classic young adult novel from her native Hungary earlier this year, I wasn’t sure I would find it of interest. Then the country’s extraordinary democratic overthrow at the ballot box of autocrat Viktor Orban exploded into the news on a Sunday in April. Suddenly I wanted to know more about the people who had the courage to take back their country. “’The only moment you can compare it to is 1989,’ when, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Hungary’s Communist dictatorship came to an end,” said a woman at a rally the day before the historic vote.
The Paul Street Boys (1907) by Ferenc Molnár is a captivating and surprisingly emotional novel that explores themes of loyalty, sacrifice, and the loss of innocence. Set in 1889 Budapest, the story centers around two rival street gangs: the Redshirts and the Paul Street Boys. The two are fighting over a vacant lot they call their grund or “Fatherland”—with the Paul Street Boys defending their territory against the Redshirts led by Feri Áts. The Paul Street Boys are led by János Boka, a wise and honorable student who befriends Ernő Nemecsek, the smallest of the group. After members of the Redshirts steal Nemecsek’s marbles—a scene memorably captured in the Péter Szanyi sculpture in Budapest—the two gangs move towards a confrontation.
Time and again Nemecsek demonstrates his bravery and loyalty to his friends as the conflict escalates. Boka and Nemecsek spy on the Redshirts in their Botanical Garden hideout, and then Nemecsek returns on his own to the rival gang’s island hideaway and endures a dunking in the cold lagoon. But by standing up to Feri Áts he earns the older boy’s respect. The entire confrontation between the gangs is carried out in military fashion, governed by strategy, honor, and camaraderie.
Located in the crowded Józsefváros neighborhood of Budapest, the grund offers the boys a “limitless” space for play, creativity, and adventure. It is also a place that belongs only to them, away from the strict rules of the adult world and the ever-watchful eyes of Professor Rácz. Throughout the book there are instances where little Nemecsek demonstrates that his bravery and loyalty surpass his size, none more important than at a critical moment in the battle when the Redshirts appear to be close to turning the tide. In a scene reminiscent of David the shepherd boy taking down the giant Goliath, Nemecsek surprises and subdues Feri Áts, the fierce leader of the Redshirts. The book ends in tragedy, however. Nemecsek dies of the pneumonia that he caught in the dunking. Boka also learns that a tenement building will soon be erected on the grund lot, meaning that the boys’ heroic struggle to defend it and Nemecsek’s sacrifice were in vain.
Molnár’sending reflects this loss of innocence. János Boka sits and stares at a desk in front of him, his “simple and young soul” beginning to stir with the forebodings “of what life held in store.”
The Redshirt bullies (left) look on as Nemecsek rolls his marble outside the school (Credit: Wikimedia)
Life in Hungary has not been easy over the past century but the spirit of the people prevails. As Michelle Goldberg wrote in her New York Times column from the country immediately after the election that replaced Prime Minister Orban’s Fidesz party:
“Some admirers of Orban have argued that the fact that he lost proves he was never an autocrat to begin with. What it really demonstrates, however, is that opposition to Fidesz was so strong it was able to overwhelm all the structures Orban put in place to protect his rule: wildly distorted voting districts, a captured media, state-sponsored propaganda, local patronage networks, and widespread threats and intimidation.”
Honor, loyalty, forgiveness, reconciliation, patriotism, and bravery are all present in The Paul Street Boys. Loss, love of country, courage, perseverance, and loyalty all played out this past month in Eastern Europe. We saw little David taking down Goliath. Life is not a straight line, and what appears inevitable, such as the march towards autocracy, can change in what seems the blink of an eye by the actions of those—like a young boy or citizens who want their country back—whose power and agency is often dismissed.
Plaque on the wall of Kossuth House in Washington celebrating the 30th anniversary in 2019 of the overthrow of the communist dictatorship in Hungary. Always read the plaque.
More to come . . .
DJB
Photo of Péter Szanyi sculpture of Paul Street Boys in Budapest, 8. district, Práter street school, inspired after Ferenc Molnar’s novel (credit: Budapest Tours)
“Maybe there are better films than Casablanca, but there are probably none better loved.”
While preparing for an upcoming lecture on the ways that popular culture has influenced our views of history, I began delving into one of the best known and beloved movies of the last 100 years.
The American Film Institute (AFI) listed it as #2 on the original list of America’s greatest movies (Citizen Kane was #1).
The song “As Time Goes By” sung by Dooley Wilson ranks #2 on the list of top 100 songs of American cinema, topped only by “Over the Rainbow.”
Humphrey Bogart’s character Rick Blaine was ranked #4 on AFI’s list of the greatest screen heroes—and Bogart himself was named the #1 screen legend of all time on AFI’s 100 YEARS…100 STARS!
Film critic Roger Ebert made the astute observation: “When asked what is the greatest movie of all time, I say Citizen Kane. When asked what is the movie you like the best, I say Casablanca.”
Thankfully for the sake of my lecture . . . and for movie lovers everywhere . . . there’s a delightful book that helped flesh out my research with anecdotes and information that even longtime fans will find irresistible.
We’ll Always Have Casablanca: The Life, Legend, and Afterlife of Hollywood’s Most Beloved Movie (2017) by Noah Isenberg is a rich account of this most beloved movie’s origins as an unproduced stage play, its production as America’s involvement in World War II was beginning, its release just weeks after Allied troops landed in Morocco, and its long afterlife as a touchstone for our better angels. Isenberg, a noted film historian, conducts extensive archival research coupled with interviews of filmmakers, film critics, family members of the cast and crew, and diehard fans. The result is a deep yet swiftly moving, comprehensive yet tender account of the movie that millions around the world continue to watch and love. Senator Elizabeth Warren might have phrased it best in a New Year’s message written in 2016: “Each time I watch it, Casablanca gives me hope.”
In seven chapters titled from famous lines in the movie, Isenberg reveals the myths and realities behind Casablanca’s production. Chapter 1—Everybody Comes to Rick’s—sets the stage with extensive background on the writers of a modest, unproduced, three act stage play written in 1940 by English teacher Murray Burnett and his long-time writing partner Joan Alison. The origins of the story came from Burnett’s 1938 trip to Europe, as a relatively innocent and unsophisticated traveler, who saw firsthand the transformation of the continent by the Nazis. That summer he experienced the Nuremberg Laws, learned of the so-called refugee trail from Marseilles to Morocco, smuggled contraband from Jewish relatives out of Austria, and visited a smoky nightclub on the outskirts of Nice where a black pianist, a “crooner” from Chicago, was working the crowd playing jazz standards.
“Taking in the scene, Burnett purportedly turned to his wife and said on the spot, ‘What a setting for a play!’ Thus was the idea for Casablanca born.”
In what began a string of fortuitous timings associated with the film, the script showed up on the desk of Warner Brothers executives just days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. By New Year’s Eve the script was beginning a long series of rewrites by a variety of screenwriters, and the studio sent around an internal memo announcing, “The story that we recently purchased entitled Everybody Comes to Rick’s will hereafter be known as Casablanca.”
Controversial casting decisions are also part of Isenberg’s story (in a chapter entitled Usual Suspects) where we learn that studio publicists issued a red herring of a publicity announcement that Ronald Reagan would star in Casablanca. (Perish the thought!) Bogart was the natural choice, although the female lead’s nationality and character would need to be changed before a twenty-seven year old Ingrid Bergman becomes Ilsa Lund. Bogart would later say that his status as a sex symbol went sky-high after the movie although he didn’t change all that much. “Bergman looked at him with an amorous gaze and, presto, he had sex appeal.”
Arthur “Dooley” Wilson memorably plays the black piano player and Rick Blaine’s confidant Sam in Casablanca. Wilson did his own singing but as he didn’t know how to play the piano that part was dubbed in by a staff musician. His fully-formed and sympathetic character, highly unusual during the Jim Crow era, was heralded as ground-breaking in the Black press of the day. One reviewer noted that “no picture has given as much sympathetic treatment and prominence to a Negro character as occurs in this story of war intrigue in North Africa.” A review in the New York Amsterdam News, one of the nation’s few black-owned newspapers, was titled “Wilson’s Role in Casablanca Tops for Hollywood” with a subhead that said it all: “Stars in Pic with Bogart: Warner Brothers Shows That It Can Be Done.”
Two of the more interesting storylines in the book relate to the battles with Production Code and war information censors and the central role refugees from Hitler’s Europe played in the movie’s creation.
The Production (or Hayes) Code was a 1930s creation to ensure that no picture was produced which would “lower the moral standards of those who watch it.” Sex—and especially adultery—was one of the Hayes Office’s “favorite whipping posts” which ensured that Rick and Ilsa romance in Paris had to be consummated only after Ilsa assures Rick that she believes that her husband, Victor Laszlo, is dead. Once Laszlo (played memorably by Austrian-born actor Paul Henreid) returns that same set of rules set the stage for the ending. The overseeing eye of the Office of War Information (OWI) added to the mix. While Rick may say early in the film that he “sticks his neck out for no one,” we find in the course of the story that he worked against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War and Ilsa reminds him of why he needs to leave Paris before the Nazi’s arrive. “Richard, they’ll find out your record. It won’t be safe for you here.”
Personally, I found the backstory about the extensive and complex role of refugees to be fascinating, especially when contrasting history with today’s challenges. If you think about it Casablanca may be a love story, but it is also at its heart a story about the travails of immigrants and the many dangers faced by refugees. Isenberg provides multiple storylines for those interested in that part of the subplot.
The casting is where one sees this most clearly.
“Nearly all of the seventy-five actors and actresses cast in Casablanca were immigrants. Among the fourteen who earned a screen credit, only three were born in the United States: Humphrey Bogart, Dooley Wilson, and Joy Page, Jack Warner’s stepdaughter, who plays the Bulgarian refugee Annina Brandel. At the studio, Stage S, where Rick’s Cafe was assembled, was known as International House.”
The American-born bit actor who played Abdul the doorman at Rick’s noticed:
“. . . streams of tears flowing from the eyes of his fellow actors—most prominently Madeleine Lebeau, who plays Rick’s on-again-off-again paramour Yvonne—during the singing of the Marseillaise. ‘I suddenly realized,’ he recalled many years later, ‘that they were all real refugees.”
In a good example of how popular culture’s depiction of history doesn’t always match what actually happened, Isenberg notes that while the story of refugees in centered in Casablanca, it was still glossed over in certain ways.
“. . .to tell the story on the Hollywood screen in 1942, these refugees would have to be stripped of any obvious ethnic or religious affiliations. They would simply have to be ‘refugees” congregating at Rick’s Cafe, all of them, in the shared predicament—not specific to any one group as the film has it—of waiting to secure a prized exit visa.”
“All these Jews are on screen and yet they cannot address it explicitly. It’s all over the screen, but not in the movie.”
That Jews were fleeing the Nazis and trying to leave Europe wasn’t a hidden secret at the time. Six million Jews were eventually killed in Hitler’s concentration camps. Yet the movies at the time could not, or would not, be that specific for fear of upsetting the Americans who flocked to theatres in that era. It is another part of our past that deserves deeper reflection.
Just like the movie, there is so much to love about this book. I’ve only touched the surface. But let me give the last word to scriptwriter Nora Ephron (When Harry Met Sally) who, months before her death, wrote a short Valentine piece for The Daily Beast in which she listed her all-time favorite love stories,
“. . . including Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night (1934) and Bill Wilder’s The Apartment (1960). Naturally Casablanca ranks high up on her list, but unlike the other wordier entries, her commentary on the film is limited to just two short, revealing lines: ‘How many times can you see it? Never enough.'”
That’s a historical perspective I can agree with.
More to come . . .
DJB
*The six quotes in the top 100 are:
No. 5: “Here’s looking at you, kid” spoken by Rick (Bogart) to Ilsa (Bergman)
No. 20: “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”
No. 28: “Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By,’” (often misquoted as “Play it again, Sam”
No. 32: “Round up the usual suspects”
No. 43: “We’ll always have Paris”
No. 67: “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine”
A summary of the April posts from the MORE TO COME newsletter.
When April’s warm weather turns suddenly cool—which seems to happen about every twelve hours—Candice will invariably say, “Well, we’re in Winter/Spring season.” She is kind enough not to add, “What do you expect?”
But she was thrilled to find a recent New York Times article where the writer Melissa Kirsch was using April-themed poems to make a similar and larger point. “April days contain multiple seasons. There’s a lesson in there if we want to take it, about holding multiple things at once.”
“Certainty is easier” [Kirsch continues]. “April, in much of the country, is liminal, vacillating between winter and spring, refusing to resolve cleanly. If you look closely, you can observe this tension: the tulips quivering in the gusting wind; people in shorts and people wearing mittens on the same block; stepping onto the porch to see a robin and instead seeing your own breath. The internal work is much the same. Sitting quietly, paying close attention to the weather inside, you can observe the hope that blows in with the fear, the lightness and heaviness that seem to be competing.”
This April, I found myself writing about living in these liminal times and spaces. The purple iris and the revolutionary nature of flowers is a meditation of sorts that fits this theme. In a not terribly enthusiastic review of a self-help book, I spend a good bit of the post quoting the poet Carrie Newcomer and the way she reflects on “living in that vibrating and shifting center point between all that was and all that’s to come.” This month you’ll find thoughts on creation, darkness, and the coming of spring.
In our conversation about his new novel—a post which was at the top of the list of reader views in April—Nathaniel Popkin notes:
“None of us are what we wish we were, nor what others wish we were, but we are what we are, as painful as that may be sometimes. In this particular novel, I do want to help the reader see complexity, to feel how hard it is to be certain about anything. To hold possibly oppositional truths and not necessarily to accept them but to acknowledge their simultaneous presence.”
Kirsch writes that her work in the Times to identify things that bring joy is not meant “to deny that there are difficult things in the world, or to avoid the inevitable contradictions that come from loving things: beautiful films about sad subjects, art that emerges from suffering.”
Life is hard because mystery is hard. Life is also joyful and full of wonder. Like all truth, life is a paradox. Joy, as Rebecca Solnit has observed, can be a fine initial act of insurrection. In a similar vein, doubt can be a doorway to truth.
April, that most liminal of months, brings hope and joy along with the doubt and fear.
Let’s jump in and take a look at the encounters, discoveries, and observations from the slow lane of life that I uncovered in April.
READER FAVORITES
Staff at Bold Fork Books in Mt. Pleasant during the DC Independent Bookstore Crawl
Three posts were at the top of the list of reader favorites in April.
When our refuge is shattered was the latest installment of the MTCAuthor Q&A series. Nathaniel Popkin talked with me about his upcoming novel Partly Strong, Partly Broken (due out on May 5th) and the story of a progressive rabbi trying desperately to hold her interfaith community together. This is a thoughtful and deeply compassionate examination of the age-old divisions poisoning America’s social contract in the 21st century, and our readers found Nathaniel’s conversation with me both moving and timely.
My plan to visit six bookshops on the last Saturday in April during the 2026 DC Independent Bookstore Crawl was another big hit with readers. A celebration of independent bookstores gave an update on my bucket-list quest to visit all 29 DC-area indies this year. I provided a short photo essay of our adventure in the follow-up post—A successful 2026 Independent Bookstore Crawl—which was also a reader favorite.
JOURNEYS THAT SHAPE A LIFE
Journeys are literal and figurative, temporal and spiritual. Interior journeys can take place without leaving home. In April, I wrote about different kinds of journeys that continue to shape my life.
Recently I have been thinking of past journeys in my life where I have moved physically as well as emotionally and intellectually. I’ve wanted to reflect on what I gained from seeing more of the world and what we have to lose as travel becomes more difficult in this time of self-inflicted geopolitical suicide. Journeys is a series of short takes on fifteen trips that changed my life: that first family vacation; the drive to meet our children for the first time; an unforgettable visit in Ukraine; a memorable excursion in Southeast Asia, and more.
Reading is one of the ways we take interior journeys. Although I was a late starter, I’ve made good progress in the Chapter One Bookstore 2026 reading challenge, as I report in Need to broaden your horizons? Try a reading challenge.
In this year of turmoil and unrest The job of God is already taken was my reminder to myself as well as to you, dear readers, to remember that no one has it all figured out. As we continue to look to the promise of what America is about and work to make it a land for everyone, this Saturday grab bag collected thoughts from writers and songs from musicians to help us move forward.
A BUSY MONTH FOR READING
April brought some time to read. So I took advantage of the opportunity . . . and to visit more independent bookshops in the DC region.
The forgotten life and mysterious death of baseball’s first phenom is a review of Thomas W. Gilbert’s Death in the Strike Zone. This 2026 book examines the life and mysterious death of baseball’s first hero, James Creighton, who invented modern pitching and then died a mysterious death at the age of 21. I found this book—and a host of other treasures—at Wonderland Books, a cozy yet bustling independent bookshop in the heart of Bethesda.
My history book group read a sympathetic yet balanced portrayal of one of the American Revolution’s defeated voices. The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson by Bernard Bailyn is being re-released on the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Considering revolution from a different viewpoint is my review of this National Book Award–winning masterpiece.
Living in the in-between times of life is my less-than-enthusiastic take on From Strength to Strength, a 2022 book by Arthur C. Brooks. The New Yorker had a scathing review of the most recent work by Brooks that included this assessment: “Like much popular social science, it makes no effort to prove or even to persuade. It simply asserts and instructs. Its tone as it does so is distinctly infantilizing.” Every now and then I read a book so you don’t have to, dear friends.
Hanging out with John Prine is my review of Tom Piazza’s Living in the Present with John Prine, an intimate portrait of one of the most beloved singers and songwriters of our times.
“Thank you so much for this, David. What a lovely write up of Death in the Strike Zone! (Gayle and I are huge baseball fans, as you clearly saw in our front window.)
Thanks for all the attention you bring to independent bookstores, which we both have loved since we were young. We feel very lucky to have the chance to own Wonderland—it’s been a dream.”
“I took Bailyn’s courses in colonial and revolutionary war history when an undergraduate. He was a wonderful teacher—you can imagine from his book how engaging his lectures (and both were big lecture classes) could be. He used to tell stories of the founding fathers’ foibles, with tears running down his cheeks from laughing at the absurdity of some of their actions (Franklin was a prime target, as I recall, though Thomas Jefferson got some as well). He was one of my favorite professors, although I was not an American history major. The ‘strangeness and pastness of the past’ was always top of his mind, and he brought that strangeness alive to his students. I’ve not read the book on Hutchinson, but was delighted to read your summary. Thanks for the trip down memory lane . . .”
DON’T POSTPONE JOY
Thanks, as always, for reading. Your friendship, support and feedback mean more than I can ever express.
As you travel life’s highways be open to love; thirst for wonder; undertake some mindful, transformative walking every day. Recognize the incredible privilege that most of us have and think about how to put that privilege to use for good. Women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, immigrants, public servants, and others can feel especially vulnerable . . . because they are. Work hard for justice and democracy as the fight never ends.
But also keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable. Take time to dawdle and dream. Let yourself be bewildered!
Leave enough empty space to feel and experience life. Those gaps are where the magic begins. When times get rough, let your memories wander back to some wonderful place with remembrances of family and friends. But don’t be too hard on yourself if a few of the facts slip. Just get the poetry right.
Be comfortable in the mystery. Seek the uplifting spirit that leads to a life of grace and wonder.
Grace to help us remember that we can do hard things. “Grace to never sell yourself short; Grace to risk something big for something good; and Grace to remember the world is now too dangerous for anything but the truth and too small for anything but love . . .”
Wonder to help us remember that “we are here to keep watch, not to keep.” Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. And bash into some joy along the way.
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My friend Margit recently passed along a reading challenge. Four months into the year and I’m halfway home!
Reading, it is said, broadens your horizons. But what if you find yourself stuck reading the same type of books year after year?
My friend and Brilliant Reader Margit recently loaned me a young adult novel from her native Hungary. Inside she had slipped a note and a piece of paper that had the look and feel of an old library card. Instead it was a Reading Challenge 2026 list from Chapter One Bookstore in Hamilton, MT, near where she visits a family home.
As Margit suspected, I immediately thought 1) I really want to do this and 2) I need to share it with others. The internet is full of these types of annual lists, designed to get you out of a reading rut. But I thought the Chapter One version had some great categories. Plus a friend and Brilliant Reader suggested it (adding my name to the back of the card), so this was a no brainer!
Let’s kick it off here.
I’ve listed the ten challenge items in their original order. When I’ve read a book that fits, I’ve linked to my review on MTC. Every so often I’ll return and catch up, with the goal of reaching all ten by December 31st.
Won’t you join me? Feel free to update your results in the comments.
CHAPTER ONE READING CHALLENGE 2026
Challenge books read and reviewed as of April 2026:
Having completed six out of ten challenges without even knowing I was in the game, I have four left (although I think I should probably find a second, better example for #3 than the one I’ve included).
Numbers 1 and 5 will be easy. I suspect I have both in hand.
Numbers 3 (a second choice) and 4 will take some thought.
And then there’s Number 8. A little internet research shows I have lots of options for books published in 1955:
A Good Man is Hard to Findand Other Stories by Flannery O’Connor. This is sitting downstairs in my bookcase.
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. Hmmm . . . not sure MORE TO COME is ready for that review, even though I probably should read the book at some point.
The Quiet American by Graham Greene, which is actually an early favorite in this list. I’ve never read it but respect the views of friends who have recommended it.
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith.
Hickory Dickory Dock (Hercule Poirot, #34) by Agatha Christie, which would provide me with another dip into the detective fiction pool.
Beezus and Ramona (Ramona, #1) by Beverly Cleary which very well may be in Candice’s bookcase.
After I drafted this post Candice said she wanted to go to Politics & Prose to get a book for our upcoming trip. I’m incapable of going into a bookshop with such a rich selection of offerings and not buying something . . . so I picked up The Quiet American and then Candice came out of the children’s section with Beezus and Ramona (which we had discussed in the car on the drive over). Now I have two books to meet #8 in the challenge and, as a bonus, I have books to highlight alongside P&P for my 2026 quest to visit all the DC-area independent bookstores.
MORE TO COME... 