beautiful, heartfelt essay from my dearest friend Isabelle.
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Isabelle Bartter: I’ve had a complex relationship with organized religion throughout my life. Mostly it’s been traumatic. But there are these little vignettes?—?of passion, of pure joy, of stunned awe?—?that punctuate this narrative. Like standing in front of Notre-Dame de Paris and considering my absolute smallness. Or listening to my mother, a woman who has toiled in poverty almost every day of my life, magically plucking guitar strings during a choir practice. Or sitting alone in the balcony of the cathedral where I was christened, 23 years later, watching dust dance freely on the beams of light. Sometimes, I feel so close to God that I could almost reach out and touch Their face. But not usually. I have always been a proud, cold scientist. And most importantly, usually, an atheist. More here.