Words to Live By

Regarding Joy Horowitz’s “A Room With a View” (Nov. 22): I have taped above my desk the words that the author found copied by her father from Gustave Flaubert, along with her own conclusion:

“The futility of words in the face of feeling; the longing for more. This is what my father the psychologist understood best. Still, we keep trying, because even as words fail us, the greater failure is in abandoning our hearts.” Both should be made available in the Oxford Book of Quotations.

I have more hope today because of this story and these two citations.

Paul F. Ford, professor of theology and liturgy

St. John’s Seminary

Camarillo