Words, Don't Come Easy*

I have recently and thoroughly fallen in love with the words of Tony Judt. It started with the essays about his ALS in the New York Review of Books and proceeded to Postwar and now Reappraisals, which sings that old song - my favorite one - about our loss of historical consciousness and shared history. Plus, he's a silver tongued messenger, as he himself freely admits. This last essay in the NYRB is lovely and good food for thought: not only what it means to live in conversation, but who gets to speak? How do people become vocal and eloquent? (What lets them know that this is good, OK, etc.?) I'm into everything he says, except the last line. Words, thankfully, are not all we have. We also have actions.

*Best tag line ever, from FR David