April 19, 2017

It’s hard to convince students that their deeply held convictions are faith positions rather than rational ones. They believe they have reached a final truth–a humanistic secularism that reverses rather than redresses older power structures–and that deviation or criticism is a kind of depravity. How this is different from radical religious bigotry I can’t tell, except God is out of it. I am not too agitated, as in general I hold the same beliefs as my students–held them before they did– but I want to be able to keep perspective, and find some way to shade a little perspective into their sometimes beautiful, sometimes horrific, certainty.

Returned to HART for the first rehearsal of The Great Gatsby. It’s good being back on the stage, though I heard myself sighing with relief that my part is small and the play is short. So much for ambition. The traffic between here and there almost makes me repent and regret.