Owing.

The Reverend Dr. Cornel West, interviewed on The Skeptic's Guide to Enlightenment ...

My beloved mother had a favorite a moment in the biblical text that’s Thessalonian, the fifth chapter, where Paul talks about being thankful in all circumstances. You say, how could that be? That makes absolutely no sense. Thankful, gratitude, piety, and acknowledgement of the blessings owing to the sources for good in your life in terms of the kind of father and mother that you had, over which you had no control, or the kind of grandparents you had, or the kind of friends you encounter, or the kind of text that you read, the kind of music that you listen to.

We’re grateful for Beethoven. Grateful for Aretha Franklin. Why? Because they’re sources of good in our lives. We’re thankful for Schiller, we’re thankful for Paul Salaam and his torturous poetic wrestling with catastrophe. We’re thankful to Mark Twain and Herman Melville and Tony Morrison and Chekhov. Of course, Chekhov is my favorite, so I won’t go anywhere beyond that. That’s about as deep as you can get.

But you’re thankful that they laid bare in their lives and in their works and with their words the source of joy. That’s a love and a joy that go hand in hand. Yes, with the sense of joy and gratitude and thankfulness.

Kurt has Buckley on the same.