For the winter 2026 issue Liberties Journal: I wrote on tactility and the spirituality of objects. Things you can touch or hold, even if it’s just in your mind. Your mind is free. This one is really important to me. I’ve been working it over in my head for years, not necessarily as an essay, but just as a concept and a way of life. How I try to live. It has felt increasingly urgent because so much is inescapably ugly and “monetized”. My thanks to editor Celeste Marcus for being open to very personal pieces like this (and for the lovely illustration). It’s about my dad and his books and Seamus Heaney and Clonmacnoise. It’s about touching objects and Worst Person in the World (for which I wrote the Criterion Collection booklet essay). It’s about how they – there’s always a they – want to take away the very concept of ownership. Make our lives worthless and ugly. Keeping them out of your mind and reminding yourself of the things they can’t take, they can’t own (and they HATE that) is an urgent issue, necessary for what we must face. Like I said, I’ve been thinking about this a lot. My essay “The Tactile Spiritual” is in print and online too if you are a subscriber.
The Table of Contents for this issue. Good company.
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