Kelsea Peterson

“In the beginning was the Word.” Where I’m from, Texas, most kids recognize this opening line of the Gospel of John by the time they’re five: God’s verbal transmutation of chaos into order. Oppositions like that of chaos and order lie at the center of the Judeo-Christian tradition: truth and falsehood, purity and impurity. In this worldview, morality is objective, and God makes the rules. However, 20th-century postmodernists would’ve begged to disagree.

My friend had a dilemma in the buildup to the 2020 election. She was voting for Joe Biden, but one of her good friends was considering voting for Donald Trump. Her friend’s family owned a small business and believed that Trump would be better for the economy. My friend was pissed—how could anyone vote for someone so demented? I wasn’t as shocked or devastated.

He was white, alabaster even; he wore glasses, spoke well, and always seemed to be clad in a button-down, his brown hair gelled to the side. For about a semester of my Columbia undergraduate experience, we were in the same club, and I interacted with him on a weekly basis. He had a fascination with history. He spoke of the virtues of cross-party dialogue, of America.