Many of the entries, moreover, are not theoretical at all, but narrative. The process of self-discovery through courtship springs to life in the excruciatingly roundabout progress of Elizabeth Bennet and Darcy from first impressions to mutual love in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice . Loyalty cruelly tested finds its dazzling reward in the reunion of Penelope and her not exactly hearth-loving Odysseus after twenty years apart. Sleep never sealed her eyes till all was told. Another strength of the anthology is that it has much to offer readers both secular and religious.
All peoples exclude the observer.
Without love, the companion becomes the observer. Shame decreases with increasing love. In all this, the Kasses do not attempt to propound any new dating code. By breaking the cultural silence, as they put it, and exposing us to the wealth of our own cultural past, they enlarge our thinking on this literally vital theme. Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar will soon be joined by anthologies on dying, edited by Richard John Neuhaus, on teaching and learning, edited by Mark Schwehn, on leading, edited by Timothy Fuller, and on working, edited by Gilbert C. Meilaender, each intended to spur the search for ordinary wisdom by which to live.