Writer William Faulkner works at his typewriter in this Aug. 12, 1954 file photo.
In his Nobel Prize in Literature acceptance speech in 1950, William Faulkner spoke of the "old verities and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed." I've always believed that the same rule is true for individuals and, by extension, nations, which are of course, collections of individuals of common purpose and custom.
Faulkner spoke of the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself. It seems to me that our nation is like that; its heart in conflict with itself; we, the people in conflict with each other.
"Love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice."
Without the ascendency of the "old verities and truths," the American story may indeed, be ephemeral and doomed.