Purpose

These are the moments when a new passion is silently conceived and we are forever after entranced, says columnist David Brooks. And they can happen at any time.

Andrew Solomon regularly writes -- beautifully -- of people coping in unthinkable conditions: a woman who learns to love the daughter she bore after being raped; the father who tries to come to terms with his murderous son. Figuring out a way to cope with purposeless tragedy poses a real challenge for meaning-making humans. Thu Ha digs in.