A glimpse of the world at the beginning of 2012: The cruise ship Costa Concordia strikes a rock at night and soon begins to settle on her side off the coast of Italy, sending thousands scrambling for their lives. To see the stricken ship is to be reminded of an event from nearly 100 years ago that still haunts our imaginations. Another haunting sight: A mother standing on a sidewalk in New York City at the funeral of her three daughters, killed in a house fire on Christmas day. In the middle of America, one of the world’s richest men stands alone in a railroad yard, an iconoclast calling for the rich to pay more taxes. An athlete known for his abundant Christian faith gazes upward, looking, perhaps, for a miracle. A pair of identical twins dares us to look for their individuality. And a Hollywood starlet shows the right amount of wrong, bringing a note of needed style to a cold month.
David Schonauer
