What better way to explore the power of the shadow—its consequences of inflation—than in The Godfather (1972), a film consistently ranked among the greatest ever made. Given its exalted place in the canon of cultural literacy, I would be surprised to learn of someone who hasn’t seen it, but, nevertheless there are, of course, spoilers in this essay if you haven’t. The Godfather doesn’t simply entertain—it mythologizes.

The death of Bill Moyers is not only the passing of a journalist or public intellectual. It is the loss of a distinctive American voice that, for decades, has asked us to think more deeply, remember our humanity, and explore with wonder the mysteries of life. The New York Times obituary, quoting Peter J. Boyer, the journalist and author, called Moyers “a rare and powerful voice, a kind of secular evangelist.”

Love is the inducement to individuation, to becoming who one is