[But then, what is scandal?

Scandals are crucial distractions.  They are like gargoyles on the facade of a church.  They repulse yet mark an entrance.  To focus on them is to remain on the outside.  To seek them out is to find an entrance.

The scandal itself serves as a barrier to seeing below the surface.  Yet, scandals are located at places where one should be looking.

How do we look below the surface?  How do we enter the door denoted by scandal?

Read the text with an attitude of forgiveness.   You will find insights in the text that were unknown (at least consciously) to the author.  These ideas linger below the surface.  They might have been embraced, if the author could have seen past the gargoyles.

This brings me to an interlude.

For the next few weeks, this blog will consider Jeremy Alberg’s book Beneath the Veil of Strange Verses (2013).

This book is all about scandal.]