ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
On Friday I defended my dissertation, and when my advisor welcomed me back into the room after a period of deliberation amongst my committee members, she gave me a hug and a congratulations, doctor.
“This is crazy,” I think I said through some teary eyes.
“I know it is,” I think she replied.
These are my acknowledgments found in the front of the 290-page document we talked about on March 6, 2026, an afternoon five years in the making.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing is a solitary task that ironically relies on the help of countless individuals. There are many people who I need to thank for their support and care.
Thanks goes first to my dissertation chair Pearl James, who has been a mentor and intellectual example to me for many years. From that first class I knew we would get along. This project would be more sprawling, vague, and cluttered than it already is without your wisdom and feedback. Thanks also to my committee members, Drs. Michelle Sizemore, Michael Trask, and David Bradshaw—incredible teachers and thinkers who I aspire to be like.
Special thanks to my parents, who cultivated my lifelong love of learning. They have been my biggest fans during this slow writing process. (See, it really does take five years.)
Thanks to the many friends in both my MA and PhD cohorts who I have essentially grown up with. There’s too many names and memories to recount, but I want to show special appreciation to Carter and Joe—fellow founders of the “Lexington School.” Their fingerprints are on every page of this project.
Several others need thanked here for their friendship, encouragement, or inspiration: Tim and Katie, Cassie, Mark and Katie, Taylor, Kayla, and my cats Pip and Luna (despite being fluffy distractions).
I also owe thanks to the coffee shops of Lexington who hosted me almost daily—and the many baristas who have become friends.
Many authors have fortified my spirit over the years and given me the strength to press on: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Gabriel Marcel, Dorothy Day, Henry Bugbee, Thomas Merton, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Stanley Cavell special among them.
I also thank God for his providence. Without his grace this would be impossible. And I don’t think it’s cliché if you really mean it.
But the biggest thanks of all goes to my best friend and wife, Bebe, who encouraged me to start this journey so long ago and has worked selflessly all the while. I love you more than books.
