The parable of the workers in the vineyard was the Gospel reading in church yesterday. The idea is that those who come to salvation late in life get the same reward as those who come to faith early in life and bear “the heat of the day.” In my twenties and thirties I scoffed at…

Before the concert I began talking to a trio who sat at my table. The older man looked familiar; I asked him was he a fiddler? Neither of us recognized the other; it had been more than 13 years, and he had grown a beard. We talked of dissertations and Program 60. Finally I asked…