The Education of an Idealist

draft resolution ratcheting up

suit up for battle

“Nothing in life is as important as you think it is when you are thinking about it.”

nook and cranny of the day

run-of-the-mill

caught off guard

encapsulated in Mark Twain’s line: “A cat who sits on a hot stove will never sit on a hot stove again. But he won’t sit on a cold stove either

bore traces of a lilt

resembling the passion

in the span of less than a year, I had gone from hardly thinking about serving others to constantly thinking about what I could do to be “useful”—the quality Mort, Fred, and my mother valued most