“Notions of the Sacred”
by Aysegul Savas
from the January 2 & 9, 2023 issue of The New Yorker

I still really want to get to know Savas’s work better. What I’ve read has been excellent, but I have not read any of her books. Can I rectify that in 2023? I think it should be a goal of mine to finally read both Walking on the Ceiling and White on White. For now we get a new story, and I like how it starts by making me wonder just what we are talking about.

I once heard a woman say that immediately upon finding out, she’d felt the dawning of a strange inner power. It seemed as though she could undertake any task, could live through any hardship. This was a strength not of muscles, the woman said, but of light. In this new form of herself, she felt more alive than she ever had before. 

We learn in the very next paragraph what is going on, but it’s still quite mysterious, especially for a man, like me, who won’t experience this kind of inner power.

Please leave your thoughts below!

I hope you’re all having a lovely week as we close out 2022. I look forward to seeing you in 2023!

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