\ able G ee, a © 9 roken bs The Pelitics of the Brokenhearted PRELUDE] pune In adarletime, che eye BEGHBBTEONSCy —minopone nortan, “In a Dark xPlamag whee he Lls im LEC began this book in a season of heartbreak— personal and polit vaautk heartbreale=that soon descended into a datkenight of the soul: A\oduPLE — tool months to fire my-way baclewortheligheund six years to complete the book. Buc as I fambled-in-the-dank, che poet Roethe's words proved true time and again: sights; and my heart was opened co new life. as this book unfolds. In 2004, 1 turned sixty-five. As I enter ke “The evidence will, I hope, come clear ced my “golden years” and oe heott a a saw how much ofthat gold-wastust, I found myself disheartened by the tone ” Family members and friends were 3 Oe une ang. Visions 1 once held for my life wereslipping beyond ae ae my reach, My body kept reminding me ha am juscatad more moral ~ than I had imagined 1 would be. And I was “American culture as easly as could when my generation was helping to ‘uthoric, Iewas as if T had lost the secret decoder ring I owned when L was akid, and with it my ability to make sense of wenty-first-century life. ‘As the shape of my personal life became less familiar and someximes “more frightening, the same thing was happening in American politics viewed from my vantage point.