1. Visual Education's Classical Greek Vocabulary cards / 2. 0.3 fl oz. Home Fragrance Oils by The Body Shop (in Tobacco Flower, Vanilla & Tonka Bean, Satsuma, and Exotic) / 3. RJ's All-Natural Raspberry Licorice Log / 4. Box of matches from a recent trip to The Hawthorne Bar / 5. Pink Heart pin from Black Ink's Harvard Square location / 6. White Rabbit candies (in plain and banana) / 7. 20 fl. oz. Starbucks travel tumbler / 8. Gene Dattel's Cotton and the Making of America (here's a link to my 2012 post on his Massachusetts Historical Society lecture) / 9. Wagamama Take Out menu / 10. Espresso maker from Ikea / 11. Martha Stewart cork screw and bottle opener / 12. 36 GB flash drive (for all my top secret blogger info) / 13. Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf (translated by Ralph Manheim)

W. B. Yeats once said that it takes more courage to examine the dark corners of our own souls than it does for a soldier to fight on the battlefield.

The same holds true for societies.

If there is hope, it lies in the willingness to become familiar with the underside of History, in the unflinching bravery to learn from times we allowed evil to go unchecked, and in humanity's inextinguishable desire to bend toward Justice.

14. Harney & Sons Earl Grey Imperial tea / 15. La Vie de La Vosgienne Strawberry Drops / 16. Morelli linguine pasta with black squid ink from Cardullo's in Harvard Square / 17. Anthropologie's 1.6 fl. oz. Eau de toilette Vanille / 18. Keys with red dala horse keychain (from The Sweden Shop in Chicago, IL) / 19. Chronicle Books' Paper Chess set