“Do not think it wasted time to submit yourself to any influence that may bring upon you any noble feeling.” John Ruskin 1. Gilead At around this time last year, I was reading Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, a novel I wasn’t ready for in my twenties, but which, turns out, suited me perfectly well in my thirties, six weeks pregnant, fighting morning sickness, settling into a new town. On one particularly balmy day in December, I remember watching my husband and son running through the park, cheeks flushed, sunlight casting hard shadows, and thinking of Rev. Ames’s line, “Wherever you turn your eyes, the world can shine like transfiguration. You don’t…