A Monk’s Habit: Thomas Merton’s Other Affair
What are we to make of Thomas Merton’s affair? The nurse? No, not the affair with “M,” but his affair with “A”—alcohol. Merton was restless and fearful the summer evening in 1966 when he wrote, “Where will I be when the dark falls and the dragons come and there is no more beer?” The careful reader of the nearly 3,000 pages of his journals covering three decades will find Merton often…