What, to you, epitomizes the idea of grace?

Interesting question. I haven't really thought about it much, but I guess the first thing that comes to my mind is that grace is doing something beautiful in the midst of an ugly world --and doing it diligently even if it seems like an impossibly small gesture. I think of that famous photograph of a man standing in front of an army tank during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. I think of this girl I know who stoops to pick up litter as she's walking through my neighborhood, and of Rachel Carson's writing. I think of the woman who sifts through dumpsters near my house just to pull off pop-tabs from soda cans to donate to the Ronald McDonald house. I think of that Loren Eisley story about the man throwing starfish into the sea.