Love & Mercy

A lawyer asked Jesus who counted as his neighbor, hoping for a boundary he could work with. What he got was a story about a man bleeding in a ditch, two religious professionals who crossed to the other side of the road, and a Samaritan — an outsider, the wrong kind of person entirely — who stopped and paid for a stranger's recovery out of his own pocket.

The question came back changed. Not who deserves my compassion, but who am I being a neighbor to. That reversal is what this collection is about. Mercy here is not a feeling but a thing you do, usually at cost, usually for someone you had every excuse to walk past.

It is worth remembering how the story landed on its first audience. The hero was a man they had been taught to avoid, and the ones who failed the test were the respectable ones. The designs in this collection keep that edge rather than smoothing it into a nice sentiment about being kind.