The Carpenter's Daughter at the Lecture Hall

In 2014, Yale University hosted a panel on suffering and meaning. Three philosophers debated theodicy with precision — quoting Leibniz, referencing modal logic, parsing the problem of evil into tidy categories. The audience nodded along, impressed but unmoved. During the Q&A, a woman stood near the back. Maria Gonzalez, a carpenter's daughter from New Haven, had slipped in because the doors were open.…