David Brooks: A stupidity of the heart

On Dec. 26, 2004, French author Emmanuel Carrère, his girlfriend and their respective sons were vacationing at a cliff-top hotel in Sri Lanka. Their relationship was dying, and, feeling out of sorts, they decided not to go down to the beachfront scuba diving lesson they’d signed up for. It was a consequential decision, for that was the morning the tsunami hit.A family they knew was staying on the beach. That morning the grandfather, Philippe, was reading the paper while his 4-year-o