From George Eliot, “Middlemarch”

May 23, 2013 By

This was not the first time that Mr. Bulstrode had begun by admonishing Mr. Vincy, and had ended by seeing a very unsatisfactory reflection of himself in the coarse unflattering mirror which that manufacturer’s mind presented to the subtler lights and shadows of his fellow-men; and perhaps his experience ought to have warned him how [...]

Filed Under: Art, self-obsessed Tagged With: , ,

Interview with a Sports Psychologist

May 19, 2013 By

Posting it here in case other people also find it fascinating! I’m going to try to use some of this to deal with my own self-defeating or anxious tendencies.

Filed Under: self-obsessed Tagged With: , ,

And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly…

May 1, 2013 By

In the continuing saga of my criticism of critical thinking…. An astute reader pointed out that some people give their hearts and trust too easily. That’s definitely true, and in fact I suspect one reason I’m so quick to wave the pom-poms for trust and the leap of faith is precisely that I’m a trust-and-leap [...]

Filed Under: self-obsessed Tagged With: , , ,

“Believe” is a transitive verb, and other good points against me

April 29, 2013 By

Christian H at The Thinking Grounds makes an attempt to figure out why on earth I’m against critical thinking and what I even mean by saying that. We’re pretty clearly talking past each other to some extent, but he does give me an excuse to extend, qualify, and generally shake the kaleidoscope of my AmCon [...]

Filed Under: Mackerel-Snapping, self-obsessed Tagged With: , , , ,

Gay Catholic Whatnot: Come see me speak in New York City tomorrow!

April 9, 2013 By

On a large panel discussion called “Being Gay, Having Faith: Dialogues on Gay Sexuality and the Church.” It starts at 7 pm Wednesday, April 10 (TOMORROW) at the Parish Center at 405 West 59th Street. Hope to see many of you there!

Filed Under: Gay Catholic Whatnot, self-obsessed

Addictions and Corrections to the Minutes

April 5, 2013 By

See what I did there? Anyway, I have a whole lot of random notes or clarifications about that earlier post and no real organizing principle for them, so I will just throw them out here in a list. * I think I expressed myself poorly earlier, since some people seem to have read the initial [...]

Filed Under: self-obsessed, Too much is never enough Tagged With: , , , , ,

The Twelve Steps and/as/vs. Religion

April 2, 2013 By

There is no way I will regret writing this post! Anyway, Helen Rittelmeyer has a provocative piece called “The Language of Addiction Takes Over,” which makes a bunch of great points despite an underlying framework I think may be wrong. Some of the great points: “The religious novel is in eclipse, but the recovery memoir [...]

Filed Under: Mackerel-Snapping, self-obsessed, Too much is never enough Tagged With: , , , , , ,

What I Learned from Being a Christmas-and-Easter Jew

April 2, 2013 By

‘Tis the season. I went to my first Easter morning Mass ever this year, and holy cats, was it packed! Yikes. Just wall-to-wall Catholics in all phases of forward- and backsliding. It got me thinking about what I learned from being intermittently Jewish as a kid–taken to High Holy Days services a few times, once? [...]

Filed Under: Mackerel-Snapping, self-obsessed Tagged With: , , , , , ,

“‘I Think My Liver Hurts’: Re-reading Dostoyevsky Sober”

February 4, 2013 By

Me at AmCon.

Filed Under: Art, self-obsessed, Too much is never enough Tagged With: , , , ,

“It was shining and so beautiful.”

January 8, 2013 By

GIANT SQUID. Via pretty much everyone I know.

Filed Under: self-obsessed Tagged With: