The last dance with my daughter, before she was married, was good. I resist some good things. I am glad for the end of childhood and the wonderful love I see between my daughter and her husband. I am most happy to be, by marriage, a potential member of his folks. Hope and I are hoping they will accept us over time! Nothing could be undone now without sin. No man could condemn marriage without arguing with God. What God... Read more
There is something good about school that we must never lose. Take one week in fifth grade, Cobbles Elementary, see what a spread of mental delights these public school teachers provided and realize this glorious intellectual feast lasted for years.* We got a “mystery kit” to work on identifying a mysterious element. We got the first glimpse at one type of scientific method. Off we went to art, where we got make sketches and use simply huge pieces of paper.... Read more
Why care about Socrates? Why care about any person who lived a long time ago? Haven’t times changed? Why linger over any wisdom the old Athenian might have had centuries before Jesus was born? As one commentator said of me: “You are really obsessed about the past and Socrates” This is quite true. I think Socrates life and death matter and still teach us. Why? First, Socrates created a method of learning, the dialectic, that can play a central part... Read more
Purity is beautiful. As the ancients understood purity, a way of living tested over thousands of years, in hundreds of circumstances, purity helped. All God’s children should live in purity culture: joyful, wise, virtuous. After all God is good, full of truth, and beautiful. If we love God, we will love His attributes! A sensible soul seeking God will separate from evil, falsity, and ugliness. We will purify our hearts, so as to see beauty in everything from stars to... Read more
As a little boy, the older folks would sit and pass down to us the oral tradition. They gave us stories, the reasons we were the people we are. The stories were true, though often the details were pared down to the essence. Some facts might be forgotten or jumbled, but the tales were true to the experience of the folks. They told us where we had come from, where we were, and where we might be going. Why had... Read more
We have a box of “My Little Pony” toys that wait for guests. Two of the toys that are there inspired a song “The Pony and Elephant” (to the tune of the Holly and the Ivy) that we sang to the kids. The kids are now adults and not just grownup, but most excellent adults. They are sparkling company and interesting thinkers. They are loving and if they were actually children again we would miss the adults they have become. The... Read more
One hundred and twenty years ago this week, Galveston was wiped clean by the ocean. Atlantis was made real as a great city was broken so badly she never recovered her former glory. As many as ten thousand people were swept away in a hurricane. One acquaintance, over 101 this year, recalls his father and grandfather talking of those times. Before the floods, the secular power was in Galveston, Houston was nothing, but the ocean sea broke Galveston. The boosters and... Read more
Tomorrow a daughter will marry. She chose wisely, reflecting a young life spent reading good books, attending the liturgy, and working hard. She matured, in the words of Jane Eyre ” into an independent woman.” This is just what a parent hopes happens when God grants you first the duty of raising a child and later the blessing of seeing them go. As a parent, you wane, while the child waxes into an adult. There is joy in seeing the extended... Read more
I am sometimes asked how to prepare a class, or take notes in reading. For me asking questions of the text is a start and this happens over time. What does this look like? Here are notes drawn from a Republic teaching session. Because they were started a long time ago and continued over time, I cannot be sure all of the questions are mine. A good class requires a set of questions and as his collection grows and I become... Read more
Today I was riding home and was pleased when the car pulled up and the side of the car showed the driver had his own business going, had published his own book, and was full of fight. Houston business was crushed by oil prices and the pandemic response, but this man, and he is an enviable man, refused to be defeated. He admitted his income had taken a hit (so say we all!), but he had a plan and part... Read more
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