Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, hath shined the light of knowledge upon the world; for thereby they that worshipped the stars were instructed by a star to worship Thee, the Sun of Righteousness, and to know Thee, the Dayspring from on high. O Lord, glory be to Thee. So we pray this holy tide of Christmas, just beginning. God is born. Think of this: God became a human being. There is nothing like this in any religion prior to... Read more
Having begun in worship at the start of the day our family will renew old traditions. Some are unique to us, Hope makes cinnamon rolls at every holiday. Some are in common with much of our nation, the glorious tree. A few are very ancient: the story from the Gospel of Luke. This day is sacred and all we do will be sacred: even the rum punch. What? The jolly music about weather being frightful, in Houston it will be delightful,... Read more
Tonight I will stand before the Mystery and see the True Light. That experience is real like most of the great goods in my life, ineffable. If my words fail, tomorrow will come, the day of the Christ Mass, and on that day I will live in the light of the experience. The darkness will retreat and I will turn, God willing, toward the eternal. If the experience cannot be doubted, my experience is my experience, there exists the chance... Read more
Dickens wrote a series of Christmas stories. We know A Christmas Carol best, but in his lifetime A Cricket on the Hearth was mot popular. Almost unknown is The Haunted Man and the story is weaker, but even sub-par Dickens still has something to say. The story is last, I think, because it contains a lesson Dickens would not learn: our pain, the bad breaks in life, should not be forgotten. We must do right, do our duty, and show mercy to those around us.... Read more
Dickens’ last Christmas story, The Haunted Man, is inferior to A Christmas Carol and the story most popular with his contemporaries, Cricket on the Hearth. The Haunted Man is Dickens’ last full word on Christmas, a holiday with which he associated himself, becoming part of the decorations of the season. It is a bit sad, a Christ haunted Dickens who will gone on to write some of his greatest work, but in his life ignore advice in his little Christmas novellas that might have made his... Read more
Heretics in the Right Colors Father Michael smiled as I told him the news. His smile, more tight lipped than usual, suggested I was about to hear something important. He was both educated and civilized, a combination more rare than one would hope and there was little he had not seen. Father had gone from California to Oxford to do a doctorate on Romany folk customs and he collected art in Peru. This man pastored a diverse congregation and was... Read more
(In reviewing and discussing this film, I will try to avoid large spoilers to IX. However, discussing philosophy may imply certain general outcomes in IX and I will confirm facts obvious from the trailers. There certainly will be spoilers to films VII, VIII.) Star Wars IX is a good time at the theater. If you want Star Wars to be space opera, names like Skywalker and Chewbecca don’t lend themselves to seriousness, then this is perfect. If sequels had to be made,... Read more
Ten Things You Must Avoid in Picking a College College as I knew it is dying. Schools all over the country face threats of declining enrollments, government intrusion, and loss of vision. College as it should be is thriving and will remain a critical part of the passage from childhood to adulthood for many Americans. This can be confusing for parents who have children getting ready for school. I have such a child and I have the same questions: Does... Read more
My brother Daniel and I sometimes would ask for toys specifically for building our spaceship (all pre-Star Wars) in the basement. The subterranean level of a house is an odd choice for a space craft, but we could do whatever we wished in the basement (flamethrowers! inventing rubber!) and did not have access to the attic. An old vacuum cleaner, metal with a tube shape, makes an excellent engine. We had no real computers then (that was a legendary Christmas yet... Read more
What is education? Education has no rules, because it is personal. There is a Person to love who is wise, virtuous, joyful. There is a Word that undergirds the cosmos: Mind that makes my feeble mind possible. I tire, the Word does not tire. I will die, the Word lives and so there is hope for life beyond death. I hate, fail, become confused, but the Word is love, power, and clarity. This is good. Education begins in wonder, powered by... Read more
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