Saint Nicholas took on the arch-heretic Arius and Christmas won. That’s the backstory of an odd college custom I will observe tomorrow. Many colleges have strange customs. Time passes, as it is want to do, and what was normal in one age, becomes eccentric in another. Donors can demand odd customs as can founders. The College at The Saint Constantine School has one such odd custom that goes back to the first year of existence: the destruction of a donkey piñata at... Read more
“I built that house.” The yellow cottage sat in some bottom land between the hills, valuable land for building and farming. He had been a very young man and had just married the foster-daughter of the owner of that land. “What happened Papaw?” He told me the story and it was sad. The story is not mine to tell, but was his: Papaw Earl. Papaw Earl went for a walk with me and talked to me. Both my Papaws were... Read more
Sleep, hard to achieve the older I get, is a great blessing. When I cannot sleep, then Wordsworth comes to mind: O gentle Sleep! do they belong to thee, These twinklings of oblivion? Thou dost love To sit in meekness, like the brooding Dove, A Captive never wishing to be free. This tiresome night, O Sleep! thou art to me A Fly, that up and down himself doth shove Upon a fretful rivulet, now above, Now on the water vexed... Read more
“What do you people think,” the customer put an emphasis on “think” in a way that suggested that the attendant was not capable of thought, “you are doing? This is ridiculous.” The line was long, the airline employee was doing his best, but we were, all of us, if we were not careful, cranky. Thanksgiving weekend flying is hectic for airline passengers. We should be thankful for relatively inexpensive flights, safe flying, and hard working flight crews, but if things go wrong,... Read more
Some things look solid, but are full of air: think paper mache stuff. President Woodrow Wilson is still ranked by “presidential historians” as a top-ten or near top ten President. This is all you need to know to dismiss “presidential historians” and such surveys. Woodrow Wilson was an unbending autocrat, secure in his own righteousness, mentally limited while lauded for intellect, fond of servile and fawning servants, while casting “friends” aside like tissue paper when he decided to do so.... Read more
Why can I adore Arthur, but root for Belvedere? As a child I wanted Arthur to be best at everything and was frustrated when he (obviously) was not the greatest knight in his kingdom. He certainly could not defeat Lancelot or any number of other knights of the Round Table. One day it dawned on me: Arthur was the King, not a mere knight. He fought well, but at his best was not a man of action, but a living icon of... Read more
The person I knew most consumed with money and material things was an ideologue who could enjoy nothing, because they were continuously upset about money and material things. They would rant at even a whiff of gift giving, because all they could see was evil. Evidently they believed it was more blessed not to give and not to receive. They should have let Jesus know. Christmas is a great excuse to give gifts and one hopes everyone will give as much as possible:... Read more
She came, she was martyred, she conquered. Elizabeth was martyred, because atheists could not stand charity. They wished goodness to be done automatically, by social contract, and not out of such unscientific terms as “love” or “charity.” They banned nuns and so Elizabeth Romanov who worked in solidarity with the poor had to die when the atheists took charge. Why? She had been born to privilege, had seen her beloved husband murdered by revolutionaries, and then spent her remaining years serving... Read more
God is perfectly good, true, beautiful. I pause at that truth and shiver. What Plato glimpsed dimly, Jesus revealed perfectly. Oh! God! Every so often a crabbed soul asks why God wishes us to be thankful. Is God selfish? Is God narcissistic? Stop. Think. God is perfectly good, true, and beautiful, To even conceive that this might be true, sends shivers through me. God. How could I now be thankful? I know I cannot handle a full view, a complete understanding ever, of... Read more
“History” is not one story, but the stories of every human being who has ever lived. For a Christian, all people are created in the image of God, so all the stories count. Every person will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and get justice: on themselves, but also against their oppressors. Reality, acknowledged by Christian theology, shows people as capable of great good and great evil. No nation or political order is all good. None are all bad, though some... Read more
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