She is Best. A daughter turns twenty-two. When she was small, for reasons having to do with musical theater, great books, and other mysterious influences, she gained the monicker “Is Best.” Happy is the child whose parents see her and immediately sing: “she is best.” At least we hope so. Initially her other siblings, justifiably, demanded an explanation. Were we saying this child was best of all the children? Their mother knew the answer to this! She was the best at... Read more
“There is no longer any political question at issue here. This thing cannot be judged or estimated by political rules or principles. It is Iniquity under a political mask. It is not something to be brought before the bar of world history but rather something that has to be dealt with by the judicial administration of each country.”* Imagine facing communism on your border. Millions are murdered. The Revolution justifies any evil and is spending millions of rubles to import... Read more
So on your patience evermore attending, New joy wait on you. Here our play has ending. So ends Shakespeare’s Pericles and so ends a lesson: joy attends, or serves, the patient. The ending plays, I think, on a double possibility in the meaning of patience: just as now the word can mean calm endurance, but also permission or indulgence. Wise old John Gower appreciates the audiences endurance and indulgence in coming to the play. They chose to come (indulgence) and... Read more
The Old Books of the Bible Come to Us Through Scholarship Thank God for Biblical scholars, pastors who prayerfully study, and a community, the church, that checks our reading of the books of the Bible!* We need them even when we do not know we need them. After all, nobody now living speaks Biblical languages. Even the text of the Greek New Testament sitting on my shelf is the product of the hard work of scholars putting together the best... Read more
I asked for new voices and got some outstanding writers! Today we hear from the erudite James R. Harrington. James R. Harrington earned his M.A. in Ancient History at California State University Fulleron and is a member of the Torrey Honors Institute. James has been a classical educator in a variety of settings over the past thirteen years. He lives in Houston with his wife, Sharon, and their daughter. Harrington began with a series on shields in classical literature and now... Read more
The old Star Trek series introduced a Prime Directive to the explorers of the Starship Enterprise. Faced with the depredations of Earth colonizers, the Prime Directive protected a planet’s culture and cultural development from interference from a more “advanced” civilization. The Prime Directive was a general policy and in rare circumstances justifiable exceptions existed. If someone else (say the Klingons) interfered, perhaps the Federation had to balance the equation to keep the planet developing naturally. Generally, though, people were to be left... Read more
A father of daughters hears a new voice every time his daughter speaks. He hears a different voice. Daughters and their fathers are a duality, related by blood, yet crucially different. A daughter is not only the future, but is at present a voice of the “other” to the father, just as he is the first “other” voice the daughter will hear. Humankind reflects the image of God fully in the two genders: male and female. Each generation stands in... Read more
I am a conservative politically: a man of the Shire. I don’t trust Ted Sandyman’s new mill that pollutes. I am for the trees, even if nobody else is. If Arthur returns to save Britain, then God save the King. I love liberty and would rather err on the side of liberty than law. Yet extremism in defense of liberty is a vice, despite what Barry Goldwater said. I would have voted for him, of course, as Lyndon Johnson was... Read more
I asked for new voices and have received some wonderful writing. Here is a piece by musician and scholar Christie George. Christie is a pianist and musicologist who graduated from Biola University and the Torrey Honors Institute in 2014. She has just completed her PhD in Musicology at Claremont Graduate University, and her research deals chiefly with the nature of “good taste” with specific application in music. Christie is married to the love of her life, Garrett, and they currently reside... Read more
WE ARE DOOMED! SOMEONE IS DOOMED! THE NATION IS DOOMED! DOOM! This may be true, but what to do? Some very clever people get paid a lot of money to stir us up. They raise money (sometimes for good causes, sometimes for grift). They get us to do things. Meanwhile, our local school could use paint and books. There is a lonely elderly neighbor who could use a phone call and a nice long chat. Someone sick could use some... Read more
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