What I’ve been reading. “Why Young Sexual Assault Victims Tell Incoherent Stories.” When my alarmed parents sat me down to draw out every detail of what had happened, trying to construct a timeline and zeroing in on specific actions and body parts, I was terrified by their seriousness. The conversation was such an important one that we had it sitting right where we were when my sister brought up the subject: on the stairs. It’s hard to give an accurate... Read more
(being quoted in The Orthodox Way) God, so C.S. Lewis remarks in The Screwtape Letters, wants men to attend chiefly to two things: “to eternity itself, and to that point of time which they call the Present. For the Present is the point at which time touches eternity. Of the present moment, and of it only, humans have an experience which [God] has of reality as a whole; in it alone freedom and actuality are offered them. Read more
One truism of addiction science is that long-term abuse rewires your brain and changes its chemistry, which is why triggers (or “associated stimuli,” in scientific parlance) are major risk factors for relapse. But these changes can be reversed over time. Walking past the apartment where my dealer used to live didn’t make me want to score; it made me feel as if I was in a phantasmagoria of two crosshatched worlds—but I was the only person who could see both realities.... Read more
woot! …I wrote that book when I was in my mid-twenties. Like a lot of people that age, I was wrestling with strong emotions and grappling with deep hopes and fears about the future. My greatest fear was waking up one day in my 60s or 70s, in an apartment by myself, having lived a deeply isolated adult life, without family and people with whom I could make a “home.” Much of that angst has subsided now that I’m in... Read more
Our aim in the life of prayer is not to gain feelings or “sensible” experiences of any particular kind, but simply and solely to conform our will to God’s. “I seek not what is yours but you,” says St Paul to the Corinthians (2 Cor 12:14); and we say the same to God. We seek not the gifts but the Giver. Read more
I’ll be on a panel at Level Ground, a film festival in Pasadena, CA dedicated to the intersection of Christian faith and LGBT life. Here’s the info: When: Thursday, February 27 from 7-10p (dinner included) Where: Jones Coffee Roasters Moderator: Jeff Chu Panel: Eve Tushnet, Matt Jones, 3-4 people from filmmaking team (still waiting to hear exactly who) Films: Desire of the Everlasting Hills (this is a world premiere screening!!) Buy tickets here! Read more
You know, I’m really enjoying this show. Stuff I like: * Let’s be honest: My main thing that I like is the way Sherlock’s addiction history and recovery are handled. I like that he’s skeptical and combative about 12-steppery yet still does a lot of the hard work of it, the constant apologies (the first season of this show really was like that cartoon with the heterosexual date movie theater showing “Things Exploding/Men Apologizing”) and amends. I loved his speech... Read more
Watchfulness means, among other things, to be present where we are–at this specific point in space, at this particular moment in time. All too often we are scattered and dispersed; we are living, not with alertness in the present, but with nostalgia in the past, or with misgiving and wishful thinking in the future. —see also! Read more
Walk with me through some possibly ill-formed and definitely ill-informed thoughts about what it means to profess one’s faith. I had to do this when I was becoming Catholic–I think this took place during Confirmation? probably that’s wrong–and there was a set formula which I always misremember but which was probably actually, “I believe and profess all that the holy Catholic Church believes, teaches, and proclaims to be revealed by God.” What (on earth) did I mean? What should I... Read more
Thirdly, the gift of the Spirit is a gift of diversity: the tongues of fire are “cloven” or “divided” (Acts 2:3), and they are distributed to each one directly. Not only does the Holy Spirit make us all one, but he makes us each different. At Pentecost the multiplicity of tongues was not abolished, but it ceased to be a cause of separation; each spoke as before in his own tongue, but by the power of the Spirit each could... Read more
Eve Tushnet
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