SOME SMALL THOUGHTS ON REPETITIVE PRAYER: I know it’s easy to criticize repeated prayers because they can seem rote, dissolving into jabberwocky. But having just finished a prayer in which I really did forget my place and get kind of mixed up, I was struck by how apt that experience is–how well it fits our experience of long-term spiritual life and struggle. I mean, we forget parts of our pain, too, or get mixed up about which parts go where.... Read more

“BONDS OF AFFECTION“: I review Ethan J. Leib’s Friend v. Friend: The Transformation of Friendship–And What the Law Has to Do With It, in the current issue of Commonweal. Link is subscribers-only, at least for now. Read more

…SO FAR FROM THE UNITED STATES: …This attitude is fairly common among African-Americans addicts in poor neighborhoods in most large US cities; ironically, while the biggest complaint about AA and NA among skeptical middle-class white addicts is the dependence on a Higher Power, in urban black communities 12-step recovery groups are marginalized because they aren’t explicitly allied with any church. In addition, the confessional mode of “sharing” that defines the AA fellowship is alien to the ethic of African- neighborhoods,... Read more

I can only note that Mitya thought of Grushenka’s past as definitively passed. He looked upon that past with infinite compassion, and decided with all the fire of his passion that once Grushenka told him she loved him and would marry him, a completely new Grushenka would begin at once, and together with her a completely new Dmitri Fyodorovich, with no vices now, but virtues only: they would forgive each other and start their life quite anew.—TBK. Oh Mitya, you... Read more

TELL THEM THAT I’M YOUR GUN: I’m currently putting together the pieces for a science-fiction novel which will have as one of its themes the work of peacemaking. How can peace be built–not merely the absence of war, but a place of reconciliation and restitution? So recommend things to me! If this idea makes you think of books, movies, whatever, why not email me? There’s a link on the sidebar, or it’s [email protected] . I note that this is not... Read more

LET IT ALL GO: 2011 BEST-OF. I’m sorry this is so late! Best books read (nonfiction): David Carr, The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life–His OwnJohnny Weir, Welcome to My World–a perfect cocktail of humility and glamour!Christopher C. Roberts, Creation and Covenant: The Significance of Sexual Difference in the Moral Theology of Marriage (video talk here and my comments on it here)Judith Deutsch Kornblatt, Doubly Chosen: Jewish Identity, The Soviet Intelligentsia, And the... Read more

UNCONVENTIONAL: I couldn’t sleep after Black Caesar, so I decided to just throw on The Nun’s Story and watch until I decided to go to bed. I ended up watching, totally engrossed, until the entire huge long movie was over. Audrey Hepburn plays a Belgian girl who enters a religious order, hoping to be sent to the Congo as a nurse. The movie follows her deep spiritual struggles, mostly but not entirely revolving around questions of pride and obedience. The... Read more

I’M GONNA GIT YOU SUCKER-PUNCH: So I went in to Black Caesar thinking it would be your typical blaxploitation fare: a social consciousness, definitely, but mostly just righteous fun. Friday Foster for dudes. Do not do this, people! Good grief. Black Caesar is a terrific movie, but it is a real punch in the face. The racism depicted is brutal and nearly constant, and although the devastation criminal activity causes in families can be seen in a lot of blaxploitation... Read more

ALL MY SINS MISREMEMBERED: Review of David Carr’s Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life–His Own. I’ve read a bunch of addiction memoirs this past year, and this is the one which spoke to me the most, by far. Carr is a reporter and editor (currently writing for the New York Times, but I promise not to hold that against him), and he decided to use his investigative techniques to figure out what really... Read more

And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.–Ecclesiastes 1:17 Read more