I asked my Facebook friends a while ago to list three or four books that changed their lives. Not necessarily books that belong in the Great Books curriculum, but books that came just at the right time and spoke to them in a particular and memorable way. I wrote about one of mine a couple of weeks ago–here’s another one. A candle flame looks beautiful in the light of morning . . . It seems to me to be a... Read more
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 The Fall semester of classes on my campus begins three weeks from tomorrow. As I was putting the finishing touches on my General Ethics syllabus, I was grateful that I teach at a Catholic college. Even though I am not Catholic, the range of issues I am able to work on with my students is wider than if I was teaching at a secular college... Read more
Jeanne and I hosted our grand-nephews last week–I forgot what it is like to have a 14 and an 11 year old in the house. We survived. We went to the zoo on of the days they were visiting. Roger Williams Park Zoo has no penguins, but they do have my second-favorite animal–giraffes. I once learned something interesting about giraffes from one of my colleagues. He was lecturing on Roman art and architecture; when discussing the Coliseum, he mentioned that... Read more
Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made. Immanuel Kant I love many kinds of music, but classical music is my first love. I was classically trained on the piano from age four through high school; my first piano teacher, a Julliard graduate who somehow ended up in northern Vermont teaching piano, was also the organist for the North Country Chorus, a volunteer choral group that was, in the estimation of Vermonters at the time,... Read more
As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God Psalm 42:1 I met a deer the other morning, the first deer I’ve met in a long time. I was on my usual early morning bike ride (the closest thing I have to a spiritual practice these days), came down an unfamiliar hill in an unfamiliar neighborhood, and there he was standing in the middle of the road. I stopped far enough away to... Read more
We wake, if we ever wake at all, to mystery, rumors of death, beauty, violence. . . . “Seem like we’re just set down here,” a woman said to me recently, “and don’t nobody know why.” Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek A few weeks ago I posted the following on Facebook: What books have changed your life? I don’t mean which books do you think are “greatest” or at the top of the “Great Books” canon, but which books... Read more
I have the privilege of giving the sermon today at Trinity Episcopal Church in Pawtuxet, RI. The lectionary texts I’ll be using are Genesis 18:20-32 and Luke 11:1-13. Here’s what I’ll be saying . . . Today’s lectionary readings raise an important question that any serious person of faith asks on a regular basis, even though we know that we aren’t supposed to ask it. That question is: What is the best way to negotiate with God? “God said it.... Read more
I had an unexpected and very interesting exchange concerning science and faith on Facebook the other day. I know that “interesting exchange on Facebook” might sound oxymoronic, but it actually happened. Commenting on a new blog essay that I wrote while on retreat a couple of weeks ago, a Facebook acquaintance who is a fellow graduate of the Great Books program at St. John’s College wrote the following. Him: I don’t believe in your God nor in the notion that... Read more
I’ve been thinking a lot about end of life issues lately. Really. They seem to be showing up everywhere–on the television show we are currently binge-watching, in my readings in the Psalms, in Montaigne’s Essais that I taught last year, in a lead article in the Atlantic that just came in the mail, in a novel I am rereading that will be the first assignment in my ethics class in the fall. It may also have to do with a significant... Read more
Thirty-four years ago today, two early thirty-somethings stood in front of their four parents and exchanged promises; the groom’s father was an ordained minister, so the promises exchanged were official. It was a quickly organized, impromptu event because the groom’s mother was dying of cancer and might not live to experience the real, full-blown wedding planned for a year or so down the road. That wedding never happened. The groom’s mother died less than three months later, followed unexpectedly by... Read more
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