This year I have desperately tried to effect a recovery of reading. I know I complain a lot about this–a brief gander through my archives will provide you with many whole blog posts about how hard it is to read any more. The confluence of children and the Internet took some essential grounding of my experience as a person and buried it under the turgid waters of ordinary life. It’s like how they invented the printing press back in the... Read more
'Just like church. Millions of people beating down the door to get the awesome free salvation.' Read more
Its not difficult for me at all to find voluminous waves of gratitude wafting about me for each and every one of you, Dear Readers. Every morning when I pop open my screen and cast about in the darkness for two or three words to shove together, I am only ever doing it to amuse and please myself. This blog, from start to finish, is an exercise is vanity. But rather than readily admitting this to myself, instead I quietly... Read more
The trouble is with most of life is that it's impossible to have any sense of perspective. Read more
This is one of the distinguishing marks of Christianity, and why Christians are such strange people. Read more
Good Moaning to you all. We managed to struggle into the day and do up a podcast about Thanksgiving–not just what to eat but also how to feel about it. We were filled to the brim with good advice and admonition about what kind of person you should try to be. You’re welcome. Also, why you should celebrate Advent. And now Links, which I have in rather plenteous abundance. Here’s the lyrics to the terribly weird song Matt brought up.... Read more
I don't know about you, but inevitably, in the mad dash from Thanksgiving to Christmas, and from thence to Easter, I become entangled in the law. Read more
[These cats wish you would give them some turkey.] Would you believe it, I’ve caught Marigold’s cold. And you didn’t even know she had one because I didn’t bother to tell you. It’s not like I divulge every single detail of life to you in all its goriness and misery, cough. Poor thing, though, she’s been on the couch for a week, trying to breathe and refusing everything but regular meals and big pots of hot chocolate. Couldn’t face any... Read more
You can just go and rest in the familiarity of the once yearly dinner, the usual conversations that unfold as they have always unfolded. It's not a time to solve the family crises, it's the moment to reaffirm the family creeds and cultural mores. Everyone will behave as they always do, and you will sit and watch them all and console yourself with large bites of potato. Read more
It’s almost Thanksgiving, a thought which surprised me yesterday as I was bashing my way through the laundry. It’s been such a warm fall, and I’ve been balancing between so many and various high-wire acts, including being ticked off about the Christmas music in stores, that I haven’t considered that important and much needed feast, the one where you just get to have dinner and be thankful. Don’t you think, though, that Thanksgiving would be a lot more popular in... Read more
Preventing Grace
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