Update: Thank You, Fall Schedule, Books, and Album

It’s been just over a year now that I’ve been blogging at Patheos. That year has coincided with our relocation to North Dakota. The winters here are long and brutal. Without Patheos — you the readers, and the beautiful motley crew of writers at the Catholic Channel, Los Patheosi — I don’t know what I would’ve done.

Thank you.

I should especially thank Elizabeth Scalia, who gave me my shot and who puts up with my antics and promotes my stuff.

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This Fall will be my busiest to date in terms of travel and variety of work. I wanted to let you all know where I’ll be, just in case you can make it to something. Here are the dates and places:

9/24-25 – Symposium at the 5th Annual Bergen Conversation at the University of Bergen, Norway. My own talk — “A personalist quartet, in two movements” — will be on the 24th, from 9 to 10 am.

9/29 – Music for the Gather4Good community service picnic, sponsored by Catholic United Financial, in St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Hastings, MN.

10/1 – Power-trio show at the old Oddfellows building (above 136 and 138 N. 4th Street), hosted by The Harmonium Project, a student-led, arts-based community outreach initiative from Franciscan University of Steubenville, from 7 to 10, in Steubenville, OH

10/2 – Public lecture — “Abortion Without Politricks” — at Franciscan University of Steubenville, sponsored by Students for a Fair Society, starting at 8 pm, in the Gentile Gallery.

10/20 – A panel on Zizek and Education at 34th Annual Bergamo Conference on Curriculum Theory and Classroom Practice, at the Bergamo Conference Center in Dayton, OH, from 11 to noon.

10/25-26 – Music at Sanders 1907 in downtown Grand Forks, with Dave Jeffries (on drums) and “Little Bobby” Houle (guitar), from 9 to midnight.

11/1-2 – Symposium of the Latin American Philosophy of Education Society, at Columbia University, in New York City. My talk  — “Educación de Carne y Hueso, Education of Flesh and Bone” — will be on the 2nd, from 11 to noon, with discussion to follow.

11/8-9 – “Author meets critics” book panel — on my Primer — at the annual meeting of the Society for the Philosophical Study of Education, at Columbia College, in Chicago.

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My most recent book, A Primer for Philosophy and Education, continues to sell at a consistent pace. Thanks again, to all who have purchased it, but especially to those who have taken the time to review it at Amazon and elsewhere. I hope to post an aggregate of blog reviews of it soon.

I am finishing the final edits on my next book, coming out with Atropos Press, Education, Study, and the Human Person, next year.

My book on abortion — Abortion Without Politics — is nearly finished, too; it will be published as an e-book by Patheos Press and Bondfire Books.

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Finally, I will begin raising funds for a full-length soul album soon, through Kickstarter. If I raise the funds, it will be recorded in first half of 2014. I would greatly appreciate your help in spreading the word and, perhaps, making a contribution. Here, in parting, is the draft of the description of the album, LATE TO LOVE:

LATE TO LOVE is concept album. This is idea music. Not just intellectual ideas. Spirit, too. Soul music: Blues, jazz, funk, folk, and gospel. Hip-hop and Latin-infused rhythms and rhymes. Bill Withers, Jose Feliciano, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, and Willie Nelson.

The collective inspiration for the songs is deeply personal and actively confessional. The chorus of the title track sings, “Late / have I loved you / beauty so old / beauty so new,” adapted directly from Augustine’s Confessions. Some tracks will be purely instrumental, others will be lyrical.

This is the soundtrack of a man seeking redemption through a profession of belated love, told in multiple layers of regret, gratitude, and hope.

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Last, but certainly not least, my wife, sons, and I welcomed a sweet little girl into our world just a few weeks ago. We are blessed. Thank you all for supporting us through your attention to me and my work.

Ever,

Sam