Michael Richmond was not my student, with the exception of his senior comprehensive oral exam. I was his examiner for his major in philosophy. He was a English and philosophy double-major. It was early. He was terribly nervous and clumsy and had trouble identifying a simile, and muttered through he details of Kafka’s Metamorphosis. I asked him odd questions about the absurd and tried to get him to say something interesting. He left the room as soon as he could... Read more
There is something about season three of Downton Abbey that I really liked. Something dark. I preferred it to season two: I found the war, albeit historically important and a perfect ending to season one, rather distracting and flimsily tethered together. Although I did cry for the sentimental ending. I still think season one was almost perfect. I didn’t cry when I intuited that Matthew was going to die nor when the thick fake blood massaged his ear and face... Read more
I have no misgivings about, nor apologies for, my near total ignorance of economics. I don’t know the special terms nor do I possess insight or erudition about its governing concepts and intellectual history. Sure, I’ve read a thing or two. But nothing technical. In the very little I have read, especially around election time, I get the impression that the application of econometrics to business and politics are, more often than not, inexact or flat out wrong. Economics as... Read more
My dear friend’s dog, Remus, is dying of cancer. Remus is a beautiful greyhound who my friend, Brad, emancipated from a cruel life of racing. When I heard of the diagnosis, I wrote a poem to him. After writing it, I realized that I was actually writing a prayer. I was praying to a dog, and the moon. THE MOON Full moon shines tonight you see it, brother, better than I it was your kin who once howled and I... Read more
I was a senior at Franciscan University of Steubenville when Pope John Paul II died. It is hard to describe the rich melancholy that hung in the air that day. The anxiety and uncertainty. The sorrow. We, the students, had only known one pope for our entire lives. It was a sad, disorienting day. We should have seen it coming, and of course we did. Everyone did. I recall the indignation I felt when the media, and sometimes other Catholics,... Read more
I started shaving my legs in high school, from the calf down, to get my ankles taped. By the time I was in college, I went all the way up. In men’s rugby, shorts are too long if you can’t genuflect and urinate discretely—through your leg hole. If you’re an inside forward (numbers one through five), you need to be sure your shorts are snug; that way, the binding in the scrum is tight. I played on the wing my... Read more
Two years ago, during my first year of teaching at Wabash College, I was invited to give a “Chapel Talk,” a weekly lecture on the speaker’s choice. Since I have a natural aversion to controversy, I wrote and delivered the following talk on a bland and safe topic: Black History Month and the notion of race. Since it’s February again, I share it here in video and text. I have not done much more work in the philosophy of race... Read more
February 1, 2013 — In a shocking press release, United States Conference of Bishops made several unexpected moves in response to the Obama administration’s proposed modifications to the HHS mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, known by many as Obamacare. In a brief three-sentence memo, Cardinal Timothy Dolan implied a number of cryptic, esoteric, and ridiculous things. Two of the three sentences were particularly disconcerting to American Catholics: We welcome the opportunity to study the proposed... Read more
Sorry, readers. The end of the month is usually the time when I’m trying to meet all the end of the month deadlines that I should’ve started to work on a month or more ago. I’m swamped. In the meantime, here’s an e-mail I just sent to my Foundations of Educational Thought class. You might find it interesting. Some context: I often assign an infamous first paper where students must describe the word ‘word’ in one page. The better way... Read more
Hoy nuestro santo padre, el Papa Benedicto XVI, mando un Tweet al mundo Hispanohablante, diciendo lo siguiente: @Pontifex_es: Hoy surgen muchos falsos ídolos. Si los cristianos desean ser fieles, no han de temer ir contracorriente. “No hay que temer”—estas palabras nos enseñan que la fidelidad cristiana empieza con la vigilia, con mantenerse despierto. Como el dicho nos explica: “Camarón que se duerma, se lo lleva la corriente.” El miedo es una forma de sueno. El que teme, se duerme. Uno de los... Read more
Sam Rocha
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