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Our World Needs G.K.C.

. . . but I think it doesn’t have the nerve to face him. Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936) died 87 years ago today. A giant of a man and a giant of a writer and thinker, Chesterton wrote prolifically about politics, history, theology, culture, philosophy, literary criticism, and economics with his signature style of bracing… Continue reading Our World Needs G.K.C.

On Les Mis, Suffering, & My Almost-Adult Daughter

Last night my daughter, Jackie, and I drove into Washington, DC, at sunset to watch the evening production of Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center. It was an early eighteenth birthday present for her, and she was giddy. Les Mis is her favorite musical, but she had never seen it performed live. It was a… Continue reading On Les Mis, Suffering, & My Almost-Adult Daughter

Stop. Look. Remember.

God might just be making beauty from ashes, refashioning a gift out of a deep injury to my soul. This morning on our walk, Jim and I talked about our dawning realization that our energies and capacity for looking outward are returning, after several years of crisis and trauma related to our daughter Jackie’s health. … Continue reading Stop. Look. Remember.

OLD BOOKS, Part IV: On Moral Fiction, by John Gardner

In this series on Old Books, I’m choosing books with these questions in mind: What questions do they answer? What problems do they correctly diagnose? What wisdom do they provide that is lacking in today’s discourse? What metaphysics do they propose or expose? Every book I’m examining may not necessarily answer each of those questions,… Continue reading OLD BOOKS, Part IV: On Moral Fiction, by John Gardner

OLD BOOKS, Part III: Standing by Words, by Wendell Berry

In this series on Old Books, I’m choosing books with these questions in mind: What questions do they answer? What problems do they correctly diagnose? What wisdom do they provide that is lacking in today’s discourse? What metaphysics do they propose or expose? Every book I’m examining may not necessarily answer each of those questions,… Continue reading OLD BOOKS, Part III: Standing by Words, by Wendell Berry

Return of Joy

“For a long season, O Lord,I considered as an impossibilitywhat I now know as unshakeable truth: That after loss, pain, tragedy, tears,sorrow, doubt, defeat, and disarray,I will hold a more costly and precious joythan any I have held before;and this not in denial of my loss,but manifest in the very wreckage of it.” from “A… Continue reading Return of Joy

OLD BOOKS, Part II: Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, by E. F. Schumacher

In this series on Old Books, I’m choosing books with these questions in mind: What questions do they answer? What problems do they correctly diagnose? What wisdom do they provide that is lacking in today’s discourse? What metaphysics do they propose or expose? Every book I’m examining may not necessarily answer each of those questions,… Continue reading OLD BOOKS, Part II: Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered, by E. F. Schumacher

OLD BOOKS, Part I: The Captive Mind, by Czeslaw Milosz

In this series on Old Books, I’m choosing books with these questions in mind: What questions do they answer? What problems do they correctly diagnose? What wisdom do they provide that is lacking in today’s discourse? What metaphysics do they propose or expose? Every book I’m examining may not necessarily answer each of those questions,… Continue reading OLD BOOKS, Part I: The Captive Mind, by Czeslaw Milosz