Wheeling Motel by Franz Wright The vast waters flow past its back yard. You can purchase a six-pack in bars! Tammy Wynette’s on the marquee a block down. It’s twenty-five years ago: you went to death, I to life, and which was luckier God only knows. There’s this line in an unpublished poem of…
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Art
Protecting Your Beliefs From Harm
Once something is added to your collection of beliefs, you protect it from harm. You do it instinctively and unconsciously when confronted with attitude-inconsistent information. Just as confirmation bias shields you when you actively seek information, the backfire effect defends you when the information seeks you, when it blindsides you. Coming or going, you stick…
Sacred Wounds
It has been acceptable for some time in America to remain “wound identified” (that is, using one’s victimhood as one’s identity, one’s ticket to sympathy, and one’s excuse for not serving), instead of using the wound to “redeem the world,” as we see in Jesus and many people who turn their wounds into sacred wounds…
The Prodigal Shepherd by Mike Fiala
This poem comes via Jesus Radicals. Mike Fiala dedicates this poem to the late Joe Lehner, who birthed the Cleveland Catholic Worker into existence in 1984-85.
We Invariably Prefer the Universal Synthesis
“We invariably prefer the universal synthesis, the answer that settles all the dust and resolves every question – even when it is not entirely true – over the mercy and grace of God.” The above quote comes from the always sagacious Richard Rohr via his new book Falling Upward. In this quote he is discussing…
Henry Darger and The Fine Line Between Insanity and Brilliance
Last Wednesday night our movie group watched the documentary film In The Realm of The Unreal, directed by Jessica Yu. In brief, the film documents the incredible story of Henry Darger (1892-1973), a visionary artist, janitor, and novelist. Darger’s story takes place in the Chicago area and tracks his life beginning with his turbulent childhood….
Virtue and Freedom
Virtue is intimately associated with freedom. Think of self-control. While it seems that self-control–saying “No” to the self–is a form of self-limitation it is actually a form of self-liberation. Contrast the addict or the impulsive shopper with the self-controlled person. Who is more free? The person pushed and pulled by compulsions, cravings, and obsessions? Or…
Vikings, Einstein and The Dark Ages
The classification of the European era between the decline of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance as the “Dark Ages” is now rejected by most modern historians.During the early Middle Ages, significant literary and educational advances (especially during the period known as the Carolingian Renaissance) were made, including the foundations of the modern university, as…
Authority, power, domination & intimidation is what dictators, kings & emperors have used to subjugate & oppress their people for centuries. So why do parents do the same thing?
Authoritarian leadership–whether at home or in the classroom–means that the control is in the hands of the adult leader. It has been researched and proven for decades how ineffective maintaining control through power is. Authoritarianism often creates fearful and subservient children and/or rebellion. … I have come to the conclusion that parents over the years…
To Think Is To Forget: Joshua Foer’s Moonwalking with Einstein
Perhaps, as Borges concludes in his story, “It is forgetting, not remembering, that is the essence of what makes us human. To make sense of the world we must filter it. To think,” Borgese writes, “is to forget.” I am currently enjoying Joshua Foer’s book Moonwalking with Einstein. It is a book about memory, specifically…