Can one write about humility without being just a bit proud if it comes out sounding profound, well-expressed and, well, humble? Let me give it a try.
Read MoreIt’s always nice to find that someone agrees with you, especially if they have a title. I posted a few days ago about deafness as a metaphor for combatants in the culture wars not being able to hear/understand each other. My point was that we speak different languages and mishear each other.
Read MoreOne of my favorite commentators on the intertubes is The Atlantic Monthly’s Ta-Nehisi Coates. Always thoughtful, he is worth reading, even when one disagrees with him.
Read MoreMy name is Nate Taylor and I’m a guest blogger for wordtaylor.com.
Read MoreFrank Kermode, in his very interesting (and secular) book on the gospels, The Genesis of Secrecy: On Interpretation of Narrative (Harvard, 1979) quotes the 1930’s novelist Henry Green: “the very deaf, as I am, hear the most astounding things all round them, which have not, in fact, been said.
Read MoreI was riding in a car yesterday and saw a scene straight from Norman Rockwell. A father was seemingly mowing his lawn and right behind him was his around four-year-old son pushing a small, plastic toy lawnmower, head down and very earnest in his mowing.
Read MoreDietrich Bonhoeffer’s cousin says that as a child Dietrich was greatly moved by reading a book entitled Heroes of Everyday, filled with stories of courageous young people who, with selflessness and clear thinking, often saved other’s lives, sometimes at the cost of their own.
Read More“I have been away from God for a large part of my life . . . . I had gone into exile of my free will.”
Read MoreI was reading this morning about relatively new concerns about the Internet, and especially about search engines. Searching on the Internet is increasingly personalized, in ways that are not apparent to the searcher.
Read More“Reality is that which when you stop believing in it doesn’t go away.”
Read MoreThe June 4-10th issue of The Economist has an interesting article on the Japanese view of the sea—historically and in wake of their devastating tsunami of last March.
Read MoreI came of age when academics were officially pronouncing (again) the death of God—as a viable and energizing concept in the modern world—and people in the churches I went to knew that was hogwash.
Read MoreIn this season of (political) compromise—or rather lack thereof—I find myself thinking about the word. Its root meaning is “promise together” and originated in the practice of agreeing in a dispute to accept the ruling of an arbitrator.
Read MoreI am entering the funeral season of my life. Two weeks ago I saw two movies in the same week. Last week it was two funerals. Sixty-three myself, the generation above me is starting to die with regularity, and some of the early goers of my generation are beginning to leave.
Read MoreI participated in a three-day silent retreat at a Jesuit retreat house recently. One useful thing I noted—it is impossible to be impressive at a silent retreat.
Read MoreI am just returned from a trip to my home town (Santa Barbara, CA), to participate in a memorial gathering for a great friend, Gordon Morez. His son, Larry, asked me to read the following poem by Mary Oliver, which succinctly captures a man who went through life bug-eyed at all its wonders.
Read MoreIf you want a yin-yang, run-the-spectrum experience, try seeing the following two films in the same week, as I did: Transformers (Dark of the Moon) and The Tree of Life. My thirteen-year-old grand nephew was in town and the latest film adaption of what started as a toy was exactly his cup of tea.
Read MoreThe are millions of skeptics in the world. And billions of believers. But how many skeptical believers (or faithful skeptics)?
Read More