“In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it is the job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners.”- Camus
Books are everything to me, not Kindle, not e-books, but the physical manifestation itself, the weight in my hand, pages turning, the perfect order of its arrangement, its narrative going forward while the pages turn over and diminish. Simplify. Here is the book. Open the book. Here are the words. The words go inside. They make pictures. They summon emotions and memories and scenes we concoct we have never lived. […]
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Let me dispense with the obvious first. Michael Jordan is the best basketball player I have ever seen and “ The Last Dance ” was fascinating in its exploration of a particular kind of sports’ mania– the worship of athletic excellence combined with charisma. ESPN did not devote 10 hours to examining the career of Tim Duncan . My response to “The Last Dance” took another tack. Someone like me who played the game at, […]
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To counter the loneliness and uncertainty brought by the Virus, to resist its ruinous effects on one’s aptitude for clear thought, to cancel out the effect of its noxious mythologies, to defy the poison of the monsters it fosters, to offset our fears …. To offset our fears, perhaps we should give thanks. I am not sick but closer to the end and a prime candidate for the Virus, and […]
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In eighth grade I met Sister Francis Marion, six feet tall, wrapped in the blue cloth of the Order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM), whose look of displeasure could make ice melt. She might have spoken Jack Aubrey’s words to us on the first day and it would have made perfect sense. Raised to believe in our innate sinfulness, his words said in Sister’s voice would have set the tone for […]
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