On Reading Thomas Merton
To read Thomas Merton, we are scold-told
Is middlebrow spirituality*
I never knew that a brow was involved
Because I see the barber every week…
Category: Uncategorized
Striving in Hope
With everything going on lately, the 4th of July this year felt different. The murder of George Floyd, followed by widespread protests affirming that black lives matter, combined with being stuck at home and actually having time to talk and learn about these issues beyond the superficial level, has given me a wake-up call.
Read MoreDecolonize Your Bookshelf? No.
There is a fashion – and as fashions come, they go – of decolonizing one’s bookshelf. The idea is that the reader should self-interrogate his (the pronoun is gender-neutral) cultural influences and determine if they are not right, not approved, not liked. Or, as Pasternak’s officious, oppressive, busy-body Soviet Deputy says, noticed.
Read MoreStories That Really Matter
I’ve basically dedicated my life to the pursuit of stories and story-telling. Without stories, everything falls apart. A lot of people try to dismiss fantasy as being escapist or childish. Well Tolkien himself said, “Fantasy is escapist and that is its glory.” You can never diminish the power of storytelling, no matter the genre.
Read MoreSummer in the Garden
Summer is better in theory than in practice:
Watermelon days barefootin’ in the shade
Pole-fishing for perch in the neighbor’s pond
Oak-tree afternoons lost in a library book…
Summer Sun
Summer sun does shine sheenly
Raising rays radiant rich
Leaves live and grow with glory
Calid colours crowd our land…
Romance of the Barren Plinth
They’ve gone and pulled a general down
And all the birds that used to rest
Upon his visage fallen to ground
Will have to seek another nest…
Say What?
…And it bothered me that these proud mothers who never thought but that their unborn children were alive last year would call this year their family’s first Father’s Day, for fathers become fathers when their child is conceived, just the same as mothers become mothers at that time. If we want the world to accept that truth, we need to start changing how we talk.
Read MoreA Review of the Sailor Moon Crystal Chronicles
Sailor Moon Crystal chronicles the adventures of the Sailor Guardians, Usagi (Sailor Moon/Princess Serenity), Ami (Sailor Mercury), Rei (Sailor Mars), Makoto (Sailor Jupiter), and Minako (Sailor Venus)… the team faces The Dark Kingdom who want to rule over both the earth and the once inhabited moon…
Read MoreA Priest in Disguise: A Review of The Scarlet and the Black
The year is 1943, and German troops have entered Italy. The general and the colonel of this unit seeks an audience with the Pope to extract the Catholic Church’s neutrality in an attempt to keep members of the Church from aiding Allied troops, Jews, and refugees fleeing the tyrannical German rule. The Pope does not agree to neutrality…
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