Snack mats. We were gathered at a beautiful, rural wedding in the rustic style that was popular some years ago: mason jars and baby’s breath, hanging lights and candles. Jazz standards crooned through the speakers. The men were inclined into animated conversation. And, with a pale smile, I was stuck with the other mothers of …
Thomas Howard, the author of Dove Descending: A Journey Into T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, was a notable writer, English professor, and early C.S. Lewis scholar. Brother to the well-known missionary Elizabeth Eliot, he became a Catholic convert, chronicling his spiritual journey in his book, Evangelical Is Not Enough. Lewis’s influence in Howard’s writing is …
Words Are the Thing: The Sacramentality of Language Read More »
Evelyn Waugh’s literary masterpiece Brideshead Revisited opens upon a melancholic scene in the life of middle-aged Captain Charles Ryder. His company is amid the latest in a long line of reassignments across England. They are impotent – running drills and writing reports as their countrymen die on the battlefield. He has lost his love for …
It’s hard to compete with an airplane. From the observation deck, we had a view of each taxi, take-off, and landing; there was a great deal more activity than one might expect from such a small airport. With every movement of an aircraft, the airport staff would pause the tour. The oldest in our co-op …
It is that time of year. Soon, the lean days of Lent will have passed. I will blink and the new leaf growth will have turned a deeper, settled shade of green. The padlock has not yet been removed from the neighborhood pool, and I find myself asking the same question once again: How do …
What Does It Mean to Finish the School Year Well? Read More »
In my yard, there are two worn foxholes. These are not holes that provide foxes with a route of ingress and egress from their dens; no, these are foxholes for the Allied soldiers. They are the result of many hours of my children tearing up a portion of our yard with every sharp implement in …
If you have spoken to me recently, you have heard me complain about David Hume. No doubt there was a collective sigh of relief when I finished my course in the hopes that at last my hatred of Hume would no longer be a topic of conversation. I studied Descartes’s and Hume’s philosophies of imagination, …
In high school, my literary opinions were as absolute as they were ill-considered. T. S. Eliot did not escape unscathed; he wrote poems about cats, and I had thoughts. My reasoned criticism amounted to a judgment that T. S. Eliot was a moron. I do not remember how much later I re-encountered his poetry, only …
The Still Point: Wisdom’s Lecture Hall, Virtue’s Practicum Read More »
As we drive down the long road to the lighthouse, we take bets on how many gators we will see. On a cool winter’s day, the answer is not many. As we reach the lighthouse, broad levees separate the freshwater marshland and coastal hammocks from the Gulf of Mexico. The varied habitats of the wildlife …
The tall windows of our schoolroom overlook the street; from our table, I can see Mrs. Wills walk by. Her walk has become a shuffle, and what was once merely a diminutive frame has become the hunched frame of the aged. She looks so pathetic now it is hard to believe that this frail …
The Wisdom of Changeless Things: Reviving the Mathematical Arts Read More »
