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 »
I vividly remember my introduction to the concept of scholé. It was not a season of smooth and easy days. Between teaching and administrative duties, I was working fifty (or more) hours a week. I had one- and three-year-old boys (both in diapers), and we had recently purchased a home; there was much work to
At its core, all literature is about identity—a search to understand who we are as we grapple with our unnatural separation from God. We were created to see a face that we are too sinful to behold. Ultimately, the problem of suffering and the hiddenness of God are two sides of a coin. This is
A Commonplace on Suffering from a Year of Reading Read More »
I had little interest in celebrating Advent until I became a mother. I was not raised in a liturgical tradition and did not learn about the liturgical calendar until I was in my twenties studying Russian literature at a secular university. I longed to orient my life around the seasons of the church rather than
