The Pietà is my favorite work of art. I’ve always thought it was beautiful, but since I listened to a lecture by Jordan Peterson,1 Michelangelo’s Mary reminds me that she brought her son into this world not understanding his divine destiny and fully understanding that he would suffer and die. All the same, her face […]
I have scruples against calling myself a Writer, capitalized, but I echo Augustine in “profess[ing] to be one of those who, by profiting, write, and by writing profit.” Never especially disciplined or consistent in my writing efforts, never attempting any grand projects, yet over the years I have accumulated piles of notebooks, loose papers, and
A great deal is made of “critical thinking” in the general background noise of our culture, especially when people talk about education and what kids aren’t getting. I got thinking about that while I was listening closely to a John Denver song on my way in to work this morning. Being a John Denver song
Stupid Songs and How to Love Them Rightly: A Reflection on Critical Thinking Read More »
Our era is dismantling millennia of incarnated memories with increasing fervor and speed—“old” books are considered irrelevant, so much so that it can be difficult to find classics in local libraries or school curricula; monuments and artistic creations, some of which have withstood the ravages of decades, if not centuries, are toppled in the name
I vividly remember sitting in a dim school auditorium my junior year of high school, pencil positioned to take the PSAT when all test-takers were required to copy out a pledge promising that no cheating would take place. The requirement? The pledge had to be written in cursive. One by one, students’ hands went up
I was recently talking with a new friend of mine about art and tradition and the role of the poet—like I do—and he recommended to me an essay that had influenced his understanding of all of those things, “Tradition and the Individual Talent” (1921) by TS Eliot. I’ve been a longtime admirer of TS Eliot
Tradition and the Individual Talent: Or, TS Eliot Shares My Love of Dead Poets Read More »
While Cicero’s Rhetorica ad Herennium commends a six-part structure for an argument, there is an elegance to the way each part gives way to the next which is worthy of imitation in non-argumentative essays, as well. In the last two years, I’ve written nearly a hundred film reviews for FilmFisher and found that I often
A Template For Reviewing Everything From Books To French Restaurants Read More »
