Like many books that already I should have read, Don Quixote had been neglected for far too long—Tsundoku and everything. I am now reading Cervante’s hilarious novel for the first time and am immediately tickled by the Jared and Jerusha Hess comedic style (Nacho Libre and Napoleon Dynamite definitely come to mind). Lines such as […]
Probing Identity
Contemplating place, as I did recently, also conjures thinking about identity. What do they have to do with each other? We know humans are sacred in that we have been created in the image of God, imago dei. But we also know we have been desecrated by sin. But if, as a Christian, our sins […]
Pound the Stone
While serving as Police Commissioner of NYC, Theodore Roosevelt once called Jacob Riis “the most useful citizen of New York.” Riis was a police reporter for the New York Tribune, where he photographed and wrote about NYC’s worst slums; as a result, he became a prominent social reform advocate. His success in producing substantial, albeit […]
For Contemplation: Sacred and Desecrated Places
The second stanza of Wendell Berry’s poem, “How to be a Poet,” says, Breathe with unconditional breath the unconditioned air. Shun electric wire. Communicate slowly. a three-dimensioned life; stay away from screens. Stay away from anything that obscures the place it is in. There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated […]
Misconceptions About Language Learning
It is certain that a college which does not require Greek will not prepare many to go forth as ministers or missionaries. This would be a great evil not only to the churches, but to the community generally. – James McCosh, Twenty Years of Princeton College (1888) Along the lines of McCosh’s statement, consider these […]
The Historic Tradition of Christian Humanism
Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible—even intrinsic—with the practice of historical Christianity, representing a real philosophical union of authentic Christian faith and classical humanist principles made explicit by the Incarnation of Christ. Christian humanism is interested in the affirmation and flourishing of human life and […]
Reader Looke, not on his Picture, but his Booke
In Jeanett DeCelles-Zwerneman’s instructive treatise, A Lively Kind of Learning: Mastering the Seminar Method, she makes an important claim about learning to read a work on its own merits, rather than with the prejudices that frequently arise out of one’s intimate knowledge of the author. She writes, Ray Carver was an alcoholic and Rousseau abandoned […]
We Are Humans; We Are Not Gods
I have been reading through Jorge Louis Borges’ Selected Poems. One of the poems to which I keep returning is one of life’s refrains. The poem is called Límites. It reminds me there is something human about boundaries because boundaries—be they natural or artificial (that is, political)—remind us of our own limits, especially the fact […]
The Real and Perceived Needs of Customers
More than five years ago now, I wrote a short post making the case that Teachers are in the Customer Service Business. Building on that idea, I would further argue that customer service ought to be a way of life, not the contrived attendance to a company (or school) policy. Providing good customer service simply […]
The Heart and Soul of Human Existence
As modern Americans, we have been conditioned to believe it is the “go-getter” who is virtuous. The person who shows up early, stays late, and puts in 40-plus hours a week at the office or factory is a first-world hero deserving of our admiration (Perhaps our real admiration is for the inevitable fat paycheck). Even […]