We cannot repair the past. But we owe it to the past to make a better future. It is a fine line that we draw every day, reflecting on the past to improve the future, while not dwelling there so much that we forsake the future. The only sure path out of this quandary is [...]
I live among the rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak, the ambitious and the lazy, the good and the bad, the loving and the hateful. Grappling with death taught me how to live in this world. I now see that every person I meet in ordinary, daily affairs is part human and [...]
sometimes, i am unsure how to survive surviving. i miss the chance to be better for her, better, kinder, truer, more patient, more loving more selfless. and i am so happy these days, so miserably happy. i have so much happiness and a surfeit of blessings: stalwart friends and steadfast family; new life and new [...]
In “The Wealth of Nations,” Adam Smith was absolutely right: The widespread division of labor would cause the interior life to die; an unsurprising result, for under capitalism, the human person became a commodity, a resource, a thing used to further profits. My parents, Romanian gypsies, born in a Transylvanian village and raised in thatched-roofed [...]
The ordinary daily life of men in Christian culture, who work not only in the sweat of their brows, but for the love of their families, there is also love of work. When men cut wood or go to war or make love to their wives, and when women spin or wash and reciprocate that [...]
In “The City of God,” Augustine systematically lays bare the empty ideology of the city of man and the Roman empire in a breathtaking counter-narrative that remains remarkably modern and relevant for today. In contrast to the city of man, the City of Love, Augustine argues, is the godly city to which Christians belong and [...]
My mother's life was too short. She loved Jesus and wanted to be like Him in every way. She understood the power that is inherent in holiness, even in weakness. And, ordinary woman that she was, she took part in that power. She spent time every day in the Scriptures because she believed that Jesus [...]
We are all born naked, but soon enough find ourselves wrapped in swaddling secrets. We learn to hide things and obfuscate, if not outright lie, about what we do and what we really want and even who we are. Our hypocrisies, infidelities, and staggering stupidities are woven into silken sails that allow us to effortlessly [...]
Something extraordinary occasionally breaks our modern isolation, and people come out of their worlds and communicate with others. The particular incident related here involved a normal boarding process with its mad rush to secure seats and overhead bin space. A baby at the back of the plane could not stop crying at the top of [...]
The poetry of John Keats is a window into the mad genius of the Romantics: their lusts and hopes; their ambitions and ignorance; their radicalism and fantasies. In reading Keats, one is simultaneously scandalized and sympathetic to the longing of the Romantic heart. “The best things we have come from madness.” John Keats died only [...]
Love has inspired countless composers, some of whom have written pieces dedicated to, or directly inspired by, their own beloveds. Here are ten of the best musical love letters ever composed. 1. Wagner: Siegfried Idyll Though his reputation rests on his big, long, and loud mythological operas, Richard Wagner was also capable of composing on a [...]
Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” is many things: several stories, some bleak, some uplifting, ranging from the creation of the world to the apotheosis of Julius Caesar. Yet in its most fundamental form, his epic love poem of many stories reveals deep truths in its poetic proclamations of the transformative power, and spirit, of love. Ovid was one [...]
My Grandma knew that it was only Jesus who could change the world. Our job was, as the song had it, to “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way/to be happy in Jesus/but to trust and obey.” It has been 125 years since she was born and nearly 30 years since she died, and [...]
You hear over and over again how people wish they had just seen the person they love one more time, or done this or that for her before she died. But I had that for nearly a decade. I knew Sharon was dying, and I tried to make the most of it. On September 18, [...]