Song of the Strange Ascetic – G.K.C.

Chesterton with a vintage Chesterton poem here: Song of the Strange Ascetic If I had been a Heathen, I’d have praised the purple vine, My slaves should dig the vineyards, And I would drink the wine. But Higgins is a Heathen, And his slaves grow lean and grey, That he may drink some tepid milk [...]

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Should I Be a Writer?

If you have to ask, then no. That’s Malcolm Cowley’s advice and it’s echoed by Rainer Maria Rilke, Christopher Hitchens and Rod Dreher. From Cowley: In matters like writing and painting, a man does what he has to do – if he has to write, why then, he writes; and if he doesn’t feel the [...]

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Slow day today

Today is my last day of the school year, which means I’m taking it easy, not worrying so much about the blog and trying to enjoy the first days of summer. Still will be two more posts today, but hardly anything from me today.

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Praying Drunk – Andrew Hudgins

One of my all-time favorite poems: Praying Drunk – Andrew Hudgins

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“She is not an environmentalist… someone with a program for making herself feel righteous and her neighbors uncomfortable.”

Peters uses an essay by Anthony Esolen in the new The Humane Vision of Wendell Berry as a launching pad for a discussion of creational integration and language.

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Margie Haack on Hospitality at The High Calling

One of Joie and my favorite people on the planet is Margie Haack of Rochester, MN. She and her husband Denis (who is also pretty OK in our book) run Ransom Fellowship and did our premarital counseling last spring, which was one of the more delightful experiences I’ve ever had. Here she is writing at The [...]

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Atonement and Salvation in Gran Torino

When watching Gran Torino (which may end up being Eastwood’s second-to-last film as an actor, and one of his final efforts behind the camera) it’s hard to escape the conclusion that one is seeing Eastwood’s vision for social redemption. It’s rough, certainly crass, and violates most of the social norms taught to young millenials like [...]

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Suddenly, Autumn

Last week I finally picked up a poetry collection written by an old professor of mine. I took a poetry writing class and a Poets from 1960-Present class with Ben Vogt during my time at the University of Nebraska and they were two of the most transformative classes I ever took. Though I do sometimes [...]

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Douglas Wilson on Protestantism and Aesthetics

Wilson with a fun argument that the self-loathing Protestant artist has it all wrong: So then, be done with the idea that Protestantism “has no artistic soul.” Remember my earlier point about Bach and Dante. I understand that we have to factor in Newton’s comment about standing on the shoulders of giants — the magisterial [...]

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On Seeing People as People

From Lewis’ That Hideous Strength: Next day they drove to Cure Hardy, and walked about the village for two hours and saw all the abuses and anachronisms they came to destroy. They saw the backward labourer and heard his views on the weather. They met the wastefully supported pauper shuffling across the courtyard of the alms-houses [...]

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