Blog
Everyday Transcendence, Inside, The Anthropocene Reviewed
Transcendence is not the special religious accomplishment of the spiritual elite; it is the constitutive characteristic of the human being as such, soul and body.
Defaults, The Road, Fireflies and Starlings
Long ago, Socrates argued that the unexamined life is not worth living. He had to make that argument, he felt compelled to bring it to our attention, because—in his time as in ours—the unexamined life is the default.
The Problem with Passion, Resurrection, Pandemic Time (with Tarkovsky)
Passion is a negative indicator of fulfillment. What I am passionate about is more properly marked by what I am willing to suffer in order to create or to contribute to some good that I value highly.
Loving Attention, Spring, Commonplace Books
The mind and the heart are not such separate faculties as we often presume.
Memento Mori, The Love That Lays the Swale in Rows, Wait But Why?
Memento mori: “remember that you will die”. This has long been the rallying cry of philosophy.
(Dante Edition) Space vs. Place, Ambition, Descent and Ascent
We do not see the super-abundant, saturated, breath-taking, awe-inspiring, fiery fullness of the heavens. What once was a palpable presence has now become a silent absence.
Minding, Axe Handles, Red Herring
What I do—that activity which most fundamentally characterizes me as the living human being that I am—is to dwell in the world in a more-or-less mindful way. The more I mind, the more I truly live.
Singing Cicadas, Hummingbird Hearts, Macbeth Masterclass
Our work, our conversation, our lives, take place within the more encompassing song of the cicadas.
What is Sacred?, The Writer, Song Exploder
“Anything that we can destroy but are unable to make is, in a sense, sacred, and all our ‘explanations’ of it do not really explain anything.”
Eye Contact, What Can Literature Do?, In and of Itself
The face is an astonishing thing. We might say that the face is the body at its most revelatory.