A Madeleine Day
Will I ever retire Walking on Water: just leave it alone or give it away? I doubt it. It continues to speak to me, even though I would never think to include L’Engle in a list of my favorite writers.…
Who Wrote that Book?
Most of my life was largely guided by unquestioned assumptions: my parents loved me, school was a good thing, following the rules was a guarantee of success. I know that my parents loved me, but the other stuff? Well, let’s…
All We Need for the Journey
For one reason or another, I saved a Magnificat meditation by Dorothy Day. Her words appear in purple. Today the atmosphere is very heavy. Rain threatens. So often one is overcome with a tragic sense of the meaninglessness of our…
Who Do You Serve?
Father Anthony Giambrone, O.P. wrote a Magnificat essay about Peter’s shadow, which just so happened to heal those thronging about him after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Our monthly guide through the more whimsical elements of the Bible acknowledges folklore motifs…
When You’re a Stranger
Where did I come from and who am I? Do typical people expend much time on these questions, or is it just me and a handful of other narcissists? I actually am genuinely interested in those big questions, perhaps, most…
Worming into Our Consciousness
Since I seldom seem able to go forward without shifting into reverse first, I am approaching a new post by looking at an old one—as a matter of fact, the first post here at The Ruff Draft. On August 11,…
Recognizing Limits
Leo Tostoy believed that all history is essentially false. How is it that two people can witness the same accident and give conflicting testimonies only a few minutes after it happens, with both witnesses convinced they are sharing accurate information?…
It Can Get Hazy Among Humans
Reading Rosemary Sutcliff’s novels set in Roman Britain is a bit of a paradox. As a lover of freedom, I should be rooting for the native tribes who have had their ways of life upset, curtailed, and sometimes ruined by…
Thinking and Knowing
Art and poetry get banished from our lives, and we are impoverished. We put our hands in our empty pockets and wonder why nothing fills them. We turn to roadmaps and instruction manuals but are still unable to decipher how…
Letting Myself Look
I guess I have not written about Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O’Neill and that surprises me. It, or maybe the just the Joe Rogan chat with Tom O’Neill, turned out…
An Inevitable Implication
My family and I spent the first day of the new year visiting Dennis’s parents in New Hampshire. I guess it’s nice to get away from home once in a while, but no more than that. I’ve become too much…
An Unfinished Film and Missing Pieces
Oh, what a world. These are interesting times, and I spend much of my day watching the movie that is playing on the screen. How will it end? I think I know, but we have not gotten to the climax,…
