Thoughts on spirituality, culture, family, teaching & more
These days are divisive in the US. In addition to mask-wearing, schooling complications, and the efficacy of various vaccines, everyone has an opinion about the protests (whether they talk about it or not) and the controversies related to them: kneeling during the national anthem, removing Confederate monuments, defunding police, and more. According to the International... Continue Reading →
In my class, I refer to literature in two categories: Real Lit and Junk Lit. Real Lit means texts that you need to unpack, that have layers, that speak to the human condition. Junk Lit is mostly comprised of those free titles on the Amazon e-books list—you read them fast, but never... Continue Reading →
Recently I wrapped up a unit on poetry both for my ninth graders and tenth graders. I'm going to rag on them a bit (they know how much I love them--I often joke that sarcasm is my love language, so if I don't sass you, we're probably not too close). The reason is that I... Continue Reading →
...and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the... Continue Reading →
Advent We hold on to our demise-- what things we hold on to! Lamp-posts line cold streets: lightless, lifeless, leafless poking about in irrelevance. Rosy cheeks cross rosy streets, a subtle blush sponged upon the winter droll; everything is fine. “Say it enough, and it's yours if you just believe,” thumped from a television set,... Continue Reading →
Really, this is late news, but last fall a poem of mine was selected to fill the pages of Glass Mountain, "a literary journal edited by undergraduate students at the University of Houston" and "dedicated to showcasing the works from undergraduate and emerging artists." This, of course, is a humble achievement (I wasn't exactly published... Continue Reading →
Just the other day, my class was performing skits of various scenes in the life of David before becoming king of Israel (and the king of Israel's brief Golden Age). As I was sharing a few personal thoughts to the end of one performance, I suddenly realized just how closely it paralleled the story... Continue Reading →
Macbeth is definitely my favorite Shakespeare play...so far (I am more widely read in Shakespeare than the average person, but I am still woefully ignorant of the entire Shakespeare canon). However, spending any time at all among Shakespeare's works quickly enlightens us as to why the Elizabethan playwright is so profoundly famous and global: his fantastical... Continue Reading →
For many years (decades, centuries), there has been debate as to what should be the relationship between art and religion. From a Christian perspective, should art have any prominent role in the church? What do we do about art made by those who believe differently than us? This might be visual art, literary art,... Continue Reading →
Nearly everyone has been exposed to some of the fun, whimsical poetry of Shel Silverstein: The Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Falling Up, and The Giving Tree are some of his most notable works. His writing--targeted primarily at children--shows itself to be both entertaining and often quite surprisingly deep. Today I wanted... Continue Reading →
