“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” – T. S. Eliot Home. It’s a mythic notion. Two of the three great epics of the Greco-Roman world trade explicitly in its associations. Odysseus and Aeneas … Continue reading »
Tagged with Wendell Berry …
Wendell Berry On “Camera Eye”
Came across the following this morning. Posted for your consideration. The Vacation by Wendell Berry Once there was a man who filmed his vacation. He went flying down the river in his boat with his video camera to his eye, making a moving picture of the moving river upon which his sleek boat moved swiftly … Continue reading »
After Stories (and Poems): The Forgotten Aesthetics of Persuasion
In the Old Testament, or the Hebrew Bible if you prefer, there is a story about a king and his excesses and the prophet who, as we would say today, spoke truth to power. The story is found in the book attributed to Samuel and the king was David, the most famous and revered of … Continue reading »
Conviviality and Friendship: Ivan Illich and Wendell Berry on the Virtues of Limits
At the start of this year, I was reading through Ivan Illich’s In the Vineyard of the Text and posting a few excerpts. That book, which paid an acknowledged debt to Walter Ong, focused on developments in the evolution of the book around 1200 and subsequent consequences for literacy and society. (You can visit those … Continue reading »
The Most Dangerous Gift
More advice from Belloc: “Look you, good people all, in your little passage through the daylight, get to see as many hills and buildings and rivers, fields, books, men, horses, ships, and precious stones as you can possibly manage to do. Or else stay in one village and marry in it and die there. For … Continue reading »
“Gratitude Is Happiness Doubled By Wonder”
When I think of gratitude, I think of G. K. Chesterton. I can think of few others who appeared to be always animated by a deep and inexhaustible gratitude for life and all that it entailed. With that in mind, here are few lines from Chesterton on the theme of gratitude and thanks: “I would … Continue reading »
A God that Limps
Our technologies are not unlike our children; we react with reflexive and sometimes intense defensiveness if either is criticized. Several years ago while teaching at a small private high school I forwarded an article to my colleagues. This was a mistake. The article raised some questions about the efficacy of computers in education. I didn’t … Continue reading »
What are universities for?
Not too long ago I noted two essays that appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, one by Martha Nussbaum and the other by Keith Thomas, on the topic of the humanities and the university. In his piece, “What are universities for?”, Thomas regretted the loss of the art of teaching within the context of an … Continue reading »
