Posts by D C

Once students wrestle with these thinkers, they realize that the secret of living a moral life will never be found on a poster or bumper sticker. Investigating the moral life takes time and effort, and then committing to live morally is the work of a lifetime. Focusing on the moral life—what is it and one…

What images come to mind with the word “war?” For much of human history, artists working for pharaohs, emperors, kings, queens, sultans, and tsars portrayed war, especially victorious battles, as glorious moments in history. However, much of how war has been portrayed changed with the advent of photography. Even when viewed today, early wartime photography…

Writing non-fiction and fiction for nearly thirty years hadn’t prepared me for the eager response that I received when I began offering writing workshops. In my first workshop in a small town in northern Wisconsin, a wide-range of people attended, who wanted to write poetry, fiction, historical non-fiction, devotions, family histories, and memoirs. In a…

In just a few days, we will experience one of the great differences between the ancient and modern worlds.  I’m referring to the solar eclipse which will bring thousands of sun-gazers to our county.  Driving through downtown Franklin last week, I saw signs of how we modern and scientifically-educated people are dealing with the coming…

All of us who are interested in presidential politics must admit that Donald Trump has thrown out the playbook on how to get elected.  It is stunning how many of the time-honored taboos that all previous candidates had to avoid have been ignored by Trump. Not that long ago, even the hint of sexual impropriety…

As my wife and I watched the Oscar awards last Sunday, she remembered that the last night we watched the entire ceremony was when we lived in LA back in the early seventies. That was when we were first married and our TV was a black and white box with a screen about ten inches…

Taos, New Mexico, is a town famous for many reasons.  Taos Pueblo has been home to an Indigenous community of Tiwa ancestry for at least the past thousand years.  Spanish conquistadors arrived in the late sixteenth century.  Kit Carson lived in Taos in the nineteenth century, and then, beginning in the early twentieth century, Taos…

As the two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine passes, the news out of Ukraine is dark.  Russian forces have achieved significant victories, and the Ukrainian death toll has passed 31,000.  What President Zelensky needs right now is a strong recommitment from NATO and particularly the US to help his country and brave troops turn…

On a recent road trip, my wife and I passed through Roswell, New Mexico.  We managed to make it through the infamous town without stopping for anything related to UFOs.  But passing through Roswell did lead me to think about conspiracy theories.  And that led me to think about The X-Files, the paranormal series that…

I will never forget my first visit to a monastery.  I was travelling through Kentucky for a speaking engagement and made a short visit to Gethsemani Abbey, the Trappist monastery where Thomas Merton was a monk.  On that first visit, I entered the guesthouse where a monk paused from playing jazz on a saxophone to…