The Epic of the Universe

Just a musing from my devotions this morning:

Inalienable Rights?

I've recently been reading Alisdair McIntyre's amazing book, After Virtue. It's an interesting reflection on contemporary philosophy's inability to conceptualize a stable foundation for ethics. McIntyre is working within an Aristotelian framework, which I particularly appreciate (I think very highly of Aristotle's Ethics). But one particular point in the early chapters of the book has stood out to me. 

McIntyre argues that the idea of human rights is entirely artificial.

Some Reading on Writing

Hello friends,

Just a short post today to keep in touch. I thought that I would share with you a few of the writing blogs which I've discovered in recent months.

Creative Election

Since I've started this attempt at novel writing, I've realized that I have some peculiar ideas about authorship. Over the years I've read a great many blog posts about the writing life, some of which, perhaps unhelpfully, detail the devotion, emotional involvement, and obsessive habits of true writers (in slightly-too-artistic-and-emotional prose, at that). I always find these posts off-putting, because the truth is, I am not like those writers. Maybe just because I haven't yet committed enough time to the craft. Maybe because those posts are overly dramatic and certainly generalized. But my authorial insecurities always whisper to me that the real explanation must simply be that I am not a true writer.

Some Exciting Endeavors

Hello friends,

I know I've been away from this blog for a while, chiefly because I often feel I have little constructive to say. I also know that I'm quite terrible at following through on blog projects I propose. I've been so consumed just by doing the reading for the GRE, there's been little time for creative writing in response.

Nevertheless, I did want to tell you all about a couple of projects I'm excited about. I may write more about my progress here. No promises, but I hope they will be long term commitments, and as such, they may well show up here again.

The Prodigal Son

In youth group this week, we discussed the story of the Prodigal Son as it relates to shame and guilt in our lives. It was a joy to share this passage with the students, but it was also an intensely valuable reminder to me about the love of God.

About That Project...

So, I haven't yet followed through on my promise to practice creative writing based on my GRE preparation. I spent a good bit of time messing about with the character of Jocasta from Oedipus Rex and intended to write a monologue or poem or something, but it hasn't quite come together. I'm on to Shakespeare now (rather fast-paced through to the Renaissance. It slows down from here). Wednesday, I had the joy of reviewing King Lear. I didn't have time to re-read the entire play, but I did get to review a few of the major monologues, and they're absolutely magnificent. Consider these lines of Lear's, after he and Cordelia are taken captive in the conclusion of the play:

I'm Back

I'm sorry, dear readers, for the blogging hiatus. Sometimes this happens because I don't think I have anything to write. In this case, I also have the excuse of technological difficulties. Several keys on my computer stopped working a week ago, and it's been in the shop since then. When I discovered the malfunction and realized that it would prevent me from logging into my computer, I have to confess I almost had a small panic attack--or maybe a small temper tantrum would be a better way of putting it. My computer easily becomes my substitute for human contact. It allows me to contact friends at home, but it also allows me to watch a great deal of television, to get lost in fictional worlds when I feel lonely in this world. The idea of being deprived of that distraction was frustrating, but it was also terrifying for a while. I'm a bit ashamed to admit that, because I've always thought that technology shouldn't be such an important element of my life. Nevertheless, it's true.

Faith and Skepticism

Ran into this quote in Soren Kierkegaard's Works of Love: 

A New Project

Hello dear friends,

As you may have noted, if you read my last post on New Year's Resolutions, this January I am beginning a new project to prepare myself for the GRE Literature Subject test. I plan to take the test in September and will be undertaking a rigorous reading list between now and then. My study guide is probably overkill for the test (which is the sort of exam that is so difficult, you can't prepare for it enough, but reasonably scaled so that it's not necessary to kill oneself in preparing). I'm viewing this process more as a way to review what I learned as an undergraduate and to develop my understanding of the course of literature in English (and some of its main influences).