Sooner or later each of us confronts the question of what it means to be me. Who am I as an individual existing in this time and place, as part of this family and this people? This most basic question is thrown at each of us, and there is no predetermined script.
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The Education of Henry Adams (Book Recommendation)
The education he had received bore little relation to the education he needed. Speaking as an American of 1900, he had as yet no education at all. He knew not even where or how to begin.
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“Beyond the Next Ocean”
To gaze upon something well done and speak the truth about it becomes us, since we are ourselves formed in God’s image.
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On Primitive Photography, Primary School and Other Matters
Wonder from the World Wide Web
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The Beauty of Excellence: Rethinking Student Motivation
The beauty of excellence provides us not only a vision of greatness but also a vision for greatness: greatness in a particular skill, greatness of the human spirit, greatness of human achievement, and greatness in our own lives.
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Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” and Flannery O’Connor
Quentin Tarentino’s film “Pulp Fiction” and Flannery O’Connor’s stories smell of nihilism. But at the end of the film, and at the end of O’Connor’s stories, the light of Providence glimmers tantalizingly. So there was a meaning after all! But it was not the meaning I was expecting.
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The Ancient Japanese Art of Shibori
Even if you don’t know it by name, you have probably seen shibori-inspired creations before. The blue and white 'watercolor-esque' patterns have started to appear on everything from throw pillows to summer dresses. Shibori is trendy now, but it is an ancient art.
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On Leaves, Leisure, Attention, and Other Matters
Several weeks of wonder from around the world wide web.
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On the Importance of Forgetting
Most attention in our culture is given to the importance of remembering. But it turns out that forgetting can be just as important. The inability to forget can be as destructive as the inability to remember.
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“Thoughts that Wound from Behind:” Literary Allusions as Pedagogical Opportunities
Dante places the ancient hero Ulysses into the eighth circle of hell. A fraudulent counselor of war, deception, and exploration beyond the bounds of God’s law, Ulysses suffers eternal encasement in flame. But Tennyson’s poem, great in its own right, calls Dante’s judgment into question. The tension between these two poems – one epic, one lyrical – gets at the very question of the meaning of life.
