At Considerable Cost

Every day, I see headlines proclaiming that all is lost, each side claiming the other side is evil and the cause of all ills.   Because of my social media settings, many of these lamentations come from those who are Catholic.    And I've grown weary from it.   I can always find relief in scripture and prayer, but recently, I've found hope for literature, television, and film from some secular sources.    I watch the films of Steve McQueen who explores what it means to be human and how our actions affect others.   I read the reviews of stand-up comedian, writer, and actor,  Brett Goldstein, whose show, Contains Scenes of an Adult Nature , chronicles his addiction to pornography and his journey as he gave it up and continues to heal in the way he deals with women and relationships.   There are people out there searching for answers, for truth.   They are asking us to thi...

Black eyes.   Technically brown, but any border of iris is lost in their depths.   Not just windows to her soul, but to their observer, they seemed to also be a mirror into his own soul.   Eyes whose near blackness had the same effect as the nun's black habit, always turning my thoughts to God.   In the daylight, those turned thoughts were fresh, hopeful and exciting: a new life, redemption, belief sparkled within delicate almond-frames.   Sharp wit and wisdom beyond years.   But then there was the night, as the blackness deepened around, so it did in those eyes.   Still sparkling, but now with a depth of experience and knowledge.   She was close to God, in love and hope, but that proximity also opened her up to the spiritual world.   The reality of battles, forces, of angels and demons.   Sure, knowing, and peaceful, relying on the name of Jesus and to use the evangelical vernacul...

I don't feel the popular appeal of Pride and Prejudice as a love story.    I totally understand the reaction to Colin Firth and Matthew Macfadyen on-screen as Mr. Darcy (boy, do I get that), but that's unrelated to the story for me.   Yes, I love the romantic story within the larger story, but it always annoys me to levels quite abnormal when Pride and Prejudice is seen simply as a love story.   It's so much more complicated than that.  My biggest criticism of the feature-length film from 2005, starring Matthew Macfadyen and Keira Knightley is that it distilled the whole novel into just a love story.   The first time I watched the movie was under miserable circumstances, but after viewing it under more pleasant ones, I can now find things to compliment.  The great success of the 1995 BBC television adaptation of the novel, besides showcasing Colin Firth, was that it included some key elements of the novel.    I...

A poem to share from the latest post at If Flannery Had a Blog : ON VISITING FLANNERY O'CONNOR'S GRAVE Milledgeville, Ga., 1988 --MAXINE KUMIN ...but first, an historic detour just this side of what the local intelligentsia in fond self-deprecation call Mudville to take the cart track up to Andalusia, the family seat, a serene remove from town, as in a good Victorian novel. Here, from the first-floor bedroom window even on those last dark days, she could see her beloved peacocks pecking and fanning, the tribe of philoprogenitive donkeys ambling down to the farm pond in the meadow, a grove of ancient pecan trees bending to be picked. Not antebellum grand, but commodious Andalusia, with real gardens harrowed every spring with real manure, so that it's touching but not surprising that when Mary McCarthy remarked, years before, she had come to think of the Eucharist as a symbol, O'Connor, considerably put out by lapsed Catholic rhetoric, fl...