January 2009
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The important word in the quotation in the previous post is the one in italics: rational. You can offer smoke, mirrors, and shouting as an explanation for anything, and a lot of people will be distracted enough by the spectacle to believe you. But you won’t convince anyone who’s thinking clearly. I’m not sure that…
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From a wonderful little book by Ratzinger/Benedict, Christianity and the Crisis of Cultures: It is an obvious fact that the rational character of the universe cannot be explained rationally on the basis of something irrational! It is obvious, though I don’t know that it can be proven, and yet there are many who would deny…
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The following dialog serves as a guide for the correct exchange of greetings between co-workers after the Christmas-New Year holiday break: A: Did you have a good break? B: Yeah, it was nice. How about you? A: Yeah, it was nice. No further information is required or desired, although a supplementary remark about the unpleasantness…
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Some years ago in a period of chronically low spirits I discovered that the writings of P.G. Wodehouse are a wonderful anti-depressant. They’re a sort of literary champagne—light, bright, and bubbly. Or like the lighter works of Mozart. If you’re depressed, they’ll cheer you up. If you’re happy, they’ll make you happier. I find that…
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She might be heartbroken, but she was not so heartbroken as to hold herself aloof from an enterprise which involved stealing pigs. —Wodehouse, from Pigs Have Wings again Pre-TypePad http://js-kit.com/for/lightondarkwater.com/comments.js
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Mary Consoling Eve, by a Trappist nun. “And all shall be well…” Pre-TypePad http://js-kit.com/for/lightondarkwater.com/comments.js
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There’s a nice New Year’s Day reflection from the Pope in the Christmas Magnificat. It was written long before he became pope, credited to a 1985 book called Dogma and Preaching. The year is ending… We feel both the melancholy and the consolation of our own transiency…. As we look back, difficult days are transfigured…
Light On Dark Water 