Sunday Inspiration: Beginners
We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginners, all our life!—Thomas Merton
Sunday Inspiration: Inventing Our Lives
All of us have to learn how to invent our lives, make them up, imagine them. We need to be taught these skills; we need guides to show us how. If we don’t, our lives get made up for us by other people.—Ursula K. Le Guin
Real Magic
No "scare quotes" necessary. Dr. Andrew Henry is a specialist in magical practices in late antiquity and has some opinions about how our favorite fantasy franchises handle magic. It's well worth a watch!
I literally had to take a moment to decide that this was, in fact, satire.
Random Thoughts on Percy Jackson Season 3
I just finished listening to the audiobook of The Titan's Curse, the third book in the Percy Jackson book series and thus the basis for the third season of the Disney series. Here are some random (spoiler-free) thoughts. There is a surprising divergence…
Racism exists and to make it about violent segregationists blinded us to our family’s and friends’ racial assumptions found in jokes and private conversations. The quiet part has not been quiet for some time and still some tolerate it. Any attempt to dehumanize another person is racism.
Sunday Inspiration: True Wealth
True wealth is not measured in money or status or power. It is measured in the legacy we leave behind for those we love and those we inspire.—César Chávez
Sunday Inspiration: Reading
Reading shaped my dreams, and more reading helped me make my dreams come true.—Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Quote skeet a gif with a clue of where you're from...
A Blast from the Past
Thanks to Nellie Thorne for her review of Children of Pride. It’s nice to know that my first novel is still finding an audience as it comes up on its twelfth anniversary! In part: Overall, this is a beautifully crafted portal fantasy that balances adventure, mystery, and…
Sunday Inspiration: Our Job
Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy.—Thomas Merton
Sunday Inspiration: Like Brothers
We have flown the air like birds and swum the sea like fishes, but have yet to learn the simple act of walking the earth like brothers.—Martin Luther King Jr.
Big Four Bridge
In the Caretaker Trilogy, the Big Four Bridge, formerly affectionately known as “the bridge to nowhere” before it was repurposed for pedestrians, hides an entrance to the domain of the Merlady, the supernatural gangster who rules from this part of the Ohio River.
Sunday Inspiration: Keeping Silent
It is not easy to keep silent when silence is a lie.—Victor Hugo
Sunday Inspiration: Our True Destiny
Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone… We find it with another.—Thomas Merton
Sunday Inspiration: Kindling a Light
As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.—Carl Jung
Sunday Inspiration: What Lies within Us
What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.—Henry D. Haskins
Sunday Inspiration: Grace
All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful.—Flannery O’Connor
Sunday Inspiration: Books
You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.—Ray Bradbury
Or you can upsize it and also receive the Four Seasons Landscaping medal of distinction.
Sunday Inspiration: Indifference
Indifference is the one thing that makes the angels weep.—William James
The library kinda misses the small time lawyer who used to come in to use our legal database and books.
He switched over to AI for research.
His disbarment is next week.
Sunday Inspiration: The Soul
The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts.—Marcus Aurelius
Black Friday?
On this Black Friday, I'd like to simply remind you that Bookshop.org is a fine way to buy books while supporting local bookstores. If that's something you'd be interested in doing.
Lots of people posting pics of their Thanksgiving plate. Am I doing this right?
I used to wonder if I were the father of modern linguistic structuralism. Now I’m not Saussure.
Sunday Inspiration: Be the Reason
Be the reason someone smiles. Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness of people.—Roy T. Bennet
Sunday Inspiration: You Shall Know the Truth
You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.—Flannery O’Connor
Did you say "ruin the country"?
Sunday Inspiration: Reading
Children should learn that reading is pleasure, not just something that teachers make you do in school.—Beverly Cleary
