Memorial Day
Today we honor our soldiers killed in the line of duty. Many of them were idealistic, most of them were young. I offer up today an enigmatic poem by A.E. Housman that captures, in an understated way, the tragedy of their deaths.
The poem is unusual in that it talks about soldiers having a choice. Technically, [...]
J. Robert Oppenheimer
Spiritual Sunday
What would attract the father of the nuclear bomb to a devotional poet like George Herbert?
That J. Robert Oppenheimer was drawn to the 17th-century Anglican rector I learn from American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, written by Kai Bird (a former Carleton classmate of mine) and Martin J. [...]
Sports Saturday
As two championship-starved hockey-rich cities prepare to square off in the Stanley Cup finals (Chicago and Philadelphia), Ljubljana English Department’s Jason Blake once again reflects upon the meaning of hockey for Canadians—and upon the omnipresence of stereotypes about Canadians playing hockey. While he was distraught at seeing the last Canadian team (the Montreal Canadiens [...]
Posted in 20th Century | Tagged Hockey, Sports |
Film Friday
Two weeks ago our Friday night film group watched Yojiro Takita’s Departures, the Japanese film that won the 2008 Best Foreign Film Oscar. Given our society’s discomfort with death, it is a film that people must see. (Caution: In the following reflection I’ll be revealing the ending.)
Departures is about a young Japanese man who [...]
I’ve been thinking recently about how every Shakespearean tragedy concludes with a restoration of order. The stage may be strewn with corpses and the spectator’s heart may have broken into a thousand little pieces, but (as though to provide some reassurance) someone steps forward at the end to set things straight.
In Hamlet it is Fortinbras [...]
Posted in 17th Century | Tagged Capitalism, Deregulation, Environment, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Nature, Othello, politics, Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare |
Eugene Robinson
Our Commencement speaker two weeks ago was the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson, 2009 Pulitzer Prize winner and one of my favorite columnists. He delivered a message to our graduates with which I fervently agree: THINK!
Robinson told us that he is tired of seeing politics conducted with bumper sticker simplicity. The real problems that America [...]
Pierre Corneille
I’ve been thinking about lying recently. One reason is because I recently saw a David Ives adaptation of Pierre Corneille’s 17th century comedy The Liar at the Washington Shakespeare Theater. Another is because of Maureen Dowd’s interesting NYT column Sunday about politicians who lie when they don’t have to.
Dowd is writing about Richard Blumenthal, the [...]
Posted in 17th Century, Comedy, politics | Tagged Far Pavilions, Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, Liar, Lies, Maureen Dowd, Pierre Corneille, politics, Richard Blumenthal |
Cover illustration for The Fountainhead
When I first started hearing the name Rand Paul, I thought that it was a political pundit’s joke. I thought the talk was about his father, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, not the man who last week became Kentucky’s Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate. Since Ron Paul espouses certain libertarian principles, I [...]
Spiritual Sunday
Today Western Christians observe Pentecost, the day 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection and 10 days after his ascension into heaven. Pentecost celebrates the moment when the disciplines saw themselves surrounded by tongues of fire and felt lifted up by the Holy Spirit. In the Book of John (14:16) Jesus is reported to have promised the disciples [...]
In his heyday, his only vulnerability
Sports Saturday
The Orlando arena was electric. The Magic, having lost their first home game against the Boston Celtics, were in a must-win situation. To lose the first two games of a playoff series at home is almost certain death, but they had fought back from an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit to [...]
