Month: January 2010

• Willa Cather: “My Antonia”

  My Antonia (Willa Cather)– Kindle Loc. 218-27 I sat down in the middle of the garden, where snakes could scarcely approach unseen, and leaned my back against a warm yellow pumpkin. There were some ground-cherry bushes growing along the furrows, full of fruit. I turned back the papery triangular sheaths that protected the berries and ate…

• The “True” Christmas

  It is a universal human pattern:  first, use some analytical solvent on the accidents to get to the essence,  then, be shocked that the essence itself melted away.      Christmas is not a core story or truth buried under the barnacles of culture.   It is a dialogue between God and man, in which God says “Emmanuel!”  and…

• Petercave Road

  “We shall not cease from explorationAnd the end of all our exploringWill be to arrive where we startedAnd know the place for the first time. “ Most Americans think West Virginia is the middle of nowhere. And most West Virginians think the little town of Wayne is the middle of nowhere.   And the good people…