Author: Tim

• The Exegesis Industry

  Imagine a page of text transcribed from a plain-spoken speech, outdoors, to a simple audience, which a reader with no other beliefs to defend would interpret without reaching for a dictionary.   Imagine, then, this page of plain text produces entire professions, entire industries, books literally 1000 pages long, all to tell new generations why it…

• “Searching For Bobby Fischer” (Movie)

  In the movie “Searching for Bobby Fischer”, the child chess prodigy Josh has two teachers: the Fun Teacher and the Real Teacher.   (Am I revealing my bias yet?)   The Fun Teacher is the guy in the park who makes chess fast, freewheeling, aggressive, carefree – fun.   Under him, Josh gets to exploit his natural…

• The Moral Cocoon versus The Intellectual Cocoon

  There’s a lot of talk about homeschool children growing up in a cocoon.   Should they?   Yes, and no. Yes to the moral cocoon, no to the intellectual cocoon. These two should be sharply distinguished by parents and treated oppositely. Cultivate the first; discard the second. But first:  almost every parent creates a cocoon of some type for…

• The Ponzi Molecule

  Atoms have charges which pre-dispose them to particular molecular combinations.   Congresspeople are the atoms in our political system.   They also carry “charges” which pre-dispose them to create particular laws.    This charge has nothing to do with party or even political philosophy, because in the modern era, re-election depends on bringing back to your district more than your taxpayers put in.  …

• 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…

• “Avatar” (Movie)

  Stunning visuals, tired old plot.   With one sneaky twist. By now this cartoon plot should be as familiar to everyone as, say,  the roadrunner and the coyote.  It is becoming the cultural air we breathe.   This Dances With Wolves myth, (in Avatar the indians are tall and blue) is the new founding myth of America, and indeed of the whole world.…

• Douglas Wilson: on what “Twilight” says about love.

  If a man treats you terribly, it is all because he loves you. If a man confesses he might kill you, you should just stay with him forever and a day. If a man abandons you without explanation, it is because he loves you so much. If your lover needs to be changed, it must…

• Gregory Nazianzen on Advent: “A bearer of flesh, but, even so, beyond all body.”

  He was a man, but God. David’s offspring, but Adam’s Maker. A bearer of flesh, but, even so, beyond all body. From a Mother, but she is a Virgin. Comprehensible, but immeasurable. And a manger received him, while a star led the Magi, who so came bearing gifts, and fell on bended knee. As a…