There and Back Again

There and Back Again

John Shea confessed his Doctor Who fandom, so I’ll meet him and match him geek-for-geek with Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. I’ve read it and reread it many times over the years. No doubt some people will roll their eyes at that, dismissing the...
Week in Review — Feb. 6-12, 2012

Week in Review — Feb. 6-12, 2012

At the beginning of last week we did some redecorating while everyone was passed out on the couch after the Superbowl. Then Peter Folan told us that the Superbowl wasn’t just a rematch, but, in Ignatian terms, it was a repetition — a creative reception of the...
A Rose by Any Other Name

A Rose by Any Other Name

Everyone named Jim Keane is a bumbling ne’er-do-well. You may have examples to the contrary, but I have known them all already, known them all: the Jim Keane in Finland who stole his brother’s plumbing tools; the homonymous wanker in Liverpool who never paid his...
Falling Trees: On the Weight of Life

Falling Trees: On the Weight of Life

A few months ago two 1500 year-old giant sequoias, twinned at their base, fell in California. While not unheard of, this kind of thing certainly doesn’t happen every day—if it did these trees wouldn’t grow to be as old as they are. Decisions were to be made and since...
Science & the Meaning of Life

Science & the Meaning of Life

What does science have to do with the meaning of life? Adam Frank of NPR’s Science and Culture Blog, titled “13.7” after the best estimates of the universe’s age in billions of years, recently took a stab at this question (you can read the whole piece by...
‘Tis A Gift To Be Simple…

‘Tis A Gift To Be Simple…

I still remember memorizing the Our Father as a child in Sunday school. Whenever I’m on a bumpy plane ride, that familiar prayer of my youth comes to me sooner than any comforting words I could assemble on my own.  When it comes down to it, I remember best what...
Who Writes Your Operating System?

Who Writes Your Operating System?

Since I’m sure we’re violating a fundamental law of the internet by existing for two full weeks without linking to a video of an infant doing something cute on YouTube, I’m going to remedy that now. This baby, in addition to being cute, can’t...
Advice from a Spiritual Hitchhiker: Don’t Panic

Advice from a Spiritual Hitchhiker: Don’t Panic

Some years ago, I put one of my younger sisters onto Douglas Adams’ science-fiction work The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  The book’s taste for the fantastic and the absurd was just my sister’s kind of humor, but an unforeseen consequence of the recommendation...