How Can an Introvert Become a Believer?
You might wonder about the title: how could "introvert" be an obstacle to becoming a “believer?” Yet that’s exactly how I felt when I first stepped into…
The Hidden Gems of Budapest
I finished Grad-School in Chicago in 2010; having had the opportunity to work abroad in China, Canada, South America, Mexico and in Spain, Central and Eastern Europe…
Dissecting the Novel: Notes on Reproductions and the Fragile Pleasures of Reading
I was 18 and in Italy for the summer. My then-girlfriend had a house in the rolling Tuscan hills, where days were filled only with cooking, enjoying…
For God, For Country, and For Yale: And Other Currently Unpopular Opinions
It is currently an unpopular opinion to be supportive of America’s institutions of higher education, especially the prestigious universities like Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, and others—especially in…
East of Appomattox: Where Old Times Are Still Not Forgotten
One of the great joys of Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee is that when I am out hiking the mountainous landscape of the Appalachian and…
The Immanence and Transcendence of Christ
Understanding the deepest Christian mystery through an abandoned Gnostic novel. In my early twenties, I had an idea for a novel. It would be titled “The…
Hemingway and Me: Or How I Learned to Love Hemingway and Stop Worrying About His Hopelessness
I did not always like Ernest Hemingway. In some ways I still don’t. Among the post-Great War American writers, I consider F. Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck…
Poetry and Trust
My friend Mary recently told me that her trust of poetry solidified as she gradually understood the meanings behind poems that she instinctually liked. This process is…
From Denial to Acceptance: An Essay on Aging
When I look in the mirror, I don’t see a middle-aged man suffering from hypertension and pre-diabetes. I see a head of thick brown hair. A still-youthful…
Remembering Ellis Sandoz
My Doktorvater is dead. G. Ellis Sandoz went to the Great Beyond on September 19th. I met Ellis 31 years ago and indeed the German word Doktorvater captures well the relationship…
Must Our Stories Come Out Right?
In my passage from childhood to young girlhood, there were two stories I relied on for clues about the life that lay ahead of me. The first…
Why Bob Dylan?
In January of 2022, my dad and I, one Saturday morning, took a drive. Our main conversation topic had been about getting concert tickets to an artist…
The Prog Rock Collector
Given that progressive rock tends to be literary and intelligent, it should not be shocking that there are also many great books coming out about the genre…
Roger and Me
Walking into the Reform Club in London’s ritzy Pall Mall, the aspirations of a 26-year-old American student had come true. Recently graduated from Yale but deciding against…