Crunch time means devoting an inordinate amount of mental space and physical exertion to “stuff” for a while. One function of the Incarnation, I’ve been thinking, is that we are constantly constantly carrying stuff from one place to another. Take a look around next time you’re out. Guys with plastic bags dangling from their handlebars, kids with backpacks, mothers with strollers, pickup trucks laded with rakes, shovels, trash barrels, all of us hauling bags of groceries into the kitchen after a Trader Joe’s run.
THE CREATIVE LIFE
BEHIND THE SCENES WITH AN ART INSTALLER
The real thrill is getting to put (gloved) hands on these works. “In a gallery there’s often a stanchion or a tape line on the floor. We have the luxury and honor of being the people who are actually allowed up close. Are these D-rings strong enough? What if a viewer inadvertently jostles this pedestal: is the work sufficiently secured?”
DESERT SOLITAIRE
Devastating discovery: Tucson does not have 99 Cents Only Stores, which have been a mainstay of my marketing life for many years. Cleaning supplies, toiletries, produce, oat milk, coconut water, flax seed…Aspirin, cough drops, hydrogen peroxide, Sour Patch Watermelon…I’m sure I have saved hundreds if not thousands of dollars at the 99.
WANTED: DISTURBING HOMILIES!
Here’s how this week’s arts and culture column begins: Recently I heard a homily in which the priest shared that he and his brethren are generally instructed by their superiors not to say anything that will disturb people. I almost wept. If we’re not here to be disturbed, to be challenged, to be called higher, […]
THE PILGRIMAGE CONTINUES
From a friend, last week, at Madonna House in Combermere, Ontario: “The Loons and the Great Blue Heron have returned from the south. The maple sap has quit running and the maple trees are budding. Yesterday there was a work bee to take the leaves off the flower beds because the crocuses have just started […]
PASOLINI AND ME PODCAST!
More podcast fun. This one is from Catholic Culture, with Thomas Mirus and James T. Majewski, good Catholic boys from NYC. Here’s the YouTube blurb: “In 1962, inspired by Pope St. John XXIII’s outreach to non-Christian artists, a gay communist picked up the Gospels and ended up making a film about Jesus. Nervous yet? But […]
THE RELEVANCE OF THE STARS
From “Overcoming Dualism”: “In practical terms this means that everything human that is interesting can lead me to Christ.”
MY PODCAST ABOUT MONEY
Here’s an interview I taped a while back with the wonderful Chloe Langr, of the podcast Letters to Women – Exploring the Feminine Genius. The title is “A Letter to the Woman Hungry for an Honest Conversation About Money.” But if you’re a hungry guy, that’s totally okay, too! Thank you, Chloe!
MORNING LIGHT
Every once in a while I end up at some strange, random church and hear a homily that makes me sit up straight. The priest at the Sacred Heart of Jesus, in Nogales, AZ, in the gentlest possibly way, pointed out that every one of us is exactly like Judas. How many times have we sold him out for thirty pieces of silver–or, for that matter, way less?…
SILENCE AND THE EXISTENTIAL DESERT
Recently I had lunch with a dear friend of many decades, a convert like me who last year was diagnosed with an aggressive form of skin cancer and has undergone surgery, skin grafts, radiation, chemo, and excruciating nerve pain.
“So have you been going through a huge existential desert, or what?” I kicked off the conversation.
ACTING AS IF
“Acting as if” doesn’t mean pretending everything’s “all right” and that we’re not in terrible pain; it means not transmitting our pain to, or blaming our pain on, others.
I’M JUST GONNA KEEP POSTING THIS TILL THE WORKSHOP IS FULL!
HEATHER KING SPRING 2021 WRITING WORKSHOP!! 8 WEEKS, MARCH 6-APRIL 24, SATURDAYS 12-2 PST. Eight-person max. Four slots left. Get ‘em while they last!!!
COCKTAIL HOUR AT THE FRICK, COVID-STYLE
“Why these vegetables together? This is the artist, sending someone to the market and presenting everyday objects in a new light.” What’s wonderful is on the one hand “the simplicity of the depiction combined with the incredible beauty, the sort of poetic feeling. You can feel the texture, the surface of the porcelain, the fabric, the wood, the glass.”