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The Unlikely Peripatetic, or, A Postscript to the Paperclip
He meets your eye from the book’s broad flyleaf, a vivid figure on a ground of flame blue. Piercing through a quizzical squint and the flash-fixed vapor of a cheeky cigar, the gaze is more forward than one expects from such age. Facing the title page’s monoglyph—Design—the portrait reads like a dare. In a way, it is. A household name in his native UK, Terence … Continue reading The Unlikely Peripatetic, or, A Postscript to the Paperclip
Reborn in Wonder: How Belize Re-Taught Me to Love the Liberal Arts
Last August, I moved to Belize to teach humanities at a liberal arts junior college. It would be natural to assume that my decision, coming on the heels of four years of studying history at Hillsdale, arose from my confidence in the value of liberal arts education. That assumption would be wrong. If there’s any message a liberal arts college wants you to believe, it’s … Continue reading Reborn in Wonder: How Belize Re-Taught Me to Love the Liberal Arts
Love and Attention: The Films of Greta Gerwig
In a scene near the beginning of Lady Bird, the heroine argues with her mother on the drive home from visiting colleges. Frustrated by the mundanity of life in 2002 Sacramento, she protests, “I wish I could live through something.” The mother, irritated, replies, “Aren’t you?” The conversation swiftly devolves, ending with Lady Bird throwing herself out of the moving car in dramatic frustration. But … Continue reading Love and Attention: The Films of Greta Gerwig
Things Below: Thoughts on the World and Literature, Part Two of Two
Continued from last issue. O’Connor’s sense of the fantastic nature and Rev. Ames’ wonder at the lovely particularity of creation are, in my experience, unusual among Christians. In fact, it’s rare among people anywhere, no matter their religious perspective. This general inattentiveness to nature’s quiet glories draws the attention of Emerson, for instance, in his book Nature, where, regarding the stars, he writes, “Seen in … Continue reading Things Below: Thoughts on the World and Literature, Part Two of Two
A Hidden Life
As the Nazi guards beat him, Franz Jägerstätter smiles. It’s a moment that’s unexpected and almost lost among successive scenes of violence, but one that briefly shines the light of Christ within the cracked, water-stained walls of the Nazi prison. In director Terrence Malick’s newest film, A Hidden Life, Franz Jägerstätter and his wife Fani live with their three young daughters in the Austrian village … Continue reading A Hidden Life
Little Women
“My child, the troubles and temptations of your life are beginning and may be many; but you can overcome and outlive them all if you learn to feel the strength and tenderness of your Heavenly Father as you do that of your earthly one.” As Theodore “Laurie” Laurence puts his hands in his pockets and walks away from the chaos of the March house, its … Continue reading Little Women
Star Wars
Star Wars closes out its newest trilogy and the entire Skywalker saga, delivering an enjoyable adventure with loads of nostalgia. We enter the story not long after Last Jedi left off as the Resistance rallies on a jungle planet. Rey, under Leia’s guidance, grows stronger in the Force despite lingering uncertainties about her identity. The brooding Kylo Ren returns, this time with a red-streaked helmet … Continue reading Star Wars
Summer Beauty
“What did you do this summer?” Every time I arrive back on campus for fall semester, I answer that question more times than I care to count. It is really almost as bad as freshman year (“What’s your name? Where are you from? What do you want to major in?”). This past fall, however, the question didn’t get old, because the answer sounded surreal to … Continue reading Summer Beauty
Letter From the Editor, December 2019
William Hazlitt once wrote that the best essayists are those who can “contract or dilate” their attention to see the endless variety in “this huge and proper life,” and then write about it with one stirring quality: gusto. Here, we have a collection of essays with a literary bent—all of them, I am proud to say, written with gusto. Cait Weighner writes about a visit … Continue reading Letter From the Editor, December 2019
Music Review: Brittany Howard, Jaime
In late September, Brittany Howard released her first solo album and embarked on a two-month international tour. The album, Jaime, takes its name from the older sister who taught Howard to play the piano and who died of cancer as a teenager. A short half-hour and eleven tracks long, Jaime artfully unfolds its maker’s history: her loves, perspective, anxieties and wounds. To work on this … Continue reading Music Review: Brittany Howard, Jaime
Looking into Schedules: Thoughts on Time, Self-Gift, and the Joy of Boundaries
In Rockford, Illinois, a faded, yellow-brick ranch house sits between a large wood and the helicopter pad at the Emergency Unit of Saint Anthony Medical Center. The house, which boasts more paintings and statues of saints than pieces of furniture, serves as a convent for the three Franciscan sisters who work at Saint Anthony’s—one of whom is my biological sister. While visiting recently, my parents … Continue reading Looking into Schedules: Thoughts on Time, Self-Gift, and the Joy of Boundaries
