Category: Essays

Film Reviews, ISSUE #41 | MAY 2023

What it Means to Reconcile: Lady Bird, Columbus, and Coming-of-Age in a World of Change

The year 2017 was a time of flourishing for the indie movie scene, and while the top charts were still dominated by the usual suspects—Marvel superheroes, Star Wars, Stephen King horror— a handful of indie movies reached them as well. A common topic for the indie movies that year was coming-of-age, which was explored particularly well by the high-grossing-hit Lady Bird directed by Greta Gerwig, … Continue reading What it Means to Reconcile: Lady Bird, Columbus, and Coming-of-Age in a World of Change

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ISSUE #41 | MAY 2023, Poetry

Poetic Ethics

We are listening creatures; whence else our speaking? And whence are we? So there is a Word that precedes us. We are spoken creatures. What constitutes this speech constitutes us in some way. And listening to this speech and speaking it are the acts of discernment and virtue. Words have many meanings. Mutatis mutandis, listening carefully to this word detects several valances. General listening is … Continue reading Poetic Ethics

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ISSUE #41 | MAY 2023, LIVING

Singleness is Not a Failing

I came into Hillsdale with a series of expectations—one of which was to get a boyfriend. I had already heard so many “ring by spring” stories, I thought surely something similar was bound to happen to me. And if I couldn’t get a fiancé, I least hoped for a relationship. But one, two, three, and now almost four years have passed, and still nothing. As … Continue reading Singleness is Not a Failing

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ISSUE #41 | MAY 2023, LIVING

In Pursuit of the Unserious: Recovering Rest and Purpose in a Workaholic Culture

It was not the first time I found myself on the verge of tears as I feverishly racked my brain for anything to mend the horrendous structure (or rather lack of structure) of my paper and failed to think of anything other than the impending list of projects, research, and readings I still needed to get to. I still had an hour left on my … Continue reading In Pursuit of the Unserious: Recovering Rest and Purpose in a Workaholic Culture

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ISSUE #40 | MAR 2023, Religion

Personifying the World

At the end of his short work on prayer, the north African theologian Tertullian wrote something surprising about non-human animals: “The whole creation prays,” he said. Cattle and wild beasts pray, and bend their knees, and in coming forth from their stalls and lairs look up to heaven, their mouths not idle, making the spirit [or breath] move in their own fashion. Moreover the birds … Continue reading Personifying the World

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culture, ISSUE #36 | MAR 2022

Nostalgia, Sequelitis, and the Past

Ire is often directed at younger generations – those darn kids, blasting hip-hop out of their speakers, refusing to watch black and white TV shows from when men were men and women were women, and burning down every statue they see. I don’t think these complaints are entirely unfounded, but what I find bizarre and want to focus on is the flip side of this … Continue reading Nostalgia, Sequelitis, and the Past

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ISSUE #40 | MAR 2023, Religion

We All Have an Agrarian Purpose

For most modern Americans, the idea of agrarian living is woefully antiquated. With supercomputers in our pockets and self-driving tractors in the fields, picking up a shovel to plant vegetables seems like unnecessary work. Supply chain issues and global catastrophes notwithstanding, why worry about growing food when Kroger’s shelves are fully stocked and Walmart is always open? This attitude towards food production reveals the fractured … Continue reading We All Have an Agrarian Purpose

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Film Reviews, ISSUE #40 | MAR 2023

Sweet, True Fantasy: How Free Guy Reflects Eternity

When I sat down to watch Free Guy, I was expecting some kind of imitation of the movie Ready Player One, where characters from within and without a video game must save it from being commandeered by a greedy tyrant, a pleb rises to prominence, and cheesy comedy and cringey romance abound. What I got instead was a stunningly clever film that tackles some of … Continue reading Sweet, True Fantasy: How Free Guy Reflects Eternity

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ISSUE #39 | DEC 2022, LIVING

Love in Context

I recall vividly one afternoon last summer when I had some free time. As I walked home, I pulled my phone out of my pocket, opened up Snapchat, and slid over to tap through my friends’ stories. I noticed underneath them some of the suggested features. In one, “Love Triumphs!” accompanied a picture of a same-sex couple, with a subtitle suggesting that all the world … Continue reading Love in Context

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