Teacher and Author
–“I was determined to know beans.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden My future wife and I cooked dried beans regularly in our early years together. We would soak them overnight, simmer them on the stove for two or three hours, … Continued
Moses has chosen Joshua to lead Israel across the Jordan to defeat the Canaanites, and also the Amalakites, Amorites, Kenites, Girgashites, Hittites, Perrizites, and Jebusites. Defeat but not eradicate. The natives, subdued more and less, will live among them … Continued
Reading the Bible this fall, from Genesis forward, I finally appreciate its meaning as a chronicle of a people living in relation to God, a people living in history. Genesis is a kind of prologue. There isn’t a people yet. … Continued
Buster Keaton was only twenty-two years-old but already a seventeen-year veteran of the stage when he walked out on the family vaudeville act. What had begun as knockabout comedy with father, Joe, throwing son, Buster, around the stage had become … Continued
History is not one thing, but two. It is the past, and it is the story we tell ourselves about the past. Hilary Mantel explains the distinction: “History is not the past–it is the method we’ve evolved of organizing our … Continued
Pro-life advocates are riding the crest of a wave. Their self-assurance is palpable, but their program, if we consider only J. D. Vance’s recent comments, is dubious and, frankly, dangerous. No abortion in the case of rape or incest, … Continued
It’s that time again. Five years fly by whether you’re having fun or not. The Ohio Department of Education, my Hamilton County employer, even the app developer that enables me to find substitute jobs, they’ve all informed me it is … Continued
“This is a story about hope and what comes after hope, and despair and what comes after despair.” (xiii) This may sound over-wrought, and it is. Jeremy McCarter can say that is what his book, Young Radicals, is about, but … Continued
“They say we be looking for illegal immigrants can we check your car / I say you know it’s funny I think we were on the same boat back in 1694.” – “Shame on You,” Indigo Girls, 1997 “The early … Continued
“There has been no handle by which heterogeneous minds and wills could be taken hold of and directed.” — Randolph Bourne, ca 1915 [198] “Sometimes, the most brilliant and intelligent minds do not shine in standardized tests because they do … Continued