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Recovering from Moral Injury after War

@james_ka_smith tweeted this to me after my last post. If you decide not to read it, then I’ll probably be quoting paragraphs from it over the next few weeks. Introduction, Soul Repairhttp://www.scribd.com/embeds/110229994/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll

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Jacob Recalls the Fight at Peniel

by John Paisley (Click the author’s name for his biography) Upon that night the others were away – Wives, children, all the troubled world And I was there alone and quiet until he came Unheralded, mysterious. As one awaking from a dream I knew, at first, only that I struggled, then slowly Grew aware of my […]

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Horae Canonicae – Terce

W.H. Auden After shaking paws with his dog,(Whose bark would tell the world that he is always kind,)The hangman sets off briskly over the heath;He does not know yet who will be providedTo do the high works of Justice with:Gently closing the door of his wife’s bedroom,(Today she has one of her headaches)With a sigh […]

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Horae Canonicae – Prime

W.H. Auden Simultaneously, as soundlessly,Spontaneously, suddenlyAs, at the vaunt of the dawn, the kindGates of the body fly openTo its world beyond, the gates of the mind,The horn gate and the ivory gateSwing to, swing shut, instantaneouslyQuell the nocturnal rummageOf its rebellious fronde, ill-favored,Ill-natured and second-rate,Disenfranchised, widowed and orphanedBy an historical mistake:Recalled from the shades […]

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Beauty & Justice

He thought the world’s heart beat at some terrible cost and that the world’s pain and its beauty moved in a relationship of diverging equity and that in this headlong deficit the blood of multitudes might ultimately be exacted for the vision of a single flower. –  Cormac McCarthy. All the Pretty Horses. Knopf, 1992. […]

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Renaming the Reader

The Bible won’t be reduced to mere representations and symbols, although it has those. The Bible is much like the angel that Jacob wrestles, refusing to be pinned. Refusing to be named or seen completely. Able with a touch to ruin the reader and able to bless him forever. Even to rename the reader. And […]

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I took this photo today at my folks’ place; it shows why the conquistadors and vaqueros called the town in which I live “Amarillo” which means yellow in Spanish. We’ve had less than half-an-inch of rain in 2011, and about two weeks worth of 100 degree days. Romans 8:22 – For we know that the […]

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Published in Narrative

I had a story published in Narrative Magazine this week. If you’re interested in literature, follow this link and take a look around the site. They publish some great authors that I attempt to emulate. Maybe you’ll find something there as inspiring as I’ve found. If you’d prefer to just read the story, here’s a […]

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An Open Letter of Recommendation for Ryan Culwell

Around this time of the academic year, I am flooded with requests for letters of recommendation. Students need an authority to be witness to their character and aptitude as they apply for scholarships and internships. It’s in this spirit that I write the following, unsolicited recommendation for the songwriter Ryan Culwell. May 13, 2011 To Whom […]

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Conditions of Ambition #1

If my ambition, for my family; for my work; for my time is the kingdom of God, then my ambition becomes more an icon, and less an idol. If my ambition is the kingdom of God, then my family, work, and time must be a sign that points to something that ultimately gives my family, […]

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