Saturday Flotsam: Hodge Podge and Northern Lights

1. My first school year is almost done; just one more day of classes, then field day and a few odds and ends. It was certainly a learning experience, and I'm glad to have at last found a job that I feel I could make an actual career out of. The big test, of course, …

Pilgrim’s Pass on Musashi

Fascinating video by the ever-entertaining Pilgrim's Pass about Miyamoto Musashi and the figure of the holy warrior and the potentially redemptive role of violence in society. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTqyQq09Wo4

Poem – “Invictus”

Out of the night that covers meBlack as the pit from pole to pole,I thank whatever gods may beFor my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance,I have not winced nor cried aloud.Under the bludgeonings of chanceMy head is bloody, but unbowed. Beyond this place of wrath and tearsLooms but the Horror of the …

Friday Flotsam: Legal Rebellion and Written Law, and ‘Monkey Man’ Impressions

1. Among the many absurdities of the American mind is the notion that a revolution can be legal. Consider the incessant quibbling over whether, say, Southern secession was 'legal' or not under the Constitution. In the first place, the question of whether leaving the Constitution is or is not permitted under the Constitution you are …

Poetry – “Eclogue IV”

Muses of Sicily! on nobler themesI now will sing. Not all of us admireDense woods and groves; if sylvan joys we singLet them be fit for a great Consul's ear.Now dawns the last age of Cumæan song!Once more the circling centuries beg in—The Virgin reappears and Saturn reigns:From heav'n descends a novel progeny;Now to this …

Friday Flotsam: Various and Sundry

1. The weather is warming up, which means my middle schoolers were extra rowdy this week. I am increasingly convinced that children are, in truth, reptiles. 2. For recreation I started re-reading The Ball and the Cross for the first time in quite a while. Chesterton's way with words is of the sort that is …

Poem – “Paul Revere’s Ride”

Listen, my children, and you shall hearOf the midnight ride of Paul Revere,On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:Hardly a man is now aliveWho remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend,—"If the British marchBy land or sea from the town to-night,Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-archOf the North-Church-tower, as a …

Friday Flotsam: 26 to 48, America Lists, and ‘Godzilla x Kong’

1. First and foremost is some pretty big life news: after much searching and many applications, I've been offered a full-time teaching job with a traditional Catholic, classical education school. The only slight catch is that it's, ah, rather far. I live in Metro Detroit, and the job is in Phoenix, Arizona. Which means that …

Wednesday Politics: Some Constitution Impressions

One of my recent personal study projects has been outlining the Constitution. One picks up on so much more and retains so much more when one has to actually write something out or summarize it point by point. **My chief impression is how odd it is that we continue to use and hold such reverence …

A Constitution Meme