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What to do in Isolation

Okay, since March 13, 2020, Canada has changed and most of us find ourselves with much more time in our homes. How do we survive mentally, physically, and spiritually in this present state of affairs? I do not claim to be an expert, but here are some things I have found helpful. 1. Now is…

Art and Argument

“Any authentic work of art must start an argument between the artist and his audience.” – Rebecca West This sentiment is one to which I want to pay close attention as I write a second book. Since the author provides one half of the conversation and the reader provides the second half, I would do…

Stop and Think

Part of my morning routine is to read my Bible. This morning I read Job 4, Psalm 20, and 2 Corinthians 5. There is a natural progression to the words I found this morning. “Stop and think! Do the innocent die? When have the upright been destroyed?” – The words of Eliphaz to Job (Job…

Originality

“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity I owe…

Detour

I have been reading a preprint of Cam Taylor’s book, Detour: A Roadmap For When Life Gets Rerouted. The book has much to say to anyone who has ever faced adversity (and of course, that is all of us.) It recounts the “detour” his life took following a near-deadly motorcycle crash. I am part-way through…

Of Hobbits and Books

Peter Jackson’s movies have done a great service in making stories come to life on the big screen. One of his greatest accomplishments has been his ability to make The Hobbit (also known as The Hobbit, Or There and Back Again) by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (J.R.R. Tolkien) accessible to all. He has created a…

C.S. Lewis on the Reading of Many Books

“My father bought all the books he read and never got rid of any of them. There were books in the study, books in the drawing room, books in the cloakroom, books (two deep) in the great bookcase on the landing, books in a bedroom, books piled as high as my shoulder in the cistern…

Tea and Christmas

My wife, Maureen, gave me a wonderful mug for Christmas. It has the following quote stenciled on it: “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” – C.S. Lewis. It is the perfect gift on so many levels. I had never heard these words of…

Follow-up to Recent Reading

One more book recently read: The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. The following sentences are key to the story she tells. “The most important thing about a person is always the thing you don’t know.” – Barbara Kingsolver, The Lacuna. “. . . that you can’t really know the person standing before you, because always there…

We Started Turning Feral

Tana French opens chapter six of Broken Harbour with two paragraphs of philosophical musing by her protagonist, Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy. He reminisces about the way things were and then he states that something has changed. Somewhere along the line “we started turning feral.” I remember this country back when I was growing up. We went…