I was rereading Rudyard Kipling’s entertaining story The Man Who Would Be King the other day, and it got me thinking about some of the Tea Party candidates for Senate, like Sharron Angle in Nevada and Rand Paul in Kentucky. Allow me to explain. Kipling’s 1888 work is about two enterprising good-for-nothings, Dravot and Carnehan, […]
Monthly Archives: July 2010
The Tea Partiers Who Would Be Senators
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Man Who Would Be King, politics, Rudyard Kipling, Tea Party Comments closed
When It’s Hard to Pray
Spiritual Sunday I’ve been thinking about why it’s sometimes hard to pray for help. Perhaps it’s because asking for help seems an affront to our prideful self sufficiency. Perhaps it’s because we fear that we are not worthy to receive it. I think of how Coleridge’s ancient mariner is so filled with self-loathing that he […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Ground's Generosity", Earnest Hemingway, In Our Time, Prayer, Religion, Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, Rumi, Samuel Taylor Coleridge Comments closed
The Poetry of Spanish Soccer
The incomparable Xavi Sports Saturday Spanish sports is having a great year. First of all, Spanish forward Pau Gasol was a major reason why the Los Angeles Lakers won their 16th championship in an archetypal series against the Boston Celtics. Then we were officially ushered from the Age of Federer into the Age of Nadal […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Netherland, Soccer, Spain, Sports, World Cup Comments closed
Talking to Kids about Movies
Stand by Me (Rob Reiner, 1986) Film Friday First, a quick prayer of thanksgiving: my father, who is responsible for my love of literature and film, underwent successful surgery on a blocked artery Tuesday. He had been experiencing sharp pains and a stent was installed. Such are the miracles of modern medicine that, by Thursday […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Children, Film, League of their Own, Parenting, Penny Marshall, Rob Reiner, Stand by Me Comments closed
Mockingbird, Powerful but Problematic
Harper Lee National Public Radio reminded me yesterday that this summer is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. I have written a couple of times about the book, once talking about its importance to me growing up in the segregated south and once examining Malcolm Gladwell’s critique of […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Harper Lee, Malcolm Gladwell, Race, racism, To Kill a Mockingbird Comments closed
Our New Poet Laureate
W. S. Merwin A very fine poet, W. S. Merwin, has been named our new poet laureate. Because he was a friend of my former colleague Lucille Clifton, I was able to meet Merwin when he visited St. Mary’s College of Maryland. He lives in Hawaii and has been working hard to preserve their rain […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Emigre", "Prospective Immigrants Please Note", Adrienne Rich, Immigration, politics, W. S. Merwin Comments closed
Christopher Hitchens, Literary Bully
I confess to bristling when I hear the name Christopher Hitchens.The intellectual provocateur has been in the news recently, first for publishing his memoirs and second for contracting throat cancer.Although he is smart and well read, he has always struck me as a self-righteous intellectual bully, one who is more interested in toppling icons than […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Christopher Hitchens, Darkness at Noon, David Brooks, George Orwell, Graham Greene, Hitch-22, How Green Was My Valley, Plato, politics, Republic, Richard Llewellyn, Wilfred Owen Comments closed
A Poem for Heroes and Mass Murderers
Since the World Cup is underway in South Africa, I watched Clint Eastwood’s Invictus last week, about the 1995 World Cup Rugby Tournament held in South Africa. Based on a true story, the film notes that, while in prison, Nelson Mandela, like many black South Africans, would root against the South African rugby team, beloved […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Invictus", Alfred Lord Tennyson, Apartheid, Clint Eastwood, Faisal Shahzad, John Milton, Nelson Mandela, Paradise Lost, politics, Sports, Timothy McVeigh, Ulysses, William Ernest Henley Comments closed
