Monthly Archives: September 2011

The Cost of Poverty: “Unnatural Cruelties”

By Robin Bates | Published: September 20, 2011

As the Census Bureau reports the highest number of poor people since it has been publishing figures, it’s worth turning to George Bernard Shaw’s “Major Barbara,” which reveals the true cost of poverty.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Comments closed

Fed, Rafa, Djoker–A Sibling Drama

By Robin Bates | Published: September 19, 2011

Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic are like the brothers in a Dostoevsky novel or a Grimm Brothers fairy tale: the two older brothers focus on each other and then the unassuming younger brother comes in and takes over.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

A Temple Built of Compassionate Action

By Robin Bates | Published: September 18, 2011

In “The Far Mosque,” Rumi reminds us that we are princes in waiting who will step into our spiritual kingdom through compassionate action.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments closed

The Horror of Sex without Love

By Robin Bates | Published: September 16, 2011

Sex without love, the subject of several sex comedies this past summer, was also an issue explored by poets and playwrights in the British Restoration.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Beans and Rice, the Taste of Home

By Robin Bates | Published: September 15, 2011

Inspired by “foodie novels” such as “Like Water for Chocolate” and “Fried Green Tomatoes,” student Julia Rocha discovered that beans and rice brought back a sense of home and her Brazilian heritage.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments closed

Shine On, Harvest Moon

By Robin Bates | Published: September 13, 2011

Philip Larkin has written a fine poem about harvest moons, one of which we experienced last night.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments closed

Lit the Indecipherable Text of a Magic Spell

By Robin Bates | Published: September 12, 2011

The Haruki Murakami short story “Town of Cats” has a passage that speaks to literature’s ability to provide solutions to life’s problems==only the solution may be conveyed as “the indecipherable text of a magic spell.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments closed

I Walk among the Rubbled Tales

By Robin Bates | Published: September 11, 2011

To commemorate 9-11, I post Derek Walcott’s “A City’s Death by Fire,” written about another disaster. Walcott finds the hope of baptismal renewal amongst the destruction.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments closed