Monthly Archives: October 2018

Searching for God in Suffering

By Robin Bates | Published: October 20, 2018

Spiritual Sunday Like many, I am challenged by the Book of Job, which has provided the Old Testament reading for the past three Sundays. Of course, nothing is more baffling than why bad things happen to good people, at least if you believe in a benevolent deity. Milton grapples with this question when, in Paradise […]

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Poetry vs. Saudi Atrocities

By Robin Bates | Published: October 19, 2018

Friday I have shared this Carolyn Forché atrocity poem in the past when Trump wanted to reinstate CIA black sites and bring back waterboarding,  but I didn’t think I would ever apply it to actual dismemberments. This is where we are, however, so I’m posting it again. The Saudis dismembered Washington Post journalist and American permanent […]

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Returning to the Misty Past

By Robin Bates | Published: October 18, 2018

John Gatta’s “Spirits of Place” is helping me understand why I have chosen to retire in my home town. Wordsworth, Stowe, Homer, and Frost help out as well.

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Befouling America’s Future

By Robin Bates | Published: October 17, 2018

MacDonald’s “Princess and Curdie” has an apocalyptic image that captures how Trump is fouling America’s future.

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U.S. Is Still Fighting the Civil War

By Robin Bates | Published: October 16, 2018

Michael Shaara’s “Killer Angels” has me thinking that a version of the Civil War is still on-going.

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At Last We Have Water, Water Everywhere

By Robin Bates | Published: October 15, 2018

I celebrate the water once again running through our house with a Coleridge passage.

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Spirituality in Nature

By Robin Bates | Published: October 13, 2018

John Gatta’s “Spirit of Place in American Literary Culture” explains why we find certain places, in nature and in civilization, to be infused with spirit.

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Climate Change, a Witch’s Curse

By Robin Bates | Published: October 12, 2018

Leslie Marmon Silko has an account of ecological disaster in her novel “Ceremony” (also “Almanac of the Dead” that is only too relevant.

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A Fable that Explains Charity

By Robin Bates | Published: October 11, 2018

Scott Bates finds less than altruistic motives behind charitable acts but note that they end up in the right place anyway.

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