Latest Posts
Being Prepared in These Times
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Benjamin Franklin One cannot but notice a growing sense of concern and even anxiety about the future. Are we in for serious disruptions of the social order, and should we be doing something to prepare? The fact is...
A Woman’s Courage in Childbearing
“the courage… of a man and of a woman, are not…the same.” Aristotle, Politics Not many nights ago, my wife shared something remarkable with me. Here is basically what she said: In battle, or other such dramatic circumstances, a man might face the possibility of death,...
Man of the Household: A New Online Course
It would seem right for each man to help his children...towards virtue... Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Many of us married men feel deep within that we can and should be better husbands and fathers. And we are probably right. We can be a better man of the household....
Woman in the Home: Crafting Life Each Day
“These coppers, big and little, these brooms and clouts and brushes, were tools; and with them one made, not shoes or cabinet-work, but life itself. One made a climate within a climate; one made the days,--the complexion, the special flavor, the special happiness of...
Trees vs. the News
“Trees were the temples of the gods, and, following old established ritual, country places even now dedicate an outstandingly tall tree to a god.” Pliny the Elder, Natural History What we find in the news and social media tends to frame much of what we think about...
Grateful for the Time: A Retrospect on My Lockdown
“…and this will be realized in their living together…” Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics For many of us the external constraint to remain at home has come to an end. A retrospective glance is perhaps in order. For a moment I am going to abstract from the surrounding...
A Father, and Choosing a Spouse
“Reason my son Should choose himself a wife, but as good reason The father, all whose joy is nothing else But fair posterity, should hold some counsel In such a business.” Shakespeare, A Winter’s Tale [Polixenes, King of Bohemia, to his son.] How does one choose a...
Working by Hand: Reconnecting with Our Humanity
“In all manual work we find the primal phenomenon of culture that is human but close to nature.” “The sphere in which we live is becoming more and more artificial, less and less human,” Romano Guardini, Letters from Lake Como We have lost something today, but we can...
Cherishing Your Spouse in Your Children
“Goodbye Aeneas. Cherish our love in the son it gave us.” Virgil, The Aeneid This stunningly powerful goodbye between spouses says so much. A son, it says, was ‘given’ to a couple by the love they bore one another. Love between spouses is already itself a gift. That...
Is Love Irrational?
“And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays. The more the pity that some honest neighbors will not make them friends.” Shakespeare (Bottom, in A Midsummer Night’s Dream) Lovers can be notoriously irrational. But is true love...
Easter Bells, Easter Joy
The bells of this campanile (bell tower) heralded Easter joy to a rural mountain community in Tuscany, as they have for hundreds of years. This Easter may we discover a joy that is more than a passing experience; a joy that endures not just as a backdrop but as the...
Men in Quarantine: 3 Ideas for Rediscovering Marriage
“What we share now is this home of ours.” “So, my dear, we must recognize what God has assigned to each of us, and try our hardest to carry through our respective responsibilities.” Xenophon, The Estate Manager Marriage is often an exercise in recognizing the gift in...