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Thuy

I first met Thuy Khuu in 2006 when she took my Social Justice class at Saint Louis University.  Born in Vietnam, she moved to the US at the age of eight with her family.  Beginning in…

Today’s One-Liner (#131)

If we respected the tenth commandment, the four commandments that precede it would be superfluous. –Rene Girard, Maxim #90, in All Desire Is a Desire for Being: Essential Writings, edited by Cynthia L. Haven

A Simple, Extraordinary Gift/2

I am engrossed  these days rereading Nadezhda Mandelstam’s inspiring memoir, Hope Against Hope.  It’s an account of her life with her husband, the acclaimed poet Osip Mandelstam who ran afoul of the revolutionaries of the…

A Simple, Extraordinary Gift/1

“And I am with you, too, I won’t leave you now, I will go with you for the rest of my life,” the dear, deeply felt words of Grushenka came from somewhere near him. And…

Today’s One-Liner (#129)

My idea in my story telling is to make Jews better Jews, and Christians better Christians, and in general, if possible at all, make man a little bit warmer, so he will not feel crushed…

Today’s One-Liner (#128)

There are few things… that we so unwillingly give up, even in advanced age, as the supposition that we still have the power of ingratiating ourselves with the Fair Sex. –Samuel Johnson, in A Johnson…

Today’s One-Liner (#127)

We are only beginning to understand how filial ­piety operates, such that loss of patriotism, loss of faith, and loss of family each seem to encourage breakdown in the other parts of the triad.  –Mary…

Today’s One-Liner (#126)

Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history…

More Recent Reading

Dear L., Here is a list of some books I’ve read in the past few years.   Given my pretty rigid leftist mindset, Simone Weil’s maxim was often on my mind in reading the following……