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Clean House, Hold Steady
Wednesday January 18, 2012
In a series of swift movements, our instructor tried to show me how to be Jeremy’s anchor as he climbed—keep the rope taut, she said. Don’t let go of the rope. Pull it to the right if he falls; this will hold him in place. Yank the carabiner’s pulley lock back to loosen the slack. Don’t let go of the rope. I listened diligently, letting the instructor correct my form over and over again. But I could barely control my gasps....
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Reckoning the Marvelous
Tuesday January 17, 2012
I wouldn’t call myself a pessimist, but I often focus on and assume the worst possible outcomes in life, because I think that keeps me aware and safe. Of course, it doesn’t keep me either safe or particularly aware, but I do it anyway. Perhaps that actually makes me a pessimist. I hope not. Who wants to be that guy? In his 1995 Nobel Prize acceptance speech “Crediting Poetry,” Seamus Heaney ponders....
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Monasteries of the Heart
Friday January 13, 2012
Monastic communities have traditionally encouraged lay associates: people drawn not to join the monastery but to absorb themselves in its spirituality and adapt as much of its practice as possible while living “in the world.” Creatively taking this concept of lay associates into the internet age, the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania, have launched “Monasteries of the Heart,” online....
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Meeting Esau
Thursday January 12, 2012
I don’t know how my brother prepares to meet me. I just know what I perceive when I arrive at his house. Outside: designer mailbox at the curb; jet black Mustang in the driveway; perfectly groomed lawn; privacy fence around the pool. Inside: pristine surfaces—counters, floors, walls; fashionably dressed, well behaved, straight A, photogenic daughters; bottle of vintage wine, brought up from the cellar just for....
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Following the Line
Wednesday January 11, 2012
Perhaps I was more open to the creative possibilities of cardboard because we’d gotten home, the night before, from two days on silent retreat. Perhaps the gift of not having to speak, of not thinking in terms of response or initiative or any other motive for uttering words, of openness that comes from hearing one’s internal chatter die down—perhaps all this created a space where I could get away from imposed....
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Current Issue
Issue 71
Fiction by Larry Woiwode, interview with Joe Henry, art by Fabian Debora, essay by Barry Moser.
Good Letters: The Image Blog
