Searching for the Hearth (Essay/Reflection)
*first appeared on Dec. 20th in Ekstasis Magazine. Et ignotas animum dimittit in artes.(“And he turned his mind to unknown arts.”)— Ovid, Epigraph to A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man I. One night I lingered in the wet, thick air just a few hundred yards from the home of my youth. Diesel fumes curled…
Coffee Stained Minds (Essay/Reflection)
*first appeared in Ekstasis Magazine.I remember that desk, its walnut veneer. It was just large enough to settle one’s folded elbows onto. There were three small sections forming a shelf on its rear, slots where I would place rarities: received mail, programs from events, and notecards of scribbled quotes. When I sat down and focused…
Romans 13 in the Age of Trump (Essay)
Romans 13:1-7 has historically been a divisive text. The list of its warped appropriations is lengthy. But my interest in this essay is not historical, unless we are speaking of the “historical present”. Today readers of Romans 13 fall into one of two camps. Each offers a radically different response to this text, yet both are colored…
The “Holy Music” Beneath Our Feet (Reflection)
*Written and published on September 22nd, 2019 on the Union Presbyterian Seminary blog. As someone who wrestles with anxiety, practicing the Sabbath is often a challenge. This is further exacerbated by the hurriedness that plagues our culture and the constant pressure of achievement. As a Christian, it feels like these pressures squeeze the grace and…
Candid Meditations (Reflection)
*Written on July 4th, 2019–an exercise in extemporaneous writing. Today I have felt less tethered to responsibilities and to my own self-constraints. They seemed to have loosened their grip on me just enough for me to reflect and write. It’s difficult to know the causal link between these, but I don’t have time to speculate.…
Something (Reflection)
*Written on March 18th, 2019. A Preface Just a few days ago, I experienced it. It occurred when I was sitting in a coffee shop, in a moment of switching from task to task, from thought to thought. When suddenly, a feeling washed over me. It was embodied as a weightless breeze, cool and calming.…
Smoking Catholics, Porous Pentecostals, & The Modern Self (Reflection)
*Written on February 23rd, 2019. Charles Taylor’s Modern “Buffered Self” I ran across the concept of the “porous self” or mind via the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor a few years ago. The porous self is a term that describes the pre-modern worldview and is usually associated with the medieval era. It’s the idea that our…
Aristotle, Pop-Psychology, & Mental Habits (Reflection)
*Written on January 16th, 2019. What does pop-psychology and Aristotle have in common? The answer is an obsession with habits. This is evident from the recent influx of literature on the power of habit that fills most bookstores today. Our culture seems to be obsessed with becoming habitually fit, habitually intelligent, and most importantly—habitually successful.…
Speech & Responsibility: Offering Advice
Note: I understand that every situation is unique and cannot be replicated. I am not creating a universal law here. Instead, I am trying to set a broken bone and offer a dialectic response to the current aura around this issue in our culture (written on December 16th, 2018). I’ve noticed that people today, especially those…
Submit: One Page
*This post was an exercise in extemporaneous writing written on September 2nd, 2018. Submit. The word comes to mind because I find myself submitting to the limitations of my mind and body—quite often. I trek over to the coffee shop in hopes that the aroma will inspire some sort of productivity. I arrive to find…
Herd Morality & the Philosophical Problem of Suicide
*This was written on August 4th, 2018. Since there hasn’t been much activity within our cordial guild recently, I’ve decided to stoke the fire a bit by producing some type of post. I must admit this post will probably not be a fully formed but instead will be a compendium of thoughts and unanswered questions.…
Great Expectations, Notorious B.I.G., & Nietzsche
*This was written on May, 4 2018. The lives that many of us lead today are often anything but quiet. We scurry from one thing to another, our attention spans are stunted, our capacity for boredom is limited, and our ability to sit and ponder without glancing at our phones or being entertained has become…
Dakota Wade 