Letters On The Page

I had a longer than expected period of unemployment from January 27-May 15.  About January 29, I decided that in between filling out job applications and engaging in job interviews, I would restart my interest in learning the Latin language.  I have started and stopped a few times over the last few decades, but wanted to give it another try.  I am not a natural born linguist, so this is not easy work for me.   I remember from previous language study periods that when I study a language, that is all I am thinking about at that particular moment.  Whatever overwhelming concerns or issues I may be having on that day, quickly dissipate during the course of my study period. And, when I am done? Things seem a bit more manageable.   Now that I am employed, I continue with my Latin language study.  On January 23, 2023, the WSJ published a delightful little essay in their regular Friday "Houses of Worship" column on the Latin Language.   The Guiding Light ...

One of the several requirements of school and church in the 1970's and early 80's that I did not appreciate then, but sure do now, is the focus on memorization.  We did have to memorize dates and some basic lines of literature for school. But, in church, we had to memorize Scripture passages and the Small Catechism.   I was ordained in 1994 and endured a steady resistance to memory work from both kids and parents throughout my ministry.  The lone exceptions were my first congregation, Faith Lutheran in Sagerton, Tx (1994-1999) and my brief service as interim Pastor of Emmaus Lutheran Church, South Bend, IN (September 2022-January 26, 2023).    There were a variety of excuses ranging from there is no time to it's not that important. I discerned that the real reason for the resistance was not just human sloth but because the schools that the kids were going to no longer required memory work.  Historical dates were not even required anymore.   So, in the ...

Towles, Amor.   A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel . Penguin Books, 2016.   Count Alexander Rostov loves his country and he refused to flee to Paris as so many did during and after the Bolshevik revolution. In 1922, the law caught up with him and correctly identified him as an unrepentant aristocrat. Someone must have liked him or his family's service to the country because he was neither shot nor incarcerated. As he had already been staying at the grand hotel, the Metropol, in Moscow, he was sentenced to remain in the hotel for the rest of his life. If he left the hotel for any reason he would be shot on sight.   Thus begins decades of living in and eventually working in the Metropol. His life was not dull before his confinement and it certainly was not dull afterward. His circumstances provided him with the opportunity to read all the books that he had intended to read. He was befriended by many, including a young girl who would eventually grow up, marry, produce a daughter...