Advent and Christmas Observed

Advent and Christmas are sharply distinct. But how do we make them distinct practically? Heart posture is all well and good, but what do Advent and Christmas actually look like when observed separately? OBSERVING ADVENT Observing Advent, at its most basic, makes space during the four weeks before Christmas for lament while holding ever before […]

Advent: The Neglected Secret to a Rich Christmas

Perhaps more than any other season, Christmas carries pressure. Soon after (or before!) Halloween, brightly twinkling decorations pop up in stores with words like “Merry and Bright,” “Just Believe,” and “Joy!”—all of which can feel like demands without context to feel a certain way. Then there’s the litany of time-sensitive seasonal activities (Lights viewing! Ice […]

A Prayer on the Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter

Tonight and all this week, Saturn and Jupiter will have a “great conjunction.” Since reading Michael Ward’s Planet Narnia this year, which gave me a layman’s course in the Medieval spheres, this conjunction has assumed monumental symbolic significance in my mind. Saturn is Infortuna Major, the sphere of suffering, old age, and death. Jupiter is […]

State of the WIP Address

I’ve obliquely shared about my current WIP, through posts about protagonist change-ups, essays on world building in general, meditations where I work through some of the book’s major themes, and self-imposed deadlines (none of which I have met, but all of which have moved me closer to the end goal). Now that the end of […]

Should We Read Post-modernism?

In my last two blog posts, I’ve aimed a bit higher than my normal fare. Usually on my blog, I like to stick to small claims, like “Mortal Engines is underrated” or “Here’s the personal application I took from overanalyzing the first twenty minutes of the original Mary Poppins” (one of my better posts, I […]

Two Ways English Teachers Sabotage Their Own Profession

Last week, I argued that English education, far from being an ivory-tower pastime unnecessary for life, is actually necessary for our well-being and a healthy society. Yet everyone has been suspicious of an English teacher, wondering if the individual at the white board just made up that symbolism, theme, or foreshadowing to keep themselves employed. Just […]

An Apology for English Literature

Have you ever heard the short song “What Do You Do with a BA in English?” What do you do with a B.A. in English, / What is my life going to be? / Four years of college and plenty of knowledge, / Have earned me this useless degree. / I can’t pay the bills […]

“Not a Mother-Woman”

There is a kind of mother who seems to hear the true calling of her life in her newborn baby’s cry. A mother who tells other expecting women, “When you see that baby for the first time, your whole world changes. It’s love at first sight!” There is a kind of mother who seems to […]

Rape, Revenge, and Gender Inequality

Last night, Cap made me aware of some trivia from the recent horror film Midsommar that I did not care for. Here’s the same fact, from IMDb: “After the coerced coitus scene, Christian was supposed to run away in the robe that he had entered in. Jack Reynor [the actor] himself suggested that Christian run out […]

Ralph Breaks the Internet: A Ham-Fisted Moral

Cap and I really liked Wreck-It Ralph. I like video games anyway, I found it satisfyingly twisty, I LOVED Sergeant Calhoun and her crazy figures of speech, and I thought the ending was quite touching. So we were excited to check out the sequel, Ralph Breaks the Internet. We watched it one night–and it has […]