From the monthly archives: May 2011
One of the things I love about reading old books is that current events and things people say in the news often coincide with ideas I read in the old books. I get the satisfying feeling of continuity, like a conversation occurring across the centuries. Recently the famous physicist Stephen Hawking caused a
“To the great apostles of political freedom the word had meant freedom from coercion, freedom from arbitrary power of other men, release from the ties which left the individual no choice but obedience to orders of a superior to whom he was attached.”
Sometimes I like a book enough to read it twice. Sometimes I like a book enough to read it more than twice. I’ve read Mere Christianity and Miracles by C.S. Lewis three times each. But there is only one book I have read five times and am now reading again [...]
Maybe the reason I found The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich A. Hayek kind of mind-blowing is because I was affected at such a primal level by reading George Orwells’ 1984 when I was young. The Road to Serfdom could be the academic foundation for that fine novel, and perhaps holds the key [...]
Today is the one-year anniversary of the last day I saw my mother alive. Mom was 70-years old but had always looked younger than her age, and had been living with liver disease for almost two years. She had far outlived the doctors’ estimate of her life expectancy. A prolific emailer, among the [...]
In my last post I talked about the shadow of suffering in the world, and said I thought I knew of a place I could find the right balance between love of life and a full reckoning with evil. I knew I would find the key there [...]
I have friends who are big into being positive. They are always saying what a beautiful day it is and how wonderful life is and how grateful they are for all their friends. They are generally people with sufficient incomes to take vacations to Disneyworld, and have good [...]
I started a new book today: The Road to Serfdom by F. A. Hayek, an Austrian philosopher and economist who lived from 1899 to 1992. It’s not like I had nothing to read. I am also in the process of reading at least four other books, two audio books, one on my Kindle, [...]
This is my first Mother’s Day without my own mother living on the earth, so it could have been a very sad day for me. But because of my sons, it was not. It is May of my older son’s senior year in high school, a bittersweet time for any mother. The [...]
Like Jonathan Safran Foer, the author of Eating Animals, I have alternated all my life between being an ambiguous omnivore and an uncomfortable vegetarian. Ambiguous because I have never felt right about eating meat and uncomfortable because if there is anything I hate it is draw attention and [...]
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Blog: Carol's Notes Topics:Books, Writing, Culture Thanks for the comments!
- Kelly Hashway on When Pascal fell out of the closet
- Leslie on The Theory of Education in the United States by Albert Jay Nock: Review and Brief Summary
- k.greco on Pondering Purgatory: Thoughts on The Divine Comedy
- k.greco on Pondering Purgatory: Thoughts on The Divine Comedy
- Gretchen on My Intro to The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich A. Hayek
- Catherine on Palm Sunday – A song and a memory
- Kelly Hashway on For St. Valentine’s Day: Some of the best things I’ve read about love
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