“In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.” – David Foster Wallace
The quote above is from David Foster Wallace’s commencement address at Kenyon College
by the Rev. Paul McLain
During a recent conversation about the overload of tasks, information, distressing news, and distractions that so many of us are experiencing these days, a wise person observed, “we are all becoming triage artists.” By that he meant we all, even retirees, are learning to prioritize the vast amount of our external stimuli in the instant,
Vestry election season is upon us. And several important goods are in tension in parish elections. The first is that an effective vestry depends on diverse gifts and perspectives. It needs men and women, of various ages and interests, with different areas of expertise and experience. It needs longstanding members and active people who have joined Calvary more recently.
by the Ven. Mimsy Jones
One morning in late August, as I finished a delicious breakfast of soft scrambled eggs, crisp bacon, and a warm blueberry muffin served to me in my cramped but clean hospital room in Camden, Maine, I heard someone I assumed was a doctor (it was way too early for family to visit) ask in a
A confession: I did not get up early to watch the Queen’s funeral. I did scroll through the pictures and videos later in the day (a second confession: I wanted to see what Kate and Meghan wore). So, this is not a blog about that beautiful and precise liturgy; it’s not a blog
Wednesday afternoons were a busy time at our family business, McLain & Barnes Hardware. That was the time when the Orgill Brothers truck arrived from Memphis, with all sorts of goods for us kids working summer jobs to inventory, price, and prepare to sell in the coming days.
In my teaching days, we shared the story of Paul Brand with our students – a mostly unknown doctor who spent most of his career studying leprosy and treating people with this disease. As it turns out, it is not just a disease of the Biblical era; leprosy still afflicts people around the
As these last couple of years have put all of us more in touch with our mortality, Ruthie and I have been more intentional about crossing items off on our “bucket list” – things that are important for us to do before we die (“kick the bucket”). A few of those have been going to
Recently I heard a podcast host ask a science fiction writer named Ted Chiang what he thought about superheroes. Neither science fiction nor superheroes are subjects that interest me much. But Ted Chiang’s response did.
He said he has several problems with superheroes, the biggest one is this. A question he asks
I was a student for twenty-one years. And I was a teacher for fifteen years. August brings its own particular and peculiar blend of delight, hope, anxiety, and curiosity. I love clean calendar pages, the smell of new books, nametags (which I actually think we should wear in perpetuity), and fresh starts. I