Saturday, September 26, 2009

Rochester Chesterton Conference (1)

Rochester Chesterton Conference September 26 - Thomas Howard and Dale Ahlquist were among the featured speakers. More to come!

Thursday, September 03, 2009

a new twist on art history

Chesterton spilt a lot of ink discussing art and artists and in that tradition we have moved a lot of pixels on this blog talking about art and artists. Some times we have spoken in praise of art and sometimes we have scratched our heads on why a particular thing was elevated to the category of art. Here is one of the best short summaries of Leonardo Da Vinci I have read in long time. All of which I totally agree with.

If more of art history was written like this maybe it would spark interest in the subject from those who have this view: “Art History is generally the sort of thing that causes me to spontaneously break out in hives and start dry heaving into an airsickness bag with the maximum amount of force that can possibly be mustered by my diaphragm.”

Also here is a most excellent reenactment of a conversation with Pope J. and Michelangelo:



Sunday, August 23, 2009

If you print it they will read


There are only two reasons a company puts a product on the cover of a catalog. The first is that it is selling very well and they want it to sell better or they believe the product is better than the numbers it is posting and want you to buy it too. I belive it is the former for Dover Publications in regards to Chesterton’s books. I have watched his books go from page 30 to this month’s catalog where his books are on the cover. Also the number of selections of Uncle Gilbert’s work has grown as well. This month they are offering The Coloured Lands: Fairy Stories, Comic Verse and Fantastic Pictures
With this description: Chestertonians and other readers will rejoice in the republication of this long-unavailable book of delights. Featuring the author's early work as well as previously unpublished material, this volume abounds in fairy stories, comic verse, and satirical ballads. Best of all, it features a treasury of Chesterton's distinctive color and black-and-white illustrations.
Reprint of the Sheed & Ward, New York, 1938 edition.
Buy it here
Can't wait till my copy gets here

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Most of all, at age 40, we should be reading...

By [age] 40 I had outgrown ghost-written sports books and sensationalist war novels. I'd seen war for real and it wasn't very sensational at all. It's 90% utter boredom, 10% sheer terror. Actually soccer is in some ways very similar. At 40 we should, of course, have read almost everything or at least pretend to have done so. While I've read some of the ancients, many of the 19th-century classics and a whole chunk of 20th-century literature, I know I am a better person, a better writer, a better me for having read and reread, among others, Evelyn Waugh, George Orwell and Ronald Knox. Most of all, at 40, assuming one hasn't before, we should be reading G. K. Chesterton.
- Michael Coren, read it all at We are not alone

Monday, August 17, 2009

Guess who made the list?

Image, a journal of art and literature with a religious slant which also has an online site, has published a list of "100 Writers of Faith."

There are some surprises on the list, but a few familiar names as well.

They explain:

"In selecting books for this list, we decided to list an author only once, so that we would end up with 100 different writers. Moreover, only creative writing was considered: fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction. The works selected had to manifest a genuine engagement with the Judeo-Christian heritage of faith, rather than merely use religion as background or subject matter.

G.K. Chesterton is there for The Man Who Was Thursday.

C.S. Lewis made the list with Till We Have Faces (a book I've always liked, but which seems to be overlooked by so many readers).

Dorothy Sayers is on it with The Mind of the Maker (which I must admit I've never read).

Some other writer I like who made the list are J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings - no surprise!); Charles Williams (All Hallows' Eve); Robert Bolt (A Man for All Seasons); Graham Greene (The Power and the Glory); and Ray Bradbury (!) (Something Wicked This Way Comes).

There are some works that some folks might argue about - Nikos Kazantzakis' The Last Temptation of Christ, for example. And there might be some writers who have been left off.

Go see if your favorite writer is there - or not.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

On the current Heath Care issue Mark Steyn brilliantly writes, “….In the normal course of events, the process takes a while. But Obama believes in “the fierce urgency of now”, and fierce it is. That’s where all the poor befuddled sober centrists who can’t understand why the Democrats keep passing incoherent 1,200-page bills every week are missing the point. If “health care” were about health care, the devil would be in the details. But it’s not about health or costs or coverage; it’s about getting over the river and burning the bridge. It doesn’t matter what form of governmentalized health care gets passed as long as it passes. Once it’s in place, it will be “reformed”, endlessly, but it will never be undone. Same with a lot of the other stuff: Keep throwing the spaghetti at the wall. The Republicans may pick off the odd strand but, if you keep it coming fast enough, by the end of Obama’s first year the wall will be a great writhing mass of pasta entwined like copulating anacondas in some jungle simulacrum of Hef’s grotto. And that’s a good image of how government will slither into every corner of your life: You can try and pull one of those spaghetti strings out but it’ll be all tied up with a hundred others and you’ll never untangle them.”

Read the whole thing here

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

If a thing is worth doing, YOU should do it.

Somebody slap this boy for perverted use of a Chesterton quotation: John Patrick Grace: Health care reform, even if done badly, may be better than nothing. J.P.G. applies G.K.C.'s "if a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing badly" as a defense to push a muddled health care reform bill through to approval. Chesterton's memorable statement was never an excuse for unthinking mediocrity or ignorant pursuit of Progress. It was a statement against government involvement in the details of our lives; that the basics of life should not be relegated to professionals. Do or delegate it yourself. What our Gilbert meant was exactly what John Patrick Grace does not want.

Monday, August 10, 2009

"On National Debts" by Hilaire Belloc

An appropriate cautionary tale for adults by Hilaire Belloc. It was published in On Nothing in 1908.
ON NATIONAL DEBTS
(WHICH ARE IMAGINARIES AND TRUE NOTHINGS OF STATE)


One day Peter and Paul--I knew them both, the dear fellows: Peter perhaps a trifle wild, Paul a little priggish, but that is no matter--one day, I say, Peter and Paul (who lived together in rooms off Southampton Row, Bloomsbury, a very delightful spot) were talking over their mutual affairs.

"My dear Paul," said Peter, "I wish I could persuade you to this expenditure. It will be to our mutual advantage. Come now, you have ten thousand a year of your own and I with great difficulty earn a hundred; it is surprising that you should make the fuss you do. Besides which you well know that this feeding off packing-cases is irksome; we really need a table and it will but cost ten pounds."

To all this Paul listened doubtfully, pursing up his lips, joining the tips of his fingers, crossing his legs and playing the solemn fool generally.

"Peter," said he, "I mislike this scheme of yours. It is a heavy outlay for a single moment. It would disturb our credit, and yours especially, for your share would come to five pounds and you would have to put off paying the Press-Cutting agency to which you foolishly subscribe. No; there is an infinitely better way than this crude idea of paying cash down in common. I will lend the whole sum of ten pounds to our common stock and we will each pay one pound a year as interest to myself for the loan. I for my part will not shirk my duty in the matter of this interest and I sincerely trust you will not shirk yours."

Peter was so delighted with this arrangement that his gratitude knew no bounds. He would frequently compliment himself in private on the advantage of living with Paul, and when he went out to see his friends it was with the jovial air of the Man with the Bottomless Purse, for he did not feel the pound a year he had to pay, and Paul always seemed willing to undertake similar expenses on similar terms. He purchased a bronze over-mantel, he fitted the rooms with electric light, he bought (for the common use) a large prize dog for £56, and he was for ever bringing in made dishes, bottles of wine and what not, all paid for by this lending of his. The interest increased to £20 and then to £30 a year, but Paul was so rigorously honest, prompt and exact in paying himself the interest that Peter could not bear to be behindhand or to seem less punctual and upright than his friend. But so high a proportion of his small income going in interest left poor Peter but a meagre margin for himself and he had to dine at Lockhart's and get his clothes ready made, which (to a refined and sensitive soul such as his) was a grievous trial.

Some little time after a Fishmonger who had attained to Cabinet rank was married to the daughter of a Levantine and London was in consequence illuminated. Paul said to Peter in his jovial way, "It is imperative that we should show no meanness upon this occasion. We are known for the most flourishing and well-to-do pair of bachelors in the neighbourhood, and I have not hesitated (for I know I had your consent beforehand) to go to Messrs. Brock and order an immense quantity of fireworks for the balcony on this auspicious occasion. Not a word. The loan is mine and very freely do I make it to our Mutual Position."

So that night there was an illumination at their flat, and the centre-piece was a vast combination of roses, thistles, shamrocks, leeks, kangaroos, beavers, schamboks, and other national emblems, and beneath it the motto, "United we stand, divided we fall: Peter and Paul," in flaming letters two feet high.

Peter was after this permanently reduced to living upon rice and to mending his own clothes; but he could easily see how fair the arrangement was, and he was not the man to grumble at a free contract. Moreover, he was expecting a rise in salary from the editor of the Hoot, in which paper he wrote "Woman's World", and signed it "Emily".

At the close of the year Peter had some difficulty in meeting the interest, though Paul had, with true business probity, paid his on the very day it fell due. Peter therefore approached Paul with some little diffidence and hesitation, saying:

"Paul: I trust you will excuse me, but I beg you will be so very good as to see your way, if possible, to granting me an extension of time in the matter of paying my interest."

Paul, who was above everything regular and methodical, replied:

"Hum, chrm, chrum, chrm. Well, my dear Peter, it would not be generous to press you, but I trust you will remember that this money has not been spent upon my private enjoyment. It has gone for the glory of our Mutual Position; pray do not forget that, Peter; and remember also that if you have to pay interest, so have I, so have I. We are all in the same boat, Peter, sink or swim; sink or swim...." Then his face brightened, he patted Peter genially on the shoulder and added: "Do not think me harsh, Peter. It is necessary that I should keep to a strict, business-like way of doing things, for I have a large property to manage; but you may be sure that my friendship for you is of more value to me than a few paltry sovereigns. I will lend you the sum you owe to the interest on the Common Debt, and though in strict right you alone should pay the interest on this new loan I will call half of it my own and you shall pay but £1 a year on it for ever."

Peter's eyes swam with tears at Paul's generosity, and he thanked his stars that his lot had been cast with such a man. But when Paul came again with a grave face and said to him, "Peter, my boy, we must insure at once against burglars: the underwriters demand a hundred pounds," his heart broke, and he could not endure the thought of further payments. Paul, however, with the quiet good sense that characterised him, pointed out the necessity of the payment and, eyeing Peter with compassion for a moment, told him that he had long been feeling that he (Peter) had been unfairly taxed. "It is a principle" (said Paul) "that taxation should fall upon men in proportion to their ability to pay it. I am determined that, whatever happens, you shall in future pay but a third of the interest that may accrue upon further loans." It was in vain that Peter pointed out that, in his case, even a thirtieth would mean starvation; Paul was firm and carried his point.

The wretched Peter was now but skin and bone, and his earning power, small as it had ever been, was considerably lessened. Paul began to fear very seriously for his invested funds: he therefore kept up Peter's spirits as best he could with such advice as the following:--

"Dear Peter, do not repine; your lot is indeed hard, but it has its silver lining. You are the member of a partnership famous among all other bachelor-residences for its display of fireworks and its fine furniture. So valuable is the room in which you live that the insurance alone is the wonder and envy of our neighbours. Consider also how firm and stable these loans make our comradeship. They give me a stake in the rooms and furnish a ready market for the spare capital of our little community. The interest WE pay upon the fund is an evidence of our social rank, and all London stares with astonishment at the flat of Peter and Paul, which can without an effort buy such gorgeous furniture at a moment's notice."

But, alas! these well-meant words were of no avail. On a beautiful spring day, when all the world seemed to be holding him to the joys of living, Peter passed quietly away in his little truckle bed, unattended even by a doctor, whose fees would have necessitated a loan the interest of which he could never have paid.

Paul, on the death of Peter, gave way at first to bitter recrimination. "Is this the way," he said, "that you repay years of unstinted generosity? Nay, is this the way you meet your sacred obligations? You promised upon a thousand occasions to pay your share of the interest for ever, and now like a defaulter you abandon your post and destroy half the revenue of our firm by one intempestive and thoughtless act! Had you but possessed a little property which, properly secured, would continue to meet the claims you had incurred, I had not blamed you. But a man who earns all that he possesses has no right to pledge himself to perpetual payment unless he is prepared to live for ever!"

Nobler thoughts, however, succeeded this outburst, and Paul threw himself upon the bed of his Departed Friend and moaned. "Who now will pay me an income in return for my investments? All my fortune is sunk in this flat, though I myself pay the interest never so regularly, it will not increase my fortune by one farthing! I shall as I live consume a fund which will never be replenished, and within a short time I shall be compelled to work for my living!"

Maddened by this last reflection, he dashed into the street, hurried northward through-the-now-rapidly-gathering-darkness, and drowned himself in the Regent's Canal, just where it runs by the Zoological Gardens, under the bridge that leads to the cages of the larger pachyderms.

Thus miserably perished Peter and Paul, the one in the thirtieth, the other in the forty-seventh year of his age, both victims to their ignorance of Mrs. Fawcett's Political Economy for the Young, the Nicomachean Ethics, Bastiat's Economic Harmonies, The Fourth Council of Lateran on Unfruitful Loans and Usury, The Speeches of Sir Michael Hicks-Beach and Mr. Brodrick (now Lord Midleton), The Sermons of St. Thomas Aquinas, under the head "Usuria," Mr. W. S. Lilly's First Principles in Politics, and other works too numerous to mention.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Rochester Chesterton Conference

There are many among us who can't make the Chesterton Conference due to schedule or distance. For those who can't, there will be a shorter Chesterton Conference in Rochester, NY, in September.

"Reawakening Wonder" will take place Saturday, September 26, from 9 am..m to 3:30 p.m. in the Coleman Chapel in Murphy Hall at St. John Fisher College.

The speakers will include Tom Howard, David Higbee, Joseph Pearce, and Dale Ahlquist (he's everywhere, isn't he?).

It's the 6th such conference sponsored by the Rochester Chesterton Society, and they have been "wonder"ful events.

So if you couldn't make it to Seattle, come join us.

For more information, e-mail rochesterton@hotmail.com

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

The Current Occupant

Tom O'Toole on his blog Fighting Irish Thomas says,”… "When a nation gives birth to a foolish law," said Chesterton, "they do not start or stare at the monster they have brought forth. They have grown used to their own unreason ... these nations are really in danger of losing their heads en masse." And, when Chesterton notes "these vast visions of imbecility" once they become policy, are almost always enforced by force.”

The current occupant of the white house is certainly a fascinating character. His greatest skill is that to who ever he is talking to he makes them feel he is their side. In front of Planned Parenthood he told them his first bit of business would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, a hideous monster of a bill. In front of Notre Dame he said that the issue of abortion is an important issue one where we need cool and deliberate discussion. He made that crowd think he was on their side.

Ok, he has yet to flat out say he is against abortion but he his also no longer saying he is four square in favor of it. Maybe he really thinks a compromise can be achieved. Of course it is also true that it is impossible to compromise on an issue of life or death, unless you live in the country of Florin where people can be “mostly dead.”

He realized that the FOCA would be political suicide so he is working an end-around. He knows that Roe V. Wade will eventually come before the Supreme Court again. Also all his appointments are radically pro abort and they are preparing for that case. Here are just two examples:
Dawn Johnsen will head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel here are 3 of her quotes:
1. “The argument that women who become pregnant have in some sense consented to the pregnancy belies reality…and others who are the inevitable losers in the contraceptive lottery no more ‘consent’ to pregnancy than pedestrians ‘consent’ to being struck by drunk drivers.’”
(Supreme Court amicus brief she authored in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services)

2. “The woman is constantly aware for nine months that her body is not wholly her own: the state has conscripted her body for its own ends. Thus, abortion restrictions ‘reduce pregnant women to no more than fetal containers.’”
(Supreme Court amicus brief she authored in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services)

And the clincher -
3. “Statutes that curtail her abortion choice are disturbingly suggestive of involuntary servitude, prohibited by the Thirteenth Amendment, in that forced pregnancy requires a woman to provide continuous physical service to the fetus in order to further the state’s asserted interest.”

Since the “Right to Privacy”, the bases for the Roe decision, is not in the constitution they will use the 13th amendment. Yes, They have grown used to their own unreason.

Now let’s hear from his Science adviser, John P. Holdren

“The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being,”

“To a biologist the question of when life begins for a human child is almost meaningless, since life is continuous and has been since it first began on Earth several billion years ago,”… To most biologists, an embryo (unborn child during the first two or three months of development) or a fetus is no more a complete human being than a blueprint is a building. The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being.

He advocated the formation of a “planetary regime” that would use a “global police force” to enforce totalitarian measures of population control, including forced abortions, mass sterilization programs conducted via the food and water supply, as well as mandatory bodily implants that would prevent couples from having children.

More on this cool science guy here.

And now the Current Occupant’s “Heath” Care plan will include federal dollars for abortion, this on top of the 250 million dollars the feds give Planned Parenthood.

Put it all together and you get the FOCA with out all that political brouhaha. Like I said the current occupant is very fascinating.

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Universal truth

I have been on a history binge lately and today I came across an interesting quote. It was written two thousand and two hundred years ago by the Roman playwright Plautus and immediately upon finishing it I thought of how it fits our Uncle Gilbert.

“The poet seeks what is nowhere in all the world.
And yet – somewhere- he finds it.”

Friday, July 31, 2009

Life Lesson #44,758

Chesterton frequently uses the fence or wall as a metaphor in his writings.
My favorite and is this one:
“Catholic doctrine and discipline may be walls; but they are the walls of a playground. Christianity is the only frame which has preserved the pleasure of Paganism. We might fancy some children playing on the flat grassy top of some tall island in the sea. So long as there was a wall round the cliff's edge they could fling themselves into every frantic game and make the place the noisiest of nurseries. But the walls were knocked down, leaving the naked peril of the precipice. They did not fall over; but when their friends returned to them they were all huddled in terror in the center of the island; and their song had ceased.”

It is also apropos to my current life lesson which is this:
When building a fence around your chicken coop you are not to build it strong enough to keep the chickens in but strong enough to keep the carnivores out.

Personally I hate it when it takes a pile of bloody feathers to learn something.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Speaking of Belloc

In art a style can never be imposed nor predicted. It grows organically from any given epoch reflecting the needs, wants and desires of that epoch. Great art always reflects a timeless universal truth that moves through every epoch. Another way to say that is that every epoch has it’s own stories and story tellers. To truly understand the events and people in any point in history you most know their stories and story tellers.

The problem with many historians today is that they do not know the stories of the time they are reporting on or worse, they apply our stories to that time and that leads to a gross misrepresentation of that time. Otherwise know as revisionist history.

In Belloc’s book, The Crusades, he takes extra care to remind us of the story and the story tellers of that time. He points out the successes and failures of that first crusade in light of how the participants of that time viewed the world and themselves. The book reads like a detective story as told in flash back because he tells us the end in the first few pages.

The reason, of course, that this account of the Crusades is not used in schools is that the story of the time is Christianity and the cause of the Crusades was to save Christendom. Also Belloc, rightly so, connects he and us to that story and frequently uses phases like, “We failed…” or “Our fathers…”. Also he does not paint the Mohammedan forces as noble nomads just looking for a homeland as in Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven but as what they really were at that time a barbaric culture bent on destruction incapable of building and creating anything.

The other reason is that he predicts that since we lost the main goal of the crusades, “we have by no means seen the last of the results of the 12th-century Christian military failure against Islam.”

Much better review of the book is here

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Belloc's Windmill To Be Closed

Hilaire Belloc's windmill, the largest working windmill in West Sussex, is closing its doors to the public. See BBC article Historic windmill forced to close for the sad details.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Today in 1953: Death of Belloc

Epigram "On His Books" published in Sonnets & Verse:
When I am dead, I hope it may be said:
"His sins were scarlet, but his books were read."


Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

In case you missed it A.N. Wilson’s review of The Paradox Who Was Chesterton
New evidence about the development of G. K. Chesterton's ideas and his progress towards Roman Catholicism
By William Oddie was posted here.

Whenever I see a review of Chesterton’s work in the Mass Media I always hold my breath a little thinking that at any moment it will mention GK “Antisemitism” or his "unfavorable view of women” which usually has nothing to do with the work being reviewed. This review, thankfully did not mention any of those. It did however pick up a new dig against Uncle Gilbert, again nothing to do with the book, when Wilson interjected this little nugget:“(for there is bizarre talk of GK’s canonization)”. I guess they just can’t help themselves.

Anyway here is an except from the review:

"Chesterton’s fiction and journalism were dashed off at speed. This is not to say that they were not on some levels deeply considered. It could be said, truthfully as well as Chestertonianly, that he was never deeper than when he was being superficial. Many of his wisest remarks are the throwaways, but you do not necessarily preserve the truth of a throwaway remark by patching it together with other throwaway remarks to construct a Summa. Chesterton’s observation about angels – that they can fly because they carry so little weight – applies to his own writings."

And yes Wilson got the quote wrong the true quote is "Angels can fly
because they take themselves lightly."

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Paul Nowak, author of the new "Uncle Chestnut" book

Paul Nowak, author of the recently published The Inconvenient Adventures of Uncle Chestnut, sent this note:
I've been meaning to let you guys @ Chesterton and Friends know a couple things:

1) A while ago you mentioned Neil Gaiman using GKC in Sandman - I got a small scan of a few panels here:
http://eternal-revolution.com/573/chesterton/gk-chesterton-comic-hero/

2) I've not managed to post about this myself, but Simpsons artist Luis Escobar did a cartoon of GKC/Uncle Chestnut on his blog: http://www.luisescobarblog.com/?p=334

The Gaiman/Sandman posts referred to are GK Comics in 2005 and GK and the Sandman in 2006. Aeons ago on a blog timeline. How wonderful that these bubbles can rise to the surface when someone gets the hankering to google.

"Uncle Chestnut" received a thumbs up from my 11 year old son. I greatly enjoyed it myself, and will post a review shortly.

Thanks for your good work, Paul!

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Yuk It Up Folks

Two men considering a religious vocation were
having a conversation. "What is similar about the
Jesuit and Dominican Orders? " the one asked.

The second replied, "Well, they were both
founded by Spaniards -- St. Dominic for the
Dominicans, and St. Ignatius of Loyola for
the Jesuits. They were also both founded to
combat heresy -- the Dominicans to
fight the Albigensians, and the Jesuits to
fight the Protestants."

"What is different about the Jesuit and
Dominican Orders?"

"Met any Albigensians lately?"
-----------------------

When you look at the body of work on Catholic humor the Jesuits’ are the equvilent of blond or ethnic jokes in the secular world. Really, when was the last time you heard a joke begin, “ A Precious Blood Priest walked into a bar...” or “Two Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus went to the beach...”

The odd thing for me is that some of the best and worst priests I’ve known or read were Jesuits. And their work in spreading the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is truly driven by the Holy Spirit

It’s not that members of other religious orders don’t slip from the path it’s just that the Jesuits always do it with a monumentally arrogant flare. (two recent examples here and here).

There is a danger in fighting any opponent and it is not that you might lose the battle but lose the line that separates. The most effective way to fight a foe is to really understand him and the danger comes in understanding him so much you become like him.

We’ve seen that within the police who fight crime every day suddenly begin to commit crime. Or between the republicans and democrats. Where the republicans have now embraced the intrinsic evil of torture because the dems have the intrinsic evil of abortion.

And the problem with all religious, in fighting the secular world, is they begin to
embrace it’s ideals or think, “well it’s not really that bad.” like Father Jenkins at Notre Dame.

It is often the little slips that left unchecked turn into...well...big sin. For example, this past Sunday at my church, one of the petitions was “that government leaders work to solve the problem of climate change.”
There was no petition that they work to respect the dignity of life from conception to natural death.

yep climate change is now more important.

Maybe it was joke.

"It is not funny that anything else
should fall down; only that a man
should fall down.
Why do we laugh? Because it is a
gravely religious matter: it is the
Fall of Man. Only man can
be absurd: for only man can
be dignified."

G.K.C.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

I say Hello. I say Goodbye


Please join me in welcoming to the planet my newest grandchild, Riley Ann. Yes, the world just got a little prettier.

Riley’s birth came few days after I helped bury my art professor and dear friend Mike Skop. Mike was “that person” who changed the trajectory of my life. He will be sorely missed.


I have reached an age where I know death and birth is not like changing five pennies for a nickel. Riley will never replace the hole left by Mike’s passing but someday I will tell her stories about him. Maybe, just maybe, there will come a time she will want to go into the studio and learn how to make pigment sing and clay dance. Then I will be there to show her the path Mike showed me.


Seek not to be like great men. Seek what they sought.