Ancient Wisdom for a Modern World
Over the past month or so I’ve been rotating through a few different books, all of which are of the pop academic genre. For example, I’m about halfway through The Hour Between Dog and Wolf: How Risk-Taking Transforms Us, Body and Mind. It’s a fun book by a former trader turned academic that describes,
The whole landscape, unified by the church and its heavenward spire, seemed to say: this is the meaning of all created things: we have been made for no other purpose than that men may use us in raising themselves to God, and in proclaiming the glory of God. We have been fashioned, in all our
I’m still reading Henri Nouwen’s account of his time at the monastery and he keeps sharing a bunch of insights that somehow seem super relevant to my life. Nearing the latter half of his stay at the monastery, he is trying to figure out what his life should look like after he leaves. How much time
My 20th ice bath felt warm. It must have had something to do with the beautiful 50-degree weather outside. The fact that 50-degree weather feels warm is a testament to the practice of exposing yourself to cold temperatures. We have had some cold days here in DC, so when it’s 50 degrees out, it feels
My ice bath really froze my toes off yesterday. They did not achieve comfortably numb phase; they stayed in the “this really stings I can’t wait until this is over” phase. I took a warm shower after the ice bath yesterday to accelerate my warm-up process and it felt extra awesome. If you really want
My experience with Christianity is limited. I attended an International Christian School (this one, actually) as a child, and as a child, I was certainly a Christian because, well, that was the only religion I knew about. I also had a childish idea of what it meant to have faith and “be saved”. I remember
During Mass last night, I tried really hard to focus all my attention on the priest, the liturgical readings, and the homily. My concentration was interrupted, however, by the smell of someone’s flatulence. Yes, someone farted at Mass. At it wasn’t one of those farts that dissipates after a minute; this fart lingered for the
Mark 10:17-27 tells the story of the rich man who approaches Jesus and his disciples and asks Jesus what he needs to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus tells him to follow the commandments (do not kill, commit adultery, etc.). The rich man says he has followed the commandments all his life. Jesus then tells
The Talmud reading yesterday was about various personality types as it relates to anger. The various temperaments are: A) Angers easily and is pacified easily B) Hard to anger and hard to pacify C) Hard to anger and quick to pacify D) Quick to anger and hard to pacify People with the C personality are
This weekend I attended a reform synagogue for Saturday Shabbat services. Reform Judaism is a primarily American movement whose goal is to make Judaism compatible with modern life and culture. This is fascinating because it is emblematic of the classic struggle between tradition and modernity. Are the laws and rituals of Judaism timeless? Is it