…it is well to remind ourselves before we begin of the way in which metaphorical language—that is to say, all language—is properly used. It is an expression of experience and of the relation of one experience to the other. Further, its meaning is realized only in experience. We frequently say, “Until I had that experience, […]

Last August I told my friend J I’d take her out for lunch for her birthday present. Monday night she cashed my offer in for a happy hour that turned out to be dinner due to all the tasty appetizers. At least we made it before her next birthday! We were talking about our kids, […]

Under the terms of our analogy, failure in the [Holy Spirit aspect of the creative’s Trinity] is the characteristic failure of the unliterary writer and the inartistic artist. […] I mean the men who use words without inspiration and without sympathy. They may be compared to the man who “has no feeling for” machinery…. It […]

[D]on’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent[?] There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection […]

I don’t know what Connie’s trying to write, but I feel her feels. Hard. Seeing it in my local (tangible) newspaper absolutely made my Thursday morning. This isn’t my truth today, however. Today I’ve been frivolling at the Blanco Lavender Festival with my mom—a particularly inspired team-up, because together we’ll make a methodical assessment of […]

I don’t know why we aren’t more afraid of plants. Perhaps because they’re quiet, and slow, we lose track of what they’re about. No doubt they like it that way. We have runner-grass in the yard—not St. Augustine, but some sort of close cousin—and when I go outside and idly cast my eyes across my […]

Used to, if I was driving around Austin in the late afternoon, I listened to the Dave Ramsey Show. His tagline was something like, “Putting the personal back into personal finance.” I enjoyed how he combined warmth with a blunt “Snap out of it!” demeanor. I liked hearing tired and worried people become a little […]

“It may seem strange to say so, since we live at a time of cultural abundance and flowering amateurism, when the tools of creativity seem to be available to anyone with a laptop. But the elevation of the amateur over the professional trivializes artistic accomplishment and helps to undermine the already precarious living standards that […]