Archive for December 2009

Ineffable

In Culture, Miscellany on 25 December 2009 with 2 comments

We all seem to have things we can’t say to each other.
Perhaps we can’t say them because they are socially inap­pro­pri­ate. Perhaps we can’t say them because they reveal feel­ings we aren’t sup­posed to have. Perhaps we can’t say them because the words, their being uttered, their exis­tence out­side of our thoughts would change the relationship […]

Speaking in Tongues: Toward Salvation

In Childhood, Creative Nonficiton, Family, Narrative on 22 December 2009 with 4 comments

My mother was a deeply reli­gious woman. She was what most peo­ple would call a fun­da­men­tal­ist Christian. She believed in God, the Father Almighty, cre­ator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only son, our Lord.
And how.
But she espe­cially believed in Hell, and she even more espe­cially believed that my brother and I were […]

The Egypt Game: Descent into Heathenry

In Childhood, Creative Nonficiton, Family, Narrative on 9 December 2009 with no comments

When I was in ele­men­tary school, I read a won­der­ful novel called The Egypt Game. It was about five chil­dren who decided to recre­ate ancient Egypt on a piece of aban­doned prop­erty, and how the gods of the game inte­grated them­selves into the children’s every­day lives in spooky and enter­tain­ing ways.
I fell in love with the […]