A Great Mystery

(the fourth chapter of Shell Games)   The Rev. Walpole Albright had suggested the universe wished to snuff out dozens, hundreds, or even more of its own creations.  Most of the universe’s creations who heard this dire pronouncement met it with a shrug. Yet the promise of eminent destruction lingered with a few of the…

So Sayeth

(the third chapter of Shell Games)   England and its North American extremities also spoke much a similar language.  One wrote to confess it was growing very tired of seeing only subjects’ backs; the other replied it was equally leery of losing the necessary leverage and independence an arm affords. Another volleyed folly eventually ensued….

Geertz and the Value of Thick Discription

written July 9, 2009   Unsatisfied with the usual, surface manner of anthropological study and interpretation, Clifford Geertz, in Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight, suggests a new vantage of study, in which he borrows the term “thick description.” The value of thick description, in comparison to the “thin description” of simply defining a…

A Bloody Travesty of a Sorry Event (And the Civil War Was There, Too)

written November 24, 2012     This will be an easy day, I thought.  Just seeing a simple movie, while visiting home with my girlfriend May during Thanksgiving, I thought… Sonya my sister then hopped into the room, having  a question about a famous black comedian from Peoria she didn’t know (Richard Prior), which continued…

Thomas Jefferson, New Virginian

written March 2009 The history of Virginia, from the first Tidewater settlements to the advent of the Civil War, is built upon the struggle for land and the substantial labor required to make the Commonwealth agriculturally productive. The question was inescapable, and throughout this era was tied to what it meant to be a Virginian….

Dear God

written January 2006 It’s me, Will, but then You already knew that. I won’t take much of Your time because Your services could definitely be used in other areas than listening to a guy in Norfolk, Virginia. It’s just that I have some questions, You see, and I thought for once I’d cut through all…