A cold, grey, drizzly day in Augusta, Georgia today — a day that reminds me of my six months spent in the Aleutian Islands in 1990. The gloom was unrelenting. Soldiers stationed there during the Second World War often developed the “Aleutian stare,” eyes set at a thousand-mile focus as if looking through things. But I actually liked the Bering Sea environment — I think I was the only one of my squadron mates who did — for the simple fact that it was a great place to read.
As a balm for the gloomy days that face you, here are some links to some of my favorite essays, an off-the-cuff selection limited to what is available online:
“What a Student Owes a Teacher” by James V. Schall, SJ;
“You Know My Method: A Juxtaposition of Charles S. Peirce and Sherlock Holmes” by Thomas Sebeok with Jean Umiker Sebeok;
“Christ and Nothing” by David Bentley Hart;
“Courage” by J. M. Barrie;
“On Being the Right Size” by J. B. S. Haldane;
“On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings” by William James;
“On the Death of Plato: Eric Voegelin” by James V. Schall, SJ (again);
“Eichmann and the Private Conscience” by Martha Gellhorn;
“The Man in Black” by Oliver Goldsmith (the man described is Samuel Johnson);
“Immortality: Experience and Symbol” by Eric Voegelin;
“Of Cannibals” by Michel Montaigne;
“The Pretense of Knowledge” by F. A. Hayek.
Try any of these and you won’t go wrong. Everyone of them has a thematic relation or vague synaptic link to my Plato project. Please share any favorites you may have.
shared ignorance 