1.) Sorry for the silence, but I'm working on music (an update of the dissertation meter is forthcoming), and I've got the Martian Death Flu that's going around. Here's where I give thanks for the inventors of theraflu and jasmine tea.

2.) What's with the outright skepticism and/or fear of academe and other members of the RCC? We started the university system. I'm specifically thinking of a comment just made on my favorite TV station that college is spiritually damaging. What about those of us who rediscovered our faith in it? And perhaps a faith that could be damaged by a philosophy course had other issues to begin with? I've taken a bunch of philosophy and critical theory courses over the past few years, and I don't think I've ever been attacked for being a Roman Catholic. There was a professor not at my current school, who I had a problem with, but I told him off after class for being a bigot. He apologized, and we've been good friends ever since.

I've had times when the two have conflicted--such as last year on the feast of the Immaculate Conception I had an oral presentation as final. But every time I've put my foot down about something--like when a concert was rescheduled on a Sunday--there hasn't been any backlash. I've had students say things I found objectionable, but as my chair reminds me, I always had the right to respond.

I can't change how others are going to view me, and I can't change how others think of my beliefs. All I can do is try to lead the best life I can. What I've been trying to write about on this blog the past year is monastic/academic/artistic life as one of witness, where witness is a kind of sacred attention to the Other. In the end, that's all I've got.