This Day in History
Around the world, today is Polar Bear Day; Roman co-emperors sixteen hundred thirty-five years ago issued edicts ‘requesting’ all citizens to covert to ‘trinitarian’ Christianity; forty-five years hence, in 425, the daughter-in-law of one of those imperial masters helped to found the University of Constantinople; four hundred fifty-five years back, England’s rulers and the Lords of the Congregation of Scotland validated the Treaty of Berwick to expel the French from Scotland; two hundred thirty-three years before the here and now, Parliament voted against further funding of war with America’s colonies; two hundred fourteen years prior to the present pass, the District of Columbia by law came under the direct jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress; six years later, in 1807, a baby boy was born who grew up as popular poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; MORE HERE
A Thought for the Day
The nearly unimaginable scope of things in general means, of course, that every single fanciful notion that we entertain—no matter how engaging and fulsome, bursting with potential for insight and action, even if it becomes as popular as the latest telecommunications marvel—has a likelihood that approaches zero of corresponding precisely to the shape and parameters of the entire universal enterprise of which each of us nevertheless manifests an indelible and inalienable part, the unfolding of which dynamic delineates one of the profound and persistent paradoxes of conscious existence, to wit that we have as our ‘existential’ job, so to speak, the task of seeking what we can never, ever, ever actually find or achieve, the comprehensive comprehension of ourselves and all that is, in the total web of relations and interconnections that define even the most mundane attributes of the cosmos, whether such a routine component of everything has the label ‘I’ or ‘thee’ or something else altogether.
Numero Uno—“Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Min Vackra Fru, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I thank the Swedish Academy for finding my work worthy of this highest honor.
In my heart there may be doubt that I deserve the Nobel award over other men of letters whom I hold in respect and reverence – but there is no question of my pleasure and pride in having it for myself. MORE HERE
Nearly Naked Links
From Friday’s and Saturday’s Files
A Merton Chronology – http://merton.org/chrono.aspx
Karl Jaspers @ SEP – https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/jaspers/
African Roots of War: Du Bois – http://www.webdubois.org/dbAfricanRWar.html
EVENTS
OPPS/SUBS/CONTESTS
A fellowship, which includes a stipend of $20,000, is given annually to a writer of nonfiction (including creative nonfiction) working on a book relating to the literature, history, culture, or art of the Americas before 1830. The fellowship includes a two-month research period to be conducted at the John Carter Brown Library on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and a two-month writing term at the C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. Submit a writing sample of any length, a project description, a curriculum vitae, and contact information for three references by March 15. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
JOBS
Belhaven University
Assistant Professor of Creative Writing
Faculty Position in Creative Writing
Belhaven University, a Christian university committed to the ministry of integrating biblical truth and learning, is searching for the ideal candidate for Assistant Professor of Creative Writing who has a heart for Christ Jesus and students at the Jackson, Mississippi campus.