My Favorites of 2015

Here are some of the posts I especially like from this year.  I can see why they are my favorites--they're all about me.  I hope, though, that others might find some of them interesting.

• “Gratitude,” written after a Thanksgiving Day workout out my gym.
• “Bean Play,” after visiting Millennium Park in Chicago,
• “Game Face,” an old picture of my dad provides memories of him and thoughts about competition.
• “Everything Is Go,” why I like my spinning class.
• “Awe, Literally,” visiting Detroit Institute of Arts and Diego Rivera’s murals.
• “Travel,” a visit to Nashville, Tennessee.
• “Father Sorin’s Path,” my history intersects with the history of Notre Dame.
• “Less is More,” philosophy from my daughter Bridget.
• "My Lucky Day," musings from Forest Church about where we came from. 
• “They Came to America,” more musings about ancestry and random happenstance.

Why do I blog?

I like writing these little posts though I don’t exactly know why.  When I look at my blogspot stats, I feel good when the numbers are high, but I don’t write about things that I think might increase my numbers.  But I’m drawn to the practice of sharing things that catch my eye and things that are important to me.  There is just a certain kind of information that I like to collect here and share.

Obviously, that feeling didn’t happen during the recent holidays.  It wasn’t that I didn’t have time.  I just didn’t have anything to say.  However, I sense that soon, I will a few thought that I will want to capture here.

Facing the Past

Yesterday in the New York Times, David Brooks writes about how humans, cultures, and nations deal with past injustice and traumas.  He doesn’t solve the issue, but it is an interesting start.  We need to think of the ways that trauma works and how it can be overcome.

Many of the issues we have been dealing with in 2015 revolve around unhealed cultural memories: how to acknowledge past wrongs and move forward into the light….Many of the protests on campus and other places have been about unearthing memory or asserting a narrative, or, at their worst, coercing other narratives into silence. There have been pleasant and unpleasant episodes during all this, but over all, you’d have to say this has been a good and necessary stage in the nation’s journey….

Even after a tough year, we are born into a story that has a happy ending. Wrongs can be recognized, memories unearthed, old hurts recognized and put into context. What’s the point of doing this unless you’re fueled by hope and comforted by grace?

 I hope he’s right about the happy ending.  Here’s the whole article.