Category Archives: Contribution

The Suscipe’s Nouns

In the Suscipe prayer, one offers to God four things without reservation: one’s liberty, understanding, memory, and will.

People who do this consistently have always been remarkably valuable to the communities of which they are a part.  They are teachers of what is ultimately valuable, lights on the path of where we are to go.

In our present world, the value of this asset is on the rise.

Consider the Suscipe’s nouns in an age of AI.  Even the models available now are potentially massive aids to our understanding and memory, and they are only going to get better.  Imagine having a brain prosthesis to help you recall and utilize everything you have ever written or read.  With some set-up, this is more or less available now.

But also the risk of losing one’s way is significant.  The digital world is going to get better and better and acting like it knows us.  (It doesn’t.)  This faked understanding will help the Dopamine Cartel* (social media, etc) fragment and sell our attention to the highest bidder, with obvious implications for liberty and will.

The opportunity is clear: Every day, we can offer our liberty, understanding, memory, and will to the Mystery of God.  We can be rooted, or we can be uprooted.

*I borrowed this outstanding metaphor from this blog post.  The dopamine talk starts about a third of the way down the page.

The Hero Chooses Mortality

In the Odyssey, the first time we meet Odysseus, he has been offered by Calypso a life of ease and pleasure without urgency or end.

He rejects this offer, choosing instead a life of mortality and reality.  He chooses the trial that will lead him home to his wife and son, to his real life.

This hero’s journey starts by choosing to be mortal.

Like Odysseus, when we recognize and embrace our own mortality, the adventure of our life deepens.  This recognition of our limitedness helps us to live well and urgently.  

Yes, mortality has been chosen for us, as it were.  Our bodies are not built to last forever and none of us will ever be offered what Calypso offered Odysseus.  But we do have the choice to either embrace our mortality or uselessly resent (or ignore) it.  This is an illusory path that short-circuits the hero’s journey.  

Instead, we have the choice to live generously within the constraints we have been given.  

A Joyful Announcement (And a Humble Request)

I am delighted to announce that Sorin Starts a School has been officially adopted by Ave Maria Press.  It is now available on their website and on Amazon.

We are thrilled to partner with a ministry of the Congregation of Holy Cross on a book that foregrounds their charism.

And might I hazard a request of your time today?  In the world of Amazon, a lot hinges on the number of reviews for a given book.  Might you click through and write up a short review today?

(If you don’t have your copy handy, I’ll take a minute to read it to ya. :D)

What’s the Problem Here?

Over the past months, I’ve been trying to learn how to interact productively with ChatGPT 4 on a programming project. I am only at the beginning of my understanding, and, while it is certainly not perfect, it is shocking useful at many tasks. 

(Aside: Haven’t thought about using one of the new AI models or not sure where to start or not sure what to make of it all? Co-Intelligence is an outstanding read.)

And there is something AI can’t do, insofar as I can tell: It can’t tell me if I am focusing on the right problem.  

It cannot tell me if I am focusing on the real issue or a sideshow that will waste time and energy.

This is a hugely important skill, and one that we do well to focus on cultivating more intently, even apart from the expanding capability of our tools.

So, before engaging any tools at our disposal, it is good to ask: What is the problem I am trying to solve? What is all of this effort for?

Majoring in the Minor

It is possible to not realize that we spend a disproportionate amount of our energy on things of little consequence. When we do, we major in the minor.

We do this with our health when we obsess about a dietary detail, but don’t exercise much or give ourselves the chance to sleep well.

At work this can happen when we clamp down on a problem the resolution of which will not actually move us forward.

And then, with limited time left, we minor in the major.

The tricky part is that majoring in the minor feels like we are doing something productive. We are not.

Let’s major in the major.

The Path

This is the walkway from the street to our house.  

A few weeks ago, four workers took up about a third of the bricks (the part that is darker on the left side), dug a trench, laid some wiring, filled in the trench, and placed each brick evenly back in place.

Brick by brick is the only way to do this job.

Many valuable tasks in life are like this.  Showing up consistently to a routine of prayer.  Working an hour a day on a generous project.  Attending to the individuals in our life with active love.

Each daily instance of these virtues may feel inconsequential and, if we overanalyze it, it is possible to become disheartened.

But, if we don’t stop, it is remarkable what we can build and where we can arrive.

The Opposite of a Sandwich

When we enter the world of Maurice Sendack, Fred Rogers, Roald Dahl, Mo Willams, or the geniuses who write and produce Bluey, we know instinctively that we are in the hands of special people.  

They have clearly cultivated a special attentiveness to children and then create a world rooted in this tender perception that invites all to rejoice in a child’s way of proceeding.

Our boys have stumbled upon another writer with this same gift.

Abby Hanlon’s Dory Fantasmagory is a delight for all comers, especially sassy younger children who may feel a little left behind by older siblings.

The fifth book in the series is our favorite, but we are re-reading them all to make sure.

The Value of Discomfort

The most valuable things reside on the other side of discomfort.

The vulnerability of commitment.

Sharing something that is deeply important to us with another.

Taking the first awkward steps to learn a new skill set.

Sitting in quiet non-judgemental awareness with one’s own mind.

These moments can be quite uncomfortable… but if we are able to see this discomfort as something enormously valuable, then we are able to grow.

But Not Yet

Remember St. Augustine’s insightful (and quite humorous, really) quote in The Confessions?

“Lord, make me chaste, but not yet.” (emphasis added)

It’s a wonderfully pithy articulation of that human capacity to hold back from the goodness that we might become.

And of course it applies to anything that takes courage and initiative… that thing that we mean to do, but have just not got around to it.

The momentum of the new year is a great time to push past the “but not yet.”