Posts Tagged ‘Catholic’
Poet Robert Lax – Michael N. McGregor’s Powerful Biography
Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax by Michael N. McGregor is a powerful biography of a poet who only recently has been recognized for his contributions to the evolution of contemporary poetry. The book succeeds on several levels. Lax was born to immigrant parents in Olean, New York in 1915. The middle class…
Read MoreHeart Attack, Death, Immortality and Taxes at a Glance
Walker the dog, an every day ritual turns treacherous and inspired some reflections in the days that followed.
Read MoreCatholic Growiing Up — Doubtful Growing Old
#catholic #religion #mass #catholiceducation #childabuse I was raised Catholic. I look back in amazement to my boyhood when reasoning, educated adults imposed pointless regimentation on children in the name of religion. The Church, gratefully, has changed over the years. But in the early and mid-twentieth century, adults often invoked faith to justify the harsh treatment…
Read MoreBlogging Requires an Unrelenting Search for Posting Topics
Blogging becomes a strict task master after posting a few dozen articles. I started out with the notion that blogging would be a gratifying creative outlet. It has been. I also thought that it would help make people aware of my novel, Deadly Portfolio: A Killing in Hedge Funds, and there is some evidence that…
Read MoreAdoption Papers were Ready for Signature. My Son Needed to be Baptized First.
The following is an installment in a series of posts dealing with the options available to the underage parents of a child born out of wedlock during the 1950’s, before the advent of outpatient abortions, the pill, and a dramatic change in the public view with regard to sex prior to marriage. My son was…
Read MoreAdoption Was an Unwed Teenage Mother’s Option Before Out Patient Abortion Became Available
#adoption #1950s #teenagepregnancy Adoption was a commonplace practice in the 1940’s and ‘50’s before the introduction of the pill and outpatient abortion service. The children who lived next door to my family when I was a boy were adopted, all four of them. Kids in the neighborhood thought nothing of it. If questioned, parents responded…
Read MoreEpiphany, the 12th Day of Christmas, Ended the Season in My Boyhood Home.
#epiphany #chrsitmasseason #holidays Another Christmas season is history. When I was a boy, it felt as though the high point in the year was over and the long uneventful winter stretched out as far ahead as I cared to imagine. I longed for summer when the festivities of the holidays were a distant memory, and…
Read MoreDecorating the Christmas Tree Signaled the Start of the Season.
#christmas #1950s #decorating #christmastree My earliest memories of Christmas, reinforced by family movies, include decorating the Christmas tree, a task that sign. “You can bring the tree in now, Daddy,” mother would call after she had spread an oilcloth on the carpet in the living room where it was to be placed. In the 1940’s, Christmas…
Read MoreDeath and Taxes — Life Certainties
Life contains its certainties. Gravity is one. Death is another. Recently, the GOP majority proved that taxes are not, at least for the wealthy few in the nation. Most everything else is open to further investigation. Life certainties would seem to be the province of science. But theories are advanced only to be disproved and…
Read MoreSilence About Sandusky’s Sexual Abuse Tantamount to Condoning His Behavior.
The scandal at Penn State has the media all fired up these days. Understandably! If you were raised Catholic, you may not be quite as surprised or outraged as your non-Catholic friends and acquaintances. I had never heard of sexual abuse nor had I experienced any as a boy. I had not, that is, until…
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