Tag Archives: Letters

Family

Great-Grandma and Typhoid

The second summer we were here was full of such sickness as I had never seen or thought of. . . . It was typhoid.

In the process of unpacking from our recent move, I have at my hand once again a letter that my Great-Grandma Nourse wrote from Louisiana in 1938 to a friend in California. It tells the story of her family’s life after their move from California to Louisiana and covers a roughly four year period during the Great Depression from around 1934 to 1938. It was written to an old family friend back in California and was later returned to my grandmother by one of that friend’s descendants.

The purpose of this post is to share that letter.

Continue reading →
Standard
Thoughts

Sehnsucht

Note: This is a lightly edited version of an e-mail I sent on May 10, 2015. The concept of Sehnsucht was originally introduced to me by a dear friend (Gloria Repp) some years prior. Since writing this I have experienced what I only know how to describe as a kind of emotional burnout. The glimpses described her stopped. Whether from aging, emotional trauma, or some other cause I do not know. Nevertheless, it feels a bit like a part of my brain–the emotionally imaginative and hopeful part–has burnt out. Hopefully not forever. (DL, Dec. 4, 2022)

Sehnsucht is a German word. It means “longing.”

But it represents something more than that English word conveys. It is a very difficult concept for me to explain, but it’s a very important one, for it a key to my secret heart, my secret longing. In Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis uses the word “Joy” in a special way. It’s a feeling he would get at certain unexpected moments while reading or walking in the countryside or listening to music. More than happiness, more than jollity, it’s like for a moment he would get a feeling or a glimpse of something deeper, more real, more perfect than this world. He would be taken beyond this world for a moment and filled with wonder; he would be surprised by joy. And those glimpses of joy begat a longing for joy, a longing for the perfect, a longing that led him to search for it in literature and music and philosophy till he found it in Christ. That longing for joy, for the perfect and complete, could be called sehnsucht,

Continue reading →
Standard
Faith

Aiming Low

Note: I can trace the first unraveling of my lifelong faith in the reliability of the Bible to a specific date—September 27, 2010. On that day, at 1:35 pm Andrew Sullivan (of whom by then I was an avid reader) posted a short post entitled “Aiming Low” which ended with a single question, asked rhetorically: “How do you rebut a Senatorial candidate who believes that the earth was made 6,000 years ago?” The implied answer which Andrew seemed to assume all his readers would undoubtedly recognize and agree with was, ‘You can’t. They’re past reason.’ I, a convinced and passionate Young Earth Creationist (YEC), was provoked by what I perceived as both slight mockery from a writer I respected and admired and sad ignorance of the obvious scientific basis for the Biblical account of origins. I determined to write to Andrew to set the record straight. I began an email which I intended to be a clear, succinct and persuasive argument for a young earth–a clear demonstration that the YEC position was not nearly as irrational as he assumed. I never finished it. The research and reading I began as I wrote the email spiraled completely out of my control, and by the following Spring I had developed serious doubts about the historicity of the Flood narrative in Genesis. (DJL, July 16, 2023)

It’s hard to write an e-mail like this: the venue is wrong for the content and what you are able to communicate despite the formal limitations is going to be misread.

Nevertheless, here goes.

  1. I) The standard evolutionary mantra is patently, egregiously, and demonstrable inadequate as an explanatory tool–despite what the experts, Wikipedia, and Dawkins all say (and believe me, I’ve read my share of all of the above).
    1. A) Darwinian natural selection can function only if 

Standard
Politics

Hi Andrew

Note: Some time in 2009 I gradually switched from reading Michelle Malkin on a regular basis to reading Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish on a regular basis. It was a momentous shift, and over time did a great deal to soften my thinking and open me up to new points of view. In particular, Andrew’s writing greatly expanded my understanding of what it means to be gay. I felt in Andrew a genuine likeness of mind, perspective, and temperament, and yet his homosexuality was so clearly simply a part of him, not a pose adopted to justify certain kinds of sexual desires as I had long thought. Moreover, his passionate gentleness in the pursuit of truth, his openness about his own mistakes, and his willingness to front flawed ideas wherever they are found–even in his own thinking–has become a model for me. This site certainly bears his mark in its structure and intent. Over the years, I e-mailed many comments to Andrew and the Dish team. This is the very first; under discussion are the decisions America should make about its continued military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was a very committed Ron Paul follower at this time. (DL, Sept. 18, 2021)

Hi Andrew,

If we’re going to be truly realistic about our options overseas, we need to cast every discussion of those options in the economic context of how much the various choices cost and how much we can sustainably afford.

The plain fact of the matter is that 1) we can’t sustainably afford much more of anything, and 2) a total economic meltdown poses at least as much of a risk to our republic as foreign terrorists–probably much more.

Continue reading →
Standard
Academic Writing

A Letter of Thanks

Note: In October of 2008 I presented at my second academic conference. Holly and I went to St. Louis together and spent a glorious few days as grown-ups without our small children (then 5 and 3). We saw the St. Louis arch. We went to the St. Louis Zoo. We bought fudge. And–momentously–we had our first alcohol. Champagne on a whim at the hotel followed by bad beer at a pizza place led two Bob Jones graduates out of a lifetime of teetotalery into the world of social alcohol consumption. All-in-all an excellent memory. This letter I wrote to the English department afterwards captures the professional aspects of the conference. (DL, Sept. 8, 20201)

I would like to express my gratitude to the English department for generously sponsoring my participation at the Sixteenth-Century Society and Conference in St. Louis on October 22 to 26 of this year. I feel privileged to have been selected for such support, especially during this time of economic trouble when the university is under additional financial pressure.

Continue reading →
Standard
Politics

Open Letter to Bob Inglis

Note: I was opposed to the bailouts in 2008. During the 2007 primary cycle I had discovered Rand Paul and become strongly enamored of Libertarianism and even more strongly opposed to government intervention of all sorts than I had been previously. I wrote this high-sounding appeal out of a sense of duty and urgency. Looking back, I have no confidence that my position then was the right one. I still believe our spending of the last 20 years has been unsustainable and destructive, and I still believe the core idea that in order for people to successfully self-govern, they must be willing to deny themselves and to embrace suffering when needed. But am much more conscious of how ignorant I was then (and am now) of how the economy actually works. Also, I find my tone of righteous bombast annoying and ineffective–especially given the fact that we were living with my parents at that time because we couldn’t afford our own place, and I depended on the Earned Income Credit every year to make ends meet. This may have been about the time we were on SNAP as well. (DL, Sept. 8, 2021)

Dear Congressman Inglis:

There are greater evils than a major recession, or even a depression. Both my father and grandparents lived through the Great Depression, and throughout their lives I saw the marks of character, self-discipline, and financial responsibility that that dark time left on them. My father and grandparents were thankful people, mindful that the good times should never be taken for granted.

Continue reading →
Standard