tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36721792024-03-14T02:10:06.820-05:00Monk NotesFrom my cell, I bring you whatever is on my mind.Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.comBlogger442125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-73010954270431440932016-11-07T14:13:00.000-06:002016-11-07T14:13:25.665-06:00Voting for the Baby Killer<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-25123656690670933652016-08-23T10:14:00.000-05:002016-08-23T10:14:25.240-05:00An insightful, but slightly lacking portrait of one of America's most influential writersDashiell Hammett: Man of Mystery by Sally Cline
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This biography of one of the greatest crime writers is a bit too Freudian for my tastes in the beginning, and since it contains so much about his relationship with Lillian Hellman and his struggles against red-scare tinged U.S. Government, I think it ends a bit abruptly. There should have been some about the difficulty Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-60586265597007124572016-05-17T10:29:00.000-05:002016-05-17T10:29:27.040-05:00A Essential PoetCollected Poems by Jack Gilbert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I have a number of theories I won't bore you with to explain why Jack Gilbert isn't better known. Instead, I suggest that every person who claims to love poetry buy this collection (or one of the terrific volumes represented in it), read the work of this real and accessible master craftsman, and then buy another copy to donate to a library Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-60122594174038415642016-04-24T16:28:00.002-05:002016-04-24T16:28:42.127-05:00Notes on 2016 North Texas Teen Book Festival
So I attended the North Texas Teen Book Festival with my wife and son. I'm not a writer of teen books or a teacher of teens, but my wife works in a library, and specializes in children's and adolescent literature. We are all readers, and I always think I can learn something with these programs. What you see below are notes, taken on my phone and quickly edited, of my experience. At the end, Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-28577484972149503122016-04-15T10:36:00.000-05:002016-04-15T10:36:31.473-05:00A Masterful Tribute to Charlie Haden
I have spent my morning listening to this wonderful tribute to the late bassist and composer Charlie Haden. Most of the tunes are remarkable Haden compositions, and Gonzalo Rubalcaba, who played with the master on several terrific albums, handles each of them with an intuitive touch. Even "Hermitage," a Pat Metheny piece Haden recorded with his Quartet West, sounds as if it was taped inside theMichael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-88118149572236996592016-04-14T15:02:00.003-05:002016-04-14T15:04:49.879-05:00Drifting Along with Hammock
I cannot stop listening to Everything and Nothing. Just getting into "Post-rock," Hammock is new to me, but they have been around a long time, and everything they do is shimmering gold sonic goodness. But this project, rivaling Oblivion Hymns in strength and intensity, just does me in. There are the haunted words and ethereal vocals in tunes like "Dissonance" and "We Were So Young." But most ofMichael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-29423746588372962192015-09-07T11:00:00.000-05:002015-09-07T11:00:32.320-05:00Meditation XXXVII--Manipulating Ourselves into Slavery
Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.”
In John's account of the "trial" of Jesus, we have two moments that I have always read as distinct and separate moments, related only in that they are part of the narrative of Christ's crucifixion. After Pilate has had Jesus whipped and humiliated, he brings out the soon to be Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-79808701665041396992015-07-16T08:41:00.002-05:002015-07-16T08:41:43.463-05:00Meditation XXXVI--Through the lens of metaphor"For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind."In this chapter from John's Gospel we find the incredible story of Christ healing a man born blind. The chapter opens with the disciples asking what may seem to the modern reader to be a very strange question: "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was was born blind?" The question Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-76958476940953853852015-07-12T09:13:00.000-05:002015-07-12T09:13:10.823-05:00Scott Cairns' The End of SufferingThe End of Suffering: Finding Purpose in Pain by Scott Cairns
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book was not what I expected, and at first, not what I wanted. I cannot tell yet if it is what I needed. While some of the ideas may not be new to people who have spent a good deal reading this niche of literature, it is certainly more honest and better grounded, theologically and rationally, than other Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-48385162720671927732015-06-04T10:14:00.000-05:002015-06-04T10:15:37.172-05:00A Barely Controlled Fire
Gabriela Montero is certainly one of the finest pianists recording. Her emotive playing is like listening to a barely controlled fire. This is evidenced on her recent project.
She performs the first three tracks with the YOA Orchestra of the Americas (conducted by Carlos Miguel Prieto) in a delicious rendition of Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto. Of course the composition itself is a Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-89854752807845800852015-05-08T20:45:00.001-05:002015-05-08T20:45:13.800-05:00To Love As You Do: Meditations on The Lord’s Prayer
i.
“Lead us not into temptation"
And yet temptation seems to come in force when I make a commitment, such as we do during Lent. We “give up” a food or activity and the desire for it grows stronger. I realize that my thoughts about a person are not good for my spiritual health, and that person seems to show up even more often.
O Lord, shield me. Be merciful to my weak mind!
ii.
“Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-38178869628980158872015-02-06T21:52:00.001-06:002015-02-06T21:52:13.495-06:00The Truth About StarsThe child me cannot unknow
the truth about stars:
how, for instance, what I saw
this morning near the moon
like a little sister
was really a planet
was really much bigger
than the satellite which warms
my morning walk.
The unchild in me
can barely imagine
the boy who sees
a frozen firefly
or the distant ship of Christ.
The rechild me remembers
miracles in bread:
the priest holds up the host,
Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-7122192300232062872015-01-23T16:38:00.001-06:002015-01-23T16:49:31.225-06:00Frog<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-18311044194413258752015-01-04T09:12:00.002-06:002015-01-04T09:12:48.562-06:00Max embarrasses his father at the altar<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-18917553961739701272015-01-02T23:30:00.001-06:002015-01-02T23:30:06.334-06:00Holding Water<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-21987724638313254472014-12-29T10:03:00.000-06:002014-12-29T10:03:30.495-06:00Meditation XXXV--Growing Large Branches
"With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."For most, Christ's parable of the Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-71399163096700427072014-12-18T13:25:00.000-06:002014-12-20T10:36:01.942-06:00An open letter to a parent who doesn't get it
When my daughter was small, she kept getting in trouble for talking in class. She would finish her projects or exercises before most of the others in her class, get bored, and then start conversations with her friends. During a conference, her teacher informed me that I needed to get it through my child's head how important it was to sit quietly and avoid disturbing others. After assuring her I Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-82987003966470948222014-12-18T11:59:00.002-06:002014-12-18T13:24:52.842-06:00Encouragement in the Small GracesTraveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Traveling Mercies is a book which encourages readers, not because it tells them how wonderful they are or how terrific the world is despite the awfulness they see or what the terrible things they feel. Lamott doesn't give the us such bullshit optimism or "it could be worse" dismissiveness. What we get is the sense Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-81222367092887742912014-12-15T07:40:00.001-06:002014-12-18T16:15:56.072-06:00Difficult Meditations on SicknessDevotions Upon Emergent Occasions by John Donne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
John Donne’s Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions is difficult to read for a number of reasons. First is the language of the 1600s. That would be little problem for good readers if not for the second reason: Donne's penchant for extended metaphors. A third problem concerns references to a Bible few Christians are familiar with.Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-43256386708209449362014-12-04T07:33:00.001-06:002014-12-18T16:17:47.606-06:00Sweaty JoyPlan B: Further Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Not every chapter of this book is a winner, but most are enjoyable and thoughtful. Lamott's humor and warmth show here, as always. There are stories of trying to raise a surly teenage boy and trying to love one's enemies (not in the same chapters). I also was touched by her stories of loving the dying and difficult, and theMichael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-58318127965447232882014-11-30T16:16:00.002-06:002014-11-30T16:16:16.935-06:00ParalyzedJust when I think I can moveI'm paralyzed againJust when I think there's loveI am brokenParched. Powerless. Prostrate.But holding backSome lack of faithSome cancer of willKeeps me Me.An empty sackWrapped around pillsAnd longing for the sea.
Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-29323045451648029792014-11-29T09:53:00.000-06:002014-11-29T09:53:05.489-06:00Thanks for thatThe united ubiquitous they say,"the squeaky wheel gets the grease."But the truth is they leave that wheel at the side of the roadwith its broken spoke and that one spotof worn tread, still of usebut "better off dead." Thoughthey would never say that aloud.Truth is: there is no American Dreamand life is not a choose your own adventure.And kindness and mercy are only ideasthey want others to Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-15418640354721810492014-11-22T21:22:00.001-06:002014-12-18T16:16:51.804-06:00A Writing Book For EveryoneBird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved this book! Lamott doesn't fool around with vague instructions meant to show how smart she is or narrow prescriptions which work for only a handful of people. She's honest and funny and open about writing, careful to tell would be authors about the difficult toll the writing life takes on the brain Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-20921512828465095562014-09-18T22:28:00.001-05:002014-09-18T22:28:32.230-05:00On Hiatus
This blog is on indefinite hiatus.
Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3672179.post-87081358521603516712014-08-30T09:29:00.001-05:002014-12-18T16:18:42.203-06:00Cute, but not Clever, Cat PoemsI Could Pee on This: And Other Poems by Cats by Francesco Marciuliano
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Poetry lovers and cat lovers have often intersected in the same people, and so this book should appeal to both. But it is really for those find cats amusing. I would not say the book is only for those who are addicted to cat videos, but poetry lovers are going to have been tolerant to get through it.
Michael Neal Morrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10108115040414359782noreply@blogger.com0