“What’s beyond that sea, I wonder?” Thinking this, a youth will finally leave his home behind. “What’s out there? What’s waiting for me?” They leave, merely to find this out. Countless difficulties lie in wait. Despair. The lure of walking the razor’s edge. Hope. Joy. Meeting new friends. Leaving their innocence behind, youths learn, suffer, and come to know themselves. This is a journey. When they conquer a new land, yet another sea is reflected in their eyes. “What’s beyond that sea?” When boys become young men, they begin to think this again. This is a journey.

Let’s build upon last week’s discussion. Continue reading →

Whenever we read an old book or watch an old movie, there’s always that tricky desire to strike a balance between reacting honestly to the ‘text’ — used broadly here to convey the “meat ‘n potatoes” of any given work of art — and analyzing the work by pretending to adopt the viewpoint(s) from which the work of art was created. Continue reading →