Over at Unofficial Manifesto, D-Train takes me to task over a conversation we had a few weeks ago concerning the role of the Spirit in academic progress in which I expressed my cynicism concerning academia and our educational system. His criticism is worth reading and I hope you will check it out.

As D-Train points out, we agree a great deal in our relative positions on the Spirit in intellectual matters. It may be that we are really saying the same thing, but that he is misunderstanding me, or I him.

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Today I come to declare another reason for optimism: war is on the decline globally. Really.

Take a look at these two articles. The first is in The New Republic (registration required, but free four-week registration available and well worth it). The second in the New York Times (registration required).

But aren’t we living in the latter days? Shouldn’t there be more “wars and rumors of wars?” What is going on here?

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This Springtime, you may be, as I am, struck with the raucous beauty of flowers. One’s first Spring in a home is always an intriguing moment– you learn what flowers you have in your yard simply by watching what grows up from the dirt. We’ve been pleasantly surprised to find several varieties of tulips, some grape hyacinth, a few different irises, and something that we speculate to be some sort of lily all growing in the various beds surrounding our little house. Now, instead of hunching over my bowl of cereal in the darkened kitchen each morning, I take it out on the deck and spend breakfast watching the flowers yawning open to the sun.

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On Sunday, by chance I caught the very tail end of The Chris Matthews Show. He was passing on some wisdom to the Class of 2005.

Chris Matthews was speaking about a “movable feast”, pulling from Hemingway’s memoir of the same name (which I’ve not read) and reflecting on his own experience in the Peace Corp, urging the graduates to find their own movable feast. Hemingway found Paris in the 20s to be a movable feast that stayed with him for the rest of his life. “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”

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In past posts, the issue of the proper role of government in preserving life has come up. Here is my take on the issue, from Meridian magazine.