About the Author

Usually these things are written in third person, he, she, it. That seems silly since I am trying to communicate with you (ya’ll if you prefer). I’m talking and I want to hear from you, listen, and have conversations. I might as well start now.

I learned from personal experience that I needed to learn about my intellectual history. I’m going to share some of that experience here because I think it might help re3aders and viewers reflect upon their individual histories and become aware of where they might want to do a bit of work.

I was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1943. A bit more than a year before World War Two’s D Day and a less than a year after Jimmy Hendrix.

I was born into an Irish Catholic family: 1943, Seattle, Irish Catholic. My sense of history, my doctrines felt as facts, developed in a period of time when Seattle had no interest in the Civil War other that to be happy the north won. I grew up with no understanding of the American South before or after the Civil War.

My mother was born in Butte, Montana. Her father and two uncles were miners who died before they reached 40. One uncle went to sea and enjoyed a long life. My father’s family settled in Fall River, Massachusetts. His father and three sisters moved to Seattle around the turn of the 20th century. My sense of history traveled from Seattle through WWII, the Great Depression, and WWI to Butte, Montana and Fall River, Mass, and then to Ireland. It skipped both the Civil War and the two wars against England that as an Irish Catholic I relished because the English lost. I grew up without knowing much more than that about our War for Independence. They weren’t talked about In my home. Butte was talked about. Fall River was talked about. Ireland was talked about.

I grew up with considerable disadvantages when it came to knowing the history of America, the history of my country. I have had to study that history to know my country. That took a lot of work.

On the other hand, I grew and was educated with a considerable advantage. I not only grew up in a Catholic family, I attended Catholic grade schools, a Jesuit high school, and the University of Notre Dame. I was educated in the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. That may sound like a disadvantage, so let me explain.

Let me make this clear. I have not always been proud of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. In fact, I only recently became able to look at it and see both its many flaws and enormous achievements. I owe that resignation, as it were, to the work of Archpriest Georges Florovsky, 1893 to 1979 who wrote a history of the Russian Orthodox Church (which is Catholic but not Roman Catholic). In that history, Florovsky did not pull his punches. He elaborated the many mistakes made in the Russian Orthodox Church. To my surprise, those admissions actually contributed to my appreciation of the ROC’s achievements.

That helped me re-think my understanding of the history of the Roman Catholic Church and the Western Catholic Intellectual Tradition.

Seeing, admitting, flaws helps us appreciate achievements in ourselves, our family and friends, and in our nation. I may be frustrated with the South’s dominant religion and politics but I am grateful for and amazed that it produced Flannery O’Conner, Tennessee Williams, Eudroa Welty, and William Faulkner. Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Johnson, black women who helped NASA get started and were featured in the film Hidden Figures. No need to name the black and white musicians. Everybody knows them. And of course the black civil rights leaders. An endless array of American legends and heroes produced by the South.

Still I’m left pondering: What is it going to take for the white South to rejoin the Union and become Americans. If any of you are listening, you are one of my major target audiences. I want to talk with you and I am eager to listen to you especially if you have listened to me. That does not mean that you must have agreed with me, but it will help our conversations if you have listened to me.

Back to my study of history. I was an English major and I learned to be interested in the historical backgrounds of authors I read. Early on, I made sure I knew when they were born. As I got more into this study, I made sure I knew their contemporaries, especially in England. For example, learning that romanticism and transcendentalism occurred around the same time in England and America made more sense out of each. Later, I began to study the 50 years before an author was born. Events from those years tend to get discussed at the dinner table and are a major source of our doctrines felt as facts. That’s true of authors, too, and it impacts their ideas and artistic sensibilities.

I have had to do a lot of work to develop content for this blog. And I had some advantages, some history that let me inherit some of it or at least receive education and develop interest in it.

Using my time frame, anyone reading this blog who is 25 has personal history that started in 2000, the year they were born, and goes back 50 years to 1950, which was seven years after I was born. We have a lot we can share, and a lot that I must ask you to work with me to learn about.

I am trying to make your task simple, but learning is not easy. I know that I am asking you to listen and learn, to work. I’m asking you to choose hard. In life, choosing hard pays off, choosing easy comes with a high price.

I’m working to make your work worth it. I need you to trust me and I’m asking you to contact me to help or challenge me. We are in this together.