A few things make me proud to be from (and in) Wisconsin: the “recombobulation” sign at the MKE airport; three major Marian shrines; plainspoken kindness as the default setting of daily life; and now @CharlieBerens using humor to fight tech companies

Great Books friends: a job opening!

Welcome to the Colosseum. colosseuminstitute.com/the-c…

This is "last call" for the Summer Writers Institute 2026 at @stthomashouston . We have three places left for this summer. Submit your application for this free writers' weekend in Houston.

RT @JonHaidt: Major new report on global trends in mental health, out today from Sapien Labs. Data from 2.5 million people across 85 countr…

RT @JonHaidt: It is increasingly clear that the careless mass introduction of 1:1 devices (on each kid's desk) in the 2010s was, at best, a…

Vatican photographers captured some really sweet moments with Pope Leo during the general audience today. (Credit: Vatican Media)

Around the same age, my daughter called exclamation points “exclamountain points” (we were living in Colorado at the time). Toddler enthusiasm cannot be contained by convention; it will always overflow

Very excited that my sister's order, the Handmaids of the Heart of Jesus, will be establishing a house in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. They have purchased the former convent of the Dominican Sisters of the Perpetual Rosary and plan to send sisters by Fall 2027! Praise God!

Joseph Brodsky's "December 24, 1971" = as lovely & timely during Epiphany as it was during Christmas: Herod reigns but the stronger he is, the more sure, the more certain the wonder. In the constancy of this relation is the basic mechanics of Christmas. poetryfoundation.org/poems/5…

Out from behind the paywall! 800 words on David Foster Wallace, 1600 words in the aevum, and 800 words from inside the walls of a cloistered convent. My catch-as-catch-can argument for redeeming hierarchy, & why we urgently need a system more caring & honest than what we’ve got

Dear Reader, Not being infinite, we need to navigate our lives by milestones of time. At the close of a year, we look back and try to make sense of our most recent spiral around the sun. At Wiseblood Books, we hope that your own backward glances may be moments of truer seeing—captivating re-visions of what at-first flashed past, as well as inspiration for the future. For believers in the God who came at the “fullness of time,” the past is never merely a return to what has been. As St. Bonaventure puts it in The Journey of the Mind to God, “memory is an image of eternity.” Memory melds time past and time present and prepares us to live in continuity rather than a rupture defined by prideful presentism. Memory allows us to perceive both the mercies of Providence and, along with whatever virtues we might possess, our pettiness and weakness–piercing those pet illusions by which we hide just how badly we need saving . . . Read the rest of our 2025 END-OF-YEAR LETTER HERE: wisebloodbooks.com/2025.html Featuring @JMWSPT @maryraphaela @kathywest_ @JcScharl @alfred_nicol @lclinton_tx @DanaGioiaPoet @AaronIrber @JoanBau99651435 @BooksBonfire @sethwieck @EricMichaelCyr @marlyyoumans @chaven @Prof_Cooper @SpencerKMBrown @Collegium_Penn @BrigidPasulka @pauljpastor @frference @juliadyost @cmnelson71 @shemaiahng @SallyThomasNC @StevenEKnepper & a smiling @andrewklavan

“The wisdom preserved by tradition presents us with templates that can be useful in understanding how contemporary institutions are working for or against God’s will in the present day.” @cmnelson71 on hierarchy’s place in the story of salvation. bit.ly/4sf3OyE

Yes! Make Hierarchy Great Again, because it always was and always is, in any case

Also, hopefully, an antidote to recent headlines, which seemed particularly bleak this Gaudete Sunday. There is a way to reduce desperation, despair, rebellion, & anger among young people, and that's to give them the same opportunities and care we had as kids (or didn't & needed)