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Good Letters

Tony Woodlief

Select a Category A. G. Harmon Alissa Wilkinson Allison Backous Art Authors Brad Fruhauff Bradford Winters Bryan Bliss Caroline Langston Chad Thomas Johnston Chris Hoke Christiana N. Peterson Culture D.G. Myers D.L. Mayfield Daniel Bowman Jr. David Griffith Elizabeth Duffy Faith Film Greg Wolfe Guest Contributor Interview Jan Vallone Jeffrey Overstreet Jessica Eddings-Roeser Jessica Mesman Griffith Kelly Foster Lindsey Crittenden Morgan Meis music Natalie Vestin Nick Olson Peggy Rosenthal Personal Reflection Poetry Friday Reflection Relationships Review Richard Chess Richard Cole Sara Zarr Shannon Huffman Polson Sonya Bilocerkowycz Tania Runyan Tony Woodlief Topical Categories Uncategorized Vic Sizemore Writing

Select a Month October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 February 2008

May 2014

May 02, 2014

Corporate Insanity Starts with Us

Imagine you paid someone to build a house for your child, and imagine one night...

April 2014

April 09, 2014

The Prodigal Bears His Scars

My last communion was during a brief suspension of my former church’s policy of forbidding...

March 2014

March 21, 2014

A Misguided Manual for Civilization

When I was a schoolboy, I used to plan for the world’s end. What would...

February 2014

February 21, 2014

What Our Children See

“Your child,” says the executive director of a national sex-education organization, “is going to look...

January 2014

January 31, 2014

The Casserole Dish Manifesto

I possessed a consummate ideology before I had children. It was a perfectly distilled comprehension...

December 2013

December 24, 2013

The Cave of the Heart

Not long ago a young man announced on a video chat site that he intended...

November 2013

November 19, 2013

Scientific Privilege

According to an enthusiastic radio report, children benefit from creative play. The reporter could say...

October 2013

October 21, 2013

The Long Wait

My mother’s quavering voicemail was right: I hadn’t called in a long time. I justified...

September 2013

September 24, 2013

Embrace Your Inner Laggard

I’m not as smart as my television. It has hidden panels with mysterious ports. Its...

August 2013

August 23, 2013

Words for Good and Evil, Part II

Continued from yesterday.  “Why is it possible,” asked Richard Feynman a year before he won...

August 22, 2013

Words for Good and Evil, Part I

In the months to come, England’s National Health Service will sterilize a young man with...

August 05, 2013

The American Divide

This is not an essay about politics but I have to begin with politics because...

July 2013

July 15, 2013

What We Learn

As he is evacuated from a battle zone, Chris Taylor—Oliver Stone’s protagonist in Platoon—marches us...

June 2013

June 21, 2013

Scattering the Children of God

According to a psychology professor I read recently, we are hardwired to make enemies. Doing...

June 03, 2013

Spared not Blessed

In the West we have forgotten how the world devours children because mostly when our...

May 2013

May 13, 2013

Two Tribes: Good Wishes and Good Works

One summer my family got evicted from the house we were renting in Florida. The...

April 2013

April 18, 2013

Art as a Common Gift

Given the several ways of modernist art it is logical to conclude that the production...

March 2013

March 28, 2013

We Are Not Forsaken

My daughter’s teeth were clenched from the brain tumor and so I would hold her...

March 12, 2013

The Hobbit, the Holy Spirit, and Calculus

It was my eleven-year-old’s turn to pick a movie, and he chose The Hobbit, just...

February 2013

February 22, 2013

Haunted by Phantom Limbs

One such patient, under my care, describes how he must “wake up” his phantom in...

February 01, 2013

What is Truth?

"It's a slippery slope when a companies don't deliver what they promise." Yes, "a companies."...

January 2013

January 10, 2013

Clinging to Christmas

I cling to Christmas. I’d like to say that I have some tradition to which...

December 2012

December 17, 2012

God Help Me

Center-frayed I begin to ponder—in the way one probes an aching tooth with the tongue—whether...

November 2012

November 30, 2012

The Cost of Writing the Truth

I remember my mother used to go to bed for the day. The blackness of...

October 2012

October 26, 2012

Elections Plus Economics, a Losing Equation

It’s time again. We’re just days from that sacred quadrennial ritual, wherein we profess outrage...

October 08, 2012

“Phineas and Ferb” versus “SpongeBob Squarepants”

“Aren’t you a little young to save the universe?” “Yes. Yes I am.” Phineas Flynn...

September 2012

September 27, 2012

We Should Raze But Not Erase Evil

The arrival of so many small children at the tiny train station at Hattenheim could...

September 05, 2012

The Collapse of Western Civilization Begins in Your Dentist’s Chair

I have a toothache that’s getting worse, but I’m not going to a dentist because...

August 2012

August 15, 2012

Parenting 101

The latest fashionable parenting wisdom is that a parent’s wisdom doesn’t matter. Some public intellectuals...

July 2012

July 25, 2012

The Deeds of Jerry Sandusky

I avoided reading about the trial of Jerry Sandusky—the Penn State assistant football coach recently...

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