Author Archives: Boz

A Hot Dog Is a Sandwich

Posted on January 24, 2021 by Boz

Every semester, staff and instructors at FTCC are allowed to take one class free of charge, and I almost always try to take advantage of that wonderful opportunity. This semester I am taking a class in critical thinking offered by … Continue reading →

Posted in critical thinking, education, freedom, language, literature, politics, totalitarianism, word, writing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Wonder: My New Year’s Resolution

Posted on January 1, 2021 by Boz

Among the saddest lines in literature are the ones with which Nick Carraway describes his last glance at the sprawling estate on Long Island from which Gatsby watched the green light on Daisy’s dock: As the moon rose higher the … Continue reading →

Posted in Arizona, art, creativity, Globe, memories, metaphor, narrative, photography, poetry, wonder | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

What We Have Lost: Our Stories Make Us One

Posted on November 26, 2020 by Boz

“Thanksgiving lessons jettison pilgrim hats, welcome truth” This headline from the Associated Press exploded inside my skull when I saw it three days ago, and in the dust that settled, I read an important lesson about what has been lost as … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, current events, divisiveness, education, freedom, history, language, literature, narrative, politics, story | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Phone Fun

Posted on November 14, 2020 by Boz

The day was Friday, November 13. The time was 1:15 p.m. The occasion was my online-scheduled, social-distanced, not-so-express pickupped iPhone 12 Pro Max. With the alternating frenzy and lethargy of the last two weeks, I was uncharacteristically and unapologetically eager … Continue reading →

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Dostoevsky in Beulah Land

Posted on November 8, 2020 by Boz

Despite the glorious, almost too-warm temperatures for a day six weeks into autumn, I took off for my late-morning walk with a heavy heart. I was depressed, outraged, and frightened over lost hopes for a return to American values, a … Continue reading →

Posted in current events, divisiveness, hope, photography, politics | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

COVID Masks and Comma Splices

Posted on October 30, 2020 by Boz

For me, the cruelest part of the COVID-19 pandemic has been its stultifying and probably irremediable effects on education at all levels. Exactly at the middle of the spring 2020 semester, all our classes were switched to online-only instruction. I … Continue reading →

Posted in COVID-19, current events, education, novel coronavirus | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

My #WalkAway Story

Posted on October 24, 2020 by Boz

As I write, the Presidential election of 2020 is ten days away. I agree with those on both sides of the aisle that it is the most important election at least in my lifetime (which is long); I will not, … Continue reading →

Posted in Bill of Rights, critical thinking, current events, divisiveness, education, First Amendment, free speech, freedom, history, politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Everything Not Forbidden Is Compulsory

Posted on August 26, 2020 by Boz

When I first passed this sign yesterday morning on the way to class, I thought it was an instruction in etiquette: “Don’t sit here because this is a table, and sitting on tables is rude.” Silly me.

Posted in Bill of Rights, books, COVID-19, critical thinking, current events, divisiveness, education, First Amendment, free speech, freedom, history, language, literature, news, novel coronavirus, politics, society, totalitarianism | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Common Cup

Posted on June 17, 2020 by Boz

This post has been germinating almost as long as we–human beings, Americans, North Carolinians, Christians, Episcopalians–have been altering the patterns of our lives and our relationships with one another and with God in response to the novel coronavirus. Other preoccupations, … Continue reading →

Posted in church, current events, Easter, faith, Lent, religion | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

“A Vendetta” by Guy de Maupassant: An Analysis with an Existentialist Twist

Posted on May 16, 2020 by Boz

Below is a translation from French into English of my May 8 post: Like other writers of the 19th century (e.g. Charles Dickens in England and Alexandre Dumas in France), Guy de Maupassant first published his story “A Vendetta” in … Continue reading →

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