Monte Knetter

“A shadow seemed to have fallen on [Dolly’s] life; she recognized that these children, of whom she had been so proud, were not only quite ordinary but even bad and ill-bred children, with coarse animal inclinations—in fact, vicious children. She could think and speak of nothing else, and yet could not tell [anyone] her trouble.” […]

How do these three things, technology, science, and love, come interrelate? First off, we’ve created an advanced technological system that constantly distracts us from things of worth and value; things that humanize us and connect us with one another. How often does a notification or text interrupt a conversation you are having? How often are

A century ago G.K. Chesterton prophetically wrote, “The next great heresy is going to be simply an attack on morality, and especially on sexual morality. . . . The madness of tomorrow is not in Moscow [Chesterton is here alluding to Marxism] but much more in Manhattan.” Heresy is different than apostasy. An apostate simply

Science tells us what is, but not what ought to be. For example, it describes how to make poison, but not if we should use poison. It tells us how to swim, but it does not and cannot tell us when we ought to plunge into a raging river to attempt to save a drowning

Over the next six weeks I plan to rework my State of the School talk on Striving Joyfully into a series of six short essays. I will start by writing about three misunderstandings (technology, science, and love) that we need to be striving against, spend another week on how these three things converge, and then

Henry Adams ended his Education by considering the incredible changes he witnessed during his lifetime. As he reflected on how greatly life had changed, he considered how modern progress had failed to produce what it had seemed to promise. In his words, “Prosperity never before imagined, power never yet wielded by man, speed never reached

Henry Adams spent the better part of a decade teaching at Harvard College. He was well-loved by his students and well-respected by his colleagues; by all accounts he was a very gifted teacher. Yet here is what he had to say about himself: “He [Adams] was rejoiced [at the gratitude of his students]; but he

“No one man in America wanted the civil war, or expected or intended it. A small minority wanted secession. The vast majority wanted to go on with their occupations in peace. Not one, however clever or learned, guessed what happened. Possibly a few southern loyalists in despair might dream at it as an impossible chance;

As a young man Adams got the opportunity to study in a German high school and university. This was his judgment. “All State-education is a sort of dynamo machine for polarizing the popular mind; for turning and holding its lines of force in the direction supposed to be most effective for state-purposes.” In other words,

Henry Adams was from the north and his family was strongly and prominently in support of abolition. At around the age of twelve Adams travelled to Washington D.C. and witnessed slavery first-hand for the first time in his life. This is how he described the experience (note: throughout this book he refers to himself in