All posts by Bill Genereux

C.S. Lewis on Writers Like Flannery O’Connor

creativity, philosophy

I’ve been re-reading C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity this week. I was in my 20’s and missed most of its message last time. Here’s an excerpt relevant to what I’ve been wondering about the violent writings of Flannery O’Connor.

“Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And taking your whole life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature: either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and with other creatures, and with itself, or else into one that is in a state of war and hatred with God, and with its fellow creatures, and with itself…

“That explains what always used to puzzle me about Christian writers; they seem to be so very strict at one moment and so very free and easy at another. They talk about mere sins of thought as if they were immensely important: and then they talk about the most frightful murders and treacheries as if you had only got to repent and all would be forgiven. But I have come to see that they are right. What they are always thinking of is the mark which the action leaves on that tiny central self which no one sees in this life but which each of us will have to endure — or enjoy — forever.

New DS106 Radio Tricks

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I got tired of fiddling with hacks to try to get my Mac to share system audio with recording and streaming apps, so I bit the bullet and bought the Audio Hijack software today. I’m pleased. It does everything I hoped for. It records the audio from any application on my computer, even just the system audio. So I can snag bits of audio from movies, Zoom calls, whatever. Best of all, it can talk to the DS106 Radio server and so I have a new and more versatile app for broadcasting to my favorite internet radio station.

I’m working on some bumpers and bits for tomorrow’s “Marathong” radio show in celebration of 10 years of DS 106 radio. I only have 2 students so I decided to provide extra assistance this time. I’ve been working on making a few bumpers to throw into the mix.

I learned to make a robot voice using Adobe Audition.

I also recorded some sound effects from the Internet and manipulated them in Audition. I think they turned out pretty cool.

price of freedom

Eternal rest grant unto Shannon Mary Kent, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. She left behind a husband and two very young boys in the service of her country. he tried for a reassignment to non-combat duty after becoming a mother, but was denied. Throughout her military career, she sought out the difficult and dangerous assignments. She tried for a reassignment to non-combat duty after becoming a mother, but was denied. Her three-year-old pleaded with her not to go. She was killed by a suicide bomber in Syria. Her loss is beyond tragic.

The doubts crowded in late at night, after the kids were in bed and the dishes were put away.

In the months after she got her deployment orders, Navy cryptologist Shannon Kent spent her days preparing to join a Special Operations task force in Syria battling the Islamic State. For Shannon, the mission was the culmination of a 15-year military career: language exams, fitness tests, repeated deployments alongside Navy SEALs.

And yet, after four stints in Iraq and Afghanistan, she had thought those deployments, pursuing extremist leaders, were behind her. Her younger son was now barely a year old. Her 3-year-old, Colt, was just old enough to know that a war was taking his mother away. “Momma no fight bad guys,” he told her.

 
Read more…
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2019/03/22/feature/navy-cryptologist-shannon-kent-who-died-in-an-isis-suicide-attack-in-syria-was-torn-between-family-and-duty/

Fr Kapaun’s Remains Identified

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Seventy years after he died as a prisoner of war in the Korean conflict, the remains of a heroic priest, Fr. Emil Kapaun, have been found! Fr. Kapaun was born and raised right here in Kansas and is now being considered for canonization as a saint.

According to the Manhattan Mercury, Father Kapaun was a Kansas-born priest who served the US Army as a chaplain in WWII and the Korean war:

Father Kapaun was born in 1916 in Pilsen, a small farming community in Marion County. He was ordained into the priesthood in 1940 at what is now Newman University. A mural honoring Kapaun adorns the school’s chapel.

He was awarded the Medal of Honor in 2013 for his actions at the Battle of Unsan on Nov. 1-2, 1950.

Father Kapaun was named a “Servant of God” by the Vatican as an initial step in the cause for sainthood. Read more about Fr. Kapaun on the Wichita Diocese website.

https://catholicdioceseofwichita.org/father-kapaun/