the
FUN FACT: THE FIRST SONG TO USE AUTO-TUNE FOR A DELIBERATE EFFECT WAS CHER’S “BELIEVE” IN 1998. WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE...
rambler AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT JOURNAL CHRISTENDOM COLLEGE Veritas Ensis Noster
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Kayla Newcomb
in this issue...
PHOTOGRAPHER Mary Katherine Mooney WEB EDITOR Ashlyn Thomas
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WIND IN YOUR HAIR
8
THE FIVE LOVE LANGUAGES OF THE CROSS
NEWS & OPINION EDITOR Abby Wilkinson SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Sean Shanahan
22 Rebecca Willen (‘15)
FAITH & REASON EDITOR Amy Marter ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Alexandra Skuba
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Lisa Foos (‘19)
CONSULTANTS Austin Leavitt & Rachel Hoover FACULTY ADVISOR Dr. Patrick Keats CONTRIBUTORS Peter Blank, Anne Ciskanik, Jordan Eidle, Lisa Foos, Sarah Furth, Maggie Golden, Jake Hiserman, Nuala Kelly, Kayla Newcomb, Tait Pilegaard, Katie Titus, Therese Weber, Rebecca Willen, and Monica Wilson
FAREWELL TO JUSTICE SCALIA
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FEATURE: MY SUMMER WITH SALMON: AN INTERVIEW WITH SARAH FURTH
TOWARD A CATHOLIC CULTURE OF DEATH Jake Hiserman(‘16)
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EXPLORING NEW HORIZONS Maggie Golden (‘17)
POETRY & PROSE EDITOR Luke Williams COPY EDITOR Felicity Fedoryka
Therese Weber (‘16)
THE MASTER AND THE BLOODHOUND Tait Pilegaard (‘19)
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GLOBAL WARMING
31
THE BUOY
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Jordan Eidle (‘16)
Monica Wilson (‘17)
AT YOUR FEET Katie Titus (‘17)
Kayla Newcomb (‘16)
Our Mission Statement
The Rambler and its staff are dedicated to training the next generation of Catholic journalists and intellectuals. We prize the liberal arts education received from Christendom College and write about the news, arts, culture, faith, and reason from this perspective. We believe we will play an essential part in a renaissance of new leaders, journalists, and communicators for the 21st century.
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e ditor’ s c orner
Dear loyal readers and those others who skim this for the pictures, Call me Editor. Or Ishmael. Or just pretend like I’m not using my first letter from the editor as an excuse to allude to Melville and sound smarter than I really am. It is my inner English major fueling this composition, and it is my inner procrastinator that is drawn to the idea of spending as much time writing this as possible instead of studying for my midterms. But we’ve all been there, right? So just indulge me for a minute. Thanks. For those of you that don’t know me, my name is Kayla and I am a bookaholic. It has been over three weeks since I purchased my latest book. If you think this is a ploy to sound witty, just come with me to a bookstore and four hours later you’d wish you hadn’t (and my wallet agrees). A bit about me...I’m a senior from Indiana and will be graduating this May with a double major in English and History. Needless to say, I am a recent coffee addict and am probably on my way to becoming an insomniac. I am very excited to be your new Editor-in-Chief this semester, taking over for Rachel Hoover who has gone over to Rome and all that jazz (because “and all that Italian opera” sounded really dumb when I said it out loud). It’s my goal in my only semester running The Rambler to produce issues that you all enjoy reading and look forward to seeing scattered across campus. There are so many creative and intelligent people on this campus and I feel so privileged to be able to work with many of you and showcase your talents through this publication. To my fellow seniors who will be graduating in less than three months, I encourage you to write for The Rambler before we’re gone, especially if you never have. I didn’t get involved with The Rambler until my senior year when I became the layout editor, and I wish I would have begun sooner because I really enjoy it. Find something you’re really passionate about it and just put it on paper...with a minimum of 500 words and go ahead and email that to me, pronto. Am I being too forward? In all seriousness, I really hope to make my last few issues enjoyable for people and to highlight what great examples of journalism Christendom students can write. To everyone who took the time to rearrange twenty-six little letters in to varrying sequences to bring you the articles for this March issue, thank you for your contributions! Stay classy Christendom,
Kayla A. Newcomb Editor-in-Chief
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Shout out to Dan Snyman (‘18) who let us use his bike. Thank you! Number 4
s cien c e & tec hnolog y
FEEL THE FREEDOM? IT’S WORKING by Therese Weber (‘16) FROM THE HUMBLE BEGINNINGS OF THE motorcycle – an engine strapped to a bicycle – science has increased this vehicles power and speed, producing the modern motorcycle. The biggest technological advancement in this area has been the ability to create aerodynamic bikes. With less air resistance the motorcycle’s engine does not have to work as hard, which makes it more fuel efficient. Additionally, great speeds are able to be reached, that is if unnecessary risks are your kind of thing! Sport Bikes, which are used for racing as well as for leisure, are the prime examples of these developments. The reason this style of bike is more aerodynamic is due to the overall shape and limited frontal surface area. The name of the game is facilitating air flow around the bike and rider. The design of the bike needs to work with the air instead of fighting against it. When determining how aerodynamic a motorcycle is, two factors are taken into consideration: cross section and drag coefficient. The cross section is how much surface area is being pushed forward into and against the air while driving. The drag coefficient is more difficult to determine because it is the quantification of the air resistance/drag. The way to discover the drag coefficient of a bike is to study it in a wind tunnel. The bike with a rider is placed in a giant tunnel which simulates high wind speeds with the addition of some controlled smoke. Watching how the smoke interacts and flows around the motorcycle reveals the amount of drag created by its size and shape. The more disturbance in the smoke, the more drag. By taking these two factors together, the overall air drag and aerodynamic qualities
of a bike can be determined. The way that a Sport Bike is able to reduce its cross section is by having low handle bars which keeps the driver closer to the bike so that he is not catching the air with his whole torso. From personal experience, as soon as I would crouch down from an upright position, my speed would immediately increase. Also, if side bags and other storage are added, making the bike wider, the cross section of the vehicle will increase, thus lowering the aerodynamics of the bike. So, the wider and taller the object the more wind resistance because of the increased cross section. One of the best shapes for having a low coefficient is the falling rain drop. It has been studied in order to improve the aerodynamics of many moving objects. The closer a vehicle can be to this shape, with a bigger round front and then tapering down to a point in the back, the less drag created when it goes through air. This is the reason for many little improvements that are out there today, from the interesting looking pedal bike helmets, to the air dam on your car, and to flaps on the back of some semi-trucks. It is all about assisting air to travel around smoothly. This is why windshields on motorcycles greatly reduce drag and increase gas efficiency. By redirecting the air flow around the body of the rider, the windshield prevents the driver from creating too much drag, much like a sail. Well-designed windshields and helmets allow the rider and bike to become as aerodynamic as a bullet flying through the air (metaphorically speaking). This is almost as import ant as the color!
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ar t s & culture
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DARK ROOM
“Christianity Abroad”
Antigua, Guatamala (Spring, 2015) Peter Bl ank (‘ 1 6)
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fait h & reason
T H E F IV E OF THE
LA N G UAG E S
cross
by REBECCA WILLEN (‘15)
HAVE YOU EVER FELT COMPLETELY EMPTY, lonely, or unloved? Perhaps the feeling overwhelmed you late on a solitary Friday night, or after a break-up, or while grieving the death of a grandparent. As human persons, we have a deep yearning to give and to receive love. We are at our happiest when we are fully able to love and to be loved; we feel our greatest sorrow in loneliness of heart, not in physical sufferings. There are different ways in which to love, however, because humans are complex creatures. Christian author Gary Chapman, in his book The Five Love Languages, outlines five universal ways in which men and women express love and affection: words of affirmation, gift giving, quality time, physical touch, and acts of service. Some of us are better suited for one love language or another - for example, mine is words of affirmation, meaning that I rely on others’ words to understand their love for me, and in turn, I express my love for others via words of praise, sympathy, affection, etc.
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Rebecca Willen is a 2015 graduate of Christendom. She was an English major, was involved in Legion of Mary, and was formerly a member The Rambler’s editorial staff.
The languages are not exclusive; rather, each person has their own particular openness to or skill in a primary language, while possessing secondary or tertiary inclinations as well. The love languages, when united to a thoroughly Catholic understanding of human nature and the four temperaments or other “personality tests,” can be an incredibly valuable tool for understanding and interacting with other people. After taking the time to understand how another person works, it becomes easier to communicate with and relate to that person in a friendship, at work, or in a romantic relationship. As in any human interaction, however, human love is never enough to fill our minds, hearts, and souls completely. There’s an emptiness, a loneliness, which only He Who is Love itself can assuage. In His death upon the Cross, Christ communicated His infinite love to each one of us, in an ultimate expression which encom-
faith & reas on passes each one of the ways we humans may receive it. Isn’t it beautiful to consider that Christ came to us not only as God, but as a man? He chose to be not only completely divine, but also utterly human, like us in everything but the taint of sin. The consequence of the Incarnation is that Christ loved, not just as God, but also as a man. Remember His prayer to His Father for His disciples: “I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them whom thou hast given me: because they are thine” (John 17:9). So many times in the Gospels He shows His love for those who come to Him; not merely as another leper or another paralytic, but as a person, wholly unique. The great gift of His divinity and Incarnation is that Christ is capable of loving each one of us as a man loves his brother or sister. If this is the case, then He is capable of expressing His love to us in each way in which we are capable of receiving that love. In the fullness of time, He chose to commit the greatest act of love mankind could ever experience. By His Crucifixion, the Lover of our souls gives us His body, blood, soul, and divinity, a gift of self even greater than that of a husband to his wife. In this act of love, each human person may find consolation in the infinitely personal love of our God, Who chose to die for us that He might prove how much He cherishes each one of us. When perceived through the lens of the five love languages, the Cross takes on a deeply personal significance for each of us, but that perception requires a healthy amount of awe and humility, and a response worthy of the love given. Christ’s words of love upon the Cross are the greatest words of affirmation we could have longed to hear. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do…Son, behold thy mother…Woman, behold thy
son.” (Luke 23:34; John 19:26-27) These are words of forgiveness, mercy, pardon, and deep affection; they offer us an invitation to respond in turn. Do we speak to the Lord, listening and spending time with Him in prayer? Do we tell Him how much we love Him? Our Lover offers us a sublime gift: Himself. He gives us his soul, tortured by the hideousness of our sins; His divinity, humbled to approach death like the lowest of mortals; His precious humanity, fruit of the Virgin’s womb, “beautiful above the sons of men,” racked and broken upon the Cross; His blood, spilled upon the barren earth of Golgotha. In answer to this gift, what can we give of ourselves in return - perhaps the smallest of fasts in thanksgiving? Can we approach the altar of His daily-offered gift with a heart open to sacrifice? Can we give ourselves to Him, body and soul, for His service? There is no more precious quality time than the hours our Savior spent hanging upon the Cross. He did not choose a quick death, but one which, through its lingering agony, would emphasize to us the eternity of His love. Each moment of His crucifixion was a torture that He suffered willingly, in the fullness of time. In our busyness, what time can we consecrate to loving Christ back? Can we spend an hour with Him in adoration? Can we set aside the computer for a moment of prayer with His Word? As humans, we are composed of body as well as soul and at times we need the touch of another person as a reminder of their affection or sympathy. Christ’s Crucifixion was a thoroughly physical action - the piercing of His body by the nails and the lance, the weight and coldness of His body as Nicodemus removed it from the Cross, and the Shroud He left to us, are all the touch of His love. This touch becomes even more precious as
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He gives, in Holy Communion, His love to our bodies every day. His love is an invitation to love him with our whole body, as well as our whole soul. Do we keep our bodies pure for Him? Do we give of ourselves, our bounty, or our labor to others in His name? In its nature and purpose, our Lover’s Crucifixion is the ultimate act of service. He said himself, “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15: 13).” Christ’s death on the Cross was not merely for His disciples, but for each one of us; he obtained for us the reconciliation with God which we otherwise would be incapable of receiving. It would be impossible for us to serve Him with an act on a similar scale. Can we at least place our mind, body, heart and talents in His service and that of our neighbors? Can we, like the Little Flower, spend our time “gath-
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ering flowers of love and sacrifice and offering them to the good God to please Him?” (St. Therese of Lisieux, The Story of a Soul, 196). Grace builds on nature, and so Divine love can find its way to our hearts through our human desires for love and friendship. Through the sacrifice of the Cross, Christ offers His love to us in such a manner that each of us can grasp it and respond in his or her own way. The more time we spend trying to understand his Love, the more we understand our own ability to respond. It is a daunting task to face this infinite love, knowing that we are finite, and choose to respond with the totality of love which the Cross demands of each one of us. Yet this challenge will not go unrewarded, for if we enter into a communion of love, He will not fail to fill our hearts and answer our longings.
DARK ROOM
“Fountains of Rome”
Vatican City (Spring, 2015)
A nne C iskani k (‘ 1 6)
Want to showcase your photography? Send entries to rambler.editor@gmail.com Number 11
ar t s & culture
BY MAGGIE GOLDEN(‘17) ANYONE WHO KNOWS ME CAN QUICKLY tell you that I’m not exactly the world traveler type. In fact, I’m more like a hobbit, preferring tea, books, and snug chairs then going on adventures. However, college has since jolted me into reality, and, although I still prefer an old book and a cat on my lap, I have started to appreciate the gift of travel. Now that we’re in college, we have the world at our fingertips, and this is the perfect opportunity for us to grow in so many ways, yes, by traveling! When I say “travel,” Europe probably is the first thing to pop into one’s mind. However, as college students, we’re unfortunately also pretty much broke. So the travel I’m talking about is actually to places that are closer to home. You can grow in so many ways just from even a simple day trip. Five ways that we can grow through travel are spiritually, personally, strengthening friendships, educationally, and gaining a sense of appreciation Spiritually. When one thinks of spiritual growth, yes,
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Rome and European pilgrimages do come to mind. Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, not all of us have the opportunity to go on the Rome Program. If you do have the opportunity to go to Rome, GO. And pray for us all while you’re there, because we sure need it! But there are other ways to grow spiritually. Here at Christendom, we have the Mission Trip Program. I strongly advocate going on one if you can. Fundraising is scary at first, but God always provides! My trip to Peru was life-changing. It was hard, and not a little stressful, but it opened my eyes and helped me to find myself a little bit more and appreciate all the blessings God has given me. We’re also blessed to be not that far from D.C. Take a day to “travel” there and visit a church or two. Or even visit a religious site somewhere here in our own U.S.A. I personally advocate Emmitsburg. Spiritual growth doesn’t have to come at once from visiting a religious site; it’s one of those things that slowly blooms like a flower. But taking the first step and going somewhere different and asking God to
ar ts & c ult ure open your heart is life-changing. Personally. Personal growth can be gained from wherever you go, be it abroad or here at home. Even though we’re all in college, most of us have a lot of growing up and figuring out to do. Traveling can help you discover yourself. Even though we aren’t living at home at present, we’re still in a community where there’s a strong familial atmosphere. It’s a great and beautiful blessing, one that we should appreciate and never take for granted. But sometimes we need to step out of the box and explore ourselves on our own. By traveling, we need to rely on ourselves. We don’t have our mom (or roommate) to remind us to do things, and one has to learn how to plan and figure things out on our own. We’re forced into reality a little bit more, and it’s easier to challenge ourselves. When we do that, it helps in maturity. It can also help figure out what you want to do with your life. Personally, Peru helped me realize once again how much I love working with kids, and it awakened in me an admiration for, and possible interest in nursing. Try challenging yourself and going to visit a place you know will challenge you, even if it’s something like a hike for some of the Appalachian Trail. As long as you’re stretching yourself in some way. Friendship: Travel can also strengthen, or better yet, form friendships. Although it can be good to travel alone or with only a few people, groups of people are awesome, too. If you travel abroad, you experience so many stressful, awful, but also beautiful, situations. And you definitely bond with people through those experiences. I became close friends with several girls who I would never have known if I hadn’t gone to Peru. But you don’t have to travel abroad to bond with people. Day trips build strong and good memories, too. I experienced that, too, after the March for Life last year. When you go to a new place, or revisit an old one, that is outside of your known space, you can bond with people over the simplest things. Plus, day trips don’t cost much! So get a few friends together and go do something; or better yet, take a few people along who you really don’t know that well, and by the end of the day you’ll know them so much better. Go ice skating, or on a hike. It’ll barely cost you anything, but it will build you priceless friendships. Education: Travel is in itself an educational experience. Once again, you learn so much about people and cul-
ture when you travel abroad. But you can travel here at home as well and learn so much. D.C. has so many museums and monuments that you can travel to and see. And we’re blessed to be near so many other historic sites where you can go and spend the day. I have so many fond memories of going on day trips as a kid to museums and battle fields. Although it took some convincing to get me actually into the van, once I got there, I loved it, and I remember learning so much from those field trips. Although it wasn’t exactly the real experience of travel, I grew from being forced from my comfort zone. I grew to enjoy it, and I loved learning everything that I could from visiting those places. The Smithsonian is almost right in our backyard, so make use of it and go learn something new and exciting! Appreciate the Blessings: Finally, travel helps us to appreciate all the blessings that God has given to us. If you ever have the opportunity to travel to a third world country, do it. It’s hard, but it’s the best type of hard you can experience. When you leave, you not only appreciate your comforts of home ten times more, but you appreciate love and joy so much more. People who live in dirt poor countries are some of the most joyful and loving people that you will ever meet. Just seeing the smiles makes you re-evaluate your own life. Traveling in Europe probably makes you appreciate home after a time as well. But it also brings you some appreciation for all the art and beauty that you see while there. And finally, I remain steadfast in my conviction that you can travel while here at home. God gave us a pretty amazing and beautiful country, too, so get out there and see it! Appreciate its beauty and grandeur. Plus, it doesn’t quite break the bank. Go on a random trip to Skyline Drive. Or over the summer, choose a place a little further away from home where you can go to admire God’s creation, such as the beach or up into the mountains. We have the greatest opportunity right now while we’re in school to travel and see the world. Once we graduate, it will become more and more difficult to find the time and money to travel, so do it now while you can. You will grow in so many ways, and be thankful that you have. Although I’m still not a world traveler, and I probably never will be, I still greatly appreciate the fact that I have the opportunity to explore and learn. I’m excited to start going on some more adventures; so what are you waiting for?
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FAREWELL TO JUSTICE SCALIA LISA FOOS (‘19)
photo/public domain
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n ew s & op inion SUPREME COURT JUSTICE ANTONIN SCALia, a Catholic from the Arlington Diocese, died February 13, 2016 at the age of seventy nine. Judge Richard Posner wrote highly of him in the The New Republic in 2011, asserting that Scalia was “the most influential justice of the last quarter-century.” In light of his recent passing, I thought it good to share some facts about his life and the many years of dedicated work he gave to our country. He was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Regan and was judge there from 1986-2016. Before that, he graduated with a BA in History from Georgetown University in 1957, where he was the valedictorian and graduated summa cum laude. He then went to Harvard for law school, which he completed in 1960. After a period of working with a small law firm, he taught law at University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA. Scalia started government work in 1971 under the Nixon administration. President Nixon nominated him to the position of Attorney General in 1974, which was confirmed under President Ford. Twelve years later, Regan appointed Scalia as a Supreme Court Justice, where he held a seat for the next thirty years and developed a reputation for defending conservative political views. Justice Scalia advocated textualism and originalism in regard to the interpretation of the Constitution, meaning he focused on the text of the document and what it would have meant at the time. His focus was on the letter of the law and not external influence, like the author’s intentions or the historic development of the legislation. Scalia generally voted to strike down laws that made superfluous distinctions about race, gender, or sexual orientation, upholding the dignity of all humans as equal. He also believed that the death penalty is constitutional.
country, even after leaving the office. Scalia was a good standing Catholic and with his wife, Maureen McCarthy Scalia, raised nine children. He was a pro-life judge who argued that there was no Constitutional right to abortion. One of his sons is a priest for the Diocese of Arlington and celebrated his funeral Mass on February 20th. Rev. Paul Scalia said of his father in his homily at the funeral Mass, “We are gathered here because of one man. A man known personally to many of us, known only by reputation to even more; a man loved by many, scorned by others; a man known for great controversy, and for great compassion. That man, of course, is Jesus of Nazareth.” It is through Him that we have hope in God’s mercy, not only for our departed brother, Justice Antonin Scalia, but also for our country. Through our faith in God, we have hope that, even as our country’s moral standard falls and we have the prospect of a liberal leaning Supreme Court, the country cannot get much worse than this, so eventually it will get better, right? God save the king! . . . oh, wait. I mean, God save our country! I encourage you to pray for Justice Scalia, requiescat in pace, and for our country and our leaders, that God will have mercy on them and give them right judgment and fortitude to guide them to the Truth and to help them make the right decisions for our nation.
President Obama will be electing the new Supreme Court Justice shortly before he leaves his second term in office. This is significant since Scalia was one of the most conservative judges and Obama’s appointment will likely shift the balance between conservative, liberal, and moderate justices, all in a short time span before the new elections. President Obama could pick a liberal with shared political views, and could therefore, through the new judge, continue to influence the
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ar t s & culture
Nphoto/Sarah u m b e r 1 6 Furth
ar ts & c ult ure
MY SUMMER WITH SALMON:
AN INTERVIEW M WITH SARAH FURTH
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ar t s & culture Sarah Furth is a current junior who came in with the Class of 2016, took a semester off, and spent a few months this past summer salmon fishing in Alaska. This interview was conducted by Kayla Newcomb on Friday, February 19, 2016 at Christendom College, located in the scenic Shenandoah Valley in Northern Virginia. It is late evening, one that is warmly dark for being in the dead of winter. Kayla and Sarah have just come from a full day of work and classes and are eager to discuss something other than midterms and homework. The two have just left dinner and now sit on a wicker couch, slightly warn, near the science lab in the basement of St. Lawrence Commons. As they recline, they enjoy friendly converation before discussing the matter at hand. The interviewer drinks room-temperature coffee in a white foam cup as they reminice on shared past times from their first year at college. The atmosphere is jovial and vibrant as they prepare to delve into Sarah’s memories of her time spent in Alaska a few months prior. Sarah is very straightfarward and unreserved in her narrative of her experiences. She is dressed in relaxed sporting clothes, as if she has just come from a brisk run under the night sky. Her personality is focused and always active. The interview is recorded on a cold, thin smart phone in order to be accurately transcribed onto paper at a later time. After the interview, they part ways and continue with their laborious studies in an attemp to lessen their procrastination streak and in hopes of getting a humane amount of shut-eye.
Kayla: What made you want to try fishing in Alaska? Sarah: I wanted to earn money (chuckles). I had heard about going salmon fishing through friends. I didn’t really look it up that much, but I didn’t want to do an ordinary job. I had been working in Canada for two years as a wilderness guide, so I needed something similar to that line of work, or I think I might have gone crazy. Desk jobs are not for me. K: How did you actually get the salmon fishing job? S: I walked the docks and talk to the skippers of different boats until I got a job I wanted. K: So you just flew to Alaska? S: (chuckling) Yeah. I flew into Anchorage and then to
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Kodiak. I camped above a gravel mine the first night, walked between the boats and talked to people, networked and hung out at a brewery. It was like being on a five day intensive interview seminar. K: So it took you five days to get work? S: It took five days to really choose the right job for me, which I would definitely recommend. You want to make sure the crew you have is right, so you need to figure out what kind of people you will being working with for four months. K: Is it harder for girls, and is that why there aren’t as many? S: It’s not typical for girls to go out there. I wouldn’t recommend a girl go out there ever. It worked well for
ar ts & c ult ure me, but for the most part I’d say it’d be imprudent. K: So what was daily life like on the boat? S: There was no real schedule but definitely a pattern to the work. The work is very repetitive. In the beginning of the summer, the sun doesn’t set until super late and rises two hours later, so there’s barely darkness. During those couple of weeks, you’re up really early and go to bed so late, so those are long work days. But the daily life… I didn’t get sea sick, but my crew did. So I got to cook a lot, which actually was awesome because it gave me time off deck. You’re always wet on deck, but if you go inside and cook you can heat up when you’re over the stove. That was kind of a relief in the day for me.
The manual labor was pretty hard. Some days are travel days and you just take wheel watch up in the top house, driving while other people are sleeping, and it’s just you and the ocean. You see whales and porpoises jumping in front of the boat. It’s so awesome! On those days I also made time to write letters, paint with watercolors, and read so I could stay sane. K: How many people were on your crew? S: There were four of us: three deck hands including myself and then the skipper, the guy who runs the boat. K: What was your favorite experience?
I’M SO AWARE NOW HOW I CAN LIVE OUT MY FAITH IN UNSUSPECTING WAYS.
painting/Sarah Furth
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photo/Sarah Furth
THE BIGGEST THING IS TO KNOW YOURSELF AND KNOW WHAT YOU’RE CAPABLE OF AND TO NOT LIE TO YOURSELF. AFTER THAT, YOU CAN TAKE ANY RISK IN THE WORLD IF IT’S WHAT GOD IS CALLING YOU TO DO. Number 20
ar ts & c ult ure S: One really stands out to me. I remember being very burnt out and ticked off toward the end of the season. I went out on deck to cool off (in both senses) and I was asking God why I had done this, why I was here. Then this huge humpback whale rose out of the water twenty feet from the boat, spun in the air, and splashed down really playfully on its side. It just emerged out of the water as I was out there by myself, and the sun was setting so the water was wine colored. I can’t describe how that felt but I painted it.
she’d look up and be so happy to see me. Sometimes I didn’t want to see her because it was hard, but I’m so aware now how I can live out my faith in unsuspecting ways. Vocation isn’t necessarily just what you choose to do in life, such as fishing, but where your heart lies as you carry out any job. It’s better than whale watching.
Another great time happened when I was sitting in the skiff. A whole school of orca whales came right next to me so I could reach out and touch their dorsal fins. I could reach out from the skiff and they were right there, just an arm’s-length away. There was a mamma and her little baby, and they were so cute. But I was terrified at the same time because it was just me and around thirty orca whales swimming with me.
S: My plan was to come back to Christendom. By the middle of the summer, I was so hungry for intelligent conversation that I would get boats to bring books out to me from the local library in the town.
K: You mentioned the work was hard. What was the hardest part of all? S: How repetitive the work was and the fact that you’re stuck on a forty-two foot boat for four and a half months with the same guys. K: Any other stories you want to share? S: There were a lot of homeless people around the docks. Once there was this woman who was crying, but people kept walking past her and not doing anything. We were walking toward each other, so I could see her and had time to think of something to say. I had a pizza and some beers with me which I was planning to take back to the guys since they had been working hard that day. When I came up to her we sat down by the side of the dock to talk. I offered her a slice of pizza and she ate half of it. She was really hungry, a truly starving person. She wasn’t really coherent either, maybe she was on drugs or something. But she cried and talked and told me about all the terrible things that had happened to her. She had a hard life. After this encounter, I would run into her from time to time, and
K: What did you take away from the whole salmon fishing experience?
K: What kind of stuff did you read? S: I was literally diving into Augustine and Cicero because I needed to think; I needed food for thought. Now I’m back at Christendom and look back on my time on the boat and see that doing really hard work is so fruitful. But I am so happy to be back at Christendom in an environment that is so healthy for my mind and soul. College is such a great life, I couldn’t ask God for more; He has given me more than I’d ever have imagined in Christendom. K: And what kind of advice would you give to someone interested in any kind of bold or adventurous life choice or career? S: The biggest thing is to know yourself and know what you’re capable of and to not lie to yourself. After that, you can take any risk in the world if it’s what God is calling you to do. Just pray about it. There are a lot of jobs out there; it doesn’t have to be fishing. Especially for girls, and I really mean this. Girls should not go out fishing just because I did, and not every guy can go out either. God gives you that sense of adventure because he’s calling you to do something that will require you to climb outside of your comfort zone, and that means something different for each person.
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fait h & reason
TOWARD A CATHOLIC CULTURE OF D E AT H
by JAKE HISERMAN (‘16) THE TITLE IS NOT A TYPO. I REPEAT, THE title is not a typo. Perhaps you’re thinking I’ve been smoking too much weed in the gym parking lot. After all, who in their right mind would equate Catholicism with the standard term used to describe our contemporary, morally depraved, and secular humanist society? I ask you to please step off your moral high horse for the remainder of this rambling piece of magazine literature. In our postmodern clime, many persons shy away from death: the word in its syllables, the mental concept, the consequences, and the multifarious ways that it affects the human condition on a quotidian basis. Catholics remain just as guilty of this as those poor benighted secular humanists of frequent caricature in our intellectual circles. The solution lies in a grassroots cultural shift. Never fret, I won’t be undertaking any
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formal community organizing in the future. I’ll leave that to our beloved clergy. For now, I sound the clarion call for a renaissance of a Catholic Culture of Death. I speak in terms of a renaissance because Holy Mother Church already holds all the tools necessary for the rebirth. For example, the ars moriendi, a medieval modus vivendi at its peak when the life-blood of the Faith surged through the veins of Christendom. In addition, the Church offers a broad swath of literature, from St. Robert Bellarmine’s treatise The Art of Dying Well and the Preparation for Death of the esteemed Doctor Moralis, St. Alphonsus Liguori, to Fr. Edward Schillebeeckx’s “The Death of a Christian.” Another instance of the Church’s rich teaching on death can be seen in the tomes of ink spilled on the Four Last Things, of
faith & reas on which death is the first one. Unfortunately, it remains a common experience among current Catholics to never hear a sermon preached on death and how to die or read a book or pamphlet on these twin topics. This must be reversed. I shall show why we are stuck in the mud on this all-important doctrine and how to reverse it in three parts of this writing piece. The primary paradoxical situation Catholics face today stands as the widespread cinematic or virtual depiction of “death,” which gives one a certain intimacy or familiarity with it, while other cultural trends further remove them from its reality. Death is both there and not there at the same time, a rupture in the principle of non-contradiction that in turn weakens the authenticity of death. The rise of violence-ridden and plotstarved cinema productions, such as Star Wars I-III, give little context for proper depiction of the seriousness of death. Daily encounters with death on a gaming platform have become meaningless; death loses its finality with the certainty of a re-spawn. Moreover, death continues to be trumpeted ad nauseam in dozens of sound-bytes and hourly news updates on every major TV network, yet ever more depersonalized. Our soci-
ety constantly shoves great-grandparents and grandparents into hospice or nursing homes in order to sterilize our homes and lives of human entropy and death. The counterweight to this trend of mass desensitization toward death consists in an outpouring of Catholic cinematography and journalism that treats death with a heightened respect for its gravity and uniqueness in the human experience. This can be accomplished by way of a golden mean in the frequency of reporting death and taking into consideration the context for death in portrayal of it. Therefore, this means a recovery of obscenity, the sense that some things are meant to be offstage (scene), not for public exposition, and of elevated or grave subject matter.
LORD GRANTHAM WASN’T TAKEN. HE DIED. Likewise, our language of death points to a virulent escapism as regards death’s role in the framework of the human condition. This particularly manifests itself in the regularity with which death is referred to in America by some diluted euphemism such as a “loss” or insipid phraseology such as “he passed away.” Downton Abbey, the highly praised British television series, gives us another insight into the diluted American language of death. When Martha Levinson, the wealthy American maternal grandmother finds herself in conversation with Violet Grantham, the paternal British grandmother, about their dead husbands, she states: “Both of our husbands tied the money up tight before they were taken.” Violet retorts, “Lord Grantham wasn’t taken. He died.” Violet’s blunt statement, though emanating from the mouth of an Anglican, makes a superb point
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fait h & reason about the term ‘death’ as opposed to euphemisms for the word. Death retains a material and a supernatural reality. Words such as ‘passed,’ ‘loss,’ and ‘taken’ contain a certain connotation of parting with the “best life” for man, the mortal one. On the contrary, ‘death’ denotes a definitive break with the transitory things of the world and an entrance into the permanence of eternal life, a thoroughly Catholic understanding. Its utterance remains akin to the grammatical analogy of dropping a period at the end of a sentence, as opposed to the hyphen that ‘taken’ engenders. Hence, there persists a dire need on the part of Catholics to revert to use of the word ‘death’ to describe the separation of the soul and the body in common parlance. This will move our culture to return to a Catholic and human conception of death, a co-natural relationship since the Church teaches in the Incarnation the fact that Christ in his human nature was the Exemplar of what it means to be human. The motto of the Cistercian Order, Stat crux dum volvitur orbis, endures as a solid axis for the revived Catholic Culture of Death that exists in the world but seeks to convert the world to a Catholic perception of death. Christ stays at the center for “though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as
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something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:6-8). A Catholic understanding of death revolves around the re-presentation of Christ’s human death at Holy Mass as solemn matter. It proceeds from that point to a repudiation of the worldly fallacies of trivialization of death because they are in constant mutation. The graces from Christ’s atoning death open to us the grace of perseverance at the moment of death and all other graces necessary to prepare for our own death. An instance of Christ as the Exemplar of a good death comes through in his model of fervent and efficacious prayer during his Agony in the Garden and his honesty about the supernatural nature of His kingdom (Jn. 18:36) in contrast to a worldly kingdom some hoped to see established through his earthly ministry. The worldly belief about death seeks an inordinate elevation of the death of the body which Christ warns against (Mt. 10:28), while the Cross and Christ’s death upon it shows us that the body is not made for the desires of the flesh but for eternal union with God after death (1 Cor. 6:13). Thus, Catholics ought to diligently study the words and example of Christ in His death as well as those of the holy men and women on this venerable subject and make these teachings present in daily deeds and words to cultivate a Catholic Culture of Death. So, next time you see a fellow student returning to their dorms at night, speak to them as monks of old did and say, “Frater, memento mori.”
DARK ROOM
“The Joy of Music” Co. Clare, Ireland (August, 2015) N ual a Kel l y (‘ 1 9)
Number 25
po etry & prose
THE MASTER BYAND THE BLOODHOUND TA I T P I L E GAAR D ( ‘1 9 )
It
was late in morning and the British cantonments of Meerut lay still like a motionless scene on a canvas painting. The bright warm rays of the sun shone down upon the picturesque, square bungalows and green parade ground of that military outpost while the red, white, and blue of the Union Jack hung idly on the flagstaff. Save for the occasional whinny from one of the regimental horses or the now and then playful laughter of a child coming from somewhere within one of the many bungalows, the only other sound that was to be heard on the entire premises came from that of the officers’ club. For here, within a larger bungalow of a more grandiose style, was that safe haven of amusements which had been erected and established for those officer of Her Imperial Majesty, who either proffered to stand aloof from such engagements as that of a pig-sticking, or who - through no fault of their own - had the misfortune of not being able to attend, due to their military duties. This morning it happened to be a small group of junior officers - five to be exact - two of whom were playing a game of billiards, while the other three were seated in bamboo chairs smoking cigars and drinking gin, watching, conversing, and occasionally commenting on the game at hand. The young officers were silently waited upon by three servants who every now and then would quietly refill the Sahibs’ glasses. Two of these servants were natives who, save for their red turbans and slippers, were dressed entirely in white. The third servant however, was not a native, but a Negro who was dressed in a black suit and trousers with white tie and tails as though he were the butler of a grand estate rather than a common manservant. The Negro stood silently by his young master, his white gloved hands by his sides, like a loyal bloodhound; indeed, such was the very nickname by which all the residence and garrison of Meerut, from bugler to colonel, knew him. As fate would have it, this very servant soon became the very subject of the young Sahibs’ conversation. “I say Jack, how long have you had that old Bloodhound of yours?” “Fifteen years come this May. Why ever do you ask Jim?” “Well you see,” said James somewhat embarrassed as he blew forth a ring of smoke from his Havana cigar, “my manservant ran away last night.” “Abdul?” “The very same.” “Impossible!” “I know, but this morning when I awoke I found that he had vanished, along with all my mother’s silver, the scoundrel!” “I still can’t believe it! Abdul had always been such a faithful and loyal servant of your family.” “I know,” said James with a sigh, “but there you have it as plain as the ash on the end of my cigar. Apparently he wasn’t loyal enough.”
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p oetr y & p ros e “Say Jack,” asked Charles, looking up from the pool table as he took a sip from his glass, “however did you happen to come upon that old Bloodhound of yours?” “You mean, however did the bloodhound not happen to come upon him,” said Jack, as though correcting his comrade. Charles looked at his comrade, somewhat puzzled by this riddle. “It happened about twenty years ago, Charlie, way back before my father had moved my family up from South Carolina to settle in Virginia. I was seven years old at the time. One day I happened to be playing in some swampland south of our plantation when all of a sudden I heard the baying of hounds in the distance. The baying grew louder and louder with every second. Just then a man dashed into the swamp not a few yards from where I was playing. Instantly he ran towards me. Before I knew what was happening he had picking me up in his arms, and for a second just stood there holding me. Then he released me and dove into the murky water of the swamp,hiding himself among the tulle grass, reeds, and cattails. I could see his muddy green face and his pale white eyes full of fear watching me and staring at me through the reeds and cattails, as though silently pleading for help. I knew then and there that I had to help this desperate man, for there is nothing more horrible than seeing an innocent human being, hunted down like an animal. A few minutes later the hounds came crashing into the thicket of the swamp followed by the hunters. T he men looked rough and carried rifles. Instantly the hounds made straight for me and for a moment I thought they were going to tear me to pieces. The men asked if I had seen a darky pass by; I told them that there was a big plantation about a mile north and then asked them what was a “Darky”. They just laughed and told me that I was a good boy and then disappeared back into the woodlands as quick as they had come. After the last baying of the hounds had died off in the distance, I beckoned to the man to come out, and he did. My family had always been good to men like him, so I asked him if he wanted to come home with me. He just smiled and followed me home. “By George, what a story,” exclaimed James. “Yes indeed!” agreed Charles. “Jack, you’re a regular old Cavalier. William Wilberforce would’ve recommended you for a knighthood.” “Oh posh!” said Jack taking a sip from his glass. “Devilishly clever way of losing the hounds,” put in Floyd. “Here, here,” agreed Henry. Neither Floyd nor Henry had until this moment spoken a word, for neither were as talkative as James and Charles, though they were both very attentive listeners and paid great attention to details. “It was awful clever of Bloodhound,” said Henry, “to have got his scent on you before jumping for the swamp, thus throwing the dogs off his trail.” “I was just going to say that,” said Charles coolly leaning forward over the pool table to take a shot with his cue. “You’re lucky those brutes didn’t tear you to pieces.” “Yes, I was very lucky.” “Though, there’s just one thing that I don’t quite understand,” said James. “Yes, and what’s that?” asked Jack. “If Bloodhound run away from his former masters then why hasn’t he ever run away from you?” “Because I never owned him, that’s why,” replied Jack. “What? But I thought that when you returned back to your plantation that your father would have enslaved him again.” “No, my father never owned any slaves.” “But this is incredible!” “Your father, a wealthy Southern plantation owner; and yet he owns no slaves?” “Yes,” said Jack, “As hard as it is to believe, my father owned not a single slave. When
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po etry & prose he inherited the plantation from my great grandfather, the first thing he did was to give them all their freedom; however, though he freed all the slaves on our plantation, not one of them ever left. Instead, they all stayed on working as either servants or as hired hands in the field. But then again, this doesn’t answer your question, does it, Jim? Why has Bloodhound never run away from me? Well, I suppose it’s because he’s a free man as well as a servant, and a loyal servant at that. A slave, Jim, at one point or another in his life will always try to run away because he knows that deep down inside he is owned by another human being - which, by knowledge of natural law - he knows to be morally wrong. On the other hand, a servant who is loyal, treated well, and - what’s more - is paid an honest day’s wage is almost assured to never run away. But then again, you can’t buy loyalty; you can only earn it, and that all depends on your character.” “Quite right,” said Charles, “couldn’t agree with you more, old boy.” “Well, that settles it then,” said James, “I must find myself a new servant. O nly I wish I could find as loyal a one as yours.” “I’m sure you will, Jim. But I dare say, Abdul was as about as loyal a servant as any a man could ask for. Are you certain he ran away?” “As I told you before, I couldn’t find him anywhere this morning.” “Hmm, I still think that’s rather odd.” “He could’ve been mauled by a tiger,” commented Henry from the pool table. “I was talking to Fitzroy, and he said that there had been sightings of one in the neighborhood.” “No, I don’t believe he was mauled by a tiger,” said Jack. “ If I knowAbdul, he’s too quick and crafty for even the most cunning tiger in India. No, it must’ve been something else.” “It could’ve been seen,” said Henry. “Or heard about,” added Floyd. “Why, you don’t believe that this has anything to do with the whole Enfield cartridge business and those rumors about circulating Chupattees among the Sepoys, do you?” asked Charles, as one of the servants poured him another glass of gin. “I don’t know, Charlie, I don’t know,” said Jack, finishing off his own glass and setting it on the small table next to him. “All I can say is that it doesn’t sound like Abdul, running off and all that. Anyhow, I think you should look into it, Jim, that’s my advice.” “Very well, I’ll start making inquiries.” The conversation then varied to a number of other topics until the billiards game was finished, with Floyd being the winner. Soon one by one the different members of the party began to drift off, heading about their normal duties until there was no one left save for Jack and the Bloodhound. Jack sat quietly staring at the smooth green surface of the pool table and its four beautifully carved brown wooden legs. As he sat in the comfortable chair, Jack’s thought wondered to his faraway home in Virginia. He was very much a castaway, cut off from his native land and set adrift, never to return. But then again, there was nothing really to return to; he had taken everything with him. Pa, mother, and the girls had all perished in the fire, and if he had stayed it would have been out of vengeance for those who had murdered them. Yes, he had taken with him the only thing that had mattered, and that was Bloodhound; for who could ask for more than a servant whose only words were spoken in actions - in actions, louder than every word that had ever been spoken? So there they remained, a colorblind Southern boy and a tongueless man from the African Hinterland: the Master and the Bloodhound.
Number 28
DARK ROOM
“Altitude” Utah (Spring, 2015)
Mary Katheri ne Mooney (‘ 1 9)
Number 29
po etry & prose
GLOBAL WARMING BY JORDAN EIDLE (‘16) Isn’t it a pity! Isn’t it a shame! I’ve heard that global warming is the one I ought to blame. I’m very disappointed, I just don’t understand Why people would do something to stop snow throughout the land. Please stop using carbon! Please stop wasting fuel! Snow days are necessities, a needed break from school. I’ve heard that not conserving, and wasting lots of gas, Is melting all our glaciers – winter is almost past! I’ve heard we’ll all be flooded and there will be no snow, Though why it’s still so cold out, I simply do not know. Although it’s looking cloudy we won’t see snow today. Global warming’s ruined it! My dad says, “Hip Hurray!” But wait! Something is falling, and it looks a lot like snow! It’s coming faster, faster and the wind begins to blow. My mom says, “It’s a blizzard,” my dad says, “holy gee.” It’s the most we’ve had in years! The most I’ve ever seen. The phone rings – school is canceled, my dad turns up the heat Brother, sister and I, find socks to warm our feet. We find our boots and snowsuits my mom says, “Bundle up.” We run outside to play in it, we just can’t get enough! We come in and surprise! There’s cocoa piping hot And cookies (my favorite!) all of us grab a lot. My dad has made a fire, we sit and eat and play. I love this time together – I’d do it every day! Inside we all our cozy though outside the storm we hear. Thank you global warming! You can come back any year!
Number 30
poetry & p ros e
THE BUOY
MONICA WILSON (‘17) There’s a buoy on the river’s water, That in the mildness of the breeze Stands still; she does not totter. That free from turmoil stands with ease. But she struggled today for her balance As a barge of ice passed o’er. The ice smothered her for dominance, And suppressing dragged her downward. The buoy fought against the pressure Struggling to remain afloat at last. Not withstanding the force which press her, Only her foundation held her fast. My foundation is You, my dearest Lord, When life’s trials topple me down. Deliver me, God; give my legs support And by Your grace, lead me on
thumbs
opinions from the less wordy on campus
Congrats to the rugby team on a great win over Duke! Good luck with the rest of your season!
At long last there is more lighting on the dreaded dip.
SPRING BREAK!!!
Leonardo DiCaprio finally won an Oscar.
AT YOUR FEET KATIE TITUS (‘17)
Silently weeping I sit at your feet, My heart and soul with wonder replete, Yet quiveringly my lips repeat, “Have mercy, Lord, from your judgment seat.” Prostrate now I fall before Thee Because your perfection so enthralls me; Subsisting Thought, yet Love Enfleshed To gaze on Your wisdom, my one request. Teach me your Logos expressed as Love; Help me to contemplate Truth from above: Beautiful Orderer, Goodness Divine, In you Wisdom and Truth in Oneness combine
...it was for The Revenant. I will never let it go, Jack.
There were bed bugs on guys side.
Fanny packs are no longer socially acceptable.
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