Works and Prayers of a Fils Prodigue

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve graced these pages with my quasi-intelligent musings on virtue, Christ, or less important aspects of modern life. My absence has not been due to any laxity on my part, considering that I have now received the sacrament of Matrimony and am also looking for gainful employment. Sadly, such life alterations leave little time for aesthetic pursuits, although the Matrimony brings blissful, gracious pursuits of its own — building a home and life together, learning to pray as a husband and pray for my wife [even the words! The words themselves tingle sliding from the tongue of my mind!], becoming a righteous and godly man through the joyful, mundane grace of this sacrament. Writing, sadly, takes a backseat to such things. Still, it is my hope that, having drawn closer to the good life, in which Kelli and My material needs are met, we may both allow greater freedom to our intellectual and creative pursuits.

I have decided, at long last, to begin writing more in print rather than online. Having desired one for some time, I am going to save up for a typewriter — I cannot handwrite for long, and computers are far too untrustworthy to contain one’s work. Thus, I’m opting for the best of both worlds — print copies that I can just type out. I hope to write fiction and non-fiction, and have already started on a story centering around one particular Southerner’s peculiar harrassment by his other parishioners in the confessional and his subsequent desire for total loneliness. I hope for more stories, though, and for a great habitus for writing. Also, I’m hoping to take Dr. Madden’s short story class in the Spring, as he is a reknowned writer and teacher (see: David Madden on amazon). Writing has often been a part of my life, even from my earliest years (I wrote in elementary quite a bit, and in middle school — I slowed in high school to a glacial pace). I’m often intimidated by other, more profficient writers — even like my friend, Brian. Some people seem to have a greater…knack for the art of writing. I am, however, enheartened by two nascent heroes of mine: Flannery O’Connor and Walker Percy. O’Connor didn’t really begin her writing career until college, and Percy didn’t begin writing fiction until his 40’s (after a somewhat unsucessful career in non-fiction — nobody read his works, and what good’s a work that no one reads?). Late-bloomers can be great writers as well — this is my hope.

I will write soon about marriage and orthodoxy, I hope.