Michael J. Sauter

On the Localism of the Spheres

angel March 13, 2013

I have a friend who is a cloistered Trappist monk and his current obsession is the ‘outer’ and decidedly non-sedentary goal of running a marathon (on the back forty of the monastic enclosure).   The sense of accomplishment inspires him.   In…

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The March for Life, Poetry, and ‘Epimethean Men’

marchforlife January 23, 2013

“Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.”  –Wallace Stevens
January 25,  the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, will mark the fifth time in the last decade that I’ve travelled to D.C. for the annual March for Life.   …

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On ‘The Fall’ and That Obama Video

Lena Dunham_Your First Time November 27, 2012

Yes, yes. I know the election is over and, as a third-party voter myself, I don’t believe I’ll smell like sour grapes here regarding the results, but still there’s something about that Obama video. It’s the one where actress Lena…

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Lessons on Limits from the Cougar Prophet

Fontainebleau chateau October 11, 2012

If a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down, I took my prescription of limits and localism with a spoon full of pretty sweet sugar indeed.   About 20 years ago I came into possession of  Stephen Vizinczey’s In…

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Thought Control and Controlling Our Thoughts

Abbey of the Genesee September 21, 2012

Last evening I had the joy of taking a dozen-plus college students to the Abbey of the Genesee for the first of this year’s “Newman Community Book Discussion with Monks.” The Trappist monastery is just a few miles down the road…

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The Eckhart Tolle of Space

globe April 12, 2012

“Many propositions involving temporal concepts which seem obviously and necessarily true are just as necessarily but not obviously true when formulated in terms of spatial relations.” [1]
In 2011, the Watkins Review named author Eckhart Tolle “the most spiritually influential person…

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Carbuncles, Bedbugs, Boils and Politics

g-k-chesterton March 25, 2012

To paraphrase an observation of Chesterton on the subjects of poets, silence and cheese:  Political scientists have been mysteriously silent on the subject of soap, or at least until now.[1 ] Less than obvious, therefore, at least to some, might be…

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