I have just concluded reading Paul Elie's The Life You Save May Be Your Own. Subtitled "An American Pilgrimage", it was published in 2003, and so is not a new release, and yet for some reason I have only come upon it recently. Elie chronicles the lives of four distinctively American (and Catholic) writers: Thomas Merton, Flannery O' Connor, Dorothy Day and Walker Percy. The lens through which he reads the lives of each is that of pilgrimage, which is understood to be the journey from… Continue

Lately I have been spending time listening to Wrecking Ball, the 1995 cd by Emmylou Harris. I had been a fan of hers from the Gram Parsons albums, and can remember buying the Pieces of the Sky album, which still has a purity and clarity that is not diminished in any way. In contrast, Wrecking Ball was something of a transition; it was an foray into electronic rock music, with the producer Daniel Lanois (U2), and for that reason it must have been a risk (I recall seeing her… Continue

My piece on the music of Patty Griffin and Robert Randolph at Faith and Leadership, a website hosted by Duke University Divinity School, in which I explore the spiritual themes and their uses of our religious past in the present: http://www.faithandleadership.com/blog/08-24-2010/ken-carter-traditioned-innovation-roots-music.

1. The Gulf region encompasses several of the poorest states in our nation, and thus ones that are economically at risk from outside commerce that cares little for its citizens (identified by the chair of BP as the "small people").



2. The Gulf region is at some geographical distance from centers of political (Washington, D.C.) and financial (New York City) power, and thus its health and well-being can be ignored. One insidious outcome of the disaster is that professionals in each of… Continue

I made the annual pilgrimage to Merlefest with three friends and my daughter, who lives and works in Beijing. She must have won the award for having come the greatest distance. It turned out that Saturday fit best into our schedules, and so we arrived at about 2:00 in the afternoon. Tony Rice was finishing up his set, and then we wandered first to catch a part of a concert by the Greencards (including the title piece from their Fascination), then a little Peter Rowan ("It Takes a Worried… Continue