As I mentioned in a recent post, I only read a few early chapters in Acedia & me, by Kathleen Norris, before I had to return it to the library. However, I found myself pondering some of her words. For example, she wrote, "The difficult thing about days is that they must be repeated" (p. 12*). Acedia, it seems, struggles with the sameness and … [Read more...]
Kathleen Norris, Acedia, and the Commonplace Book
Kathleen Norris's session at the Festival of Faith & Writing offered some good stuff, though my notes are spotty. She spent most of the time defining that word, "acedia," that has fallen out of usage. She's trying to resurrect it, because she thinks it captures our current culture's general boredom, apathy, or ennui. None of those words expresses the attitude and … [Read more...]
