As I periodically do, I am re-reading Gregory Shaw’s gorgeous book “Theurgy and the Soul”: The Neoplatonism of Iamblichus”.  I first read it years ago, doing the undergrad work for my second BA, this one in Religious Studies rather than Anthropology as was the first.  I remember the sense of astounding revelation of that first…

So, I fled from Gatineau to my daughter’s in Toronto because of the flood. While the apartment building I live in was still high and dry, I was surrounded by water on all four sides. And across the main highway, where there is a cycle and pedestrian path, that path had been flooded to the…

This post begins a new chapter, one of pulling together various strands into a unified whole.  Specifically, my background in both Religious Studies and in Anthropology applied to the question – the burning question – of what would the best thing be to do in this new era – both of the “Anthropocene” and in…

Very recently I picked up a DVD, the third in the Bourne series, The Bourne Legacy (“there was never just one”). I got it on the cheap up at the Pointe, here in Gatineau and I have used it mainly to practice my French.  My method, along with DuoLingo (and a dictionary, and French for…

Well hello all, again!!! I don’t seem to be able to hang in here on a regular or consistent basis, do I?  The writer’s life can sometimes feel like an obstacle course, at least to me, it can.  As most of you might know, I am the mother of a grown daughter – who happens…

I came to Ottawa/Gatineau a year ago to do a doctoral program in Religious Studies.  It was a four year program and I was guaranteed both full tuition and support in the form of TAships, predicated on my Summa Cum Laude graduation, just past, and my earlier graduate work in a different field.   But, after…

Just over a year ago, I took the risk of relocating to Ottawa/Gatineau from Toronto.  And risk it certainly was, although predicated on a bit of good fortune – I had been accepted back into a doctoral program at the University of Ottawa on full scholarship, including tuition and TAships for the duration (the tale…

For the last several years, I have been seeking to understand the rationale(s) (?)  behind the “Harper” regime.  What has seemed like insanity to many (certainly to me) , must not only have a rationale but to have been convincing enough for it to have garnered the assent of a coterie of believers.  Yet, focussing on the…

In this year’s SOTU, the second last by US President Barak Obama, there were many admirable things which the President stated as goals or as accomplishments.  In particular, there were apparent gains for the economy and, of course, in the provision of health care.  But, rather than goals or accomplishments (though they were, of course, placed…