Dry Creek Chronicles

First: Yesterday I meant to mention a happy coincidence but forgot. As I said, I will be traveling to Texas for a few weeks spanning the end of March and the start of April. Somewhere recently I saw that the total eclipse would be happening on April 8. I knew that the path led directly… Continue reading

Today I turn seventy. I was never big on marking occasions, these days I mostly ignore them. Still, the dawn of a new decade is a good occasion to reflect on the one just past. I’ve begun an essay doing just that, one I’ll publish here though not soon. In its stead, some scattered notes… Continue reading

This morning I finished Verlyn Klinkenborg’s book on writing. After wrapping up his own thoughts on how to write, he ends with two short sections that look at other writings. The first, “Some Prose and Some Questions,” begins with passages by top-flight writers—John McPhee, A.J. Libeling, Rebecca West, Guy Davenport, George Orwell, W.H. Auden, John… Continue reading

I’ve been reading Several Short Sentences About Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg, who thinks that good writing is all about crafting sentences. Period. Other qualities of good writing can be identified and discussed, but these are all improved by carefully composing and revising sentences. So a writer should spend his time there. The book uses an… Continue reading

It’s been less than two weeks of intense blogging and I think I’ve accomplished most of what I hoped for. My writing is looser and longer, and I trust my readers more to just skip or ignore the stuff that doesn’t work for them. But since my ultimate goal isn’t to blog, but to produce… Continue reading

One of the regular cliches in sermons that used to irritate me was the observation that a humble person would not call himself such. A quick Google search returned this, from the subreddit Unpopular Opinions (ironic, since it is in fact a very popular opinion). The very act of claiming yourself humble is a direct… Continue reading

I’m a big fan of Oliver Burkeman, particularly his latest book Four Thousand Weeks. I highlighted it extensively; there’s a lot of easily accessible wisdom in there. Here’s one of the highlights that Readwise just emailed me, which I think is profound. Once you give up on the unattainable goal of eradicating all your problems,… Continue reading

Peter is staying with Chris and family at their farm this weekend. We try to do this regularly, every other weekend for now, more often and longer in the future, so that he can become part of their family — which he will do full-time once I’m no longer around or otherwise able to care… Continue reading

I like aphorisms, and aphoristic writing. I don’t care to sit down and craft independent ones, but I would like it if one occasionally cropped up in my own writings. I’m not sure how to go about making that happen, if there’s a way of doing so intentionally it continues to escape me. (Same with… Continue reading

Today’s original post got away from me again, and I will need another day (or more) to finish it. The reason is a bit different this time. I wrote the post fairly quickly, with a couple of places marked for links to add once I was done, links to where I remembered having discussed similar… Continue reading