Gently, light and fluffy, the snow is falling. It hasn’t been much, just an inch or two. Mack loved snow, loved to play in it, sled, dig into it building forts. He would have been out already, even as I write at 7 am. But he wouldn’t have liked this […]
My wife asked my yesterday why I kept thinking and talking Job. It is because it is the locus classicus of human suffering and the demand for divine explanation. Today I wondered, “Are we cursed like Job?” Then I wondered, was he cursed or just human, experiencing life with all its loss and […]
This past week my close friend and mentor recommended to me Charles Williams’ War in Heaven. Williams is the member of the “Inklings” that most of us forget about, but whom many consider to be the best theologian of the bunch. (I am on record as attributing that crown to […]
I just want to reassure readers that while there will undoubtedly be more posts about my (and our, but I tend to let my wife speak for herself) experiences and thoughts grieving for the loss of our son, the blog Targuman will not become solely about theodicy. When I began […]
But the best one I can think of to explain what life is like surviving, “living beyond,” the death of our son. It is a bit like being forced to wear a pair of painful, ill-fitting shoes. They hurt like hell and make you limp, wince, and cry, but you […]
My wife has shared some thoughts on Facebook, I have posted some pictures on the PhotoBlog, Christopher Long has this wonderful poem from Auden, and our incredible students have created a Day of Kindness in Mack’s honor. But I know which tribute would make Mack laugh, it is this cartoon […]
Death almost always brings with it the basic question of “why.” When it is young innocents as in the Sandy Hook attack or our son Mack, it becomes even more desperate. Even when those who are older who die for no clear moral reason we are at a loss for […]
As someone wondered if I was having a crisis of faith I was reminded of something that I have often mentioned in the class and in one or two articles, which is that expressing anger towards God is, in fact, a statement of faith. If I didn’t believe in God […]
It has barely been over one week since our wonderful boy died. It was fast, sudden, and completely unexpected. It was not an accident or a prolonged illness, but rather a bacterial infection of the blood. We are thankful for the small grace that he was in very little pain […]
