This time of year, you hear it all the time: “Do you want to go do such-and-such fun thing tonight?” “No, sorry, I’m writing a thesis.” “Let’s have lunch sometime!” “No, sorry, I’m writing a thesis.” “Are you ever going to do your laundry?” “No, sorry, I’m writing a the
02.5.2011| The Fish Tank | Anne L. Goetz
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Recently I’ve been thinking quite a lot about unanswered prayer—you know, the perennial question of what to think of a God who says “Knock, and the door will be opened” and then seems to ignore us quite often when we ask things of him. There are all sorts of answers to that question whic
10.7.2010| The Fish Tank | Anne L. Goetz
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A few days ago I happened to read one of the original versions of Beauty and the Beast. I love fairy tales, especially when they haven’t been chopped up and made saccharinely sweet and absolutely devoid of meaning; and this particular version particularly struck me. I trust that you all know the s
09.16.2010| The Fish Tank | Anne L. Goetz
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I have a problem: I’m terribly prideful. When I sit down to consider my life, I’m filled with a sort of warm, complacent glow at the thought that I’m such a brilliant, lovely person, with such a brilliant, lovely future ahead of me. And this self-satisfaction often distresses me, because I kno
08.5.2010| The Fish Tank | Anne L. Goetz
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Obedience is an uncomfortable subject. Our society isn’t set up in a way that makes obedience a particularly attractive virtue. We have to suppress a thrill of pride when we think, “Oh, I’ve been particularly generous today,” or “I’ve been particularly hardworking,” but “I’ve been
05.6.2010| The Fish Tank | Anne L. Goetz
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Adultery is a great evil. This is an inescapable conclusion. And it is not a new conclusion to me—every reading of the Ten Commandments, every discussion of marriage, every clear-sighted scrutiny of our culture’s signature ills serve to drive home the point. Never mind how many times I had heard
09.23.2009| The Fish Tank | Anne L. Goetz
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