Author Archives: Jack N. Lawson

My wife and I live in a nearly two-century-old farmhouse in Basse-Normandie. We have a stable, hangar and henhouse, as well as another old building that is badly in need of repair. I am not without rural experience, for my early years were spent in the countryside and my family had a farm in Virginia’sContinue reading “Reflections from a Hot Bath”

The world awaits the outcome of the Derek Chauvin trial. It is a trial in which American justice itself is in the dock. But since George Floyd’s death at the knee of Derek Chauvin, there have been numerous other killings of African-Americans at the hands of police. And then there are the mass shootings–the newContinue reading “White (Privilege) Flight?”

I was recently blocked from the Far Side (Gary Larson) FB page, dedicated to the great cartoonist’s wit, as well as other like-minded cartoonists. I had made what I thought was an apposite comment about a cartoon. The cartoon in question was of a black swan (not an “ugly duckling“) looking into a pond andContinue reading “Life Is so Peculiar”

My fourth novel is now ready for publication and is totally unlike the previous three. This book is a farce set in an enchanted retirement community, called Carolina Woods. I have described the community as a blend of Dante’s Inferno and Greek mythology’s Hades, as people fully become what they were all along, but generallyContinue reading “The Way of All Flesh”

The title of this blog comes from Meister Eckhart, a 13th/14th century theologian and mystic. That quotation has remained with me since I first read it years ago. For me it simply made sense. After having made my fifth–and final–trans-Atlantic move last year, it makes even more sense. Unlike the bar in “Cheers”, I liveContinue reading “Live as Though You Did Not Exist”

On this snowy day in Orne, Normandie, I have been given to reflection on times past. For some reason I thought about the most joyful eucharist I ever attended…and it was years before I was ordained. It happened when I was hitchhiking back from Canada where I had spent a short time in a hospiceContinue reading “A Proustian Moment”

NYPD Officer James Kobel (above), Deputy Inspector responsible for combatting discrimination and harassment in the workplace, has jumped before he was pushed. Despite his progressive-sounding title, it turns out that he is yet another white supremacist in humanitarian clothing. Despite his day job, Kobel had been posting racially, ethnically and religiously insulting messages on whiteContinue reading “The Browning of America as its Salvation”

Years ago I had the pleasure of studying with a very wise rabbi (H.C. Brichto, z”l). Of his many quotes I can remember, this seems to be the most fitting for what underlies recent events in America: “Most people live as though their lives are determined, but it’s the other guy who has free will.”Continue reading “America’s Cult(ure) of Anger and Blame”

Oh the pixels and ink that will be consumed over the coming days at the demise of the King Rat presidency. Like so many people across the globe, this writer is amazed at how many Republican legislators are expressing surprise and dismay at how Trump’s…excuse me, King Rat’s presidency is coming to a close. Why?Continue reading “Rats leaving a sinking RAT”

At the beginning of the film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, the Sundance Kid is playing poker with a man who accuses him of cheating. They are about to settle it with guns when Butch leans over and whispers a ‘warning’ to Sundance, but deliberately using his moniker. The gambler is noticeably disturbed andContinue reading “Of Butch Cassidy and Covid Sceptics”