Dark Sentiments Season 8: Day 31: That’s All Folks

And so, another October, and another season of Dark Sentiments finds us here on the night whereon the veil between the corporeal and spirit worlds is at its thinnest, and Mrs. LFM and I celebrate the ninth anniversary of our marriage. Why Hallowe’en? Because when you’re getting married and a lot of the more important […]

Dark Sentiments Season 8 — Day 30: Severance

Vincent Van Gogh was born 30 March 1853 and died 29 July 1890 in a French inn, two days after receiving a gun shot wound to the abdomen that he confessed on his death bed was self-inflicted. His intention has long been held to have been suicide, however in October of 2011, a 960 page […]

Dark Sentiments Season 8 — Day 29: Erzsébet Bathory Revisited

“The sagas tell two tales of Freydís – one that marks her as brave and admirable, the other much less so. But the sagas were written centuries after the events they describe, and as we know from reading incarnations of The Bible, influential literature can be depended upon to contain a healthy dose of axe […]

Dark Sentiments Season 8 — Day 28: A Little Folklore Seasoned with Vincent Price

Folklore comes from the same place as Human spirituality in that it springs from a need to understand the forces of the Universe by putting their obvious influences into some sort of context. On a human level, it is also crafted to convey time tested lessons of conduct to each succeeding generation. In this effort […]

Dark Sentiments Season 8 — Day 27: Of Monsters and Guardians

In face of the objection that fairy tales will frighten children, C. S. Lewis made some observations that I find particularly applicable to Fathercraft as I understand and practice it. The first was, “Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic […]

Dark Sentiments Season 8 — Day 26: Simple Locomotion

“Tales abound with ingredients that torture the imagination of the susceptible, even long after the story has been read, heard, or watched. The effect is the same whether the tale comes from experience or fiction, for the imagination is a wondrous thing if taken in hand by someone who can play it like a harp.” […]

Dark Sentiments Season 8 — Day 25: Hags Assorted

“It was during the middle years of my childhood that there was an influx of Newfoundlanders to my home town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Most of those I got to know were fishermen who had come from the remote and disadvantaged “outports” to make their fortune working on the deep sea trawler fleet that sailed […]

Dark Sentiments Season 8 — Day 24: How Wings Are Attached to the Backs of Angels

Tonight’s Dark Sentiment is an eleven minute short animated film courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada which, notwithstanding its government connection, offers much wondrous grist for our mill. The subject matter for you to enjoy with your after dark tipple tonight meshes so well with what’s already been said here this season, and […]

Dark Sentiments Season 8 — Day 23: Of Cycles and Rhythms

“As a Husband, a Father, a Teacher, a Student, a Friend, a Comrade, a Man — as one who strives to be a complete specimen of that animal called Human — I understand that in all things, cycles prevail. “To be a complete Human is to embrace the spectrum of Life from end to end, […]

Dark Sentiments Season 8 — Day 22: French Roast

As I’ve previously written, “The Tuareg, so called “Blue Men of the Desert” are a nomadic herding people of the Sahara. They like their coffee: Black as the Devil, Strong as Death, Sweet as Love, And hot as Hell. “This pronouncement has always spoken to me because pretty much everything I appreciate in life fits […]