Armour of Light

In Need of a Knight or Two

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Knights Code of Chivalry “Maybe he will make thee a Knight of His Round Table – and there is no honor in all the world that can be as great as that!” –King Arthur
“For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times…before the Empire.”
–Star Wars (Obi-Wan Kenobi to Luke Skywalker)

It can sometimes feel in these unsettling, turbulent and fear provoking times as though the world has grown a shade darker – particularly as the winter solstice draws near. And in dark times, it is only natural to search for a little sparkling light to guide one through the stormy seas of upheaval and distress that sometimes seems to wash over our wearied world.

Perhaps, when the world is spinning round in these “worst of times,” it would be wise to remember King Arthur and his knights in shining armor who ride into the darkness of the troubled realm, brandishing their swords and vanquishing the dark and evil forces with their chivalry.

One such “brandishing sword of light” is Ethan Hawke’s perfect little stocking-stuffer book, Rules for a Knight, a treasure for all – boy and girl, young and old – who seek a more admirable way of living. Read more

A View of One’s Own

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The Elephant House Harry PotterStrolling along George IV Bridge Street in Old Town Edinburgh – a short distance from The Royal Mile – you’ll come across what appears to be “just another” coffee shop…that is, until you read the sign that says “Birthplace of Harry Potter.”

Step inside “The Elephant House” and you’ll quickly discover why J.K. Rowling found a “home away from home” in this warm, cozy little cafe while writing the first Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.*

With a view of the iconic Edinburgh Castle, home to Scotland’s crown jewels and the “Stone of Destiny,” towering above the city’s cobbled streets (see below), it’s little wonder she was inspired to write of a “magical world” of witchcraft and wizardry that would come to captivate the imaginations of children worldwide. Read more

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Please note: ATG is “traveling” along a rosy “ridge” in a distant “realm” of sparkling light. We’ll be back at the “table” December 7th.

Grafton Street
Grafton Street; Dublin, Ireland

“How did it get so late so soon?
It’s night before it’s afternoon.
December is here before it’s June.
My goodness how the time has flewn.
How did it get so late so soon?” – Dr. Seuss

A Thanksgiving Day Prayer

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Thanksgiving prayerAs we prepare to give thanks for “all things good” and enjoy an autumn harvest feast in the company of family and friends, ATG shares the below prayer, taken from the November 26, 2014 issue of The Weekly Standard, that we think beautifully captures the spirit of Thanksgiving:

We thank Thee for the glory of the universe, for the light of the sun and the mellowness of the moon and for the stars in their courses whose amazing dimensions and staggering distances challenge our imagination.

We thank Thee for the beauty and utility of Thy creations, for the flowers which are the stars of the earth even as the stars are the flowers of heaven; for the fertility of the soil and the abundance of its products; for the food that is borne within its bosom and the waters that flow from its deep and inner fountains; for the air that surrounds all creatures and that holds within its invisible self the secret and power of life.

We thank Thee for the dignity and majesty of man, for the spirit of wisdom with which Thou didst endow him, for the vision with which he is possessed, for the sensitivity of his heart and the profound­ness of his soul. We thank Thee for the dominion that is his over all creation, for his capacity to live with all his kind and for the urge that stimulates him to search, to seek and ultimately to approach even Thee. For all these blessings we thank thee.

Quotes On Teaching, Thinking & Learning

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IMG_9265As a compliment to our piece in Rose’s Ridge about trigger warnings and microaggressions on college campuses, the below paragraphs from an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, written by Helaine L. Smith, a teacher of English at a school in New York City, provides a glimmer of hope:

“What I hope my students are learning is a lesson that is not political but is essential for politics: that one must support assertions with proofs, that one must consider counterarguments, that it’s necessary to listen to what others say and that doing so may allow you to strengthen, or force you to alter, what you think. Read more

Autumn’s Last Light & “Hot” Read

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November’s “Hot” Read: City On Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg

City on Fire Book ReviewCity On Fire – an “immersive, exuberant, boundary-vaulting novel” published in October of this year – is the debut novel of Garth Risk Hallberg, an American novelist born in Louisiana who grew up in North Carolina and currently lives in New York with his wife and children. 

Here’s what people are saying:

“Locating the best of times within the worst of times is no mean trick, especially in a historical novel where the history is recent enough that many readers remember firsthand just how bad those times were. That’s the delicate and ultimately moving balancing act that Garth Risk Hallberg pulls off in ‘City on Fire,’ his ­Dickens-size descent into New York City circa 1976-77”….read more from the New York Times. Read more

Aliens, Monsters, Jaws, and Things: 10 Scary Movies for Halloween

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Best halloween movies“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is the fear of the unknown.” – H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) from his 1927 essay, “Supernatural Horror in Literature”

In the spirit of Halloween – a time of bubbling cauldrons, bloodcurdling screams and cackling spirits – ATG puts forth our top 10 picks of the scariest movies of all time, nine of which were made over 30 years ago, but hold up surprisingly well.

Responsible for spawning numerous sequels, cheap imitators and whole genre movements (zombies, aliens, etc.), these movies play off of man’s primal fear of the unknown, causing our imaginations to run rampant with unthinkable possibilities. Read more

Houston, We Have A Problem. And Matt Damon — The Martian — Can Fix It.

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The Martian Ridley Scott
Picture taken from Our Solar System by Seymour Simon
“For a moment of night we have a glimpse of ourselves and of our world islanded in its stream of stars…voyaging between horizons across the eternal seas of space and time.” –Henry Beston (1888-1968)

It seems that Fall has become the season for sci-fi action, space exploration thrillers. Last year (November 2014), we joined Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway as they plunged through a wormhole in search of a new home for mankind in Interstellar, and a year before that (October 2013), we embarked on a riveting, turbulent ride with Sandra Bullock in Gravity, which became the month’s highest-grossing live action film of all time.

This year, Ridley Scott’s The Martian, starring actor extraordinaire Matt Damon, is supposedly on course to surpass the latter, blasting off with $55 million on opening weekend. Read more

A New Day for a New World: Happy Explorers’ Day!

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Discoverers' Day Holiday“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” – T.S. Eliot

Today is Columbus Day, a day when we celebrate the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, commissioned by King Ferdinand of Spain, to sail the ocean blue in 1492 on his boats the Santa Maria, Pinta and Nina in search of the “New World.”

Given the growing controversy about the validity and integrity of celebrating a man who was not the first to step on the shores of America – and the ensuing insensitivity toward the indigenous Native American population – we might instead consider renaming the holiday “Explorers’ Day”, inspired by Hawaii’s “Discoverers’ Day”, in which we celebrate all explorers worldwide. Read more

The Perfect Homemade Cookie for Any Occasion

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“Sometimes me think, ‘What is friend?’ and then me say, ‘Friend is someone to share the last cookie with.” –Cookie Monster

Homemade chocolate chip cookie recipeOne of my favorite childhood memories is baking homemade cookies with my mother. Standing on a wooden stool next to her in the kitchen, she would measure the ingredients and allow me to pour them into the bowl before mixing. The best part, of course, was sneaking tastes of dough along the way and licking the bowl clean at the end.

Thanks to her loving guidance, it wasn’t long until I was baking them on my own. From chocolate chip to oatmeal raisin, sugar and molasses, lemon butterscotch and more, I have baked over hundreds of dozens of cookies for dozens of people and events throughout my junior high, high school, college and, now, early adulthood years. Read more