Friends For The Journey

hey, merry white Valentine’s day to all of our friends who live north of Atlanta! Deb and I are outside in our shorts doing our yard work. Wish you were here!

— Joseph Holbrook | Read More Comment [5]

dear friends, sorry we have not posted on here for 10 days. My oral exam was last Friday morning, and Deb and I spent the weekend in Boston with a group that were brain-storming about how to more effectively incarnate faith among the post-boomer generation of 20 to 40 year-olds.

— Joseph Holbrook | Read More Comment [3]

I finished my qualifying exams last Thursday morning and I will find out in a week or so how I did. Hopefully this brings to a close a very intense threes years of full-time study in my life, and now begins a period of teaching and research leading up to writing my dissertation. I will be a teaching assistant this fall for an historical archeologist who will be teaching early Greek and Roman history. I am really looking forward to it!

♫ Well I wont back down, no I wont back down
You can stand me up at the gates of hell
But I wont back down ♪

♪ Gonna stand my ground, wont be turned around
And Ill keep this world from draggin me down
Gonna stand my ground and I wont back down ♫

— Joseph Holbrook | Read More Comment [21]

This morning as I was having coffee with Deb, I found myself thinking about what is really important. I have a number of friends in their 70s who are nearing the final phase of their lives. At my age, I watch them carefully to learn whatever lessons I can for the years that lie ahead of me.

One of the things that seem clear to me is that the most important thing in life is found in my own internal state of mind – my own attitude. I believe it was Gandhi who said, “if you want to change the world, be the change you want to see” or something like that. I have been trying to change the world since I was 18 and involved in starting communes in New England. I have always been a committed idealist, I have always thought that I could make a difference, make the world a better place. I have tried on numerous roles: hippie, communitarian, socialist, pastor, church planter, missionary, itinerate speaker, director of an NGO, agitator, blogger and most recently, student and academic. In all of these roles I have intensely desired to make the world a better place: in all but the first three roles I have tried with everything in me to persuade people to love God more, to trust and to seek his kingdom. Mostly, I feel that I have come up short in every role … there is a sense of incompletion, of not quite hitting the high note. Kinda like the U2 song …

— Joseph Holbrook | Read More Comment [7]

I’m working away this morning on an essay about the Catholic Enlightenment in Latin America for my comprehensive exams on August 3rd. Debbie is next door at my daughter’s house babysitting three little rascally boys, ages 6 months to 5 years. In a couple of hours we leave for the hospital

— Joseph Holbrook | Read More Comment [7]

Hi friends, I got back from a wonderfully productive and enjoyable two weeks in Brazil. I spent the first week in São Paulo in the Center for Information and Documentation at the Catholic University.

— Joseph Holbrook | Read More Comment [1]

Just to let you all know, Debbie flew to Ohio this morning.

I have been in São Paulo, Brazil since last Wednesday, doing research for my dissertation at the Catholic University. The people have been very helpful and the work has gone better than I expected…

— Joseph Holbrook | Read More Comment [8]