Monasticism with Jonathan

5:45 AM Friday. President Trump's success getting his Gaza peace plan through the UN Security Council this week was nothing less than a miracle. Now he is advancing forward on a Ukraine peace plan that could prove no less miraculous. The next step is probably a deal with Iran. Tehran's water crisis is unprecedented for a modern capital. Mass displacement seems inevitable. But maybe Venezuela or North Korea will be easier than Iran to work with. Whatever the sequence, President Trump is on track to advance peace across several major fronts. Against this backdrop, it seems ridiculous to hold the President's feet to the fire over his defense of Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes. Still, I think it is up to level-headed Americans to keep pressure on President Trump until he straightforwardly condemns the anti-American neo-Nazism, sexism and anti-Semitism of Nick Fuentes and his Groyper army. On another topic this week, it was a smart move for the President to encourage release of ...

4:18 PM Thursday. I am running a bit behind schedule, so I won't take too much time on this entry, but I do want to leave a record of my inquiry on this point. 1. Was George Holland Sabine a professor at Cornell in Ithaca?  https://share.google/aimode/gXN7nXC7nPwr9c8Wy 2. Is "A History of Political Theory" a seminal text in the field of political theory? https://share.google/aimode/iV9vb2eniEOr8xjKY 3. Is Ithaca located on the ancestral homelands of the Haudenosaunee? https://share.google/aimode/917BvZaXs5swGUSBj 4. Do students of political theory at Cornell today study the Great Law of Peace alongside Western political theories? https://share.google/aimode/WxHsVqSyHLFQciFb1 5. Say more about the Aristotelian definition of eudaimonia and the Haudenosaunee conception of Good Mind as these relate to political theory - are they comparable ideas? https://share.google/aimode/dlBnb54kuQlFuE4Ie 6. Does reason play an important part in both Aristotelian and Haudeno...

3:57 PM Wednesday. I suppose I should begin this first session in my political theory course with a prayer of thanks to the Creator, and a request for understanding, and then get right down to business. What do today's political scientists mean by political theory? Here is an opening definition in four parts. 1. Political Theory is one of four main subfields in modern American Political Science departments. The other three are American Politics, International Relations, and Comparative Politics. 2. The term "Political Theory" largely replaced the earlier term "Political Philosophy" after WWII. The two terms have much in common conceptually and are often used interchangeably, although there is an important technical difference: "Political Theory" is generally understood to be more empirical than "Political Philosophy." 3. The book A History of Political Theory by Cornell University professor of political philosophy George Holland Sabine is co...

1:06 PM Thursday. Greetings, Duffy!  I pray this note finds you well. The Creator in his wisdom and mercy has a much shorter entry for us this week than last week.  There are basically two things I want to pray with you about in our trialogue with the Creator as we move toward Thanksgiving and the end of liturgical year 2025. First, on your side of the ledger, I want to pray that you meet with all success on the purgative, illuminative and unitive way of the Catholic contemplative. I want to pray that you meet with success in everything you are hoping and needing to accomplish during this Advent and Christmas retreat. I am not a Catholic, and I may not even be a Christian, but I have enormous respect for the devout lay Catholic path. I believe that unspeakable closeness to God is possible on the lay Catholic path. This treasure is not reserved exclusively for the consecrated and the ordained. And even if you eventually become ordained as a deacon, then coffee, wine, wool and a...

8:33 AM Thursday. Yesterday did not go as planned . I read the introduction to The Great Law of Peace by Kayanesenh Paul Williams, but before I could elaborate on the similarity between Aristotle's "eudaimonia" and the Great Peacemaker's "Good Mind" I got bogged down in the quest for an authoritative definition of "political theory." Maybe I should go with "political wisdom" instead? I worked on that until almost midnight last night, then slept for 8 hours. After clambering out of bed this morning I went straight back to the computer, skipping morning prayer. Now here I am again. This is my punch list for the day: Write Day 324 Blog Post Write Vermont Blog Post and Email Finish Blog Post on Political Theory Attend Telehealth Session with Psychiatric Prescriber Make Pasta and Green Salad for Healthy Meal Refill Prescriptions at Pharmacy Clear Inboxes  That should do it. End 9:07 AM.