Lost Piece III - Worth All the While

8/8/2019 Lost Piece III - Worth All the While

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LOST PIECEan undergraduate journal o letters

VOLUME I, ISSUE IIIWorth All Te While


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LOST PIECE: Issue III

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Copyright, Lost Piece; All rights reserved.

No part o this journal may be used or reproduced by any means,

graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, record-

ing, taping or by any inormation storage retrieval system without the

written permission o the EditorInChie except in the case o brie

quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. Te works included

in this journal are printed with explicit permission o their authors.

Lost Piece: An Undergraduate Journal o Letters

Te University o Notre Dame

Center or Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement

PRINED IN HE UNIED SAES OF AMERICA


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an undergraduate journal of lettersXS



J

Stephen LechnerEditor in Chie

Raymond KorsonSupporting Editor

Jose Kuhn

Conor RogersEditors


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able of Contents

Lost Piece: Issue III

Something of a Mission StatementFrom the Editors ...................................................................................5

Meet the WritersLost Piece ...............................................................................................6

Te Virtue of Values and the Value of VirtuesRaymond Korson ...................................................................................8

Virtue for the Postmodern ChildBeter Hlabse ...........................................................................................17

ransports of the Forgone Man

Jose Kuhn..............................................................................................22

Leaning not LearningNicholas Brandt .....................................................................................22

On Notre Dame Student Values: What Comes FirstStephen Lechner .....................................................................................24

Rev. William Corby, C.S.C.: Father of RespectJohn Kelley .............................................................................................30

Te 21st Century GunslingerRaymond LeGrand ................................................................................38

o the Immaculate ConceptionPatrick Johnson ......................................................................................43

Virtue, Community, and EducationSamuel Cloghessy....................................................................................44

Cards for Mothers DayScott Posteuca .........................................................................................51


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Something of a Mission Statement

From the Editors

Lost Piece exists to acilitate undergraduate reading, discussion,

and writing o an intellectual nature beyond course curriculumand without distraction rom the grade point average.

Lost Piece seeks to help undergraduates to complement

and even uniy what they learn in their classes with

their own personally driven intellectual pursuits.

Te goal o Lost Piece is to combat mediocrity in all

things, and particularly in all things intellectual.

Lost Piece holds that the goods proper to intellec-

tual activity are ends in and o themselves and are to

be sought regardless o whatever recognitions may or

may not be extrinsically attached to such activity.


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Meet the Writers

Tese groups have contributed

to the writing o the Fall 2010

Edition o Lost Piece. We

encourage you, as an undergrad-

uate, to contribute your writing

to uture editions whether indi-vidually or as part o any such

intellectual society. You can

send your writing and eedback

to the editor at [email protected].

D

Te Program o

Liberal Studies:

So it turns out that PLSstudents dont only like to talkabout such trivial things as

ree will or the meaning olie as approached throughthe lens o certain GreatBooks, but they also like,even need, to engage ideaswherever they can nd them.

Tats why a ew o them gottogether to watch movies everyweek, rst as a social eventand later more as a discussiongroup. Tey like to think theyare staying true to the spirito the word seminar (whichliterally means seedbed) byholding proound conversa-tions on their own rom whichthey hope to bear the ruits onew ideas, serious dialogue,and lasting riendships.

Istum:

(Also called Tat Ting) Treeyears ago, a group o riendsdecided to get together every


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weekend to start a literarysociety. Its members includestudents rom the Colleges oArts and Letters, Science, andEngineering, but strangely

none rom the college oBusiness. Tey write, simplyput, despite the obvious actthat they are only tyro writ-ers, and they criticize eachothers writing as best they

can. One o their goals is tobring back the essay (whichliterally means an attempt)as a orm o writing and asa rhetorical work o art. Tegroup takes its name romone o Ciceros orations.

Te Philosophy Club:

Te Philosophy Club isa group o a ew dozenundergraduates who enjoyarguing, using big words,

attempting to answer liesgreat questions, asking morequestions, and arguing.

:

is a group o undergradu-ates who meet together todiscuss issues o importance,ranging rom theology to

philosophy to current issuesin any and all elds. It is acasually structured, sociallyengaging event that welcomesthe opportunity to nd bothcommon ground and a mul-

titude o opinions on topics.And they drink tea, too.

Te Orestes Brownson Council:

As a club, OBC is ocusedon better understandingthe Catholic intellectualtradition and its interactionwith philosophy, politics,and culture. It takes itsname rom the AmericanCatholic political thinkerwho is buried in the crypt

o the Basilica o the SacredHeart, Orestes Brownson.

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Te Virtue of Values and

the Value of VirtuesAn Introduction

Ray KorsonClass o 2011Supporting Editor

Despite a nagging hesitationto indulge an inclination to

make a bold, all-encompassing

statement on the world and

on human nature in general,

I will persist or the sake o

argument in this introduction.For perhaps there is no better

way to initiate a conversation

than by making such a broad

and accessible assertion as this:

everyone values something.

I nd it highly unlikely thatany individual could coness, in

all honesty, that he could nd

nothing o value in this world,

not even himsel. Even the

suicidal man, insoar as he acts

rationally, exhibits a genuinesense o personal value by the

very act that he is willing to

destroy himsel or the sake o

reeing himsel rom a lie that

is supposedly devoid o any

value. Te essential paradox is

that the suicidal man values

his lie enough to end it.

I acknowledge that suicide isa delicate and complicated issue

and it varies greatly on a case-

by-case basis. Tereore, I wish

to limit the example to a par-

ticular type: the type o suicide

in which one decides to killhimsel as the result o rational

deliberation. Tough one may

think that this suicidal man

disproves the claim that every-

one values something, I argue

that there is a paradox in thisinstance because the suicidal

person cares enough about the

state o his existence to do some-

thing about it. What I would

like to distinguish is the manner

by which he chose to preserve

the value o his own lie.

When I make the claim

that everyone values something,

I say it with the condence

o our shared experience, our


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mutual existence. Whether or

not we acknowledge it, lie itsel

contains the gravity o purpose,

and though we may be unable

to articulate that purpose, we

still believe we have it becausewe have that innate sense o

value. Lie, thereore, may

be described as an odyssey in

search o that purpose or in

ullment o our values. An

important notion to keep inmind is the way in which we

attain those values. It has been

argued that this way is the lie

o virtue whereas vice is the

obstruction o this same way. A

lie o virtue essentially ensures

that these values and the

pursuit o them are rightully

ordered and properly obtained.

With this in mind, our

attention may return to the

paradox o the suicidal man

who ends his lie in order to

save it. I the man did not value

his lie at all, he would not even

care enough about his lie to

end it. Tereore, the suicidal

man reveals the consciousness

o his personal value. It is clear,

however that the suicidal man

was wrong in the manner by

which he chose to respect this

value because continuing to livewould have spoke o a greater

reverence or understanding

o his personal value.

What i the suicidal man em-

braced the virtues o humility,

patience, love, or hope ratherthan wallowing in the vices o

hopelessness, sel-loathing, and

despair? Tough purely conjec-

tural, one may assume that he

would have ound the strength

to persevere despite the despera-

tion o his circumstances.

In short, though values are

invaluable, it is not enough

simply to have them because

they are only natural. Tere

is value not only in values

themselves but also in the

way in which those values are

sought. Tere is value in virtue

(as opposed to vice) as a lie

o virtue may be required or


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the proper discernment and

appropriation o such values.

Yes, everyone values some-

thing. But what is it thatyou

value, and how will you go

about achieving them? I youare nding it hard to answer,

start reading. Perhaps you will

delight in Petes reections

on the lie o virtue in the

postmodern era. Stephens

essay challenging the valuesand ethical convictions o the

Notre Dame community may

provoke you. o satisy your

poetic muse, look to Patricks

poem praising a model o true

virtue. And or your intellectual

palette, consider reading Sams

paper on the philosophy o

virtue by Alasdair Macintyre

and what this means or uni-

versity students here and now.

I, by chance, none o these

works tickle your ancy, take

a moment to think about your

own set o values and a method

by which to obtain them.

Everyone has values, even

i they are as sad as those o

Raymonds Gunslinger. Tey

vary rom person to person,

but I would argue that their

acquirement is all grounded in a

lie o virtue. But dont take myword or it. I leave this intro-

duction to the delight o your

own ruminations. Allow it to

serve as a rudimentary precursor

to the ollowing collection o

poems, essays, and papers thateectively expand upon this

brie meditation. Or, i youd

rather, lets have a conversation.

V


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Virtue for the Postmodern Child

An EssayPeter HlabseClass o 2011Istum

My evening out o campus,

attending a tri-annual religious

discernment group was comingto a close when I asked Fr. Pat

when our next meeting would

be taking place. Tis would

be the date the discernment

group would be next scheduled

to meet and discuss everythingrom religious vocations to

perhaps why the Notre Dame

ootball team might need to

implement a Cover-2 deensive

scheme in the upcoming oot-

ball season. He responded andgave a specic date and time

and I knew that i I ailed to

take some kind o ormal note

o it in order or me to remem-

ber it, I would surely orget it

by the time I walked into mydorm room. Tat said, I pulled

out my trusty iPod ouch (as

any college student that has a

Mac probably has), opened the

Calendar application, scrolled

to the date that Fr. Pat had

scheduled, and began to enter

this event into my iPod ouch.

I understood this as a perectly

normal sequence o events (asIm sure most undergraduates in

college would) this Calendar

application, ater all, is my

equivalent o a real datebook

or whatever traditional method

some may be so used to see-ing, expecting, and using. Fr.

Pat, upon seeing my digital

prowess, interjected somewhat

sarcastically, and said, Pete, you

Postmodern child! Surely, Fr.

Pat did not intend his observa-

tion to be taken as an attack on

a persons character or the like

(and I did not take it as an at-

tack in the least!), but the simple

act that he was motivated to

respond to such an ordinary

habit is worth thinking about

albeit perhaps, or a moment.

You very well may have heard

someone comment at some


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Perhaps this sentence oers

an insight into this perceived

dilemma o a culture conicting

with a postmodern childsability to practice virtue. I

would like to pose a ew ques-

tions (the answers to which I

will not claim to have nor will

I really try to gain ground on in

this essay) : Whats the dierencebetween my being a subject and

my being a participant? Am

I one or the other am I both?

How are my actions shaped by the

culture I am in and a part o?

While I will not claim that

I can prove whether we are not

one and indeed are the other, I

believe an examination o the

dierence o these two vantage

points is crucial in discovering

a conducive way by which one

does not approach a culture

strictly as a subject o it, ratherthan an active participant

within it and whos actions

both are shaped and shape the

ellow members o the culture.

First, lets set the record

straight on what exactly wemean by virtue (at least in

this essay). Virtue in this

case should be understood

as a characteristic o ones

habits a disposition gained

primarily through undamental

personal interaction with other

people. Tat is to say, virtue is

a positive characteristic o the

way we act. In Latin, one may

You very well may have heard someone comment that, as

subjects o the electronically and eciency driven culture so

prevalent in the twenty-frst century, people (especially young

people) have lost out on the art and ruits that silence and

actual/physical/ ace to ace personal interaction oer.


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be amiliar with this notion

ohabitus that is, virtue

embodies a denite ability or

growth through activity. Ill

turn to one o Notre Dames

nest, Ralph McInerny (1929-

2010) or a clearer explanation

than anything I could oer.

Te ways, or mediums in which

human interactions take placeare subject to change. Tere has

been (and still is) a ace-to-ace

interaction. Tere was and still

is the idea o writing a letter.

Tere was and still is the notion

o calling someone on the tele-phone. But at some point, with

the rise o the internet and social

networking, emailing, texting,

Facebooking, tweeting, and

Tomas [Aquinas], guided by Aristotle, considers such habitual

dispositions - virtues and vices - as the sources o the actions we

perorm. A human lie is a history, and we dispose ourselves, by

the acts we perorm, to do similar deeds in the uture. Such a stable

disposition to act well or badly is what Tomas means, respectively,

by virtue and vice. Tere is, or better or worse, a predictability inour lives, a stability o choice, an ingrained disposition to act in one

way rather than another. We are disposed, because o the actions

we have already perormed, to perorm similar actions in the

uture. Tis is what is meant by habit: a disposition to perorm

acts o a certain kind. A virtue is quality o mind thanks to which

we live rightly, which can never be used badly. Tis is, in part,Augustines defnition o virtue, and it is with it that Tomas

begins his discussion o the subject in the Summa Teologiae.1


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blogging all became prevalent.

Te way in which we interact,

and thus act, has changed.

Tat said, what is crucial is

that wearent subject to change.

Human beings are not subjectto undamental change. Our

social nature disallows or a cul-

ture as a whole to be completely

isolated rom its constituents.

In this way, lets not view

ourselves as subjects o an agethat sties every opportunity to

be virtuous simply because the

way in which we interact with

each other is not done in an

explicitly personal arena. We are

not simply subjects o a culture

we are participants (and are

called to be activeparticipants)

and it is our responsibility

(check that, it is our privilege)

to employ the means (be it

electronic or not) to practice

and moreover, get in the habit

o being college students that

take the lead on creating a

virtue-woven cultural setting.

Tat cell phone you just

texted about getting din-

ner? its rightul owner is a

person. Tat Facebook wall

you just wrote on/status you just

set? the Facebook users that

see it, read it, and react to it those are persons. In the end,

no matter what postmodern

method you may use (requently

or inrequently), it is going to

aect a person. In this, there

has been no change betweenhuman relations and personal

connections that allow or the

practice o virtue. I would oer

that we are gited in this post-

modern age a golden opportu-

nity to utilize new and exciting

methods as means to practice

and propagate acts o prudence,

temperance, ortitude, and jus-

tice. Perhaps even when we get

quite good at it, we might even

be so ortunate as to practice a

bit o aith, hope, and charity.

As a good riend o mine

named Michael once said to

his acquaintance Ryan, People,

Ryanpeople will never go out


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With that said, I nd itonly appropriate that on Notre

Dames campus, where the

motto Play Like A Champion

oday is so oten heard that I

commend us post-modern chil-

dren to embrace this notion oexcellence. Certainly, i we can

grasp and buy into the notion

to Play Like A Champion

oday, we can certainly

practice to grasp and buy intothe notion to ext/Facebook/

Email/weet/Blog Like A

[Virtuous] Champion oday.

V

1 Ralph McInerny, Ethica

Tomistica: Te MoralPhilosophy o Tomas Aquinas(Te Catholic University oAmerica Press, Washington,D.C., 1982) Ch. 6 : Characterand Decisions (see pgs. 91-92)

o business. So long as people

never go out o business, neither

will virtue. Its just up to us,

the people, to discern the way

in which their habits, elec-

tronic or not, can carry virtuousweight. Again, or us Catholic-

Christians in the audience (and

really, this message applies to

all Christians), lets turn to the

Pope (generally a helpul person

to turn to in times o question-

ing). Pope Benedict XVI,

in preparation or his Word

Communications Day on May16, 2010titled New Media at

the Service o the World said,

Tanks to the new communications media, the Lord can walk

the streets o our cities and, stopping beore the threshold o ourhomes and our hearts, say once more: Behold, I stand at the

door and knock. I anyone hears my voice and opens the door,

I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me.


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ransports of the Foregone Man

A StoryJose KuhnClass o 2011Program o Liberal Studies

Tere goes the genius,

hair like a storm cloud and

eyebrows arched, irises ashinglightning. Leaving the door

behind him, he enters gray

cobblestone streets, sheened

with rainmazes o horses

and carriages, and people who

never go out without hats.He has been troubled o late,

disturbed; he senses that his lie

has been growing more distant,

ragmentary, cracked like the

irregular mosaics o the streets

he walks. He has been tryingto listen to God through a tin

can attached to a string. An apt

metaphor, he thinks grimly,

or his eardrums are becoming

mufed, dull like wet cotton.

A carriage ashes by, themares darkly intent on their

destination, and the wheel

splashes water rom a puddle

onto his leg, jolting him out o

his ruminations. He could not

hear it coming rom behind;

this only darkens his mood. He

thinks back to that morning,

when the lady o the house

sweetly ashed her eyes at

him, her brown curls danglingsotly and her lips moving, but

without anything that could

be called a sound penetrating

his ears. Te passages into the

stronghold are all blocked, and

his head is now under siege,a siege that will be long and

arduous. Te stormclouds roll

in; the dusk continues to gather.

He still has the memory o

musicglorious cantatas and

oratorios continually stretch

their limbs, unolding and

awaking in his mind. But try

as he might, he cannot stop

the memories rom acquiring

a troubling musky odor, the

dullness o old silver. He has

been writing, writing now more

than ever, in a urious attempt

to ward o the twilight o the

sense. Yet still the onslaught

progresses, ominously, eternally.


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He is at the music-hall now.

His orchestra is inside, and he

knows that in several hours,

masses will be thronging here,

or him, to hear his newest

masterpiece. He clutches therolled score under his jacket,

protecting it rom the rain. It

contains his nal touches, the

pencil-stroke nishes to his

great symphony. And he knows

in his heart that it is great, eventhough he will never hear it.

Inside, the hall is empty but

the stage is ull. Te maestro

mounts his podium, spreads

out his plans, and calls his

troops to order. A twinge o

loss pierces his rib cage as he

watches their movements and

remembers the shufe o sheets,

the scrape o chairs, the tiny

ticks o instruments that he

cannot hear anymore. He issues

his last-minute instructions,

and pencils scrape mutely across

paper, writing little Italian notes

and adding one more cursive

to the ortissimo o the nal

ermata. He closes his eyes.

How much better to have been

blind. He would trade his eyes,

the overestimated organ o the

populace, or just a touch othe sense that invades the skull

and permeates the soulthe

sense that allows one to eel.

For he eels nothing as

the adoring crowd shufes

in and takes their places inthe auditorium. He scorns

their gazes, turns his back to

them. Why worship as a god

someone who cannot hear,

cannot receive? Someone less

than a man; someone who can

now only give. Te masses

have no sense, he thinks. Nor

could he eel anything when

his lady, the one who gave him

a room and a home, touched

his hand in the kitchen that

morning, looking into his eyes

and silently mouthing, Good

luck. He knows that it is now

too late or him to love her;


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barrel, shoved them out to sea,

and then disburdened I leapt,

my eet let the ground, and

I went on up to the sun.

So straining against dead-

locked ears and a walled-inhead, strains o a sound divine

begin to reach the oregone

man, rst as i rom aar, then

rom closer. Tey were singing,

All men then will become

brothers. And or that instant,he knew that they had made

it, that he, they had broken

through, and love came ooding

back to him. Finally, exhausted,

he dropped his arms, turned

around, and was amazed to

see a sea o standing people,

their hands creating ripples. A

small, gentle sound, like the

pattering o rain on a window

Monday morning, reached him.

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Te oundation upon which they lived their lies,

wisted their skins, insulting their bodies,

It orce ed stale air when they crawled back to bed,

Tis is no world or saints, he said.

He was ten eet tall and covered in gray,

And only he knew what resulted on that ateul day,

When the whole world vomited what it had been ed,

Tis is no world or saints, it said.

You see, my son he said to me,

Te earths been leaning all this time,

And it just took a ew years,

For the people to lean, too.

Around and around on an axis we turn,

Seeking the hopes we hope we yearn.

And now the hopes have gone astray,

He was ten eet tall and covered in gray.

We lean, we hope, we know we want,o make a sound in a cacophonic room,

But the sound we make is the sound o dread,

Tis is no world or saints, he said.

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On Notre Dame Student Values:

What Comes First?An Essay

Stephen LechnerClass o 2011Istum

While conversing with manyo my ellow students here at

our Notre Dame I have oten

noted a very noble quality

among my peers, and that is

that the vast majority o Notre

Dame students seem bent uponsaving the world rom its great-

est threat o undoing. At rst, I

thought this a highly admirable

trait, and it brought me to enjoy

a certain pride in my Alma

Mater. Soon enough, however,I ound this enjoyment to have a

somewhat shallower oundation

than I had hoped. I began to

think i a school is annually

producing two thousand well

ormed individuals who are

truly bent upon saving the

world rom its greatest threat

o undoing then that world

should not now be so undone

as the one we currentlyinhabit.

Te tragic idea then came to

me that perhaps all o these

world saviors are not ecient

enough in their noble aspira-tions to make any substantial

dierence. Perhaps they are

in act saving the world rom

what is not its greatest and most

underlying threat o undoing,

but rom what is at best oneor more o its lesser threats.

We should rst investigate

the nature o these global-scale

threats that Notre Dame

students are most intent upon

battling. Teir list is extensive

and variant. World hunger

seems to be the most com-

monly mentioned problem,

although intolerance o one

orm or another is a competitive

second. In recent months,

global warming has been a keytarget o many eager riends

and I might add animal cruelty

as another high ier. obacco

users oten receive evil looks


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are not living happy lives, and

denitely not lives o purpose

at least not o purpose worthy

enough to live satisying lives,

lives at which they can look

back on rom their deathbedsand smile more or less uncon-

ditionally. I it is possible to

live happy lives and lives o

purpose even while enduring

excruciating hardships, then by

battling these hardships, arewe really ghting the greatest

threat o the worlds undoing?

Now I dont claim to know

in any brilliant depth what the

problems o the world really are,

let alone how to solve them, but

I ancy that I can do a little bet-

ter than what we have thus ar i

I break the matter down to two

words: purpose and ethics. I

propose that people are unhappy

rst and oremost notbecause

they lack material wellbeing

enough to reach the peculiarly

high standards o living that

we Domers tend to enjoy, but

rather because they lack purpose

and direction in lie. Without

purpose, human beings cannot

live happy lives because without

purpose all o mans actions

including that o existingare

utile, oating in an abyss omadness. Only an animal can

live under such circumstances,

not a rational animal.2

But we cannot coherently

speak o human purpose with-

out speaking, at least in someway, o ethics. Te inability o

a society to establish an ethical

system or human beings dem-

onstrates the inability o that

2 You may disagree with meon this last point. I you do,then you are a very interestingkind o person, the kind operson who Fyodor Dostoevskyinvestigates in hisNotes

rom Undergroundand otherworks. But know that i you

really are willing to say thatman can live happily undersuch circumstances, you hadbetter be prepared to be calleda madman by many people.

Tere are prices to pay or beingan interesting person.


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society to identiy a purpose or

human beings. I you nd this

statement hard, simply consider

the main question o ethics:

how should I live my lie? A

question o purpose presupposesthis: why should I live my lie?

All that ethics is, then, is the

way someone acts in order to

achieve their purposeit is to

ask how should I live in order

to achieve their why I shouldlive. Unless a person is capable

o answering to some extent the

second question, why I should

live, he or she is likely incapable

o answering the rst question,

how I should live, because the

why question presupposes and

necessarily leads to the how

question. Tereore, any persons

inability to answer the question

o how suggests that they

are similarly unable to answer

the question o why. And i

this is true or the individual

person, how much more is it

so or a society o persons?

Tus, i a society is entirely

without ethics and, as ollows,

entirely without purpose it is

likely to promote an environ-

ment that is hostile towards

happinessone might call it a

society entirely without peace.We should note here that

oursociety is not entirely

without ethics and not entirely

without an understanding o

purpose and so there is hope

or some kind o happinessin our society. However, our

social understanding o ethics

is sadly limited (and I know not

how I can use a more emphatic

word). Tis demonstrates that

our social understanding o

human purpose is sadly limited

as well. What little we have o

an ethical understanding in our

society does not go substantially

beyond the condemnation o

rape, murder, and in some cases

thet, and our political leaders

are too oten uninterested in

avoiding even these last no-nos

in their practical lives. What

this should demonstrate is


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Rev. William Corby, C.S.C.:

Father of RespectA Research Paper

John KelleyClass o 2011History

Father William Corby servedthe Irish Brigade o the Union

Army during the American

Civil War with devotion that

became legendary. InMemoirs

o Chaplain Lie: Tree Years with

the Irish Brigade in the Armyo the Potomac, his depictions

o everyday lie in the Irish

Brigade and o the battles in

which the brigade ought are

ascinating and give an honest

account o what lie was like orthe Irish Catholic soldiers o

the Irish Brigade. In addition

to being Irish, Catholicism was

a separating actor between the

Irish Brigade and the rest o the

Union Army. Fr. Corby person-

ally came to terms with being

Irish-American and Catholic in

a primarily Protestant society

by reecting on the historical

eats o Irish-Americans and

Catholics in his memoirs, as

well as in a physical sense by

keeping the open practice oCatholicism in the lives o

soldiers o the Irish Brigade and

using the Civil War itsel as an

impetus or interaction between

Irish-American Catholics and

Anglo-American Protestants.

Fr. Corby recognized that

anti-Catholic sentiments in

America were largely unound-

ed. Corby wrote that Te Pope

loves the United States, as he

has requently asserted, and he

has other occupations, besidesuprooting national institutions

within her borders.2 Corby

knew that the Pope elt no

antipathy toward the United

States. Te Pope dealt with

more pressing matters thanthe politics o a comparatively

young country with little global

inuence. Te Pope had no


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reason to assert his inuence

over American politics, and

he thereore did not do so. By

stating that the Pope had better

things to do than manipulate

American politics, Corby alsoimplies that the Pope respects

national boundaries; in this

sense, Corby considered him to

be another national leader with

priorities within his own realm.

Irish-American Catholics mayhave been bound to ollow

religious edicts decreed by

the Pope, but they had no

reason to ollow the Popes

political decrees over those o

the government o the United

States. By pointing out the

erroneous Protestant perception

that Catholics in America had

stronger allegiance to the Pope

than to the ederal government,

Fr. Corby helped his readers,

and presumably soldiers who

were aware o his sentiments,

recognize that Catholics inAmerica adhered just as much

as Protestants to the principle o

separation o church and state.

Fr. Corby knew that Catholics

had been instrumental in

the ounding o the UnitedStates, and he proved this

act in his memoirs by cit-

ing specic examples o

Catholic Europeans who had

ought under Washington.

Corby wrote that during

the American Revolution,

Ireland sent her brave sons to do battle in the cause o

liberty. Poland sent an illustrious Kosciusko. Alsace senta noble DeKalb. From France and her Catholic king

came the great and patriotic Laayette and the noted

Rochambeau, with thousands o French Catholic soldiers.3


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Irish Catholics made up

a sizable proportion o the

Continental Army, so they

helped establish the country

in which the Protestants lived.

In addition to these IrishCatholics, Catholic countries

on continental Europe sent

military advisors and troops to

help the Revolutionary cause.

Without European Catholics, it

is arguable that the Protestantswould have no country in

which to create anti-Catholic

sentiments; Fr. Corby used

this argument as a tool in his

memoirs to help him show that

the Irish and Catholics are just

as American as everyone else.

Fr. Corby dealt with ethnic

and religious tensions by

showing that Irish-Americans

and Catholics had remained

as loyal to their country as

the American Protestants had

been since the inception o the

United States. Corby asked

Wherein have the Catholic

Church and the Catholic people

in this country ailed in patrio-

tism?4 At that point in history,

the main Catholic contingent in

the United States was the Irish,

and Irish-American Catholics

as a group had never par-ticipated in rebellious activity

directed against the state. Many

o the Catholic immigrants

coming to the United States

tried to integrate themselves

into American society andadopted American ways o

lie and political thought.

Te tensions between

Protestants and Catholics in the

United States were more super-

cial than in other countries to

which the Irish emigrated, and

as a result most Protestants were

not araid to engage with Irish-

American Catholics amicably.

Corby wrote that some o the

nest tributes I ever read to our

aith came rom Protestant pens

rom honest, well-meaning

men.5 He then stated that

Men o this kind are more

numerous in our happy and


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prosperous society than in any

other country in the world.6

Many American Protestant

writers were very accepting o

Catholicism in America and

were even praiseworthy o it.Tey knew that they made

signicant contributions to

American society and helped it

become a place o opportunity.

Religious reedom is a central

tenet o lie in the UnitedStates, and Fr. Corby showed

in his memoirs that most

patriotic Protestants adhered

to this principle by accepting

Irish-American Catholics and

their contributions in American

wars such as the Civil War.

Te Civil War made coming

to terms with being Irish-

American and Catholic much

easier by bringing huge numbers

o Catholics and Protestants

together. Fr. Corby wrote that

When men stand in common

danger, a raternal eeling

springs up between them and

generates a Christian, charitable

sentiment that oten leads to

most excellent results.7 Te

Civil War united Catholics and

Protestants, Irish-Americans

and Anglo-Americans, in a

conict against a commonenemy. Tis unity helped Fr.

Corby deal with being Irish-

Catholic and Catholic in an

Anglo-American Protestant

army because these two groups

were willing to work togetherto accomplish the common goal

o preserving their country.

Fr. Corbys actions at the

Battle o Gettysburg in July

1863 were the culmination o

his coming to terms with ethnic

and religious tensions. On the

aternoon o the second day o

the battle, Fr. Corby perormed

a general absolution to the Irish

Brigade. According to Corbys

memoirs, he noticed that all,

Catholic and non-Catholic, o-

cers and private soldiers showed

a proound respect, wishing at

this atal crisis to receive every

benet o divine grace that


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could be imparted through the

instrumentality o the church

ministry.8 Te soldiers o

the Union orces ghting at

Gettysburg were deeply im-

pressed by the inspiring sight oFr. Corby giving absolution to

all orces on the eld; even the

amous Major-General Wineld

Scott Hancock removed his

hat, and, as ar as compatible

with the situation, bowed inreverential devotion.9 Te act

that the absolution was given

by a Catholic chaplain was not

an issue with the soldiers they

were awed by the powerul

gesture. Whether Catholic

or Protestant, all Christians

on that battleeld believed in

the same God and knew that

many o them were about to

die. Te manner in which God

was worshipped and in which

they were absolved o their sins

was irrelevant in their eyes it

was merely a means to an end.Tere were dierences between

Protestants and Irish-American

Catholics in the United States,

but they were largely supercial;

Fr. Corbys very public absolu-

tion at Gettysburg was proothat most Protestants were

tolerant o Catholics and were

not araid to show admiration.

Fr. Corbys general absolu-

tion gained greater respect or

Irish-American Catholics in

America. Fr. Corby wrote that

ater the battle o Gettysburg,

a captain, a non-Catholic, rode up to me, and said: Chaplain,

I would like to know more about your religion. I was present onthat awul day, July 2, when you made a prayer, and I never

witnessed one so powerul as the one you made that day.10


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Tis ocer, like the rest o

the soldiers who witnessed the

absolution, came to admire Fr.

Corby and his religious zeal.

Te Protestant ocer wanted to

learn about Catholicism, whichis a sign that he respected the

religion and had put any previ-

ous reservations aside. Fr. Corby

and the Irish Brigade thereore

inadvertently came to terms

with being Irish-Americanand Catholic in Protestant

American society through their

battleeld absolution they

openly practiced their religion

during the greatest battle o the

Civil War in ront o Protestants

and were shown respect.

Te Civil War also helped

Fr. Corby and the Irish Brigade

deal with being Irish-American

and Catholic in the United

States by establishing a link

between patriotism and

Catholicism. Military Masses

celebrated by Fr. Corby involved

several thousand men and

ocers on whose bright, neat

uniorms the gold ornaments

sparkle in the sunlight, while

dress swords... make a pleasing

contrast to burnished sabre

and polished steel bayonet.11

At Masses celebrated in Armycamps, the soldiers wore the

equivalent o their Sunday best

their dress uniorms. Tey

looked as patriotic toward the

United States as they possibly

could, yet they were preparingto worship God. Te Irish

Brigade openly worshipped

God at Fr. Corbys Masses as an

overwhelmingly Catholic unit

while proudly wearing the uni-

orm o, and ghting ercely or

the preservation o, the United

States as a political entity.

Te celebration o St.

Patricks Day in 1863 by Fr.

Corby and the rest o the

Irish Brigade was another key

moment in Fr. Corbys coming

to terms with being Irish-

American and Catholic in

America. Fr. Corby wrote that

Te novel and daring nature o


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the celebration was, indeed,

so brilliant and creditable that

I heard distinguished soldiers

claim that their grandmothers

or grandathers were Irish.12

Fr. Corby celebrated a Masson St. Patricks Day, and then

there were massive sporting

events and estivities. While

celebrated in Ireland and many

other countries with Irish

populations, St. Patricks Dayhas special meaning or Irish-

Americans and was enthusiasti-

cally celebrated at the time o

the Civil War; the holiday

thereore could have caused

heightened tensions between

Irish-American Catholics

and Protestants in the Union

Army.13 However, primarily

non-Catholic units in the Army

were excited to take part in

it. Some were even proud to

claim Irish ancestry! With his

celebration o the St. Patricks

Day Mass and his participation

in the ollowing entertain-

ment, Fr. Corby bridged a

divide between Protestants

and Irish-American Catholics

in America he showed that

Protestants and practicing

Irish-American Catholics

could gather together peace-ully and interact positively.

Trough the audience-

directed reections in his

memoirs and the maintenance

o an active Catholic spiritual

lie in the Irish Brigade duringthe Civil War, Fr. William

Corby came to terms with being

Irish-American and Catholic

in a mainly Protestant army

and nation. InMemoirs o

Chaplain Lie, Fr. Corby showed

his readers that anti-Catholic

Protestants at the time o the

Civil War were a minority and

most American non-Catholics

recognize the great contribu-

tions that Catholics, and in

particular Irish Catholics, had

made to the establishment o

the United States.Fr. Corbys

religious practices and contribu-

tions to Catholic-Protestant


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Te 21st Century Gunslinger

An EssayRaymond LeGrandClass o 2011Istum

I am a cowboy and a gunslinger.

You may laugh because I live

in the middle o a big city anddrive my sports car to work

every day, but its no joke. Te

only dierence between the

Western gunslinger and me is

that his certication was based

on how ast he could draw hissix-shooter, whereas my weapon

o choice is a piece o paper that

states Tis person is qualied

because he graduated rom

Generic University USA. Our

lives would be the same, exceptthe cowboy o the wild west

wouldve been araid to use the

technological wizardry that I

have, and I would be araid to

stand up to him in a bar ght.

In the past, gunslingers hadto be quick on the draw. With

modern technology, I dont

have to be quick, because my

iPhone will let me know theres

danger beore the bad guy even

realizes that he is thinking

about attacking me. Tat was

why he lived as a hired gun, and

why I work as a hired business-

man who hopes someday tobe a CEO. Te act is that I

can type away on computers

aster than I can think. Tat

is certainly better than riding

horses all day and shooting

your neighbor next door.In some ways, gunslingers

back in their day and age

might have been even greater

pragmatists than I am in mine.

I spend all day worrying about

practical ways to ship products,

liquidate inventory, and outsell

the competition. Te gunsling-

ers would have made it even

simpler: kill or be killed. I

youre a hired gun, there isnt

much o an alternative to this

train o thought. In that sense

I am a lesser son o greater

sires. But to be air, the more

independent I become, the


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more like them I become and

the less I have to depend on

other people. Tis is easier said

than done, o course, since our

culture places so much emphasis

on people being nice to oneanother. But then again, that

comes in pretty handy when

it allows me to do whatever I

want to do, when no one will

hinder my reedom because they

are araid o being perceivedas anything less than the nice

person theyre supposed to be.

Tey say that money is power.

With one swipe o my plastic

credit card, I can purchase

almost anything I see. Tat

is the power o plastic money.

All that happens ater that is

some numbers in a computer

go down, reecting a deduc-

tion rom my bank account.

Sometimes I wonder what it all

means, since the numbers magi-

cally go up with every paycheck

and down with every impulsive

purchase. But then again, how

long will it be beore someone

catches on to the game and puts

an end to it? All it would take

is some hacker or a little glitch

in the computer program, and

then Im out o money. How

can people call that power whenit could so easily vanish or be

taken away? No wonder why

the gunslingers o old didnt

really trust money. Tey knew

it was necessary in order to

survive without stealing ood,but they didnt seem to give it

that much importance. Instead,

they carried their guns around

at a jaunty angle that nothing

except death could take away.

Teir independence meant that

they would take orders rom

no one except themselves. Tat

is what I consider real power.

Te gunslingers walked around

carrying power strapped to their

hips. I walk around exercising

control over my subordinates

and employees with the push o

my thumb on the Blackberry.

Tis may not be the same

level o power because it seems


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almost impossible to remove my

dependence on other people, but

I am getting closer every day.

I imagine the westerner o

old let home when he was

real young and set out oradventure. With some o the

stories Ive heard, maybe these

cowboys never had a home. I

did the same thing when I let

or college. I packed up my

bags and set o or a world oadventure. Oh sure, I love my

parents and amily, Im a good

American boy in that sense. But

the job I ound ater graduation

placed me ten thousand miles

away. O course I chose the

job, since independence seems

to be the primary American

virtue. In reality, Ive long

since given up those ties to my

past, both location and amily,

even though I do visit them

occasionally. I even post happy

birthday on the Facebook walls

o some o my old riends. Sure,

I couldve settled down with

my college sweetheart, but the

job oers we received placed

us on opposite sides o the

continent, and thats when we

discovered that we were really

just good riends. I think I can

understand why the gunslingerso old didnt have a amily. It is

very easy to go rom one town

to the next, driting rom one

job to the next when the only

one you need to care about is

yoursel. As long as I keep upthis liestyle, no one wants to

marry me and have a amily,

because I would probably be

gone with the wind on a whim.

I chose long ago to live the

excitement o climbing the

rungs o the corporate ladder

and occasionally enjoying the

night-lie. Most o my riends

have chosen the same liestyle,

and they hope to avoid thinking

about marriage until they turn

thirty. It is something that we

gave up a while ago, a sacrice

or the sake o mobility. People

who aspire to be the next CEO

do not become one by accident.


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You just get used to the lone

nights in ront o your desk,

just like the cowboys o old on

patrol in the saddle. Sometimes

I wish or a home: a permanent

place to rest my head, butusually a hotel room suces.

Besides, Im really close to

making it big. Maybe Ill even

be remembered. Yes, we will be

remembered by history, just like

people remember the west. Teyshot the cowards, the bandits,

and anyone else who got in

the way. But now things have

become more civilized. We re

and hire employees based on the

whims o the market. We take

out other companies using price

controls, mind-numbing e-

ciency, and lawyers. Will we be

remembered by name? Probably

not, just like many o the great

gunslingers o old. But i I do

manage to get that CEO posi-

tion, then Ill have a ghting

chance. Tere is always the hope

that someday I will be among

the ranks o people like Donald

rump, Lloyd Blanken,

erry Gou. Tey remind me

o legendary gures like Billy

the Kid and Black Jack.

I dont go wherever the wind

blows me, like some kind otumbleweed. Instead, I go

wherever the company sends

me. I guess in the past most

gunslingers probably believed

in God and something more

than blind destiny. Tey mightnot have been certain about why

they were traveling around, but

I guess they did think there was

a reason or their existence. O

course, being an enlightened

man, I dont take God too

seriously, and instead I have

tremendous aith that the next

place my company sends me

will lead to another promotion,

and another, and another.

Why do I pursue this

liestyle? I suppose that it is

or the same reason that the

gunslingers o old engaged in

such a lie. Tey let home at

an early age to pursue their


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destiny. Ater a while, you just

get used to not settling down

and pursuing anything less than

legendary. Its not the money

I care so much about, seeing

as Ive already got plenty o itand no reason to spend it on

anyone but mysel. But the

adventure and the independence

that it providesI reckon

thats what keeps me going.

V


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o the Immaculate Conception

A PoemPatrick JohnsonClass o 2011Program o Liberal Studies

Mary our Mother, and Church our Mary,

In you all good will concentrate,

And drink peace: open, not wary,

Breathing childhood, immaculate trait.

V


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Virtue, Community, and Education1

An Essay

Sam CloghessyClass o 2011Orestes Brownson Council

Te work o Alasdair

MacIntyre has been the subjectboth o much praise and o

much criticism. Important and

controversial, MacIntyres work

is relevant not only to those

interested in ethics and politics,

but to all, especially the youngpeople o today. Furthermore,

since MacIntyre is an emeritus

proessor at the University o

Notre Dame, as students at this

university we especially should

be amiliar with his work.Tereore, the purpose o this

paper is both to introduce to

MacIntyre those who may not

be amiliar with his work, as

well as to prompt students to

begin thinking about the ways

in which MacIntyres ideas can

begin to be put into practice.

In his groundbreaking

workAter Virtue, MacIntyre

presents a powerul critique

o modernity. Beginning with

the observable irreconcilability

o almost all contemporary

moral debate, MacIntyre does

not argue on account o this

observable act that there is noobjective moral truth, no way to

rationally argue about morality.

Instead, he argues that our

inability to rationally evaluate

moral rules can be explained

by the loss o an understandingin the modern period o the

context within which these

moral rules originally existed.

1 I would like to begin with twodisclaimers: rst, the author o this

paper is in no way an authority onthe work o Alasdair MacIntyreand apologizes in advance or anymistakes almost certainly made ininterpreting and speculating onMacIntyres ideas. Second, giventhe limited space, this paper is

necessarily a very brie and cursoryexplanation o MacIntyres ideas;as such, or a proper explanation oMacIntyres philosophy and or anyquestions, the reader is reerred toMacIntyres own work, especially

Ater Virtueand all that ollows.


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Furthermore, he argues, any

successul attempt to restore ra-

tionality to morality and moral

debate will require a renewed

understanding o such contexts.

InAter Virtueand in hissubsequent work, MacIntyre

attempts to acilitate this

renewed understanding o the

contexts within which certain

moral rules arose, and in which

they can again become intel-ligible. o do this, he relies

upon an account o the virtues

in which the virtues are the

means by which we attain our

end, our good as human beings.

Te good or man is the seeking

o the good lie in cooperation

with others, and so MacIntyres

account o the virtues imagines

individuals entering into com-

munities in which they help

others cultivate the virtues in

order to achieve their good that

is the good lie, and in which

they are helped by others in

the same way. Te modern

nation-state being incapable

o providing the individual

with the means to seek the

good lie, MacIntyre urges us

to construct the local orms

o community within which

civility and the intellectual andmoral lie can be sustained.14

What might these local

communities look like? It is

worth highlighting a ew o

their particularly important

eatures. Te rst eature is thevirtue o integrity. Te ability

o the members o a community

to properly order the practices

in which they engage and the

goods they pursue into a unied

whole is precisely the standard

by which they are judged by

their ellow citizens. Individuals

and groups o people within the

local community will interact

with one another in a variety o

dierent capacities; or example,

at work, then at a church unc-

tion, then as neighbors, and

nally in the deliberation o the

political process. In interacting

in all these dierent capacities


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individuals cannot avoid being

judged or who they truly are,

and so honesty and integrity

become central virtues to the

local community. Tere is no

room here or the elaboratesel-presentation so prevalent

in the modern world.15

One o the most imme-

diately recognizable eatures

o MacIntyres local political

communities is its size. Such

societies, MacIntyre explains,

need to be small-scale so that, whenever necessary, those who hold

political oce can be put to the question by the citizens and the

citizens put to the question by those who hold political oce in the

course o extended deliberative debate in which there is widespread

participation and rom which no one rom whom something might

be learned is excluded that is, rom which no one is excluded.16

Tis idea o access to the

political process being availableto all members o the community

is central or MacIntyre. Since

these communities share an

understanding o the human

good,17 and this understanding

o the human good is the com-

mon good toward which the

community strives together, it

makes sense that each member

o the community should have

access to the political process, or

it is here that the most important

questions or any member o thecommunity, questions o their

goods as humans, are addressed.

It is important to be clear here

about what Macintyre intends,

or it is quite dierent rom the

modern conception o access

to the political process. While

it is true that citizens in liberal

democracies have access to the

political system primarily via

voting, the truth is that, since the


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available alternatives are chosen

by political elites, the ordinary

citizens real access to the

politics o the state is severely

restricted.18 On the contrary,

in the local community thatMacIntyre envisions, there

willbe institutionalized orms

o deliberation to which all

those members o the com-

munity who have proposals,

objections and arguments tocontribute have access.19

Te nal eature that should

be highlighted is education. In

the context o MacIntyres local

community, education plays a

indispensable role, providing

preparation or entry into the

political lie o the community

as well as a common base rom

which deliberations regarding

the nature o the good or the

community can take place,

and can take place in a way

such that diering positions

can be rationally debated and

evaluated. For MacIntyre,

education is much more than

what takes place in a university.

MacIntyres local community is

characterized by lielong teach-

ing and learning engaged in by

all members o the community,

rom the youngest to the oldest,everyone aware that they might

have something to learn rom

anyone they meet. Formal edu-

cation, MacIntyre argues, must

be thought o not as a means

to some other end, a career orinstance, but instead as the

beginning o, and the providing

the skills, virtues and resources

or, a lielong education directed

toward and inormed by the

achievement o the good.20

Te question one ought

now to ask is what should be

done with all o this. Tere

are two levels on which this

question can be answered. Te

rst, which will not be treated

explicitly here, is with a view

beyond graduation rom this

university and a consideration o

how one might begin to bring

about small, virtue-centered


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communities wherever one lives.

Te highlighting o the eatures

o the community above is

meant as an aid in that regard,

to give a picture o what such

a community might look like.Te second level on which

this question can be answered

is to consider what can be

done by current students at

this university, while they are

here, to help create this sort ocommunity here. In many ways,

a university about the size o

Notre Dame would be an ideal

place to create such a commu-

nity, and many things could be

done to help bring this about. A

unied curriculum, or example,

specically designed to provide

a broad and complete education

to students and which could

serve as the common ground

rom which discussions o any

kind could begin; emphasis in

the classroom on understanding

the relation between disciplines;

and reorganization o campus

and student lie so that students

study, live, pray, eat, and spend

time in recreation together witha more or less established group

o students, and uniy these ac-

tivities into one comprehensive

lie. Since these sorts o things

are unlikely to happen in the

oreseeable uture however, theresponsibility alls upon current

students to build up these sorts

o communities wherever they

can. Some specic suggestions

might be helpul in this regard,

and here you, the reader,

especially the undergraduate

reader, are being addressed.

First and oremost, study

and take courses in the

subjects that will make you

a ully educated human be-

ing. MacIntyre suggests


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It might well be the case

that students are unable to

study all o these subjects tothe level suggested, especially

considering that ideally or

MacIntyre these are the things

one would study up until ones

entry into the university as an

undergraduate.22

Te intenthere is simply that you study as

many o them in as much detail

as possible. I you are studying

a subject with more stringent

course requirements, such as

science or engineering, then it

is all the more important that

you use as many ree electives

as possible to take courses in

the abovementioned subjects

outside your eld o study.

Second, read, study, and learn

as much as possible on your own

outside o class, in any and allo the abovementioned subjects.

Much, i not all, o your abil-

ity to receive a ull education

will depend upon your own

eorts, which will almost

necessarily extend beyond theclassroom. Tis is particularly

important or those students

previously mentioned whose

elds o study have strict course

requirements, as your personal

eort will be even more im-

mediately necessary i you are

to receive a ull education.

Tird, and o critical impor-

tance, engage in conversations

with your riends about the

a lot o history and a lot o mathematics, including both the

calculus and statistics, some experimental physics and observa-

tional astronomy, a reading knowledge o Greek, sucient to

read Homer or the New estament, and i English-speaking,

a speaking knowledge o a modern language other than

English, and great quantities o English literature, especially

Shakespeare. ime also has to be there or music and art.

Philosophy shouldbe introduced at the undergraduate level.21


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subjects you are studying and

about subjects o substance and

importance outside o class. alk

about these things regularly

over dinner at the dining hall.

Get a group o your riendstogether regularly or the

specic purpose o discussing

one o these subjects; this is

in act already happening on

campus. Tese meetings can

be as ormal or inormal as youchoose; the purpose is simply

to get the serious discussion

o subjects o importance to

continue beyond the classroom

and into your everyday lives.

Finally, resolve to ensure

that your education continues

throughout your lie, and

that your undergraduate

experience is the begin-

ning o a lie o learning.

V

14 MacIntyre, Ater Virtue, 263.15 MacIntyre, Politics, Philosophyand the Common Good, 248-249.16 MacIntyre, Politics, Philosophyand the Common Good, 248-249.17 Alasdair MacIntyre, Te

Privatization o Good: An InauguralLecture, Te Review o Politics, 351.18 MacIntyre, Politics, Philosophyand the Common Good, 236.19 Alasdair MacIntyre,Dependent Rational Animals: WhyHuman Being Need the Virtues(London: Gerald Duckworth& Co. Ltd., 1999), 130.

20 MacIntyre, TePrivatization o Good, 359.21 An Interview With AlasdairMacIntyre, Cogito, 5 (1991), 72.22 Ibid.


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Cards For Mothers Day

A StoryScott PosteucaClass o 2011Te Philosophy Club

Hey Jack, you know its

Mothers Day on Sunday.

I curse under my breath.Dad catches my look and

asks, What was that or?

Nothing, I just orgot.

Tis isnt truein act, I

have been dreading the day

or weeksbut its enoughto make Dad happy.

Oh, dont worry. You still

have ve days to get her a

present. Im sure youll pull

something together like you

always do. Like that braceletyou got her last year.

Tat was Jim, I re-

mind him coldly.

Well, then, the ear-

rings you got her.

Tat was Joe. wo years ago.Well, I dunno. Give her a

card then. Shell like that.

Yeah. Just like she

always does, I point

out matter-o-actly.

He tries to put me at ease,

but it doesnt work. By now

Ive heard that its the thought

that counts stu way too many

times to take it seriously. I

understand; Dad doesnt get it.He was an only child who could

make his mother scream with

joyand yes, Grandma is the

type that screams with joyjust

by smiling. I, on the other

hand, have two older brothers,both o whom are straight-A

students, are captains o their

varsity sports teams (one soccer

and one baseball), and among

countless other talents, have

two well-paying jobs by which

to buy great Mothers Day

presentswhich they dont by

the way. Earrings? Bracelet?

Wal-Mart purchases, both o

them. O course, I struggle

to keep a B average, went to

cross country ater being cut

rom everything else, and am

teenone year too young to

have a legitimate job in the state

o Indiana. I run paper routes


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doesnt get you ar. Until

My eyes widen as I come to a

new ad in a J. C. Pennys maga-

zine titled, DiamonArt 4.95

C. . W. Pear Cut Pendant.

I dont really gather much romthe description o the necklace

as I read itsomething about

simulated diamonds and a pear

shaped gembut the picture is

beautiul and its on SALE!

Originally $199, its beenbrought down to $89! Its got

to be our times what Jim or Joe

would ever get or her. I recheck

the date o the ad and am re-

lieved to nd that its only three

days old. How it has managed

to all to the bottom o the

age-old newspaper pile was

beyond meperhaps because it

was all crumpled upbut what

matters is I ound it! A chance

to get a realpresent or Mom,

even with my meager income!

wo days later, Im at the

J. C. Penneys two miles rom

home with the magazine ad and

one hundred and twenty dol-

lars, just in case the taxes push

the price up (Ive been thwarted

by the mysterious increase rom

taxes beore). It took the nearly

two months o paper-boy moneyId saved along with our lawn-

mowings in the neighborhood

over the last two days, but Ive

managed to collect enough.

Te lady at the desk is one

o those older ladies who wearabout our-inches o makeup in

a vain attempt to hide their age,

but shes nice enough, so I try

hard not to judge her. I show

her the ad and the money in

my hand with a lost look on my

ace as though I were rom some

oreign planet trying to barter

or a little loa o bread, and she

tells me to sit still as she runs in

back to the inventory. Ater a

nervous ten minutes, she returns

holding a small black box with

a slightly pear-shaped pendant

in it, glimmering silver as she

turns it. She hands the necklace

to me and urther demonstrates


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looks at him and he explains

with a little embarrassment.

Er, here honey. I, uh,

thought itd be nice to get you

something a little nicer this

year. I swallow hard as Momunwraps a amiliar black box.

She opens it careully, and

there is a DiamonArt 4.95

C. . W. Pear Cut Pendant

glittering in her hand.

Despite my eorts, I givea little moan o dismay, but it

gets lost in the gasps o surprise

rom the others at the git. It

takes a ew seconds or me to

realize whats happenedwas

I robbed?but beore long,

the reality o the situation sets

in. Mom has her necklace,

and is very pleased with it.

She hugs Dad and thanks

him warmlyand now its

my turn to give Mom a git.

For a moment I hold the box

tightly in my st, not really

knowing what to do with it.

But a ew seconds pass and I

let it all back into my pocket,

holding the card up or Mom to

take instead. She accepts it with

a smile and reads it aloud

Dear Mom,

I hope you have a won-derful Mothers Day. Thismay seem like a lot, butI just wanted to give alittle more this year to let

you know that I love you.Keep up the good work.

With Love,

-Jack

P.S. I hope itsshiny enough.

Mom smiles and hugs

me, just as she always does.

Nobody really gets what the

message is about, and nobody

really understands why my ace

turns the color that it does,

but I play along as best I can:

Here Mom, heres a glittery


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XS

card or Mothers Dayhope

Im not overdoing things.

I never did return the

necklace. It sits buried away

in my room to this moment.Ater all, I decided, it was

the thought that counted.

V


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Colophon:

Tis journal is compiled entirely rom theworks o undergraduate scholars atTe University o Notre Dame.

Te editors oLost Piece: An Undergraduate Journal o Lettersare indebted to Dr. Cecilia Lucero or her invaluable assistance on

behal o Te Center or Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement.

Te editors also extend thanks to theUndergraduate Research Opportunity Program,

and the Institute o Scholarship in the Liberal Arts,both o which are directed by Dr. Agustin Fuentes.

Stephen Lechner, Editor in Chie;

Raymond Korson, Executive Editor;Joseph Kuhn and Conor Rogers Associate Editors

Lost Piece III - Worth All the While

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