Author: Michael J. Sanem

For those of you interested, a link to my old website, Where There Is Despair

Dear Gramps, We’ve had a lot of great conversations over the years, I remember chatting with you in my old truck about your time in Washington DC and Chicago. You seemed so mythical back then, an eternal patriarch that had seen and done it all. When I followed in your footsteps and went to Chicago, [...]

In the face of violence, obscene politicking, and all our seemingly insurmountable divisions, I propose no solutions. It is all above my pay grade. I cannot think a way out of any these disasters. In the face of a world gone mad, for now, I can only be silent. I can only try to see with clear [...]

Holding my baby boy in my arms a mere 4 hours after meeting him, I started crying. Not because of his awkward little dimples, not because of his tiny toes, not because of my same blue eyes staring back at me from within his tiny little face. I started crying because I realized how all the little [...]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75szwX09pg8 I love Stephen Colbert. He is incisively hilarious, intellectually serious, and genuine and respectful with everyone he interviews. But more importantly, I think he appeals to the better angels of our nature. In the above clip, he has Professor of Theoretical Physics Briane Greene on his show to explain supernovas, the process of star [...]

Perpetually ruining that wonderful time of evening when the baby is sleeping and a cold cocktail rests in my hand is the thought, "I wonder what happens if a stray bullet flies through the nursery window?" My heart races, chest gets heavy. A midnight creak must be a burglar or serial killer downstairs who specializes in families. Or maybe it's mouse, [...]

Update: Last night,  my beloved Grandpa William Joseph Rakers passed away. . Although he lived a long good life of 99 years, we feel a great loss. I wrote this five months ago and now as the leaves fall and the weather changes, it rings especially true. Last night I went home and snuggled up to [...]

"The feeling of awed wonder that science can give us is one of the highest experiences of which the human psyche is capable. It is a deep aesthetic passion to rank with the finest that music and poetry can deliver. It is truly one of the things that make life worth living and it does [...]

I never really got the Feast of Corpus Christi. Sure, I'm a big fan of the Catholic sacraments and all, but it just seemed unnecessary. Don't we celebrate the Body and Blood of Christ every Sunday, even every day? But it finally clicked a few weeks ago. I was prayfully considering donating bone marrow, as [...]

Dedicated to exploring all the marvels of this universe as revealed to us by the scientific method, philosophy, and the ancient and modern religious traditions. I write from the Catholic perspective, but remain open to all that is true and good and beautiful. After all, the incarnation is everywhere.