I am listening to Dickens' Bleak House on audiobook. I have mixed feelings about Dickens. On the one hand, a great many of his characters are caricatures: one-dimensional people with their vices or virtues so sharply exaggerated that they aren't really human at all. In general, I think caricatures are a lazy way to tell a …
Author: Meredith McCaskey
Eight Years
When Nate asked me to be his girlfriend, almost ten years ago, he told me he was looking for a "life partner." And even though I was internally exploding with firecracker excitement at how this cute, smart, witty guy was interested in me, at those two words, "life partner", I thought, "huh, weird word choice." I …
Love Thy Self
"No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church."- Ephesians 5:29 "Breathe in slowly, hold the breath for one second, then exhale slowly," says the psychologist. It is my fourth appointment with her. Up till now our sessions have been intellectual, verbal– honed in on …
The Monster, the Bully, and the Darkness
It's almost like a fairy tale. Once upon a time, there was a princess with a terrible curse upon her. Three weeks out of every month the princess lived an ordinary life. But the fourth week the princess turned into a terrible monster. I can remember when I was in college, engaged to Nate, and …
The Spirit of St. John Rivers (WTH 2.5)
(The following post contains spoilers for the novel Jane Eyre.) I just finished listening to the audiobook of Jane Eyre. I first read Charlotte Brontë's most famous work in my early teens– it was a school literature assignment, one which I thoroughly enjoyed. The gothic, romantic saga of orphaned and unwanted Jane was exactly my cup of tea. …
Broken Brains, Bait-and-Switch Jesus
Last week, my brain broke. It happened in the midst of an ordinary weekend, with my family around me. It wasn't a permanent break, nothing that cannot be mended (hopefully). But when it's your brain, even the tiniest fracture has the feeling of shattering. you are a failure you are failing your children your husband they …
Unsettling Hell (WTH? Part 2)
"I am the way into the city of woe. I am the way to a forsaken people. I am the way into eternal sorrow. Sacred justice moved my architect. I was raised here by divine omnipotence, primordial love and ultimate intellect. Only those elements time cannot wear were made before me, and beyond time I …
What The Hell? (Part 1)
"No sight so sad as that of a naughty child," {Mr. Brocklehurst} began, "especially a naughty little girl. Do you know where the wicked go after death?" "They go to hell," was my ready and orthodox answer. "And what is hell? Can you tell me that?" "A pit full of fire." "And should you like …
On a first draft, completed
I have decided that 19th century writers did have some advantages over my generation, us millenial scribblers. Though I don’t envy Jo of Little Women “copying out her novel for the fourth time” by hand, still, a thick stack of handwritten manuscript WOULD make a nice picture to post on social media- more satisfying than …
On The Path (Motherhood Musings)
Our freshly-four Sean starts preschool tomorrow, and I just got done crying. He didn’t want to eat his dinner and I sat on his bed and asked him to tell me about his feelings, which he didn’t want to do, and finally I lay down next to him and told him that after his big …
