A Letter to Bill Hart-Davidson
The spirit of your gifts are present all around us, they animate our relationships and illuminate a world broken without you and better because of you.
Christopher LongMay 3, 2024
When Twilight Silence Falls
On Tuesday morning when I made my way to the sacred circle, past the resilient tree, to Linton Hall there was a silence such as I had never heard before. It was not the silence…
Christopher LongFebruary 18, 2023
A Nightmare and A Dream
A week that began with a nightmare, ended with a dream. The Nightmare On Tuesday morning, I received the call from my wife I've long dreaded—she said there was a 911 call about an active…
Christopher LongFebruary 12, 2023
Ubuntu As Leadership Practice
There are times when your life seems to be telling you a story. When this happens, it is wise to listen. In October 2022, my life began to speak the language of Ubuntu, the powerful…
Christopher LongDecember 30, 2022
The Art of Procrastination
On September 12, 2021, we remembered the life and legacy of Ted Loder, my stepfather, and long-time Senior Minister at First United Methodist Church of Germantown. In collaboration with my step-siblings, we created the montage…
Christopher LongSeptember 14, 2021
Love One Another
Ted Loder, eloquent preacher, fierce advocate for justice, long-time minister of the First United Methodist Church in Germantown, and my beloved stepfather, died on Thursday, April 1, 2021. Ted always encouraged us to watch for…
Christopher LongApril 4, 2021
Beware the Jabberwocks
Lessons from the Dragon Boat None of us knew quite what to expect on Saturday as we gathered at Hawk Island for our one-hour training session for the Capital City Dragon Boat Race to support the…
Christopher LongMay 23, 2017
Inhabiting a Liminal Space
With the announcement that I would be recommended as Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State, Val, the girls, and I entered a liminal space. I have long be drawn to the…
Christopher LongMay 25, 2015
Habits of a Quotidian Aesthetics
By committing to take a picture of something beautiful I encountered in my life each day, I sought to see differently, to cultivate what might be called the habits of a quotidian aesthetics.
Christopher LongApril 6, 2015
Attending to the Beauty of Quotidian Life
For three of the past four years (2011, 2013, 2014), I have posted one picture each day of something beautiful I encounter. The impetus behind the project was to cultivate an attentiveness to the beauty…
Christopher LongDecember 31, 2014
365 in 2013
As the year comes to a close, so too does my 365 in 2013 picture a day project. The purpose of the project was to cultivate habits of mindfulness. Each day I set myself the…
Christopher LongDecember 31, 2013
Anticipation
Excitement abounds here in the Long household as preparations are made for the arrival of Santa. At 9- and 8-years old, the girls are at that prime age when Christmas is long anticipated and full…
Christopher LongDecember 24, 2013
Evening Sledding
It was dark before I got around to shoveling the walkway. The girls were excited to be outside, but I had a chore to complete. They wanted to go sledding, so they started down the…
Christopher LongDecember 8, 2013
This Day is Broken
6/365: Grandparents Clock Originally uploaded by cplong11 Today is Mack Brady's birthday; he would have turned 9. His father has recently written eloquently, even in his grief, about the theological questions the senseless death of…
Christopher LongJanuary 16, 2013
One Week
Statuesque Originally uploaded by Targuman When the Collegian asked me to comment on the scholarship established in honor of Mack Brady for the article they published today, they could not integrate all I had written.…
Christopher LongJanuary 7, 2013
The Press Enterprise
West End of Bloomsburg, PA Originally uploaded by colecamp I have long had the vague idea that newspapers need to recognize that the core of their business is the business of their communities. Sometimes the…
Christopher LongSeptember 14, 2011
Learning the Art of Relaxation
STONE HARBOR, NJ - Just midway through my week vacation, I am beginning to learning the art of relaxation. As a faculty member, when the semester of teaching is over, a span of summer begins…
Christopher LongJune 1, 2011
Letting Jelly Dog Go
On Sunday, ArtGirl stood in front of the mirror looking at herself. I noticed two things: she seemed bigger to me and she was not holding her favorite stuffed animal, Jelly Dog. It was then…
Christopher LongAugust 26, 2010
Prosthetic Gods
In Civilization and Its Discontents, Freud writes: With every tool man is perfecting his own organs, whether motor or sensory, or is removing the limits to their functioning (43). The passage touches on something I…
Christopher LongJuly 27, 2010
Light in Motion
Four Running 2 Originally uploaded by cplong11 My father taught me to appreciate the subtle joys of photography back before everything went digital. In our basement darkroom, we used to develop the black and white…
Christopher LongJuly 22, 2010
Playing in the Waves with My Daughter
MYRTLE BEACH, SC - She is uncertain, but brave and increasingly confident. The waves are not huge, but to her six-year-old self, they must be daunting. Even so, we venture out, her to test her…
Christopher LongJune 16, 2010
On Hearing Oneself Through Others
One of the more important of the many unexpected benefits of producing the Digital Dialogue is the feedback I have received from friends who listen. In a strange way, the podcast offers me some distance…
Christopher LongDecember 2, 2009
Listening: Barb and Jan on Phil and Soph
This Thanksgiving we decided to participate in the spirit of the National Day of Listening. My cousin, Marjorie, and I sat down with our mothers, Janet Filing and Barbara Almstead, to ask them about their…
Christopher LongNovember 27, 2009
When the Berlin Wall Fell
Twenty years ago today, I can remember the buzz that spread among my American student colleagues at the Institute for European Studies in Vienna when we learned that the Berlin Wall had fallen.Just two weeks…
Christopher LongNovember 9, 2009
LwCH 1A: First Snow 2009
We woke this morning in a cold, dark house as our power had gone out early in the morning. As we made our way downstairs, we began to realize that the power outage was only…
Christopher LongOctober 16, 2009
For Chloe on Her First Day of Kindergarten
Dear Chloe:Today you begin a great and wondrous journey. Today, you begin Kindergarten and with it, the formal education that will open you to a world of ideas and experiences that will shape the person…
Christopher LongSeptember 3, 2009
Exhilaration
I begin with this picture because it captures something of the exhilaration we experienced in two very different ways over the past two days.On Saturday we visited three local farms as part of the 2009…
Christopher LongAugust 10, 2009
1969
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. The event itself seems, from this distance, to have marked the end of an era of tumultuous creativity and violence in American culture and politics.
Christopher LongJuly 20, 2009
A Spiritual Voice in New Media
The social web is frequently moving, often inane and continuously ongoing. Its voices reflect the beautiful diversity of the human experience. This week another voice was added to the discussion; it is the voice of…
Christopher LongJuly 15, 2009
Local Eating, the Finnish Tart and the Fourth of July
Over the weekend we celebrated the Fourth of July in local style here in State College. The day began with a wonderful children's parade of bikes through town to the local Central Parklet, where we ate…
Christopher LongJuly 7, 2009
LwCH 14: Stone Harbor 2009
I have finally processed the footage from this year's vacation in Stone Harbor and produced a video available here:http://gallery.me.com/longc2#100144In the video you will see much splashing in the pool, reminiscences of last year on the…
Christopher LongJuly 6, 2009
Front Page Coverage
Yesterday we were all at the State College Summer Music Festival doing some listening and dancing. The Centre Daily Times was there to cover it. Front page, above the fold, pretty impressive:
Christopher LongJune 28, 2009
Time Wastes Too Fast
As his wife, Martha, lay dying at the age of 34, Thomas Jefferson and she took turns copying out by hand this passage from the Laurence Sterne novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristam Shandy,…
Christopher LongJune 28, 2009
Herb Garden
On this Father's Day, I felt compelled to see a project to completion. Much of my academic life involves projects that take a long time to complete. Last week I spent an entire day trying to…
Christopher LongJune 21, 2009
Leaving the Beach on a Sunny Day
STONE HARBOR, NJ Last night's violent storms have given way to one of those crisp, clean, beautiful days at the New Jersey shore. Now, however, it is time to sweep the house, pack the swimming…
Christopher LongMay 30, 2009
On Turning 40
STONE HARBOR, NJ Today is my 40th birthday: I feel the curvature of the arc of my life, the contour of its trajectory. As it begins, I hope, to press toward its apogee and ultimate…
Christopher LongMay 28, 2009
Just Dancing
Here is episode 13 of Life with Chloe and Hannah. I have collected the video I took a few months ago at the Tussey Ski Area when they are dancing on the deck. I admire…
Christopher LongMay 20, 2009
Happiness is Love
The title of this post comes from George Vaillant, the director of one of the longest running longitudinal studies of physical and mental well-being that has ever been undertaken. My attention was drawn to him…
Christopher LongMay 12, 2009
Fragility and Resilience
In that moment of silence before the crying starts, when your heart stops, you can only hope it is not too bad, not that bad.Today on the "tickle bed" Hannah fell into the headboard and…
Christopher LongApril 20, 2009
A New Phase
As I grow older, I realize more and more that a life is made up of lives, that an individual life involves phases linked yet distinct. With the approach of my 40th birthday in May,…
Christopher LongApril 2, 2009
Cultivating New Ecological Habits
After listening to this week's New Yorker comment podcast entitled "Economy vs. Environment" by David Owen, I was struck by three things. First, economic prosperity is dirty. Owens says that "the principle source of man-made…
Christopher LongMarch 26, 2009
Brave Hellos Turning All Goodbye
Today is John Updike's birthday. Today a friend presented me with a little gift of one of Updike's poems. It reminded me again how important now is. I knew that, of course, but one must…
Christopher LongMarch 18, 2009
Magnanimity
I have just finished listening to Doris Kearns Goodwin's book on the Lincoln Presidency, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Although the book takes a largely uncritical view of Lincoln's political wisdom,…
Christopher LongMarch 2, 2009
Two Little Moments
I just wanted to pause to note two small moments that occurred as we watched the inauguration unfold on TV as a family on Tuesday.As Val and I were focused on the inauguration, Hannah was…
Christopher LongJanuary 23, 2009
Chloe at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Just before the new year, we took Chloe and Hannah to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Chloe, who is obsessed with everything that has to do with art, was beside herself with excitement. Once I…
Christopher LongJanuary 2, 2009
Christmas without Batteries
This year we had a Christmas without batteries and it was excellent. Santa, aka Val, asked for and bought nothing for the girls that required a battery of any kind. Most of what the girls…
Christopher LongDecember 25, 2008
Mortgage Relief
For those of us who own houses and who are working hard to keep up with our mortgage payments, it has been difficult to hear about multi-billion dollar bailouts of Wall Street banks and financial…
Christopher LongDecember 6, 2008
President Obama!
The first word Hannah could read herself, or at least recognize, was 'Obama'. She has been involved with the Obama campaign for at least 30% of her three year old life, and now she and…
Christopher LongNovember 4, 2008
World Champions 2008!
Philadelphia has waited 28 years and 46 hours for this moment when Brad Lidge struck out Cliff Floyd to win the 2008 World Series. One of the most memorable moments of my childhood was watching…
Christopher LongOctober 29, 2008
Perfect Sports Weekend
This has been a perfect sports weekend from my perspective. Over the last 36 hours, we have seen the Phillies win not one, but two World Series games, the Eagles beat the Falcons and, of…
Christopher LongOctober 26, 2008
Long Time
I have now posted episode 9 of Life with Chloe and Hannah, entitled "Long Time." It chronicles our time with my brother, Jon, and his family, Hilary, Hoshaiah, Lucia and Natasha as they visited us…
Christopher LongSeptember 4, 2008
A Step Closer
Exactly one year ago I wrote of the disjunction between the ideals American professes and the reality it embodies. That was the second anniversary of hurricane Katrina and the day after the 44th anniversary of…
Christopher LongAugust 29, 2008
The Joys of Writing
I am currently slugging through what I hope are the last few chapters of a book on Aristotle and it is not easy going. Although writing has always been something I love--crafting sentences, considering the…
Christopher LongAugust 7, 2008
A Sleepover in Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH, PA - The girls are finally asleep in their "hotel home" in Pittsburgh, where we have come for an overnight so we could visit the Pittsburgh Children's Musuem and the Pittsburgh Zoo. The day…
Christopher LongJuly 26, 2008
How I Lost 50 Pounds and Gained 7.5 Years
About a year ago, Val pointed me to the RealAge.com website and I took the RealAge test. The test is designed to calculate your "real age" as opposed to your "chronological age" based upon your…
Christopher LongJuly 20, 2008
Shopping in Enviro-Style
A few weeks ago my Aunt Cathie wrote us an email about a business her niece, Renee Fischer, had started with her friend, Carla Manna. The name of the company is Neela Products and they…
Christopher LongJuly 20, 2008
A Small World
FREIBURG, GERMANY - I have been struck during my short visit here in Germany by the way the world is at once made smaller by the internet and yet remains also somehow large enough that…
Christopher LongJune 21, 2008
The Moment
So much, of course, can be said about the significance of Barack Obama's capturing the Democratic nomination for the presidency of the United States. I simply want to mark the moment by appealing to a…
Christopher LongJune 5, 2008
Gratitude
STONE HARBOR, NJ - As our week at the beach draws to a close, the girls are in bed, though not yet asleep, I type, watching the sun set from the back deck of our…
Christopher LongMay 30, 2008
The Passing Details of Life at the Beach
STONE HARBOR, NJ - The passing details of life at the beach: Hannah standing on one foot.Chloe and Danny playing with Jake in the pool.The breeze smells of the salt sea.Danny reading a bedtime story to…
Christopher LongMay 27, 2008
State College Obama Office Opens
Tonight I went with my neighbor and friend, Paul, and his daughter, Caitlin, and with my daughters, Hannah and Chloe, to the opening of the Obama campaign office here in State College. There were many…
Christopher LongMarch 18, 2008
Happy Birthday Val/Mom
Today is Val's 40th Birthday!To celebrate, Hannah, Chloe and I put together this video. They wanted me to write: "We love you Momma, because you're so great. Happy Birthday." Have a wonderful birthday Val:
Christopher LongMarch 10, 2008
Winter Hike
On Sunday, Val, Hannah, Chloe and I went on a winter nature hike sponsored by the Millbrook Marsh Nature Center. Although everything was covered with snow, we were about to witness the more dormant side…
Christopher LongMarch 4, 2008
Laughter
WNYC's Radio Lab did a wonderful set of stories on laughter recently. They appeal to Aristotle as having said that human beings "are the only ones of the animals that laugh" (Parts of Animals, 673a7).…
Christopher LongMarch 1, 2008
January Travels, Pictures
January is a paradoxical month: it contains the hope of new beginnings in the very dead of winter.In early January, we traveled to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Little did we know when Chloe posed for this…
Christopher LongFebruary 2, 2008
No Monsters
Lately, we have had a monster problem in our house. Chloe has been very concerned about monsters, particularly the possibility that one or more live in one of her closets. Checking the closets before bed…
Christopher LongDecember 30, 2007
Phil & Sophia
Two boxes of old slides had been sitting in my closet for years. My mother gave them to me long ago with the thought that maybe we might look at them sometime. Over Thanksgiving this…
Christopher LongDecember 15, 2007
The Dazzle of the Light
Upon passing a cemetery on the way to play group yesterday, Chloe was prompted to a line of questioning that led to the question of death: not only her death but also the death of…
Christopher LongDecember 4, 2007
Hannah's 2nd Birthday
Today Hannah Aveline Long turns two years old! To celebrate I have added one of my favorite pictures of her with a new umbrella she received for her birthday.This year we celebrate with visits first…
Christopher LongNovember 11, 2007
Gifts of Nature from my Daughters
There is a leaf in my book bag. I found it when I was standing in front of my class of first-year students, taking out my computer and books, preparing to teach. It brought me…
Christopher LongSeptember 10, 2007
Rhythms of Fall
In the distance is the sound of drums and horns. The high school band has begun to practice again behind the football field where young men run and tackle, drilling for the new season. The…
Christopher LongAugust 21, 2007
The Farms of Centre County
The Pennsylvania Association of Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) sponsored its second annual Centre County farm tour today. My family, along with our neighbors, the Erickson's (with whom we share a summer share at the Village Acres…
Christopher LongAugust 11, 2007
Passing Moments
AVALON, NJ - This is a place of liminal passages: the pines give way to dunes, the dunes to sea, the sea to the horizon and an openness of possibility. The elements too pass into…
Christopher LongJuly 21, 2007
Imitation and the Power of Story
In the Poetics, Aristotle says: To imitate is co-natural to human-beings from childhood and in this they differ from other animals because they are the most imitative and produce their first acts of understanding by…
Christopher LongJuly 12, 2007
Community Supported Agriculture
Last weekend my family participated in the annual Strawberry festival at the Village Acres Farm, where we are members of their community supported agriculture (CSA) program. As you can see, the strawberries were beautiful, and…
Christopher LongJune 18, 2007
