I just finished my final essay for my final class for my Masters in Classical Liberal Arts Education from Belmont Abbey. The books on my essay’s bibliography are shown here. These are not all the books on the syllabus. This last class was on the ancient quarrel between poetry and philosophy. With many proofs from these texts, I demonstrated that the experience of story in the human soul is essentially the same experience as reality in the human soul, which makes stories as powerful and formative and serious as we all know they are from experience. 

Stories have been the heart of our homeschool. They have formed our souls, especially those we have read more than once. And in the case of the Gospel, a story has saved our lives and changed us forever. So I can’t think of a better way to end this intellectual journey than to be able prove to myself rationally what I have known poetically all along. 

After reading my essay aloud to my family and discussing it, Dwayne tells me he is glad I can cook again now that I’m done and tells the girls, “Get ready for vegetables!” To this, Avril expresses real relief and thankfulness, “Oh good! I can’t remember the last time I had a carrot!” To his credit, Dwayne has been the one cooking for several days to give me time to work, but he would agree he cooks like a bachelor who is trying to bulk. 

Praise and glory be to God. He is the great good from which all lesser goods come to us. My heart is full. My soul is formed. To quote Taylor very loosely, I’m feeling at home with the best of the things that exist, because I have taken their substance into the parlor of my soul.