I wish you the warmest welcome to Filial Piety! Here, I hope that here we can establish communion through the communication of what we love most.
My name is Jacob Ross Taylor. I am a teacher and an independent writer. I was born in Kampala, Uganda to a missionary family, but I grew up in Nashville, TN and in Tulsa, OK. I have lived in several of these United States and have deep connections to people and places in them as well as East Africa and Latin America. Now I live in Downers Grove, Illinois with my dear wife Sidney where I am an Instructor of Maths and Sciences for Chesterton Academy of the Holy Family.
I love where I come from, where I am now, and hope to always love where I am going to be. I hope that you too will recognize who and what you love and hold dear and engage in filial piety together with me. We have come from many native and chosen loves of persons, places, and things (+ideas—the definition for a noun in grade school!). Unfortunately, we have also been born or adopted into certain modern characteristics of bitterness or ressentiment towards the nativities we are given, the choices we’ve made, and the loves with which we are engaged.
Why? We should examine these things. Perhaps some, like our resentments, should be criticized and rejected. Perhaps it’s time for us to move on to something new. What then will we have left? And under or through which standards can we judge and decide what stays and what goes? It is my contention that we will not be able to judge or decide well until we love by understanding what things truly are and what they are for.
Perhaps all things are good in what they are for, and all persons are good in themselves in a uniquely human way. Our primary purpose is not to criticize and judge, for that is not our purpose. Rather it is to love and admire, to behold the beauty of things as they are and can be. I am a lover of wisdom (a philosopher), of humanity’s discovery of certain knowledge (science), and of the arts that make us free (the liberal/liberating humanities). More than all these things, I am a Christian, one who knows by experience and faith that God’s Love transfigures everything. I love learning and hope to share much with you. I invite you to share your gifts with me in return!
Sign up for Filial Piety now so you don’t miss the first issue. I hope you don’t feel left out if you cannot or choose not to be a paying subscriber now. I will have both public and private (paid only) posts, so that you may take your time and see. But whenever you are able and willing, please contribute to this our enterprise in filial piety.
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Filial Piety
! Together we can love what is good and recognize all things for what they are worth in themselves and what they are for.