The following is an essay/meditation from my sister project, Pneuma. If you’d like to listen to the podcast, visit pneumameditations.com, or search Pneuma By Daniel Finneran on any of your favorite podcast platforms. Hello all you beautiful people, and welcome to this episode of Pneuma. Before delving into this episode (with which, I should say, …
The following is an essay/meditation from my sister project, Pneuma. If you’d like to listen to this meditation as a podcast, please visit my website, pneumameditations.com, or download Pneuma By Daniel Finneran on any of your favorite podcast platforms. Greetings my friends, and welcome to this episode of Pneuma. I’m your host, Daniel Finneran, and …
The following essay/meditation is from my sister project, Pneuma. If you’re interested in what you read and would like to hear the podcast, visit pneumameditations.com or download it on any of your favorite podcast platforms. Hello my friends, and welcome to this episode of Pneuma. Not quite a week ago, in my prefatory remarks for …
Worldly Possessions: Do You Possess Them, Or Do They Possess You? Read More »
The following is an essay/meditation composed for my sister project, Pneuma. You can visit its website and access its podcast at pneumameditations.com Hello all, and welcome to this episode of Pneuma. I am, as always, your humble host and devoted friend, Daniel Finneran, and I’m glad that you’ve decided to join me today. The name …
A Meditation On Human Nature With Machiavelli And The Buddha Read More »
It’s my habit, whenever I’m in conversation with someone of a strong and unconcealed political bent, from whom the gift of a sound civic education and a talent for an idea’s thoughtful expression haven’t been withheld, to ask him which of America’s two central documents, the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence, he regards more …
Written 6 November 2022 There’s a shrinking number of celebrities in whom we Americans place our collective trust. A very small number, indeed, for whom, no matter the direction toward which our political preferences incline us, there’s near universal veneration. Take, as one example, the late Alex Trebek, whose name was, and yet remains, synonymous …
Use Your Discernment (So Long as You Discern Nothing Different) Read More »
Unlike most of his corpulent countrymen, John Montagu, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, spent more time at the gambling than at the dinner table. A founding member of the notorious Hellfire Club, to which only the most refined rakes and well-born lechers in England were granted admittance, Montagu was, by any measure, an extraordinary man. …
Louis XVI: C’est une grande révolte! La Rochefoucault-Liancourt: Non, Sire, c’est une grande révolution. Upon learning of the fall of the Bastille in the summer of 1789, Louis XVI—the hapless (and soon to be headless) French king against whom popular opinion in the country had long since turned—responded with one of the great understatements of …
On Revolts and Revolutions: 18th-Century France and Modern China Read More »
And, just like that, Rome’s conquest of Greece was nearly complete. The strong, sturdy, ageless foundation of Hellas, upon which the rest of the civilized world then firmly stood, suddenly began to quake. Those ancient, mighty pillars by which the early Western man was raised, atop which the hundred famous city-states he inhabited were built, …
(From my podcast, Pneuma by Daniel Finneran) Hello all, and welcome to this episode of Pneuma. I’m your humble host, Daniel Finneran, and I’m honored to be joined by you today. The subtitle of a recent episode, “Guided Beach Meditation” contained the following three words: the sand, the sea, and the sublime. For a treatment …
How to Think about the Sublime and Beautiful: Aesthetics for Everyone Read More »