a.d. elliott - Take the Back Roads

Dear Henry, On my last trip to Washington, DC , in addition to seeing the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception , I also toured the Saint Pope John Paull II National Shrine.  When you mention Saint John Paul II, most Catholics I know immediately say something like "I love him" or "he was my favorite pope."  But he went on to heaven years before my conversion. So when I went to see the Shrine, the only thing I really knew about Saint John Paul II was that he had miraculously survived an assassination attempt and that he was everyone's favorite pope. So I feel like I should just turn in my Catholic card by saying that. Anyway...   The Shrine is absolutely stunning.   The Shrine began as a cultural center in 2001 (four years before his death), a place to come and learn about the faith. The center also held regular exhibits featuring religious art. After Saint John Paul II died in 2005, the building began to transform, and the site formally became a shrine in...

Dear Henry, Book Three, Aeschylus's Agamemnon, of the Bucket List Book Adventure ( read about that here ) is done! Let me tell you all about it. About 200 years after Homer wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey , in 525 BC, Aeschylus was born in Greece. The son of minor nobility, he worked at a vineyard until a dream of the god Dionysus told him to write tragic plays. Aeschylus's first play was written in 499 BC, and in 484 BC, he won the victory (aka first place) at a yearly festival of plays called the City of Dionysia. In addition to writing, Aeschylus also fought for the Greek army during The Battle of Marathon (490 BC), The Battle of Salamis (480 BC), and the Battle of Plataea (479 BC). He was a fairly prolific writer, producing 70 to 90 plays during his lifetime. Unfortunately, only seven remain. He died in 456 or 455 BC, supposedly in a unique manner. Aeschylus was given the prophecy that he would die from a falling object, so he began to sleep outside to avoid that fate. Whil...