GREETINGS FROM PRINCETON

I'm here in this lovely university town for a Legatus talk later tonite. What is it about some towns that make you want to walk through the streets reading Aristotle and humming Gaudeamus Igitur? Walking around the quaint shops spotted by Free Tibet bumper stickers, anti-Bush petitions and selling things like environmentally responsible clothing took me back to my days of working in Cambridge, MA at another center of the privileged proletariat. It's certainly in the family intellectual/academic-oriented genes, but I always find visits to Ivy League places disorienting experiences of outraged attraction. I love schools and scholars and learning. Love coffee shops where people are talking about ideas. Love the passion that people seeking the truth get caught up in. Can't stand preening and posturing and leftist tyranny. Another healthy tension to incorporate into the mainframe.

I had lunch with the much-esteemed Kris and Buzz McLaughlin and their son-in-law and friend. Buzz is a playwright and the author of The Playwright's Process, a great resource for those writing for theater. I love talking with Buzz and Kris because they spend as much time brooding over writing as I do, and it means immeasurably much to me to have such thoughtful, experienced and smart people echo much of my sense of what is wrong with art in the Church, and what the rememdy will look like. I also can't say how much it means to me to have someone to pass on "how do I write a play?" referrals to. That's about a hundred or so queries a year that I don't have to answer because Buzz is out there. No need to thank me, Buzz. [wicked screech of glee]