Category: Personal Essays

The Consolation of History

Published on by Chelsia R. Van Hierden

**Exciting news! I’m currently in the process of launching an online course exploring the Second Temple Period—including the blank page between Testaments—expected to launch this September. If you’re interested in more information or early registration, please fill out the form at the bottom of this post. (Updated July 24, 2020)**

“Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it,” the common adage goes, often brought up as a kind of vague and amusing consolation to history students who, as they inevitably must, begin to doubt the practicality of their chosen field of study. But reality is far more complex than the mere repetition of the past. Continue reading “The Consolation of History” →

When I Say I Am a Feminist: A Clarification

Published on by Chelsia R. Van Hierden3 Comments

Misconstruing the idea of feminism appears to be a pastime of choice for a disconcerting number people across the Western world. “Feminist” is treated like a dirty word and regarded with a level of suspicion, if not smug ridicule and derision. Unfortunately, much of this treatment arises from those on the political right, and, surprisingly often (in my own experience), men.

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On a Receipt

Published on by Chelsia R. Van Hierden2 Comments

I found an old receipt in my book today, it fell out as I was flipping past Seymour Krim’s essay on the failed businesses of his siblings, or something like that. This receipt, you must know, was not my own. I cracked this particular book for the first time today, though I am not its first user—an old library pawned off for pennies at an annual sale. They say that the average library book only survives three uses, though I’d be surprised if this particular book had seen so many before it made its way into my hands, purchased, shelved, borrowed once, then sold. 

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Hypocrisy and the Cultural Critic

Published on by Chelsia R. Van HierdenLeave a comment

At no point in human history have we devoured more and been less satiated. This may resound as little more than a pithy claim, or perhaps the brassy cry of an overzealous critic who, disenchanted by the present state of human affairs, possesses enough shameless hypocrisy to condemn the same culture in which she exists and partakes. Continue reading “Hypocrisy and the Cultural Critic” →

On Belonging

Published on by Chelsia R. Van Hierden3 Comments

It is a natural inclination of the human soul, upon feeling alienated in its native country for a protracted time, to take it upon itself to find belonging elsewhere. There exists within mankind a deep and unrelenting need to belong, particularly within a coterie of those whom he deems kindred spirits, those whose orientation—be it earthy, spiritual, mental, or physical—closely aligns with his own, and, upon finding such a group, he endeavours to become a permanent fixture among their ranks.

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