G. C. Jeffers

Story, Beauty, and a World that Means

  • Dancing Love

    I have long stood in the shadow, lingering at the edge of definition, the flickering flame dancing in my eyes. I have watched and waited while crumbs fall to the ground, broken pieces of life from ignorant lips. They have gorged themselves on beauty and truth and goodness; and they do not understand. But I Continue reading

  • Do You Want to be Healed?: Anxiety and Counselling

    I first visited the psychologist about two months ago. I was riddled with anxiety and overwhelmed by intrusive thoughts I couldn’t shake. I was sleep deprived (new babies will do that) and hating my PhD program. It took three sessions before I understood what on earth I was doing, three sessions before it occurred to Continue reading

  • Spring

    This is the time when the sky awakes, buoyed by the swaying hands of shimmering trees, and when the warm morning pours early into the streets, softened only by stray clouds and a gentle rain. This is the time when you and I walk out love through the steady rhythm of grasped, swinging hands, and Continue reading

  • Anxiety and the Solidarity of God

    I am terrible at living in the present. Even in good circumstances, I am always anticipating whatever is next. But in difficult circumstances (like leaving my PhD program, looking for employment, watching my daughter for entire days alone, and my wife having to be back at work), me giving my full attention to the present Continue reading

  • One Easter Morning (daughter)

    Originally posted on G. C. Jeffers: not even married that Easter morning as some daddy’s daughter grinned through the alleluias and laughed through the creed. but we knew. those eyes bright and blue first dragged our hearts into the open— that pulsating organ raw and bleeding and full of life— giving your mother and I… Continue reading

  • Good Friday

    Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusation bring ye against this man? These men took a break from celebrating the Deliverance of God to charge an innocent man with a crime. They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up unto thee. Continue reading

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  • Holy Wednesday: Judas Iscariot

    Originally posted on G. C. Jeffers: I wonder when Satan first proposed the idea and how long Judas held out, how many times he said I can no more betray him than betray myself, but that was a possibility Satan understood only too well. And was it jealousy of the woman at Bethany jealously of… Continue reading

  • Rhetorical Inquiry, the Public Good, and Progressive Political Assumptions

    This is the latest post in a series on assigned readings for one of my classes. The book assigned for next week’s Foundations of Composition and Rhetoric Class is called Distant Publics. Aside from the book we read on Composition Pedagogies, this is the work that I am resonating the most with. The book explores Continue reading

  • Holy Tuesday

    Originally posted on G. C. Jeffers: On Holy Tuesday, the Orthodox Church celebrates the parable of the ten virgins, emphasizing the need to watch and wait–looking forward to the garden. This song is from Jon Thurlow, and I think it captures the sentiment exactly. (Disclaimer: Jon Thurlow is a musician with the International House of Prayer, an… Continue reading

  • Big Changes, Identity, and Finding Grace: Leaving my PhD Program

    Amanda went back to work this week. As a nurse, she works three days a week (giving her four days at home!), but each of those days from start to finish is 14-15 hours. And the days that she works are the days that I don’t have to be on campus, leaving me alone at Continue reading

  • When Tears Don’t Help

    Today is Amanda’s first day back at work. And all I have are these stolen words: How often have I lain beneath the rain on a strange roof, thinking of home? Continue reading

  • The Ecology of the Rhetorical Canons

    This is the latest post in my series reflecting on my assigned readings for my Foundations of Composition and Rhetoric Class. For this week, we finished up reading Participatory Composition (which, overall, I found extremely difficult to understand (not in the good way of difficult but rewarding ideas; in the annoying way of obfuscating language Continue reading

  • An Account of My Spiritual Journey Part 2

    An Account of My Spiritual Journey Part 2

    I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my spiritual journey. I know I have the account of it here on the blog, but it is woefully incomplete and evinces a strong misunderstanding of my heart and mind. I wrote it about six weeks before we moved from Abilene to Dallas, and I drew together what Continue reading

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  • Discussion of Participatory Composition

    This is my latest post in the series I am doing reflecting on readings from my Foundations of Composition and Rhetoric class. My reading for next week was the first three chapters of Participatory Composition: Video Culture, Writing, and Electracy. While this book is interesting, I have a couple of hesitations. First, what is the Continue reading

  • My Life and My Work: Toward a Synthesis

    I’ve spent the first half of this semester doing two main things: changing diapers and resisting the dominant intellectual currents in my field. * * * My daughter, Ellie, is over a month old now. She is adorable and sweet and always hungry. She is perverse,  preferring to wait until she has a clean diaper Continue reading

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  • Lent 2015

    In the past, I have explored various Lenten themes. Two years ago (my heyday for blogging), I explored doubt and lament and injustice. And that is all good. This year for Lent, however, I would like to explore its traditional penitential aspect further. Repentance is something I have long struggled with because it reminds me Continue reading

  • Civic Rhetoric in the Classroom

    This is the fourth post in the the series I am doing discussing readings from my Foundations of Composition and Rhetoric Class. The first two posts (here and here) concerned Kenneth Burke‘s A Rhetoric of Motives. Last week, however, I began discussing A Guide to Composition Pedagogies. In last week’s post, I discussed my fraught relationship to Continue reading

  • The Problem with So-Called Critical Pedagogy

    This is my third blog post in my ongoing series reflecting on what I am reading in my Foundations of Composition and Rhetoric Class. The last two blog posts (which you can find here and here) concerned Kenneth Burke’s A Rhetoric of Motives. While very interesting, his work was definitely in the realm of theory. This Continue reading

  • Toward a Burkean Civic Rhetoric

    This is my second post in the series I am doing reflecting on readings from my Foundations of Composition and Rhetoric Class. For this week, we were assigned to finish reading Kenneth Burke’s A Rhetoric of Motives. You can find my first post about mystery in Burke here. In this post, I want to briefly explore one Continue reading

  • Mystery and Rhetoric in Burke’s Rhetoric of Motives

    I am taking a course this semester entitled “Foundations of Composition and Rhetoric.” As far as I understand things (and I might not since I missed the first class due to Ellie’s early arrival), this course is an examination of some of the intersections between Composition (the act of writing) and Rhetoric (the art of Continue reading

About Me

Gregory C. Jeffers
Anglican Christian | Husband | Father | Teacher | Scholar | Poet

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