All posts by Eric Robert Nolan

Eric Robert Nolan graduated from Mary Washington College in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. He spent several years a news reporter and editorial writer for the Culpeper Star Exponent in Culpeper, Virginia. His work has also appeared on the front pages of numerous newspapers in Virginia, including The Free Lance – Star and The Daily Progress. Eric entered the field of philanthropy in 1996, as a grant writer for nonprofit healthcare organizations. Eric’s poetry has been featured by Dead Beats Literary Blog, Dagda Publishing, The International War Veterans’ Poetry Archive, and elsewhere. His poetry will also be published by Illumen Magazine in its Spring 2014 issue.

The Roanoke Star prints my comments about the word “overeducated.”

I am so pleased to see The Roanoke Star today print my commentary about the recent popular discussion of the word “overeducated.”  You can find it here over at The Roanoke Star’s website.

Thank you, Publisher Stuart Revercomb, for allowing me to share my thoughts at this terrific venue for local news and commentary.



“Vase of Flowers,” Henri Fantin-Latour, 1877

Oil on canvas.

Henri_Fantin-Latour_-_Vase_of_Flowers_-_Google_Art_Project

The New River Valley News prints my letter to the editor about the word “overeducated.”

The New River Valley News printed my letter to the editor about the word “overeducated” being bandied about by right-wing politicians.  You can find it right here.

Thank you, Editor and Web Developer Rose Bowen!



Careful. I hear some girl lost her baby brother there.

Also … we won’t be on this road long. Just a Minotaur two.

laby

The Bosphorus Review of Books publishes “Delaware Sheets.”

I’m honored to share here that the Bosphorus Review of Books in the Republic of Turkey today published my poem “Delaware Sheets.”  You can find it right here.

The Bosphorus Review of Books is a bi-monthly English-language literary journal based in Istanbul.  It is a truly outstanding publication, with the goal of connecting Istanbul with the global literary community.  I am grateful indeed to Poetry Editor Maged Hussein for allowing me the opportunity to see my work appear in such a superb periodical.



“Vase of Flowers,” Odilon Redon, 1900

Odilon_Redon_-_Vase_of_Flowers_-_1900-16

There are two immutable rules I have learned about women.

There are two immutable rules I have learned about women:
1) Never call a woman by the wrong name, and
2) Never date an actress.

Siri




*PLEASE NOTE — the second rule above is an obvious jest.  I’m sure that there are countless actresses out there who are lovely people!  Actors too.  I was an actor at one time, seriously.

I can never be “overeducated.”

So … the term “overeducated” has gained currency in the national discourse.


I myself can never be “overeducated.”


The more that I learn, the more I understand how much more I have to learn. The greater my knowledge, the smaller a fraction it seems of the vast and sprawling sum of knowledge to be gained.

It is like cresting a tall hill at the edge of my neighborhood, only to lay eyes for the first time upon distant ranges of mountains, lining a dawn horizon like endless, luminous, upward serrated silver. I am richer for having seen them there — no matter how paltry my hilltop now seems when I imagine it measured against them. And now that I know the mountains are there, there is a chance that I will someday depart to reach their feet.

I hope I never call myself an “expert” in any subject. The word is fool’s gold. Hubris clings like oil to the circumference of its rounded letters.

But shaming the pursuit of knowledge? Chiding those who’ve worked to attain it, as though their diligence and curiosity were character flaws? That is worse.


Let me tell you something that I have learned in my nearly half century on this planet. When people tell you not to think, then you should think. When people tell you not to ask questions, then you should ask questions. There is always information or a new perspective that the people behind such admonitions do not want you to gain.

And why should we trust those who would deny us so?


Adams_The_Tetons_and_the_Snake_River

Photo credit: By Ansel Adams – This media is available in the holdings of the National Archives and Records Administration, cataloged under the National Archives Identifier (NAID) 519904., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=118192

Detail from “Monastery of Innisfallen Island and Ross Castle Killarny,” William L. Walton after Frances Emilia Crofton, 1854

Lithograph.

Frances_Emilia_Crofton_Ross_Castle_tinted_III_(1)

Spellchick.

She blinded me with science.

A- st

B -- st (2)

c

d

e

More on Page 2 …