Tag: William James

• Traumatic Grace:

  rue transformation rarely arrives gently. A reflection on suffering, metanoia, and the breaking of the ego through traumatic grace.

  RMDell’Orfano

  June 2, 2026

  Autobio

  Abraham Lincoln, Blaise Pascal, C.S. Lewis, Character Transformation, Christian mysticism, Conversion, Dark Night of the Soul, Ego Death, Faith and Reason, Ignatius of Loyola, Leo Tolstoy, near-death experience, Oscar Wilde, Path Perilous, personal growth, Psychological Transformation, Religious Experience, Search for God, spiritual awakening, St. Francis of Assisi, Suffering, TBorn Again, Theology, Transformation Through Suffering, William James

• Shipyard Scars at Sixteen

  At sixteen, Richard M. Dell’Orfano worked in an East Boston shipyard where danger, steel, and sweat forged resilience that modern comfort no longer demands of young men.

  RMDell’Orfano

  May 26, 2026

  Autobio

  American culture, Civilian Conservation Corps, Coming of age, discipline, East Boston, hard work, hardship, industrial labor, masculinity crisis, memoir excerpt, moral equivalent of war, Path Perilous, Peace Corps, physical reality, resilience, shipyard labor, William James, working class, young men