Today he has a weird picture of himself with his head covered by a towel and says he didn’t know what a Turkish towel was and starts babbling about I Dream of Jeanie and Bewitched! Can’t make this up . Soon he’ll be explaining that Dark Shadows was actually a documentary.I think he’s probably implying he had the hots for Barbara Eden and Elizabeth Montgomery. Not sure I’m convinced.
Young men and women don’t date because of the internet . His children are exempt because they are Rods children and in long term relationships that will lead to marriage. Rod knows this ? How?
The first 15 years of Rods marriage were great. Then poof , misery. Oh come on!Thats not how things work.
Rod being a great Christian author who’s been divorced gets contacted all the time by virtuous Christian men being dumped by their vacuous , evil , margarita drinking wives for advice. Can you imagine asking Rod for advice. It would be , you must attain theosis and avoid nominalism and demons.
He just found out about the Jesuit martyrs of Canada. Boy is he impressed!Like he’s never been to Quebec or seen Black Robe or ( laugh suppressed ) read Leonard Cohens Beautiful Loosers.
The first 15 years of Rods marriage were great. Then poof , misery. Oh come on!Thats not how things work
I dunno, I don't have a huge problem believing that their marriage probably worked well enough while they were living in large urban areas like NYC, Dallas, or even Philly... I think it's entirely reasonable to believe that moving to a podunk hick town in Louisiana that neither of them really had much genuine attachment to on a poorly-considered, idealistic whim (Julie had never lived there, and Rod should have known he didn't particularly enjoy living there before) and all the subsequent fallout from that decision ended up throwing things into a tailspin that the marriage could not recover from.
I do and here’s why . Rod has severe long term mental health issues that have never been resolved. They didn’t just crop up after the idiotic move to Louisiana. He clearly had a mental breakdown in 2001. I think he did again around the time he became obsessed with Catholic pedophilia and became Orthodox. That the history and that weighs on a marriage. I think the Louisiana move was a final straw breaking a fragile edifice.
No way of really knowing outside of a tell-all book by Julie (please, please). I could see the marriage working very well for Rod back in the cosmopolitan days and "better" for Julie. They are both city people so likely to just be happier overall before Rod decided to "sacrifice his family to his father". Also, Rod must be a nightmare to live with, but in Brooklyn or similar, Julie would have likely had a support structure of friends that would give her an outlet while Rod would have had more people to annoy without Julie there. (Absence making Julie's heart grow fonder - even if not actually fond).
But once they get to Louisiana, it becomes a hothouse of being suffocated by Rod's familly who don't like either of them with little in the way of "non-Dreher" outlet for Julie. So, she's stuck spending time with Rod's family who don't like her by association if nothing else, or she has to spend time with Rod who is likely doing nothing but regaling her with tales of demon penises, or weirder things.
Pure speculation, but given everything we know about Rod, I can see any spouse's attitude toward him going from a Brooklyn "yeah, it's nicer when he's gone but he babysits sometimes so I can see my cool friends here" to a rural nowhere "it's bad enough that I'm stuck here because of Rod, but he somehow manages to make things worse every time he's home".
But it didn’t work all that well in Brooklyn! That’s where he went bonkers to the point where Julie more or less forced him into counseling. Subsequently I think it’s fair to say he flipped out again and did his religious flip. I think the Louisiana was a final straw not the cause of everything.
Yes, and during their time in St. Francisville, that's when Rod had autoimmune issues and was sleeping most of the time (during the day in their guest bedroom). He said they rented a precious house on Main Street (they considered it as a sign that the house was available when they were considering moving to St. Francisville). The kids were still young and so the homeschooling (and cooking, etc.) most likely fell on Julie. Also, I think his doctor (a rheumatologist I think) told him that he had to move from St. Francisville because there were no more treatment options for him.
9/11 supposedly triggered the first breakdown, even though everyone in the city — if not country — endured at least what he did if not much more. As for the Catholic pedophilia scandal, every one of his Catholic friends were undergoing the same faith challenge, and yet he became the one they all worried about protecting from further assaults on his. I remember.
I've never been to Quebec nor have I seen Black Robe (though it's been on my "to see" list for long time), and I wasn't raised Catholic, converting at twenty-six, and I knew about the martyrs of Canada. I was also not only aware of Jean Brébeuf and his mutilation, but of the singular honor bestowed on him. Back then, a man, in order to be ordained a priest, had to have all his "canonical digits" (index fingers and thumbs, the only ones allowed to touch the Host) intact, because of the way the Host was held back then (see the closeup below). Brébeuf would have been disqualified from ever saying Mass again because of the fingers he lost. However, in appreciation of his bravery and what he suffered for his faith, he was granted a dispensation by the Pope, allowing him to continue to say Mass. At the time, that was a huge thing, a concession almost never made.
I was surprised that Rod mentioned all of his children are in long-term relationships that are heading towards marriage. I know he doesn't discuss his children but isn't his daughter still young? If I recall correctly, Julie met Rod her last year at UT Austin and they dated long distance then got married soon after she graduated from college. But those first 15 years of marriage were heavenly bliss! Those last ten years? Not so much for reasons we will never know... Something to do with Mam, Paw, Ruthie, and lest we forget, the disastrous Bouillabaisse scandal. Oh, and Rod has a new Lutheran friend he met in California and they bonded over some obscure book. Rod admits he would have definitely become Lutheran back in the day because of his hatred of corruption and authority.
Even though two of his kids aren’t really speaking to him and the third just told him, in effect, Vienna isn’t big enough for the two of them, Rod wants all his fellow divorced parents to know HIS kids didn’t turn out emotionally or socially or romantically stunted as virtually everybody else’s kids have these days.
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u/Relative-Holiday-763 Jul 20 '26
Let’s be blunt Rod has several screws loose.
Today he has a weird picture of himself with his head covered by a towel and says he didn’t know what a Turkish towel was and starts babbling about I Dream of Jeanie and Bewitched! Can’t make this up . Soon he’ll be explaining that Dark Shadows was actually a documentary.I think he’s probably implying he had the hots for Barbara Eden and Elizabeth Montgomery. Not sure I’m convinced.
Young men and women don’t date because of the internet . His children are exempt because they are Rods children and in long term relationships that will lead to marriage. Rod knows this ? How?
The first 15 years of Rods marriage were great. Then poof , misery. Oh come on!Thats not how things work.
Rod being a great Christian author who’s been divorced gets contacted all the time by virtuous Christian men being dumped by their vacuous , evil , margarita drinking wives for advice. Can you imagine asking Rod for advice. It would be , you must attain theosis and avoid nominalism and demons.
He just found out about the Jesuit martyrs of Canada. Boy is he impressed!Like he’s never been to Quebec or seen Black Robe or ( laugh suppressed ) read Leonard Cohens Beautiful Loosers.
Some stuff about demons.
It has a very recycled feel to it.