Week 10 (2025)
bereavement, suffering & ash wednesday, the Pantocrator, silence & bids for attention, the DC crash & IVF executive order
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to read: books
The Master And His Emissary — Iain McGilchrist — Okay, I’m a McGilchrist fan. *editing to add some helpful beef on the Reformation chapter.
to read: essays, articles, newsletters
The Pantocrator Meets The Master And His Emissary —
, Pilgrims In The Machine — “…it does tell us something about how the artist inclines us to see that duality. Whether he (or she?) knew it or not, the icon painter is subtly encouraging the viewer to see Christ’s mercy more prominently than his moral judgement. Both mercy and moral judgment matter, and both are suggested in the icon, and yet the shift of emphasis puts them in a particular balance.”Beyond Words — Arthur Aghajanian, Comment — “Silence, as an aesthetic and a spiritual choice, offers clarity in the fog of distractions. Its creative and skillful use in film allows space for viewers to listen attentively to themselves, to the world, and to God, reflecting the experience of the prophet Elijah, who found God not in the wind or fire but in a gentle whisper.”
- , Still Today — “Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, are all ways to bid for God’s attention. They are also all ways to be more attuned to His bids for ours—He calls us through our hunger, our spiritual desolations and consolations, and our general state of neediness… Your response to God and His response to you is this beautiful process of overlapping and reciprocating.”
If The Reagan Airport Crash Was “Waiting To Happen,” Why Didn’t Anyone Stop It? — Ari Schulman, The New Atlantis — “Does the air safety system bear the ultimate blame here? Or did the military, hurried members of Congress, government officials eager to please VIPs, the perplexing design ideas of the Dulles planners, and the public itself place so many competing demands on the airspace around the Potomac that disaster truly was just a matter of time? If the answer is yes, then the air safety system might just be an easy scapegoat for a broader rot, and we could be setting ourselves up for this to happen again.” (more succinct than all the videos watched post-tragedy)
Living In Hope: The Ministry Of A Bereavement Doula —
and Robert McFadden, Church Life Journal — “The pain is not lessened. The suffering is not wiped away. Yet, the burden is shared. Are we capable of the hope that allows us to walk with others? …God suffers with us by entering into our lived experiences. He does not shirk away from our sufferings. Rather, he embraces them and transfigures them with the hope of his unconditional love.”Ash Wednesday Is For Children And Their Anxious Mothers —
, Women Walking In Wisdom — “And, suddenly, I was surprised to find my chest expanding fully in breath. It met no weight of resistance, but rose up to receive the peace which Christ had given in those few moments of embodied faith… My children need not fear death; neither shall I fear it for them.”The Euthanasia Of Ivan Ilyich: Recovering Good Lives And Deaths In The Age Of Assisted Dying — Terence Sweeney, The Public Discourse — “Much of our life is suffering in this vale of tears. Our level of suffering varies but we all do suffer. One of the primary ethical questions of our lives is what we will offer those who are suffering. What we can offer each other in this is palliative care. Pain and suffering will come, but will we be there to lighten each other’s suffering? Tolstoy puts this question before us in the dying of Ivan Ilyich, who in his death finds compassion for others and so faces the light of divine compassion for himself.”
(related: The Lost Art Of Dying (book), The Cultural Roots Of Our Demographic Ennui, What Is Medicine For?, Bring Back Hippocrates, The Dark Kenosis Of Medical Education, and euthanasia/physician assisted suicide/end of life here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, shared previously)
Search IVF in either ’s archives or at Natural Womanhood for some helpful additions which bring together the necessary dance of the physiological, social, and spiritual… to varying degrees and in the most dignifying ways. As always, here’s the bucketful to which these have been added:
Responsible Self-Governance And Assisted Reproductive Technologies — Yuval Levin and Carter Snead, Ethics & Public Policy Center — “Given this appetite for federal legislation promoting IVF, it is useful to pause a moment to consider the complexity of the issue before moving forward. Yes, IVF has made it possible for many families to have the beautiful blessing of children. But the practice of IVF in America is also fraught with serious peril…”
(related: Snead’s book What It Means To Be Human: The Case For The Body In Public Bioethics, shared previously)
5 Things President Trump's Executive Order On IVF Gets Wrong —
, Institute For Family Studies — “The federal government can and should support family formation and help parents have the freedom to care for their children. Whether the goal is raising the overall fertility rate or helping poorer parents access care, expanding IVF is not the best way to achieve either of these goals… Ultimately, IVF necessarily relies on dehumanizing some children, which makes it a bad fit for creating a culture that welcomes all children.”(related from her: Embryos As Schrödinger’s Persons, The Troubling Questions Raised By Sex Selection Through IVF, A Locked Chest, shared previously)
Meandering thoughts combined with previously shared links incoming. Been going rogue with the stream of consciousness thoughts lately, somebody stop me!
Some points Leah raises are pretty obvious in any properly robust and honest look at the facets of demographic decline, and what efforts would truly help in the most whole and widespread sense. At the very least from a medical standpoint, lowering the cost of birth as noted by would be beneficial to… well, everyone giving birth, not just a very tiny segment of older, prospective parents with particular morals.
Additionally, too many girls and women receive bottom-of-the-barrel reproductive healthcare in the literal sense of care for health, as laid out here. (*nerd alert* She is working on a piece for publication on Protestants using NFP. Color me intrigued.) Anyways, we ought to put those frankenstein “fertility specialists” and that discount menstrual cycle “help” from traditional OBGYNs, hospital midwives, nurse practitioners in scare quotes because there is no restoration or healing in those approaches. Only bypassing, suppressing, dominating.
As for women’s wholeness and health post-baby, let’s start by considering it criminally negligent for a medical professional to put vulnerable postpartum mothers on the pill or other hormonal concoction in the name of convenience—as though they are widgets on a mechanical conveyer belt, not a complex body with a mind and soul impacted deeply by their interconnectivity. Such providers are certainly responsible for exacerbating a good amount of postpartum depression and probably suicide. And honestly, depression and ill-health in women generally.
Much medical training seems to have lost the plot of what the healing profession is for. After all, "There is no view (of health) from nowhere.” Our technological society has a view of impersonal, blunt control which “is incapable of acknowledging the inappropriateness of technical intervention in certain types of activity. When every activity is understood as making, then every situation into which we act is seen as a raw material, waiting to have something made out of it.” Making and unmaking with blunt force are both at play when it comes to fertility, modern medicine being glad to wield it. Care is too slow, tending too cumbersome. Neither are lucrative enough.
is doing the Lord’s work—hopefully becoming a widespread no-brainer in medical schools—of better understanding women’s bodies in order to identify underlying problems and take steps toward restoration and healing. Perhaps we could have a future where endless providers (even ones ostensibly specialized in women’s health) aren’t at a loss about common issues, telling women coming to them for answers “Well darn, I guess we better shuffle you off to IVF if you want a baby, to the pill if you don’t. I’m not trained in... *checks notes* understanding, healing, or even cooperating with the female body.” No biggie, we only make up half the population. A very niche group of people who want to be dignified with care ordered toward wholeness, right function, and health.
to watch, listen to
Dignity And Dynamism: The Future Of Conservative Technology Policy —
, , , Ari Schulman, et. alA very Life Considered gathering. Leah is probably the writer and thinker I’ve followed for the longest (perhaps my first Substack subscription years ago - and I still remember her responding to a newsletter email saying she’d pray for our second-born when I mentioned his newborn skull surgery. It’s the little things!), Brad and Clare have done good work on the pornography front (included here), and I appreciated their joint piece Stop Hacking Humans among other things. Ari’s essay was, hand over heart, linked above before I even watched this or knew he was participating… serendipity. That first hour is what I initially came for. It’s policy-focused but that is their wheelhouse, and it’s a needed one. For more personal reflections, see the PDFs further below.
The second panel—Family Stability, Good Jobs, and Economic Dynamism—is also worthwhile, says the business/economics major. Christine Rosen’s comments were particularly memorable. And Ryan gave a shout-out to The Housing Theory Of Everything, shared in a past newsletter.
Continuing On:
The Natural Womanhood Podcast with
— Season 3, Episode 2 — Miscarriage Help, Healing, And PreventionWoven Well Podcast with
— Episodes 42-44 — Processing Pregnancy Loss with Kerri-Anne Brown, IVF Is Not Your Only Option and Client Story: Anna (Anovulatory)
(more resources on female embodiment in the Big Ol' Compilation)
to glean from: tip, product, resource
Stations Of The Cross — water reveal book, printable pages, and illustrated book (which I purchased, the last two recommended by
).
PDFs to print off, sit with, ponder:
Wow, great collection this week, Haley. That middle section! I'm honored that you included my piece.
I know you've touched on this before, but, again, I really appreciate you drawing out the connections between how we view conception/birth and dying.
"We, who would so quickly assist him out of this life, would do so because we can bear with neither grace nor compassion. They ask too much of us for another." from Sweeney's essay. Having worked in palliative care and also being a mother blessed with steady succession of children, I could not tell you which one required more grace and compassion, or asked too much of me. Welcoming children even when they are 'inconvenient,' accepting the risk of heartbreak (as Abigail Jorgensen and Robert McFadden write), giving ourselves to the humble care of others for years into decades ("Care is too slow, tending too cumbersome.")....all are stretching our hearts to better love others, and preparing us for the good death. This is a massive encouragement to this stay-at-home mother. Self-service in childbearing years does not aid a good death; dying to self today does.
(Also, I'm praying for the days when women aren't told how to prevent their own PPD etc., but *anyone and everyone else* is told how to properly care and tend and nurture women in that tender time. Thanks for your work to help us here.)
You pulled no punches this week, Haley, and I loved every word of it!