Week 13 (2021)
spacious gentleness, being fed by books, cornerstone vs. capstone marriage, caretakers in the market, feminism and its solutions
(Open in your browser — emails cut off at the end!)
to read: essays, articles
The Risk of Gentleness: Welcoming the Baby I Did Not Want — Gracy Olmstead, Plough (audio recording available!) — “There’s not enough life in us to match his own, not enough joy in our hearts to comprehend his mirth and delight. We fear God’s blessings more often than we ask for them, and seek to substitute our own paltry petitions for his awesome beneficence.
We are only willing to go so far, to make so much room. We are afraid of his glorious life, and the risks it might require of us. Like Mary, we must make space: to accept our feebleness and embrace the mystery, knowing that God is good even – and especially – in our weakness and our poverty. As Nouwen says, it is only when we’ve realized our poverty that we can become good hosts.”
Whether Poetry or Picture Books — Aarik Danielsen, Exstasis — “Reading my son to sleep, then reading while he slumbers, I recognize the similarity of our need.”
Working-Class Christians and the Future of Marriage— Amber Lapp, Institute for Family Studies — “In The Future of Christian Marriage, Regnerus identifies the shift from cornerstone to capstone as a key framework for understanding the marriage recession among Christians.
But if marriage is still viewed as formative among some less-educated and poorer Christian young adults, then perhaps this is one of the ways that the Church can be ‘evangelized by the poor.’”
My Mother Risked It All on the Beanie Baby Boom— Meg Conley — “She was a young mom decades before Instagram. She had no accessible way to monetize her domesticity.” (Here’s Meg talking about the article and its relation to the influencer market, if you need a teaser.)
Responding to Reproductive Asymmetry — Leah Libresco Sargeant, Other Feminisms — “Is the goal to help women “catch up” to men’s freedom to walk away? That’s the logic of abortion, artificial wombs, the promotion of casual sex.
Or is the goal to make room for women as they are, and even to help men “catch up” to the kind of responsibility that women shoulder unchosen?
I’m in the latter camp, thinking men and women are both ill-served by a culture that expects us to be rootless widgets, able to walk away from anything that complicates our availability to an employer.
Women find our culture an impossible fit, but just because men can contort themselves to fit into an inhumane economy doesn’t mean they’re well-served by those demands.”
to read: books
Death Comes for the Archbishop, Willa Cather — audio — An enjoyable recommendation by Gracy Olmstead.
That Sounds Fun, Annie F. Downs — audio — Her “Eden” terminology, sprinkled through the book, really captured me.
to watch
Breaking Bad — We’re on season two and can’t stop now.
Sufjan Stevens albums described by The Office — It’s too perfect.
to listen: music
Nuit — Tony Anderson — All his music has a life of its own, and I recommend it all to you. My favorite from this one is ‘Tenderness’. (Here he is talking about the album.)
Justice (Triple Chucks Deluxe) — Justin Bieber — I cannot deny that I love it. The features are perfect.
to listen: audio
Is Retirement Wrong? — New Polity — A consideration of what we invest in, what retirement is even for, and whether the fruits of the end of our lives should be the money and independence, or the relationships we have built.
to cook
Pork Ribs — Low and slow (with applewood) on the Weber Kettle. Thanks, Jakob.
Omlettes — Been so long we almost forgot how good these are. (Green pepper, mushroom, onion, bacon, pepper jack cheese.)
to remember, reflect
A Year Ago...
Jakob was going wild with instagram stories, I was taking walks on the beach down the street, and enjoying the perfect age for wrap-wearing.
This Week...
Playing in toilets, eating birthday cake with friends, snuggling/burping/nursing/changing/swaddling/soothing the baby, keeping an eye on and laughing with the toddler, squinting at sunshine, taking in spring air, smelling charcoal in the backyard, giving haircuts, watching Breaking Bad through the baby’s witching hours, learning my limits, but also that the difficult work done within those particular limits matters. (And we won’t regret these efforts 30 years from now.)
“When you teach them to hold your hand in a parking lot and speak kindly at home. When you lift your body from a warm bed to comfort them before the sun rises. When you kiss your spouse in the hallway with laundry avalanching in the hamper.
When you choose them over and over to glory of God, you're shouting a war cry that this--what the Father has given you--is worth fighting for. And hell trembles to hear it.”
-Breanne Rodgers
“And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount.
But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
Luke 6:33-36