Week 13 (2023)
nostalgia & nature's lexicon, camping & lent, modernity's social frays, gritty soil & lullabies, ChatGPT, patients & dying
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reading: books
An Everlasting Meal, Tamar Adler — audio — A little review.
Notes From Underground, Fyodor Dostoyevsky — audio — Had to YouTube some analyses, but it was worthwhile as I continue to delve into his novels.
reading: essays, articles, newsletters
Noxious Nostalgia — Michelle Van Loon, Fathom — “Psychiatrist Dr. Gordon Livingston called nostalgia an enemy of hope, and I believe that is why nostalgia is a barren imitation of the biblical call to remember.”
The Joy Of Going Without: On Camping And Lent — Jenna Herrington, The Rabbit Room — “For the Israelites, [the wilderness] was a place of deprivation, testing, and judgment—a place of bitter water and fiery serpents. For Jesus, it was a place of hunger and temptation. But the wilderness was also where the Israelites were led by the pillar of cloud and fire and where they ate manna from heaven every day. The wilderness was where angels came and ministered to Jesus. Lent is a comparatively mild wilderness journey, but through this season perhaps we too can, in the midst of our discomfort, encounter God.”
Mid-Lent — Tamara Nicholl-Smith, Ekstasis — “I shall drink more than these slight sips. This ends one way: my heart a flame of roses.”
Reimagining Wealth, Part 2: The Cash Economy’s Liquidation Of Social Stability — Jeff Polet, Public Discourse — “We have left them bereft of the tangible resources that we know lead to a flourishing life… We constantly emphasize that higher education and the acquisition of material goods are the keys to a good life; but these are the two things that weaken social institutions.”
Gritty Soil — Tsh Oxenreider, The Commonplace — “But I also believe we need to churn a different fertilizer into the soil and keep actively adding it, tending and pruning our seedlings, and not assume they’ll grow just fine because we did. As Haidt frequently points out, things have shifted in the culture, and things aren’t what they used to be, with just a different flavor of foibles.”
The Fears And Hopes We Sing In Lullabies — Nadya Williams, Mere Orthodoxy — “It is an anxiety filled with its own savage wolves and geese in various unexpected new guises, and simply by living in this world, my children cannot help but breathe it in. It soaks into the very pores of their skin, invades their nightmares, and leads to questions about fears I never imagined they could have.”
Litanies Of Reclamation — Sally Thomas, Plough — “The fading of nature words – acorn, bluebell, dandelion, heron, otter, wren – from the active language of children strikes me as a kind of poverty. Too often, of course, this poverty intersects with material poverty.”
ChatGPT vs. The Hospital Patient — Carter Moore, Ecstatic — “I'm reminded that the work of Jesus—to be his hands and feet, to take care of those in need, to feed the hungry, and clothe the naked and destitute—aren't so easily replaced by A.I.”
Assisted Suicide And The Care Of Souls — Cole Hartin, Commonweal — “…there is, baked in with this belief that one chooses one’s own end, the deeply Christian impulse toward self-sacrifice for the sake of the other. This is a dangerous combination, because the vision of the crucified one who died for us becomes the rallying point for euthanasia.”
(related: essays on MAID from Plough and The New Atlantis, shared previously)
Point Me To The Skies — Anthony Esolen, Hearth & Field — “The old lady was terrified because she was alone and she didn’t understand what people were saying to her. Imagine if she had had Christ to gaze upon… I had rather be at home, with my family nearby, and the dog sleeping at my feet, and the cross of Christ to look on, to shine through the gloom, as the old hymn puts it, and point me to the skies.”
watching/listening
Of Gods And Men — Got around to watching this recommended movie recently with Jakob.
Continuing On:
Verity with Phylicia Masonheimer — Episodes 55-59 — The Trinity, Modalism, and ESS, Honest Marriage Series (episodes 1-4).
using: product, tip, resource
The Golgotha Experience — Poor Bishop Hooper — Created especially for Holy Week, which is coming up. (Or listen to the album version of Golgotha, or any of the Psalms set to music with their ambitious project Every Psalm.)
I first learned about their music when Leah Roberts chatted on the Love In A Cottage podcast, and am so glad I did.
remembering
One Year Ago:
Two Years Ago:
This Week:
Thanks for the shout out, Haley!
I've enjoyed exploring these articles, and I especially enjoyed the Plough piece on The Lost Words. I love that book, and I'm currently reading Robert Macfarlane's Landmarks, which is geared toward adults but equally enchanting!
I love Of Gods and Men! An Everlasting Feast is also very interesting.