Week 14 (2022)
acedia & finding beauty, trees & catastrophic gardening, Flannery & Mary, disability & dehumanization, webs of health, affording houses & needing care work
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reading: books
The Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich — audio — I enjoyed her other novel, Future Home Of The Living God, far far more.
Celebration Of Discipline, Richard J. Foster — audio — A basic but decent overview of the various individual and collective disciplines that make up the Christian life.
reading: essays, articles, newsletters
The Mystery Of Being Human In A Dehumanizing World — Joshua Heavin, Mere Orthodoxy — “The marginalization and disposal of the lonely elderly, ethnic minorities, the supposedly unproductive, and especially those human beings with physical or intellectual disabilities is not only tolerated but becomes celebrated and championed as humane and dignified.
We not only forget, but actively avoid realizing, that even the most fortunate, affluent, and privileged among us, in time, will become utterly useless to our own selves and depend upon the compassion of others as our mortal bodies decay.”
Flannery Beyond Feminism — Abigail Rine Favale, Dappled Things — I’m intrigued by Flannery, as I’ve been (re)reading her novels and slowly working through The Complete Stories.
“She is not afraid of being overshadowed; she is afraid of overshadowing. Confining the spiritual throes of her interior life to a “natural” explanation of the female ego struggling to assert itself overlooks the explicitly supernatural focus of her work…
O’Connor’s writing, both her fiction and her journals, comes alive under a Catholic lens, rather than a feminist one. In the pages of her journals, she exhibits little concern with her identity as a woman vis-à-vis men, remaining far more preoccupied with her identity as a creature before her Creator. ‘Let Christian principles permeate my writing,’ she prays. ‘Please help me to get down under things and find where You are.’ Any careful reader of O’Connor can see that this prayer was answered in abundance.”
Gabriel's Word To Woman — Julia Hejdu, Church Life Journal — “From the very beginning, then, Mary, the personification of God’s people, shares intimately in both the agony and the triumph of her son…
On this day thousands of years ago, though the world would appear no different, her word of consent changed everything. Rejoice! Yours could too.”
Why We're Required To Find Beauty — Tsh Oxenredier, The Commonplace — “Why are we reading fiction when the non-fiction world burns?”
The World As A Web — Grace Olmstead, Granola — “Stories on global crises and pressing issues like climate change help us to remember and keep in mind the far-off strands of this web. Thinking of life in the ways Berry and Ingold define will, I hope, urge us to fight for health in both large ways and small.”
First Pink — Matt Miller, A Habitation — “I am not going to live my life, as a gardener or a human being, without facing catastrophe. If I ever thought that I could, the more fool me. The heartbreak of first pink will come.”
Street Trees: The Roots Of A Strong Town — Seairra Sheppard, Strong Towns — “As I grew older and came to look back on my own childhood, I realized so many of my stories revolve around trees and the social interactions that naturally happen around them. Whether it was a neighbor's fruit tree, the perfect climbing tree, or the largest tree in town, trees increased social engagements and made for great memories.”
About That Avocado Toast — Addison Del Mastro, The Deleted Scenes — “One of the problems is that our standard of living, from a consumer point of view, has gone up, while the cost of fundamentals like housing, college, healthcare, and childcare have skyrocketed. It is rather odd that you can buy a little piece of Japanese Wagyu beef for $50, or hop a plane for almost any country in the world for less than a thousand dollars or so, and yet daycare or rent can consume your entire salary. In some ways we are rich, and in other ways we are poor. The avocado toast is not the problem…
When homeownership is out of reach no matter what you do financially, that doesn’t incentivize saving. It does the opposite.”
Forced To Care — Anne Helen Petersen, Culture Study — “Within the individualist conception, there’s no such thing as a systemic issue: no eldercare crisis, no childcare crisis, just hard decisions and sacrifices that every family (read: every woman in that family) has to make on their own. If another family or individual can’t make similar decisions, that’s their problem, and no one else’s.”
The Noonday Demon — Jonathan Malesic, Plough — “In the world of Total Work, Pieper writes, ‘man seems to mistrust everything that is effortless; he can only enjoy, with a good conscience, what he has acquired with toil and trouble; he refuses to have anything as a gift’. There are investments, or loans, things that place an obligation upon the recipient. To get a gift only compounds capitalist anxiety: how can I become worthy of this? How can I pay it back?”
watching/listening
A Theology Of Womanhood (with Abigail Favale) — The Gloria Purvis Podcast — I’ve admired Abigail Favale and Erika Bachiochi from afar, ever since being introduced to them in this video Leah Libresco shared of the three of them giving talks. (All Catholic ladies who pursue incredible excellence and charity in their scholarship and writing. I’m currently reading Erika's book examining the writing of Mary Wollstonecraft. Abigail also created this this free program I’d like to go through sometime.)
Hearing God's Voice, Homeschooling & Living Seasonally (with Michelle Garrels) — Love In A Cottage — I, too have admired Michelle from afar! Many people know her husband Josh as a musician, but she herself is a wise & thoughtful woman in her own right.
Living The Lifestyle You Want: Money, Motherhood, and The Gospel — Risen Motherhood — Financial circumstances affect so much of life, parenting included. If we aren’t careful, having money or desiring more (for whatever items/experiences/security) can be an all-consuming idol that overshadows our professed devotion. What is it are hearts are itching after that money can provide? I needed this short reminder.
using: product, tip, resource
Tiny Theologians — We’ve loved the book set so far, since our two year-old is still a bit young for the cards.
remembering
A Year Ago:
Six week-old Lukas, spring light, and walks around our Sound Beach, NY neighborhood.
This Week:
Ate bacon caesar salads and crock pot chicken tortilla soup. Listened to the beauty of Adrián Berenguer (Little Things…!) Got a new monthly planner for 2022 (regretted buying the one I’d been using so far) and password book (analog is best for these things). Tried out some lovely new diffusing scents. The family got hit with a cold virus. Lost my voice to laryngitis. Was mostly miserable with a sore throat, inconsolable coughing, and/or not being able to talk over the weekend. Throw some existential crises and other physical ailments in there and you have One Grumpy, Angsty Mom. Here’s some snapshots of the good, because I need them just as much.