Week 15 (2023)
phone-less excursions & Hannah Coulter, housing teardowns & tree longevity, risking to live & Holy Saturday, driving & friendship, why we sport & letters to a daughter
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reading: books
Diary Of A Country Priest, George Bernanos — audio — Initially learned about it in The Scandal Of Holiness, and had seen it come up multiple times since then. A worthwhile read.
reading: essays, articles, newsletters
The Fairfax Teardown — Addison Del Mastro, The Deleted Scenes — “Someone who plans to build a $2 or $2.5 million house—pretty typical for the larger of these new builds—on one of these lots will outbid someone who just wants to fix the place up. There’s a chicken and egg question here, but for somebody today, right now, who wants a fixer-upper, the housing market simply may not be able to deliver it. It delivers this instead.”
The Joy Of Losing Your Phone — Clare Coffey, The New Atlantis — “I suppose a more single-minded person might have immediately returned to the hotel and tried to begin the process of phone recovery. I decided to stay. I sat outside on a bench listening to a few bands, then went into the Tenampa.”
You Are You. We Live Here. This is Now. — Freddie deBoer — “That’s the existential question for humanity in the 21st century… Will you shoulder the risk of pursuing real human connection, as hard and intimidating and discouraging as that can be? Or will you hide in your room forever, comforted by fast food and porn and opiates and therapy and TikTok, risking nothing? It’s up to you.”
Chobani Yogurt And The Freedom To Fail — Rachel Joy Welcher, Dear Hildegaard — “And I want better for you. I want you to be free.
Free to fail. Free to laugh off the comments of others. Free to love people without being distracted by how they perceive you.”
Too Many Americans Live In Places Built For Cars — Not For Human Connection — Muizz Akhtar, Vox — “Close friendships can be difficult to form and maintain, but it’s clear that other friendships, like what the study calls “situational friends” or “place-based friendships” are easier to form in communities that are dense, walkable, and filled with spontaneous encounters.”
(related: The Case Of The Carseats, The Hidden Inequity Of Car-Based Design, and City Pattern, Life Pattern, shared previously)
Friendship And Its Discontents — Alan Jacobs, First Things — “Nevertheless, Augustine’s definition raises an important question: at what point does a cordial, or mutually enjoyable or beneficial relationship become a friendship?”
Hannah Coulter, The Green Lady, And Me — Emily G. Wenneborg, Plough — “Rather than choosing between these two pictures of Christian faithfulness – the rootedness of Berry’s Hannah Coulter and the detachment of Lewis’s Green Lady – we can learn from both; indeed, each is most illuminating in light of the other. I believe that Jesus, our wandering Lord, calls us to live as both settlers and exiles wherever we find ourselves.”
(related: Uprooted by Grace Olmstead and Longing For Home, shared previously. Also this series of thoughts from Hannah Anderson.)
Why We Sport — Christ Davis, Fathom — “The one that nags at me this football season is that sports, at large, are our effort to bring order out of chaos. And when I say chaos, I don’t mean the unfocused energy of a child or the messy family room that his haphazard expending of said energy creates. I mean the dark matter of the universe that we are pretty sure exists but have no ability to explain.”
The Life That Is Deeper Than Disaster — Kellie D. Brown, Ekstasis — “The Book of Job speaks bluntly about the human lifespan, that it is “few of days and full of trouble,” and “comes up like a flower and withers, flees like a shadow and does not last.” But the same chapter also provides us with the hope of longevity beyond the mortal: “there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again and that its shoots will not cease.””
(related: Joy Clarkson on Easter & people as trees)
A Poem For Black/Holy Saturday — Quina Aragon — “let God teach you lament
free you from faux comfort
the theology of Job’s friends.”
watching/listening
Diary Of A Country Priest discussions — Close Reads podcast — As another reader of the book said, “I am indebted” to this podcast for helping illuminate many of the rich insights tucked away in the unassuming novel.
Continuing On:
Verity with Phylicia Masonheimer — Episodes 64-68 — Marriage Series (episodes 9-12), Should Christian Women Watch Redeeming Love?
using: product, tip, resource
Harrowing Of Hell images — As a low-church Protestant, I feel my lack of exposure to these beautiful works of art from church history. There are surely innumerable images to find on the internet, but I enjoyed stumbling upon these ones. If anyone has any book recommendations on historical Christian artwork, I’d love to hear them! (Plus, more on Christ's Descent To The Dead.)
Turmeric Chewables — I plan to try this recipe (or another variation) as a way to get more of the benefits of turmeric… beyond just tea!
remembering
One Year Ago:
Two Years Ago:
This Week:
Thanks for sharing that Twitter thread from Hannah Anderson. I really appreciate her thoughts.