Week 16 (2022)
repairing & remaining, women's hormones & what our physical selves are for, Holy Saturday & a story of mercy, Edward Hopper & needing our neighbors
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reading: books
Wise Blood, Flannery O’Connor — audio — My second time through in a few years. I’m also slowly going through her complete collection of short stories (there are so many, and I love her for them.)
The Death And Life Of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs — audio — The perfect companion to my obsession with reading urbanism/city planning writers… like Tiffany, Addison, and Seth (who have all written for the wonderful Strong Towns.) Another related substack is Wrath Of Gnon.
reading: essays, articles, newsletters
The Birthday Party At The End Of The World — Matthew Loftus, Plough — ”My family’s experience with food insecurity was mercifully brief, but for many people, struggles with food are life long… There is a deeply complex web of influences that shape the communities that we live in and the choices we make within them.”
Repair And Remain — Kurt Armstrong, Comment — “It’s a tough sell. I understand, because my undisciplined imagination, formed like everyone else’s by countless half-minute ads and building-sized billboards, frolics among fantastic, glamorous possibilities of something other than what I’ve already got.”
Kids Need Neighbors — Preston Pouteaux, Strong Towns — “Today in my neighborhood there are families who I trust, know, and love. There are people who are like grandparents to my daughters. There are people that we are grateful for who welcome our children and patch up scraped knees. There are kids who stop by and ask about how our daughters are doing and wonder if they can join in their fun. It takes time, but I am starting to see that I am not alone as a parent.”
This Is My Body — Suzanne M. Wolfe, Dappled Things — “When I became a mother I was able to revel in abundance, cradling my unborn children the way I had clasped the fish and chips beneath my sweater—my belly warm and bulky, the heat of it alive and life-giving, the mystery of me and of another. Then I would remember what I had forgotten, that the flesh is the outward sign of inner grace—symbiosis, or what Charles Williams called ‘co-inherence.’
‘This is my body.’”
Why The Balance Of Feminine Hormones Matters — Grace Emily Stark, Verily — “Furthermore, as detailed in the book This is Your Brain on Birth Control by Dr. Sarah E. Hill, this suppression of naturally-produced (endogenous) hormones has implications for other aspects of women’s health, including mental health and well-being.” (It’s fascinating to look at the connection between the hormonal birth control experiment of the 60’s and rates of breast cancer since then, in addition to its typical side effects — as well as even non-religiously-affiliated women embracing and working with their bodies’ fertility cycle for more natural ways of planning & preventing pregnancy.)
What Are Hands For? Technology, Hands, And The Wounds Of God — Joshua Pauling, Front Porch Republic — “Certainly, such digital tools are great achievements. But when technological layers increasingly mediate our experience of reality, where clicking and swiping become the primary mode of hand-use, we creep ever closer to crossing what L.M. Sacasas calls ‘a threshold of artificiality beyond which…our capacity to flourish as human beings is diminished.’”
Concerning The Nighthawks — Kathryn Sadakierski, Ekstasis — “We, too, are made to feel like spectators, separated by the glass windows of the diner, not participating within the scene, but remaining behind the partition. There’s mystery; we are left to wonder about the identities of these figures, making inferences about their feelings by the shadows they cast, imagining what their lives have been, what stories they would tell if a veil of silence didn’t loom over the scene like the moon.”
From Death Unto Life — Letters From A Catholic Feminist, Emma Dickinson, Claire Swinarski — “I could never have imagined what God was doing in my dad’s heart during those 48 hours at the convent, and I will never know, this side of heaven, what He was doing in those other 48 momentous hours–from the time of my dad’s fall to the time of his death, as he lay unconscious in a hospital bed. All I know is that our God is a God of mercy. Extreme, extraordinary, earth-shattering mercy.”
Death And Life On Holy Saturday — Cort Gatliff, Mere Orthodoxy — “As the Lenten season passes and Holy Saturday approaches, my wife’s stomach grows, a sign that something hidden and miraculous is taking place inside. In this, the womb and the tomb of Holy Saturday do similar work.”
watching/listening
Lecture On Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood [part 1] + [part 2] — An incredible listen which I felt I needed after going through Wise Blood for the second time in a few years.
Tsh Oxenreider and Jessica Hooten Wilson on The Moviegoer — Two of my favorites together.
Better Call Saul Season 6 — Oh yeah, Jakob and I are excited for the premiere on April 18th. We binged Breaking Bad and then then Better Call Saul during my third trimester and postpartum period with Lukas last year. A rare thing.
using: product, tip, resource
Other Goose — This is primarily a homeschool curriculum (from Erin Loechner of Design For Mankind). However, I’ve just been signed up for their free emails for a year or two now, and they give refreshing and thoughtful ideas for parenting. It will be a valuable resource to return to, especially as the kids get older.
remembering
A Year Ago:
Easter egg hunt with friends, 2 months with the littlest guy, springtime on Long Island, and buddies in the making.
This Week:
Finally, an accepted house offer! Ice cream, a Menards outing, and flowers to celebrate. Reading scripture straight through, which never ceases to be one of the best decisions made each year — The Lord’s very words: life and truth and sustenance. Receiving the hospitality of new church friends for Easter. (Our favorite kind of hospitality includes lots of kids, some managed chaos, a good meal, fresh air, and maybe some chickens.)