16 Comments
User's avatar
Leah's avatar

Whoa I was blessedly not aware of the hate on alcohol going on and I think it’s so silly, but also so predictable. Medicine keeps viewing the human body as a materialistic machine, and if we are machines, there’s hope of immortality. I’m so glad that essay linked it to Covid. In my experience of it, sure, very very few of our immunocompromised patients got Covid, but every single one of them suffered from severe loneliness and many of them, delayed recovery, because we limited all their social interaction. Not to mention the delayed diagnoses because so many people no longer had a neighbor or church member take a good look at him and ask, “Are you feeling ok? You should get checked up.” A glass of wine and a good conversation would have done all of us some good, then.

Also I’m curious if ACOG is ever going to quit hiding the European secret from Americans: plenty of pregnant women drink alcohol and their babies are fine. I learned this in my fourth pregnancy what?!

(Thanks for linking my essay, I needed the reminder I wrote that, for myself, today.)

Expand full comment
Cassandra U's avatar

It’s binge drinking in the first trimester that causes fetal alcohol syndrome. I have a client who fits the diagnosis and mom didn’t drink a glass of wine. She drank the whole bottle, many times, before she knew she was pregnant. This is the distinction that’s missing in the conversation on alcohol.

Expand full comment
Leah's avatar

That’s so awful! Yes, there is a world of difference between “drinking heavily, especially in the first trimester, can cause FAS” and “there is no safe amount of alcohol ever at any time in pregnancy.”

Expand full comment
Sarah Rowell's avatar

AMEN to all of this but especially the Covid bit

Expand full comment
Dominika's avatar

I got Betty and the Mysterious Visitor too for my daughter who loves to garden with her grandma :) And I have spent quite a bit of time pouring over the pictures even without any kids around. Emily Sutton makes me want to make art.

I'm looking forward to reading a lot in here, but especially the "What is a Parish" essay. It wasn't until we started attending our current teeny-tiny parish tucked between houses in a neighborhood that I felt like I really understood what a parish is. Ours really is our home, and I can't imagine life without it.

Expand full comment
Grace Leuenberger's avatar

Your shoutout is much appreciated and also so fitting because the wine tasting I referred to in my Substack was one that Gisela led at the Doxology conference along with accompanying poetry readings from Malcolm Guite…talk about an appropriate setup for feasting and fellowship! She even took time to sit at my table as my friends and I asked her various questions about wine and the communal approach to it. I hadn’t realized she had a new book, so I’m glad you mentioned it here!

Expand full comment
Haley Baumeister's avatar

WHOA how funny. And what a cool opportunity!

Expand full comment
KP's avatar

Thank you for the pro tip saving those little essential oil bottles. With three girls who love picking dandelion flowers and winter coming in Sydney, I’ll need them. Our bushland flowers like crazy in our late winter of August. Spice jars are also handy for medium garden flowers.

Expand full comment
Steve Kays's avatar

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this to you Haley, but I definitely owe you one for introducing me to Mars Hill Audio.

Expand full comment
Haley Baumeister's avatar

It’s great!! Literally the OG treasure trove of Christian thinking. I recently stumbled across the editor of MH Audio Journal (through some of her poetry at a couple places) …and told her she has the (my?) dream job. Haha

Expand full comment
Gretchen Joanna's avatar

What does OG stand for? The only thing I can guess is Old Guard...

Expand full comment
Haley Baumeister's avatar

It's slang for Original Gangster haha

According to one definition:

It is "used to praise someone who's incredibly exceptional, authentic, or 'old-school' and who is an expert at something. This term can also be used to describe the original or originator of a thing."

Expand full comment
Gretchen Joanna's avatar

Thank you, Haley ❤️

Expand full comment
Steve Kays's avatar

That is so cool! And I think you’re accomplishing something very similar with this newsletter!

Expand full comment
Amelia McKee's avatar

The Cup Overflowing book reminds me of Roger Scruton’s I Drink Therefore I Am book, which was also about wine. Kind of a funny little book.

Loved Matthew Walther’s What Is A Parish article. So much to think about in that one.

Expand full comment
Grace Emily Stark's avatar

Okay the fact that you’re so close to exhausting the backlog of the NW podcast is a good reminder that I need to keep plugging away on recording season 4! (Hoping to air the first episode this June 😉)

Expand full comment