Week 25 (2021)
modeling greed or generosity, reimagined community life & poems for fathers day, educational snobbery & giving birth at the threshold of death
(Open in your browser — emails cut off at the end!)
to read: essays, articles
What Oxford taught me about posh people— James Rebanks, UnHerd — “A lot of people treat you different when they think you are an Oxford graduate than when they think you are a farm labourer. They talk to you differently. They talk to you more. They invite you to their house and try to make friends with you. They talk about books. Some of this is perhaps based on not unreasonable assumptions. Some of it is just lazy snobbery.”
Prepare Yourself— Rebecca D. Martin, Curator — A perfect essay to read in the quiet, early morning hours when you can’t go back to sleep. “A story about marriage, childbirth, the medical profession, George MacDonald, the Danse Macabre, and what it means to be a woman.”
Kids Need Your Time, Not Your Money — Johann Christoph Arnold, Plough — "In an age where the dollar has cast its spell over every corner of public and private life, the most insidious danger to children may be the economic lens through which we view them."
On children’s marketing, adult greed & selfishness, being present & grateful, and facing outward to serve.
After Pandemic Languishing, Reimagine Community Life— Amber Lapp, Institute for Family Studies — “As a mother of five, I’ve sometimes encountered an attitude that goes something like this: ‘If you choose to have kids, then you better be able to provide for them—and if you find yourself stressed out in the process, well, then, you should have thought about that before having so many of them.’ But at that community meeting, someone told the Oh’s, ‘Your children are our children.’”
As an aside, I’ve enjoyed the gorgeous landscape photos Norann Voll, quoted in the article, regularly shares on Twitter.
Three Poems for Father's Day— Jacob Stratman, Plough — “Consider Mary who knew, always resting
in the assurance that she is known
that she didn’t need to rehearse,she didn’t need to pose her posture,
her words now an anthologyof gestures of praise of automatic
awe and love and yes.”
to read: books
A Wind in the Door, Madeleine L’Engle — audio — The last time I enjoyed this one was right after our wedding (maybe even during part of our honeymoon). Glad to be revisiting this series.
to watch
Magic in the Mundane — Ryan Booth — Take a 6 minute beauty break.
to listen: music
Admittedly, a lot of John Mayer — who was making music when I was in middle school, and is still making music for married moms of two kids.
to listen: audio
Why Maintenance Matters — June 22nd — Gracy Olmstead, Leah Libresco Sargeant, Andrew Russell, and Lee Vinsel
Discussing The Innovation Delusion: How Our Obsession with the New Has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most.
Let The Body Testify — June 23rd — Leah Libresco Sargeant, Marianne Wright
Discussing Leah’s essay Let the Body Testify, in which she “offers a feminist critique of how modern society pushes women to change their bodies”
to cook
Slow Cooker Texas Pulled Pork — Super easy, and provided us with a few meals’ worth of barbecue sandwiches. (You could easily trade the seasonings to make tacos or asian-style pork bowls.)
to celebrate
Juneteenth, now a federal holiday.
Fatherhood, in its many forms. (As you can see, I passed down those chubby cheeks to my boys.)
to remember, reflect
A Year Ago…
Jakob’s first Father’s Day, and a trip to the beach with 6 month-old Ezra.
This Week...
For ladies night, we give thanks. And for last-minute days off for Jakob, trips to the park, cold treats and dinner and drinks with friends, beach mornings that are worth all the lingering sand, first solo grocery trip with both boys, library visits, the cute chaos of water play with a bunch of tiny ones.
I couldn’t help but accidentally notice some themes I came across online and in person (and have been thinking about) this week.
The above pieces on the exclusivity and partiality education can breed… the western default to selfishness & greed we pass down to our children (and the antidotes of gratefulness, generosity, & outward-facing service)... and the life-giving “inconvenient hospitality” foreign to our bent toward image-centric entertaining for those who benefit us… all showed some problems and solutions to modern life.
And then I saw Sam essentially sum everything up.
(Covetousness/Greed and Partiality are sneaky.)
Going along with the antidotes of generosity & inconvenient hospitality, Dr. Bradley had a suggestion:
(You or your family could live this out another way. We, the Baumeisters, have our own particular callings to pray about. But with the abundance of excess space, money, and resources of many Christians… things like this shouldn’t be odd for a self-sacrificial people.)
“…in the same way we had a fond affection for you
and were delighted to share with you
not only the gospel of God,
but also our own lives,
because you had become very dear to us.”
1 Thessalonians 2:8