Week 3 (2025)
restoring our social fabric & dating culture, returning to church, flourishing within constraints & protecting children, flexibility in friendship & motherhood
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to read: books
Don Quixote — Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra — This is more humorous than I initially realized... though in all honesty, I couldn't get into it as a whole. Not sure why, but picking it up and enjoying the story over the past few weeks was a struggle.
Beauty: A Very Short Introduction — Roger Scruton — Loved… more here.
![Don Quixote [Book]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1a47d38e-7865-4e6d-80eb-fa9a7fe74323_1512x2339.jpeg "Don Quixote [Book]")
to read: essays, articles, newsletters
Panic In The Valley Of Dry Bones —
, Clay Jar Review — “I catch a sob in my throat and find myself at home in my body, lying on my back on the living room floor. I reach out my hand, feel the roughness of old carpet, and wonder at the ease of my rebirth.”- , Front Porch Republic — “In an era of the “loneliness epidemic,” cures may be found in unexpected places.”
New Year's Resolution: Bring Back The Aunties —
, Institute For Family Studies — “We have a lot of frayed social fabric to make up. Literal weaving has historically always been one of women’s core skills; I firmly believe the metaphorical kind has, too.”(original post and discussion here — related: ’s How To Fix Our Broken Dating Culture, ’s Gen Z Is Ditching The Dating Apps, Dating Needs Real-Life Social Networks, Cheap Sex (book), ’s entire archives, and a guidebook for young adults here and here, shared previously)
Friendship Is An Oasis — Kiera Petrick, Dappled Things — “I love Death Comes for the Archbishop. I’ve read it several times in the last fifteen years, and every time I appreciate something different… This last time, though, what spoke to me most was how Bishop Latour and Fr. Joseph were willing to let each other go.”
Seasons Of Motherhood And The Power Of Flexibility —
, Public Discourse — “…we need to challenge this culture of stasis and become more open to seeing motherhood as characterized by change, ongoing discernment, and flexibility.”(discussion here)
Role Model — Sarah B. Cahalan, Dappled Things —
“In all that it can fall into directly,
an annihilating sort
of self-absorption.”You Have Five Children. How Do You Give Them Enough Attention? —
, Women Walking In Wisdom — “Imagine if we applied altruistic narcissism to some of the tasks above, in the same way we are tempted to do in family planning…”(related: ’s anecdotal benefits of having a large, now-grown family here and here, shared previously)
Turning Out, Tuning In? — Helene Stapinski, Commonweal — “Some of his young parishioners have been brought up in faith, others are completely new to it. Some drift in and out, others come every week. “But they’re all searching in the face of so much uncertainty and anxiety,” he said.”
- , American Compass — “The social acid of the smartphone era is dissolving six fundamental pillars of conservatism: Limits, Tradition, Patience, Dependence, Embeddedness, and Embodiment… If technology promises a transcendence of natural constraints, why should we shackle ourselves with social and political ones?”
Parents Can't Fight Porn Alone —
& , First Things — “A government that treats all content as presumptively available frames value judgments on pornography as a matter of mere consumer choice. It puts pornography in the same category as soft drinks. But porn, as research shows, is not digital sugar; it is digital fentanyl. A government that legally blocks pornography for children will put the moral burden where it belongs, telling producers: You have no right to show this to children.”(their individual posts here and here — related reads from Jonathon Van Maren, Isabel Hogben, Joshua Heavin, Mary Harrington, John Shelton, Freya India, Matthew Loftus, Mark Watney, Brad Littlejohn here and here, Caleb Morell, Clare Morell, Mark Regnerus’ book Cheap Sex, research from IFS, Andy Crouch on the online worlds of boys vs. girls, and parents taking The Postman Pledge, shared previously
to watch, listen to
Continuing On:
Black & Red All Over: A Classic Confessing Anglican Podcast with Steven Wedgeworth & Richard Tarsitano — Articles of Religion (Pt.1) — Discussing Articles 1-8
The Natural Womanhood Podcast with
& Cassondra Moriarty — Season 2, Episode 6 — Where We Talk About Porn with — “People talk about how their lives were just destroyed… there’s a lot of compounding tragedies.” — “We’ve divorced sexuality from the physical realities of what it is and what it leads to.” — “Fertility awareness puts sex and sexuality in the context of your whole life, the wholeness of your person.” — “Seeing parts of the human body being used for all the things they are used for… breastfeeding, childbirth… that helps you have a much better context for what the body is for. And it can help you break one of the lies of pornography: that other people’s bodies exist for my pleasure.”Woven Well Podcast with
— Episodes 31-32 — The NaPro Difference and 5 Teen Cycle Issues You Shouldn't Ignore — “Both of the [nurse practitioner] programs I went through are highly esteemed programs, and they’re just unaware of how much more is out there… What we’re wanting is to actually restore natural hormone function.”
(more resources on female embodiment in the Big Ol' Compilation)
to glean from: tip, product, resource
This Coat Rack + These Size Hangers — 1,500 something square feet in a 1940’s home with minimal storage space and three little boys with capes and coats and sweaters in the winter and no place for them to hang them up themselves... I was going a bit nuts until remembering you can get these kid-level coat racks. The side hooks are key and so helpful for extras. Anyways, I was inordinately satisfied with this solution to our messy woes. Please clap.
Related to both the First Things essay (and previous reads) & the Natural Womanhood podcast above:
Defend Young Minds — Here are the widely appreciated Good Pictures, Bad Pictures books, along with other parental guides and such.
Protect Young Eyes — “We show families, schools, and churches how to create safer digital spaces.”
Fight The New Drug — A “non-religious and non-legislative nonprofit… We aim to decrease the demand for sexual exploitation through education while helping individuals live empowered lives free from the harmful effects of pornography.”
For Men — Strive21 (from Matt Fradd of Pints With Aquinas), Easy Peasy Method (shared by Anthony B. Bradley as a secular resource he recommends), Bethesda Workshops, The Samson Society, and this book from Ray Ortlund.
For Women — Magdala Ministries (“The need for women to be accompanied in the journey towards healing from addiction has gone sorely unmet, and that’s why we’re here”), Bethesda Workshops, this conversation (on sexual sin, including the written erotica women tend to gravitate towards) and this book from Phylicia Masonheimer.
For Marriages — Fight For Love Ministries
Thanks for the excellent reading list on a sick day for us! Too much good stuff to comment on, but I’ll say I really appreciated your review on Beauty. I want to read it now!
My philosophy elective in college was Philosophy of Art and it totally changed my view on art! Namely, it gave me the idea that art isn’t at its best hanging in a museum, but when purposefully placed and used within our everyday lives. It was the beginning of shaping my heart toward the role of beauty in Christian worship and architecture.
Thanks again for the list, and for including my piece! What a joy to be placed next to Dixie!
Fun fact: We did that Natural Womanhood interview with Dr. Matthew Loftus while he was living in Africa, where he and his family were serving as missionaries. The video (which we did not share) was pretty hilarious, as he did it under a bedsheet, so as to try to block out the noise in the small home (with thin walls) in which they were living. That was such a great conversation, in many ways. Thanks for sharing!