Week 32 (2024)
naming birds, angels, and women, Terrence Malick & the spiritual realm, mapping loneliness & restoring institutions, luxury beliefs & the plight of stay-at-home-parents
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to read: books
Alienated America — Timothy P. Carney — My teeny tiny review.
to read: essays, articles, newsletters
The Loneliness Index — Nicholas Rethemeier, Comment — “The systemic nature of so many of these societal ills means that one fix won’t bring about major change.” — A fascinating visual look at the phenomena discussed in Carney’s book from this week.
(related: What's Behind America's Loneliness Crisis?, shared last week)
Four Lessons For A Fragile America —
, Tablet — “[New Urbanism’s] focus on density, mixed-use, and walkability points us in the right direction, but is an incomplete vision: Only spatial boundedness and a thick set of institutions can restore social vitality… It is difficult to envision an alternative way of life if you haven’t had a good look at it.”Luxury Beliefs Applied To Urbanism —
, Urbanism Speakeasy — “It’s easy to see luxury beliefs in politically-charged topics, but they also infiltrate boring infrastructure topics like housing and transportation policy.”(related: Escaping The Housing Trap (book) and Arbitrary Lines (book), shared previously)
The Unexamined Plight Of Stay-At-Home Parents —
Ivana Greco & Elliot Haspel — It Doesn’t Have To Be This Hard — “…I’d love to see child care policy makers make more of an effort to understand what families actually want, rather than proceeding with a top-down vision of how families should operate.”(related: Elliot’s The Paradox Of Stay-At-Home Parents and Ivana’s Why We Need A G.I. Bill For Homemakers, Reframing Family Policy, Supporting American Homemakers, When We Outsource Every Hard Thing What Do We Lose?, Let's Bring Back The Term 'Homemaker', some of her substack and IFS pieces, shared previously — not sure if I’ve linked it here but her interview with was big-picture, practical, and wise.)
Recently watched To The Wonder and Knight Of Cups for the first time in years:
Terrence Malick And The Fecundity Of Commitment — Dawn LaValle, First Things — “Until then, her love of Neil has been contraceptive in the deepest sense, and Neil is brought face to face with his fear… ‘You fear your love has died; perhaps it is waiting to be transformed into something higher.’”
Terrence Malick's Openness To Life — William Randolph Brafford, First Things — “When the Knight is falling in love, or opening himself to love, he goes to the ocean. So we have a desert, and an ocean, and between them, The City, where the Knight experiences ambition, confusion, fear, and desire. The deeper the Knight’s love for a woman, the closer they get to the water… Malick’s message in Knight of Cups is perhaps the message of his whole career.”
Malick's Masterpiece — Matthew Schmitz, First Things — “The image becomes especially personal when the men refuse to have children. Contraceptive barriers choke off life, close hearts to love. Knight of Cups not only states this truth, it dramatizes our resistance to it. Here we see the logic of its loosey-goosey form. The hero’s inability to commit makes his life a succession of events rather than a story… When I watch it, I see my life and that of my peers. Its realism stings.”
(related: Alan Jacobs' book-in-progress)
Cessationism — Caleb Westbrook, Ekstasis — “Beware!
The devil prowls around
in our ancient books, our modern
minds much too refined for
such superstition”To Consume With Fire — Sarah Malone, Dappled Things (resharing from two years ago) — “So much of my fascination here is centered around the body; both my own fraught relationship with mine and the mind-boggling notion that there are, or might be, beings that exist without them… Even their name, from the Greek saraph, meaning “to consume with fire,” is alluring. Haven’t you ever wished to burn, to be ignited for something, for someone?”
- , Plough — “Parents name their children, a founder names her company, a craftsman names his product… Done rightly, naming bestows value, dignity, and an identity on what is named. It is attentive, recognizing the nature of the thing. This is why improper naming is so wrong.”
- , Women’s Work — “The female machine is rigid, in her thinking and her function as related to society. Women by our very nature are the opposite of rigid, we are creatures of transformation and fluidity. Those changes are built right into our very physiology… We should not be mechanistic in our description and interpretation of female existence.”
(added to the big ol' compilation)
to watch, listen to
Gavin Ortlund vs. Trent Horn: Is Sola Scriptura True? — These are both men of theological rigor, clear reasoning, and necessary charity. I respect each of their work very much. So it was a treat to have them together, debating a major crux of the Protestant/Catholic divide. I find this format to be immensely helpful for really turning an issue over and over and getting real-time responses to (very old) questions in Christianity. And if we’re touting the Five Solas—particularly this pivotal one—for the love of all goodness, we should seek to know what it means and also why others reject it. (As an auditory learner who would much rather listen to explanations than read them… I would have been happy as a clam in the days of oral tradition, listening to such apologist debates in the open air. One can dream.)
to glean from: tip, product, resource
This Gluten-Free Bread — Vouched for by
, and attempted because I have tried over the years to keep sourdough starter and it molds on me. And since I could eat toast in various forms all day every day, I have begun to feel like a chump paying so much for the gluten free bread I need. Got the various flours, acquired an inexpensive scale, and this whole thing is a tasty revelation.Sex Ed For Sane People — Laura E. Wolfe aka
shared this work of hers recently, if anyone is in the market for such a resource. I’ve added it to The Compilation.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Still Life With Fruit
Thanks for including me, Haley. Glad you liked the luxury beliefs post.
Love the piece on Orthodox Judaism—our old neighborhood was deeply Jewish and we definitely recognized a sense of community and high neighborly interactions, even as non-Jews.