Week 37 (2024)
elegant containers & rooted affection, housing policy & the verbage of urbanism, market logic, pronatal subsidies & the need for ethicists
Click title to open in browser.
You can reply directly to this email if received in your inbox.
to read: books
The Riches Of Your Grace: Living In The Book Of Common Prayer — Julie Lane-Gay — Ten stars. What a gift.
to read: essays, articles, newsletters
A Very Personal Take: I’m Struggling With The Word “Urbanism,” And Here’s Why — F. Kaid Benfield, Medium — “Personally, I’m not sure we need an all-encompassing term at all… Instead, I just say that I work to create and sustain greener, healthier communities. That includes some environmental elements, some urban development principles, and some social and cultural elements, among others.”
(related: The Death And Life Of Great American Cities (book) and Strong Towns, shared previously — writers: Tiffany Owens Reed, , , )
The Vicious Cycle Of American Housing — Kevin Erdmann — “A polity can find itself in a vicious cycle where bad public policy leads to bad outcomes. Instead of retracting that policy, additional policies are layered atop it, each with their own unintended consequences, which, in turn, attract more layers of new policies.”
(related: Arbitrary Lines (book) and Escaping The Housing Trap (book), shared previously — h/t for sharing these last two essays)
A Note On A Bad Day — David Athey, Ekstasis — “A leopard’s fang—
light as the light on blood
in the Colosseum—
sends a message
to me, poor me”
Mandating Insurance Coverage For IVF Will Not Boost Fertility — demographer king Lyman Stone, Institute For Family Studies — “If the goal is to boost births, subsidies for IVF are a peculiar kind of policy. They disproportionately go to people unlikely to have additional births beyond the first birth, and only subsidize very specific subsets of individuals and families with specific values…”
Trump Should Make Birth—Not IVF—Free —
, Compact — “Most troublingly, a blank-check subsidy for IVF would hasten our way toward a future in which would-be parents are expected to screen their embryos for any defects or desired characteristics before implantation.”(related: this from Plough, this by , this by , and this by , shared previously)
We Need Good Protestant Ethicists — Carl R. Trueman, First Things — “What is interesting is that few Protestants are willing to take up these issues… The broader biblical account of human nature, not isolated proof texts, must now factor into Christian discussions... it is clear that a kind of utilitarianism or ends-justify-the-means thinking grips the evangelical imagination at some level, much as it does that of wider society.”
(related: What It Mean To Be Human (book), The Genesis Of Gender (book), Begotten Or Made? (book), this from and the second half especially of this from , shared previously — recently plugged the work of Converging Roads… there again, a Catholic organization — plus the big ol’ compilation containing pertinent matters of biomedical ethics)
In Defense Of Decanters — Patricia Patnode, Theology Of Home — “We have lost quite a bit of intentional and artistic expression at the dinner table, and decanters and serving pitchers are an accessible way to reclaim some elegance at mealtime… There is something about taking an extra step with presentation that makes your cup of coffee feel more important, consequently you feel more worthy of enjoying…”
(related: On The Texture Of Things Past, shared previously)
Rootedness Over Time And Affection For The Real — Jason Peters, Ford Forum — “I think there is a cohesion that comes from elsewhere, and I think it gets me close to articulating why what is happening happens rarely… It must be that there is something wholly salutary about an extended and remembered intimacy, an intimacy here, an intimacy in this place and with this place.”
(related: Localism In The Mass Age (book), Together (book), You Are Not Your Own (book), The Table Where I Belonged, Hannah Coulter The Green Lady And Me, Longing For Home, ’s How Many People Do We Need In Our Lives? and ’s Somewhere In Chessington, shared previously)
Keeping Up With The Amish — Eric Miller, Christianity Today — “The American Way of Life, for all of its virtues, is not the Way. The confluence of these two visions in our thinking has led to a host of ills and viruses, and so we journey on in our feeble state, only dimly aware that we are playing host to devastation and disease. Having grown up with consumer capitalism, and in many cases grown it, we evangelicals are only beginning to imagine ways of serving as a counterpoint to it… The market must not be master.”
(related: The Enchantments Of Mammon (book) with this teaser, and ’s We Will All Become Boring, shared previously)
to watch, listen to
We Built Isolating Places. Can We Get Out? — Strong Towns — On suburbanization, childhood freedom, loneliness, social infrastructure, versatile and accessible third places, and more. This connects many topics I think about often and share writing about.
The current conversation around digital tech and loneliness, for instance, needs to be paired with a consideration of the built environment it exists in. Though this was not primarily about children, the fact that their lack of mobility in certain environments has been so detrimental (and puts the stress on parents to helicopter and chauffeur) is a canary in the coal mine of what digital tech and isolating physical spaces are doing to adults ourselves. We have more agency and mobility, yet we also have difficulties with the distance, travel, and scheduling required for normal activities and life-giving interactions. (This is why human-scale places, housing solutions, and development patterns have repeatedly featured in the newsletters for years. They effect our lives on a daily level.)
At one point in the video, a girl mentions how her childhood would have a “different texture in a time that didn’t exist” were she able to exhibit more physical independence outside of her home (and thus, on screens), which is primarily what she knows. It reminded me both of
’s A Time We Never Knew and this essay from and . Additionally, has written about the importance of building third places that are enjoyable for both adults and children, something also expounded on. And this discussion had with regarding childhood independence takes into consideration the parental compass, social infrastructure, and social norms in fostering this for our children. All that to say… this one little video combines many of the recurring themes in this here newsletter! Such things impacting our lived experience are prismatic, not two-dimensional.Praying With The Book Of Common Prayer Is Life-Changing — Julie Lane-Gay on Gospel Simplicity — Always enjoy hearing authors talk about their books after I’ve finished them. It gives a face, voice, and heart to match what was just read.
to glean from: tip, product, resource
Plain Frozen Berries — When you’re craving something sour and sweet, but realize sourpatch kids might not always be the best choice. Sponsor me, Aldi.
The 1662 Book Of Common Prayer — Recommended by
several months back, when someone asked about the various editions (and bought right then). Inspired after Lane-Gay’s book to put it to better use.
I have dreamy memories of snacking on Aldi frozen mango while watching Call the Midwife with my mom in high school. Go Aldi, lol.
So many thought-provoking links! But just commenting to say that I really love the Still Life with Onions painting. I always love an icon in the kitchen. And it reminds me of Rumer Godden's absolutely wonderful children's book 'The Kitchen Madonna'. Plus, I really really love onions 🤣