Week 40 (2024)
praying Psalms & talking about Mary, ethics consults & tradition in Fiddler on the Roof, baby bonuses, fathers & Israel's family culture, relaxing building regulations & housing costs
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to read: books
North and South — Elizabeth Gaskell — Actually quite good.
to read: essays, articles, newsletters
- , Notes From A Family Meeting — “MacIntyre elsewhere argues that when people compartmentalize their lives like this (medicine over here, ethics over there), they disintegrate their agency… We, as a society and as health care systems, would do well to move further upstream from the quandaries and conflicts to consider our (tradition-given, tradition-shaped) presuppositions. What do we make of the human person? What is health? What are the limits of medical intervention? What is goodness? How do we discern truth, and what is true?”
(related: What It Means To Be Human (book) and The Need For Protestant Ethicists: A Response To Carl Trueman, shared previously)
The River Of God — Peter Hitchens, The Lamp — “This is only a small part of the riches of one of the greatest poems in the English language. In a grubby café or a great clanging city devoid of any sign of faith, these words have the power to summon beauty and gratitude into the bleakest place.”
(related: The Riches Of Your Grace (book), shared previously)
- , The Unquantified Life — “…what about women? What are we to do with their specific female bodily experiences? Do they remain unsanctified, perhaps? Unredeemed? Irredeemable?”
(Mentioned in there are the reading & resources I compiled, which can be found here. Turns out our bodies are something to be learned about, respected, a temple of the Holy Spirit. More than mere matter. A place we find joy, wrestle with mystery, and bear heavy crosses. Perhaps even the start of an experiential, visceral understanding of the Theotokos.)
Wreckers, Coast of Northumberland - J.M.W. Turner The Future Of Land Use And Incremental Development —
, Strong Towns — “As these reforms accumulate, I expect we'll see today's strict single-family-only zones evolve to allow many compatible housing types by right, including backyard cottages (aka ADUs), accessory apartments (rent out a room), and homes with two to four units… All of this means that there will be an enormous economic opportunity for the neighborhood incremental developer over the megaproject builder.”(related: Arbitrary Lines (book), Escaping The Housing Trap (book), The Death And Life Of Great American Cities (book), this on the word urbanism, this on the vicious cycle of housing policy, shared previously)
Want To Boot Birthrates? Build More Homes — John Ketcham, City Journal — “In essence, this means that increases in an area’s cost of living have a multiplying effect on childcare costs. Housing costs are often the most important factor in an area’s cost of living…”
(related: this from , this and this from , and this from , shared previously)
The Case For A Baby Bonus For Parents —
, Deseret — “Instead of trying to micromanage family benefits with prescriptive, one-size-fits-all solutions that may not suit every household or quickly become outdated, policymakers in both parties should focus on simplifying these benefits.”(related: this from , shared previously—and a reminder from of the tradeoffs of those Scandinavian benefits—lastly, Leah is right that three of these lil' guys is less money than the new vehicle they help avoid upon your third child. we love them! looks like they’re on Baumeister Airlines.)
We Are All Fiddlers On The Roof —
, Plough — “Tradition will not rescue us from these ambiguities and frustrations of life, but rather give us a context within which we can find our footing and ourselves... Tevye’s tradition is a mystery into which he throws himself, not surrendering discernment but doing his best to balance on the roof of life, knowing that sometimes people will laugh at him.”Crumbs On The Kitchen Table — J.C. Scharl, New Verse Review —
“like a banner over the parade ground
of the table, proclaiming
the triumph of existence.”
Reflections On Israel's Exceptional Fertility — Daniel Kane, The Public Discourse — “Thus, while Israel’s pro-family policies probably positively influence Israel’s exceptional birthrate, there is good reason to think that public policy is merely one among a constellation of even more significant factors that encourage Israeli couples to have children.”
(related: Family Unfriendly (book) with review forthcoming, this from , and this from Adam Webb, shared previously)
Fertility, Feminism, And Fathers: Learning From Moms (And Dads) With Many Children —
, Fairer Disputations — “Do these husbands have different worries about expanding their families than their wives? What social pressures are they under with regard to their families? …Do the fathers regard themselves as primarily “supporting” their wives, or would the men articulate a similar kind of joy in the relations they have with each of their children? Do different men experience fatherhood differently?”(related: thoughts on the book, ’s written interview, ’s podcast interview, Rachel Lu’s review, and ’s review, shared previously)
Rain, Steam and Speed - J.M.W. Turner
to watch, listen to
Technology and Freedom: The Faustian Bargain of Modern Life —
at New College Franklin — “Once, we worked primarily on the raw material of the lower creation: on rocks and dirt, plants and occasionally animals. Now we work upon human nature itself, both our bodies in the form of biotechnology, and our minds in the form of digital technology. Initially, we turned our technologies to ourselves with an eye to healing the hurts of the curse: disease, tumors, and broken bones; thus seeking to restore our nature to its proper natural operation. Increasingly though, we are now using the same technologies to try to free ourselves from the very limits of our creature-hood; to achieve an abolition of the slavery of simply being human. This, as Lewis observed, was a fool’s errand. Our progressive quest to free ourselves from the constraints of nature must backfire once it passes this point… The first step towards restoring a healthy posture toward our technologies is to start asking the most basic questions of them: What are they for? What are we doing with them? What are they doing to us?”This has levels of application. The increasingly transcendent nature of our technologies will need us asking ever more shrewd questions of them. We have a certain level of agency in accepting or rejecting, and we’ll need to know why in order to resist dehumanization.
The lecture is broad enough to envelop many of our pressing concerns: The digitization of childhood and beyond, the malforming effect of algorithms, uses of AI, pornography, distorting habits, loneliness, and relational collapse. Matters of the body, the practice of medicine, reproductive ethics, human dignity, and life itself to the very end. But also concerns about the basic, lower created order. These are written about perceptively and eloquently in ’s missives on matters of ecology, agrarianism, nature, and humane farming. Our treatment of the literal ground (and the animals, plants, ecologies, and life it nourishes) has come alongside other distorted approaches to healthy limits and restraint, appropriate stewardship and care. A connection I briefly made here, and can’t stop thinking about.
Most notably, however, are the profound spiritual implications of accepting (or rejecting) the fact of being created. Our response affects our ability to be whole and holy (to borrow from ’s newsletter). We are finite creatures. We’re in need of proper friction, boundaries, and longsuffering patience for our personal and relational flourishing—especially with the very One who created us.
to glean from: tip, product, resource
Mary Poppins Original Soundtrack — We watched this exactly once (it is definitely inferior to The Sound of Music as a movie), but our boys have been obsessed with the music for weeks. Some songs are cacophonous and ridiculous, but the way the almost-two-year-old breaks out in giggles and joins in ridiculous dancing gets me every time. The most gorgeous track is Feed The Birds, and the accompanying scene in the film stunning.
My husband informed me Switchfoot is going on a 20th anniversary tour for The Beautiful Letdown, in case anyone needed an excuse to revel in some major nostalgia.
Mint + Basil + Orange Bitters + Ice + Lime Soda — Very good.
This Sale at Notre Dame Press — A Front Porch Republic virtual exhibit, in which to peruse a wealth of wisdom and support straight at the source.
Love the North and South mini series, I don’t think I’ve read the book, I know I read Wives and Daughters but I think that was as far as I got with Gaskell.
Also love the Mary Poppins soundtrack, my toddler is OBSESSED with it atm. As soon as we get in the car “mummy listen mary poppins…PLEASE”. I do agree that the sound of music is a superior movie, but I actually think Mary poppins has quite good insights into the pitfalls many modern parents fall into via the characters of mr and Mrs banks. Mr Banks embodies the successful Edwardian man that some on the right wing seem to want to bring back. He’s the patriarch, but also aloof and disconnected from the lives of his family. He thinks he’s in charge but doesn’t know what’s going on, which is played for laughs, but the deeper point is that he is successful and wealthy but also alone and isolated even within his own home. He’s “got it all” but seemingly can’t enjoy any of it. Mrs Banks is too busy trying to achieve her political aims to notice what is going on under her nose in her own home and with her own children. She wants to be doing Important Things in the world like her husband. It takes Mary Poppins and Bert, both of apparently inconsequential social status, to show Mr and Mrs Banks that their children are actually more important than either votes for women or investment banking. They could’ve edited out half the movie though, the whole uncle Albert section needs to go 😅 Feed the birds has always been my favourite scene too btw.
All of the JMW Turner in this post brought me so much joy. The last one is one of my particular favorites of his and is said to actually be unfinished, which blows my mind!