Week 9 (2025)
Flannery's suffering & staring, cultivating a pilgrim heart, housing crises & child playmates, hacking women and babies & a theology of health
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to read: books
Good Things Out Of Nazareth — Enjoyed it.
In addition to last week’s thoughts and links, here is my saved list of Flannery-related books. It includes, among other things, her own novels and short story collections, her prayer journal, another collection of letters, a recently published children’s picture book featuring her iconic birds, the recently published Why Do The Heathen Rage? (which
had thoughts about), books dissecting her overall literary work, the biography The Terrible Speed of Mercy (which I absolutely loved listening to - a great starting place for getting acquainted with her as a person), and Mystery & Manners (the brilliance of which I vividly remember savoring and marking up around coffee shops in my dramatic, single twenties.)Additionally, I plan to watch the brief documentary Uncommon Grace: The Life Of Flannery O'Connor from Beata Productions. No, I have not seen the film Wildcat. But I would generally advise getting acquainted with the actual words of someone before watching artistic renditions of them (or their work) in visual form. It’s always a good exercise to do the muscle work of the mind and imagination first, before influencing them in sensational ways.
to read: essays, articles, newsletters
The Peacock's Tail — Jeff Reimer, Comment — “After this encounter O’Connor’s station in life—her illness, her place, her family, her self-doubt—becomes not the crutch that hobbles her but the crucible out of which her vocation and art emerge.”
(another memorable, previously shared essay of his is How Not To Be A Schismatic - as the meme goes, I’m in this picture and I don’t like it.)
She Took To Staring — Jess Sweeney, Dappled Things — “Flannery O’Connor’s method of living was to stare down reality, and to keep on staring and writing her whole life. But also to stare quietly, receptively. So I hope that you too will pick up this book, and that you might stare, at birds and people, at leaves and fireflies. And I also hope that even in the midst of sadness and pain you might await that “large and beautiful rushing in” even amidst it all.”
(related: everything in the Life Considered archives upon key-word searching Flannery… I realized there’s quite a bit.)
The Angel — Lee Kiblinger,
—“So that sacred storms
unchained my eyes
to feast on manna
and memory
and marvel—
and I could see
and know
what He meant
by the loaves.”
Following No Other Way: Cultivating A Pilgrim Heart On The Walk From Geneva To Rome —
, Comment — “I shared an image too, from a poem by Wendell Berry that describes life as a journey toward the light, which, being so bright, obscures what lies ahead. We make pilgrimage in uncertainty and mystery, not knowing exactly what lies ahead or what the things around us mean. But as we make progress, we see that all which once puzzled us is now lit by the golden light of love, and that all these things are held in God’s timeless providence. I imagine it was the first time the Kentucky farmer was ever translated into bad Italian in Sutria. Coming off a year of stress, uncertainty, surprise, and pain, it was that mystery which drew Reed and me on.”(another previously shared essay of his - Men Only Want One Thing - was perhaps the first writing of his I encountered. truly phenomenal piece.)
Don't Blame Wall Street For High Home Costs —
, City Journal — “Unleashing a diversity of housing styles and finding ways to ensure family-friendly homes and apartments get designed and built will be crucial steps toward fixing our affordability crisis…”(full PDF report here — Home Improvement: Exploring Recent Trends in the Housing Market Through a Family First Lens)
The United States Doesn’t Have A Housing Crisis. It Has Three. —
— “It’s trite but true: the first step to solving a problem is to correctly diagnose it.”(related: his book Arbitrary Lines, Strong Towns’ Escaping The Housing Trap, and countless previously shared essays and articles available for the keyword-searching in these archives — I was radicalized by the time - 3 years ago - when we searched for and bought our first modest home in this ridiculous market, while in the thick of having and raising multiple kids on a single decent income… but somehow those house prices were still defeating, even in a non-sexy midwest town. Other people are somehow making it with less, or in a higher cost of living area. Housing and land use policies are most certainly a family formation-and-thriving issue. And everyone who’s tried to buy a house in the last five years said amen.)
Finding Playmates In A Country With Few Children — Gaetano Masciullo, Plough — “There’s a social paradox here: as birth rates fall, our sense of community – already frayed – fades further, the state tries to help parents by providing day care. But by turning to these structured, institutional programs, are we missing out on essential parts of raising a child? …Watching this trend, I can’t help but wonder if our society hasn’t subtly discouraged parents and families from building a strong, functional support network. For many, it seems safer to entrust their children to seemingly well-organized, structured environments than to encourage relationships at local playgrounds or with other families.”
for the compilation:
Human Battery Hens — Carl R. Trueman, First Things — “…society has already legitimized the commodification of women with regard to reproduction. That is the logic of surrogacy and egg donation. Just as Lukács’s commodity form now arguably applies to children because society aspires to control the very mystery of conception itself, so too it must apply to women. The specific loss of autonomy on this Georgian human battery farm is appalling. But the deeper cultural catastrophe here is the commodification of the human person, which lured these victims to the farm in the first place. This week’s executive order only reinforces this deeper, dehumanizing trend within our society.”
(paging who recently brought up this news story)
Against Hacking Babies — Ken Meyers, Mars Hill Audio — “The most serious doubt that O’Donovan presents about the propriety of IVF concerns the separation of procreation from “the relational union established by the sexual bond.” That separation implies that procreation is “a chosen ‘project’ of the couple rather than a natural development of their common life. Sexual relationship, correspondingly, loses the seriousness which belongs to it because of our common need for a generation of children, and degenerates into merely a form of play.” Begotten or Made? was out of print for many years until 2022 when the Davenant Press made it available again, with a new Introduction by
”(related: the aforementioned book, essays Machine Antihumanism And The Inversion Of Family Law, Resist The Conception Machine, and & ’s Stop Hacking Humans, shared previously —“The article was co-written by a former student of Oliver O’Donovan” - a lowkey-but-major flex if I ever saw one.)
A Theology Of Health — Charles C. Camosy, The Public Discourse — “While VanderWeele is almost certainly not intending this, framing a discussion of the body this way risks running headlong into our current cultural mistake of thinking of bodies as something we have rather than things that we are. Aquinas is famous for insisting on our being ensouled bodies, not souls that have bodies. The latter view has given rise to the even bigger mistake of what Mary Harrington calls “Meat Lego Gnosticism”: the idea that the physical parts of our bodies are nothing more than contingent and exchangeable tools to be put at the service of the flourishing of our true and authentic mental and spiritual selves.”
to watch, listen to
paused the regularly scheduled, sequential listens this week - but here’s something:
The Problem With Modern Feminism | Abortion, The Feminine Genius, Motherhood & Mary —
, Into The Truth — Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. I can think of innumerable favorite Life Considered topics this touched on. And at every turn I wanted to add footnotes for recipients here: read this book! here’s some essays! follow these writers! listen to these podcasts! (I suppose that’s what the link below is for, thank you past self.) Beginning to end, just pure wisdom and grace. It was fun to hear you in conversation, Emily, as I had seen you around these parts but didn’t know much about you.
(more resources on female embodiment in the Big Ol' Compilation)
to glean from: tip, product, resource
this is becoming a stream of consciousness catch-all, as I try to avoid Notes this year:
Flannery At 100 In Iowa City — Happened upon this thanks to the most recent Dappled Things’ Friday Links. And wow,
, the timing of me wrapping up some O’Connor books the last couple weeks was a serendipitous treat and this looks like a truly wonderful time.Hilariously, I am also extremely into the description of that Healthcare Ethics Seminar randomly advertised below it, along with its reading list. (Yes,
, I still need to get to my copy of the Handbook on Critical Life Issues you influenced me into buying last year. Need that badboy as an audiobook.) You Catholics have some of the richest wells of thought in both the literary imagination and medical ethics spheres. I want in on it all.That reminds me Guiding Star’s conference is coming up right before the Flannery one, and I hear
is speaking. Someone go to all these wonderful things on my behalf.**Being in the third trimester, plus the fact I am the childcare while my husband makes our family money, plus the fact that I managed to clumsily destroy both my phone and newish laptop in the same two-week period (a whole saga), plus the fact that we’ll soon be facing bills for both a birth and a larger vehicle to fit four children… means that everything is expensive all at once for us, even if we had childcare for me to do such things. This could turn into a sob story—and
had some good words this week on what to do and not do when you’re deep in it, and I’m basically doing the opposite—but we’ve also had over two weeks of sickness around here, there’s been some difficult life stuff (both recurring and new), and for good measure the toddler shattered a picture frame from the wall… so sometimes the whole combination feels like kicking a man when he’s down.Anywhere — The Gray Havens / Humble Heart — Jess Ray
“Artisan, Hipster Liturgies” — Like the one below, stumbled across while sitting on the couch. It hit a tender nerve. We can’t all be the life of the party, the writer of endlessly re-stackable Substack catnip, the owner of a branded and profitable business - or frankly, the holder of an interesting line of work to share about at all - the personality fit for podcasting and public speaking, etc. For as long as I can remember (literally since childhood) I’ve been acutely aware of people doing things I’d like to do, but better, sooner, more easily - saying things I’ve had in my head, but more loudly, thoroughly, eloquently. My whole self was made in a particular way, and this newsletter is an outflow of it. Perhaps this space is communicating and accomplishing what it needs to, albeit in its own unique and plodding way. (When people have told me over the years about being inspired in some way by the project, like
recently did here, it thrills me.)
I do solidly believe that the ability to curate and ‘set a feast’ is a rare skill, of which you have. There is one other friend of mine, no longer online, who has a similar gift. It has long struck me that someone like you, who listens and reads very deeply and attentively to the world around you almost becomes as a still quiet pool, where others may come and be refreshed, encouraged, and sharpened. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve been wrestling with something swirling in the ether of cross-currents, struggling to name what is bothering me about the thought-line of media about it, and bam. There the newsletter comes, and ‘aha!’, there it is, in conversation, and I can finally name it.
Haley, I get so excited when I see your newsletter in my inbox. I bookmark it, all ready to dive in during nap time! Really gives me something to look forward to in the morning 🙂 so thank you as always. Very much looking forward to these Flannery articles. I've never been able to stomach her fiction though I, of course, appreciate it artistically. But her prayer journals and letters have been extremely powerful reads. I also loved the terrible speed of Mercy.