Good Moaning. Trying to move myself along through the day. And that means doing everything in its proper order. Here, before anything, is the cover of my book which you will be able to order very soon. Believe me, I will Not hide Anything from you in the matter of this book. You will notice the delicate pastels, the lovely female form, the stained glass. All these important cues let you know that this is just the sort of book... Read more
Just toiled through this article–the world’s happiest man, dug up by someone desperate for happiness, willing to go to the ends of the earth, even Nepal, to learn the secret. Turns out the happiest man ever is a French Buddhist monk. And he has out a couple of books, so it will be easy for you to buy some of them and learn how to be happy. Sensibly, the Buddhist Monks enjoying the pure Himalayan air have discovered that outward... Read more
I think we ended up with a very successful tea party. Realized, as I was surveying the teacups, that this is the first real party we’ve had here. We’ve indulged in some very nice meals, but haven’t really settled into the usual rhythm of birthdays and other feasts. We use our china rather a lot. Not just on Christmas and Thanksgiving, but Easter, New Years, sometimes on Valentine’s Day, girl birthdays, and sometimes when we just feel like it. The... Read more
It’s been a long week. Time for some Quick Takes. One I read this excellent post about how to bring up boys, and then this one, about generational patterns through history, a day or so apart, and found the two together really interesting. In all the discussions of Free Range parenting, and the whining over Millennials, and why are we stuck with Trump and Hillary, it’s marvelous to consider history as a circle, spiraling up and down, and gender roles,... Read more
One of my children, can’t remember which one, rightly observed yesterday that every conversation we have now eventually ends up being about Trump, and Hillary, but also Trump. We start out talking about something else all together, like maybe the perfect seasoning of the mashed potatoes, or how everybody’s day is going, or what we need to remember to buy next time we venture all the way out to Aldi. Yesterday even we sat around talking about the Martian, and... Read more
I came across this brilliant article yesterday which confirms all my personal feelings and suspicions about Christianity in America. To cut to the chase, it’s really bad. Lots of people (although, I’m sure I can say with confidence, none of the readers of this blog) while self identifying as Christian, in fact are not able to articulate or affirm basic Christian doctrine. Let’s just gape in open mouthed wonder at a couple of examples about the general population of self... Read more
This is a really great article, even if it happens to be at Vox. You could break your Never Click on Vox resolution and just read it. Basically, the author, who is not from here, thinks that the American obsession with happiness is making most Americans really unhappy. She delves right in to the whole mess and makes sensible and true observations about the nature of happiness, the rising levels of anxiety in the American public, the ridiculous business of... Read more
Trying to drag myself into the day after being up way too late watching the debate, or rather shielding my eyes from the debate with Twitter. What an awful political time we’re having. Anyway, here is this week’s podcast which, unsurprisingly, is about the debate and the “scandal” of the weekend. I did gather some links over the last week. All of them are light and diverting, I hope. First up, this is so cool. I’m going to show it... Read more
It was hard to let go of Twitter last night and allow the world roil on in its own way without my attention and amazement. The instantaneous nature of news is such blessing–if by blessing I’m allowed to mean the opposite of blessing–until it’s time to go to bed. So of course my dreams were troubled by that vast sweep of windswept hair and those enormous pouting defiant lips. But it’s Sunday, and on Sunday I write about Jesus. You... Read more
I am going to postpone my much more interesting Kitchen/House Notes Saturday Diversion to say a couple of things about the foul Trump video that surfaced yesterday or whenever it was. Keep in mind that as I’m typing the little girls are screaming, the boys are needing to be dragged off the Xbox, and Elphine is weeping onto the pages of her math test. So that which I am about to say will either be the epitome of coherence or... Read more
Preventing Grace
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