It’s Bilbo’s birthday today, in case you were wondering. I wasn’t, particularly, but Matt has been reminding me every few minutes for the last week. “Bilbo’s birthday is on Tuesday,” he says, “it’s almost time for me to start The Lord of the Rings again.” He reads it every year, see, starting on this day, living as he does in some fanciful world were reading the books he wants is even a thing. I mean, I do get to read... Read more
I thought I’d just put it all in the title so you won’t be alarmed or unhappy if you’re trying to stay away from controversy and politics on this crisp, apocalyptic Monday morning. That’s the tack I’m trying to take, except that I’m married to someone who loves an argument and a good time and can’t help himself from saying all the things. I know, there’s an enneagram number for that, and for the fact that I don’t want him... Read more
I’ve over at Stand Firm today. It always helps, when you’re splayed out on the couch on a Friday evening after a long and disappointing week, and thinking of finally dragging your sorry self off to bed, and you look at your phone one more time and see that Ruth Bader Ginsberg has died and that the entire internet is working itself up into some kind of hysterical fit, to remember that Sunday is just around the corner. All you... Read more
Well, it’s Friday, and I’ve already totally ruined my day by waking up at four in the morning and reading the rest of Miss Pym Disposes to see what happens… One I can’t tell you, obviously, because that would spoil it for you. But it got to be pretty exciting toward the end. I won’t lie, for the first half, I had no idea where the thing was going, or even what kind of book it was. Turns out it... Read more
I just want to go way out on a limb, before I say anything, and make the deeply controversial observation that I am an Anglican, or Angelican if you can’t spell. I have always been an Anglican, even when I have floated around in other kinds of ecclesiastical worlds, like the Baptist World. Accepting my Anglicanness is essential for being able to read everything I write today, and if you don’t like it, you may not like anything about this... Read more
Well, this is cheery. Apparently the worst age is 48—in every culture, regardless of life-expectancy, personality, or social situation, even for chimpanzees: Mr Blanchflower, 68, is now an economics professor in America, teaching at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The survey looked at data from 500,000 people in 145 countries. Respondents were asked: “Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?” Those in their late forties gave the most negative replies. Professor Blanchflower said he was surprised to find... Read more
I just finally looked up what “tl;dr” means. I kept seeing it and pretending I knew, but then it turned out, finally, that I really didn’t, so I googled. I find it surprisingly hard to google anything anymore. It feels like a strange capitulation to my own ignorance. I should know. But I don’t know. Therefore I should go to the library. But that’s too hard. Oh well, I guess I’ll google. It is a tiny defeat, an infinitesimally small... Read more
Good Morning! It is a bright, crisp day here in the Northeast. Strange to look out the window and smell the clean, fresh air and then ponder the amazing pictures coming out of Oregon and California. May God have mercy. While he is doing that, we did a goodlyish podcast about why staying in a church for what feels like forever is good for you, why the internet is stressful, why Cuties is bad, and how I’m trying not to... Read more
I’m over at Stand Firm today. Yesterday we commended to God the body and soul of a woman who began going to Good Shepherd in 1936. The number of her years is astonishing in itself—103 (brings a certain relevance to “teach us to number our days” because just counting that high takes serious concentration, especially when you try to remember how old you turned last year)—but when we sat around after the funeral, the most shocking realization was that she... Read more
It’s Friday! Let’s talk about something appalling! One I’m sorry to say that I’ve been reading articles and tweet threads about this new awful Netflix offering—Cuties. I’ve watched a couple of clips of it, and tried to swallow down the “critical” explanation that it’s actually not just child pornography, but “very important” for dramatizing “the difficulties of growing up female in a sexualized and commercialized media culture.” Here’s an insane paragraph: “Cuties” is a film of the center, and it’s... Read more
Preventing Grace
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