This is very important. I’ve skimmed like six articles on this critical subject (and also some of the queen’s garden parties) mostly for the clothes, but also because—well, there’s nothing else online I want to even think about, certainly not that Harvest Chapel person biking up and down searching out someone to do away with his enemies. Gardening, like clothes and royals, is a serious business and I for one would like to know the truth about Meghan and Katherine’s... Read more
This is really brilliant. Meant to read it weeks ago and just kept forgetting. Now that I’ve remembered, I’m going to go dig up Frog and Toad and read them all again, because it’s been a few months. And truly, this must have been the unconscious bedrock of my parenting style from the get go, though I didn’t know it. Life is difficult, please try to stop crying—or something like that. Or, to put it another way, I need to... Read more
I came across this curious judgment this week in all my internet wandering: Conservative Protestants have a very weak theology of the body. They tend to view the body as less important than other religious traditions. For example, in Catholicism, and Mormonism, and Judaism, and Islam, what you’re doing with your body matters. There are ideas of cleanliness in washing, and bodily comportment, and position, in ways that evangelical Christians just don’t really care about. They tend to be far... Read more
The First Thing Well, that’s just great. Bill de Blasio, who apparently is chronically late to every engagement, and also basically a socialist—but I’m gathering that is a requirement if you want to win a democrat primary—is trying out for president. The gifs are amazing, so that’s fantastic. And The New York Post cover is the best. So far I’m excited about all the great candidates leaping into the ring. Seriously, is there not one sane democrat who could run?... Read more
This is a pretty great piece. The whole thing, but also this bit: It would be really nice if information that could transform someone’s values was able to be handed over as cheaply as driving instructions. In such a world, people could be of profound assistance to one another with little investment in one another’s lives. The myth of advice is the possibility that we can transform one another with the most glancing contact, and so it is not surprising... Read more
I was recently struck by the blinding insight (probably by wandering around some specious corner of the internet) that the downfall of civilization came about with the invention of the car, or as I like to refer to it, The Automobile. I have often been in the way of complaining that I don’t really know how to meet my neighbors—other than waving across the driveway at them, trying to catch an eye and smile—and that it seems very strange to... Read more
It is another gray Binghamton day, but I am trotting off to the garden center anyway, cash in hand, to lay in whatever promises to be bright and colorful whenever the sun does some out. We did another facebook live offering last week, but hid it until now, mostly because we did talk about Rachel Held Evans right in the thick of all the internet arguing. I think our conversation is probably tense, but hopefully helpful. If not, I’m sure... Read more
I’ve been seeing the usual round of tweets all week admonishing every pastor not to blow it on Mother’s Day. Strike the right note, they all say, don’t say the Wrong Thing. Remember that there will be mothers who have lost babies, or men and women who can’t have children, or someone who just lost her mother. Don’t ruin an already fraught day with a sermon that makes everyone feel bad. There is a clever way around that, of course.... Read more
Mother’s Day being always on Sunday means that I really have to plan ahead to make the most of my ‘special day.’ One I’m going to use the word ‘gift’ relentlessly as a verb all weekend. I’m going to do it so much that everyone will realize how obnoxious it is and stop doing it so that we can all go back to the simpler, more elegant and worthy ‘give.’ Two I’m going to clean my house. I like a... Read more
The First Thing I had really hoped that Meghan and Harry would name the baby Reggie Bing after my favorite character in Wodehouse’s A Damsel in Distress, which, frankly, is a masterful literary work, The Best, and if you haven’t read it and don’t love it, we probably can’t be friends. Or, at least, that would be one reason we can’t be friends. The other reason would be…oh never mind. Archie though? Isn’t that short for Archibald? That seems like... Read more
Preventing Grace
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