Here are Four Great Things from the week of 04/05/2024.
It is our actual last week in Texas, which has resulted in nostalgic moments at every corner. We have played the
remember when?
game with our girls so much that my husband and I will no longer claim we have the ability to recall small details, for the children have far surpassed us.
Enjoy these Four Great Things of the week!
Rachel Ruysch
Along with learning
Latin, I am involving myself in the art world—but at the very shallow end.
George Bothamley has a Substack called
Art Every Day where he features artists. This week, he featured
Rachel Ruysch, a 17th century Dutch artist who specializes in floral artwork (which is our cover for this week).
It's not just about the reality of the flowers for me—I think it's the chaos that the different arrangement brings. The textures and colors are wild, incompatible even, yet their likeness draws in onlookers to a sense of understanding of how our world works in patterns and seasons.
I Miss My Physical Media
I told you that everything led to nostalgia now for me, so it should be no surprise that I would include an article about missing physical media—tapes, CDs, tangible playlists, headphones that consume your entire head and brain. . .
John Warner goes for it here.
"Remember the mixtape? Making a mixtape is an activity which is governed by the principles of both scarcity and curation. You have 45 minutes per side at the most, and the selection and ordering of the songs becomes freighted with meaning."
"Envy, A Rot in My Bones"
How to Delay the Age at which Kids Get Smartphones
I supposed the conversation about kids and phones will continue to be as ubiquitous as the problem—but at some point parents have to stop being annoyed with the conversation and engage its validity and impact. I have talked about Jon Haidt before. He has a new book called
The Anxious Generation, and I have read parts of research he has published over the last few months.
This article from Melanie Hempe does assume the reader agrees with her on the issue of kids and cell phones (especially the ones who use social media at a young age). However, she does not just seek to identify the problem, but here she offers great solutions to think through.
"It’s easier to take the emotion out of the decision to delay smartphones when you lean on the science of child development and recognize that a teen’s ability to resist temptation is nothing like that of adults."
What I'm working on:
- *Still* thinking through a definition of beauty. I journaled this morning about how I want time to research the word in Scripture. Off the top of my head I know Jesus called Mary's act of anointing his feet with perfume and her hair a beautiful act—the sacrifice, the boldness, the love and care are all beautiful to Jesus.
Quotable:
“Jesus?" she breathed.
Into Jesus' face came the old smile with which he had so often looked at the children who crowded around him.
"It is—all right?" she whispered.
"It is all right," Jesus answered. "Do not be afraid.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Bronze Bow
Worth the Memory
She Walks in Beauty
By Lord Byron
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
What are your great things from the week?
