Here are Four Great Things from the week of 05/03/2024.
I finished reading "Love What Lasts" by Joshua Gibbs this week. It has given me an excellent framework for how to scrutinize my entertainment standards, what to pour into my girls, and why I should spend more time on things that last. Aaron Earls confirms this by pointing out how much the internet idolizes passing around pieces that enrage them.
So what I'm saying is this—I find myself spending more time on classic literature and art (trying hard with the music—so you will notice my nod at JSB in a minute) that has been around awhile. If there is controversy in it, it's human and not cultural. The reward does not have to be immediate in order to be worth the work. And tradition is rarely dusty or trite.
An Interlude: Where to Start with Bach
Evan Goldfine has decided to spend a year listening to every adaptation of
Johann Sebastian Bach. In this essay, he provides links and videos with substantial explanations of each functional piece. This is delightful because he offers up different styles of Bach based on your own driven interest: guitar, piano, drama or even jazz. Whatever your propensity, it seems Goldfine has found your flavor of Bach.
Bach is a composer we studied this year in school; I really prefer his cantatas.
The Practicing Writer 2.0: May 2024
This one has a lot of rhetoric about publishing and editing that I skipped over. What most interested me was
the 50-free writing ideas. The setup is actually 50 writing contests, article submissions, or upcoming residencies, some complete with cash prizes.
One opportunity is to write a 25-50 word story that involves a hat with a $35 giveaway for winning. Another is to write an essay on belonging. I have no bandwidth to offer anything to these within the time frame, but I do love the ideas and challenges they put forth.
Outrage as Idolatry
I've talked about Aaron Earls and the work he does at
Wardrobe Door; he's a remarkable thinker. And truly he's right—how many of our conversations begin with, "Did you see. . . ?" or "I can't believe they. . . ?" Even well-meaning believers with massive followings are walking in this when they record themselves reacting to something horrific. Our pathos is to mirror theirs, either anger or mockery.
"There are times when outrage can be warranted, but it cannot be deserved all the time. We can tell something is more worthy of our outrage when it is a substantial issue that is not quickly forgotten by the next issue du jour on social media. Even still, the more we succumb to outrage, the more dangerous it becomes for us. Many Christians are unwittingly constructing a “universe of pure hatred” around themselves where outrage reigns supreme and grace is conspicuously absent."
Love What Lasts
What I'm working on:
- A friend asked me to write a blog about why I wear so many bracelets all the time, and that is still a work in progress. It is a story I truly love to tell, so I aim to tell it well.
Quotable:
- "While I believe Christians with good taste make for better evangelists than Christians who believe that becoming 'all things to all men' entails submission to the latest fashions, loving what lasts is not ultimately a strategy for spreading the gospel. It is a strategy for believing the gospel." Joshua Gibbs,
"Love What Lasts"
Worth the Memory
The Hare
By Walter de la Mare
In the black furrow of a field
I saw an old witch-hare this night;
And she cocked a lissome ear,
And she eyed the moon so bright,
And she nibbled of the green;
And I whispered "Wh-s-st! witch-hare,"
Away like a ghostie o'er the field
She fled, and left the moonlight there.
What are your great things from the week?
