Here are Four Great Things from the week of 07/12/2024.

I've discovered that whatever we cover in homeschool often reflects what I deep-dive on my own. In history we have moved from the ancients to the early church, but I can't tear myself away from Herodotus and Plato. What will happen, then, is I'll add Tertulian and Augustine alongside the Greek giants!

Rembrandt is in the Wind

I don't exactly know how I landed myself in the trenches of art history these past few months—but here I am. It's the story behind each painting or sculpture that most grips me. Take the featured photo for this week: The Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt van Rijn. Completed in 1633, cut from its frame and stolen in 1990, still missing in 2024. Like most of his biblical pieces, Rembrandt painted himself into the portrait—he's dead center in the turquoise tunic, with one hand on his head.

Rembrandt in the Wind covers 9 artists; stories along with their most significant work. He then turns an aspect of their story on its head with a biblical worldview, but not before giving a rounded mention to the definition and purpose of beauty. Author Russ Ramsey walks readers through the tragic robbery of Galilee and poses the thought that the last view of the painting the thieves took was direct eye contact with Rembrandt himself.

How to Read Plato

I really enjoy Ted Gioia's Substack. He is always thoughtful about the past, prophetic about the present, and hopeful of the future. Here he comes up with a 12-month intensive to get a handle on humanities through literature, music, and art. He gives the first 2 weeks for free, and you can subscribe for the rest of the course that he is publishing in 4 total installments.



He also gives practical counsel of how to read Plato—an absolute necessity in the world of humanities.

"Don’t be afraid to view these thinkers [like Plato] from the vantage of your own hopes, dreams, and priorities. That’s often the best way of approaching these works. By the way, this is also the best way of remembering what you read. Almost everything I remember about the great authors relates to how they made me think about my own situation, my own challenges and concerns."

Kids' Reading challenge

This is framed as a summer reading challenge, but how simple it is to extend this! Rabbit Room has designed a creative way to track 12 recommended books for kids. Once completed, kids can mail it back to Rabbit Room for a prize—I'm sure if you don't include your age, they would award adults prizes, too. . .

London Fog Tea Latte

Indy in the summer is much different from a Texas summer. What I mean is this: I get to drink hot tea in the afternoon while sitting on the porch. Southerners can flex on their upcoming mild winters, but I choose to share this delightful London Fog Tea Latte recipe in July :)

What I'm working on:

• Rhythms and simplicity—new city, new church body, new house all come with new rhythms to discover. I have scheduled 3 days a week to simply work on the craft of writing. I'm not particularly aiming at anything right now—just habit building.

Quotable:

"There is only one who can make something from nothing: God. The rest of us sub-create. We work with what can be found lying around on the floor of creation and repurposed from the belly of the earth and the salvage heaps of industry. In this sense, human beings are, as a species, "found object" sculptors. Even the light we work by is borrowed. The question is, what shall we say with it?"

"Rembrandt is in the Wind" by Russ Ramsey

Worth the Memory

Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem for boys called "If"—it's a call for their maturity and manhood. I recently discovered "An 'If' for Girls" by JP McEvoy from 1924. It's now our first memorization piece when school resumes.

‘If you can hear the whispering about you,
And never yield to deal in whispers, too;
If you can bravely smile when loved ones doubt you,
And never doubt, in turn, what loved ones do;
If you can keep a sweet and gentle spirit
In spite of fame or fortune, rank or place,
And though you win your goal or only near it,
Can win with poise and lose with equal grace;

If you can meet with Unbelief, believing,
And hallow in your heart a simple Creed,
If you can meet Deception, undeceiving,
And learn to look to God for all you need;
If you can be what girls should be to mothers:
Chums in joy and comrades in distress,
And be unto others as you’d have the others
Be unto you – No more, and yet no less;

If you can keep within your heart the power
To say that firm, unconquerable “No”;
If you can brave a present shadowed hour,
Rather than yield to build a future woe;
If you can love, yet not let loving master,
But keep yourself within your own self’s clasp,
And not let dreaming lead you to disaster,
Nor pity’s fascination loose your grasp;

If you can lock your heart on confidences,
Nor ever needlessly in turn confide;
If you can put behind you all pretenses
Of mock humility or foolish pride:
If you can keep the simple, homely virtue
Of walking right with God – then have no fear
That anything in all the world can hurt you-
And – which is more – you’ll be a Woman, dear.’



What are your great things from the week?