Here are Four Great Things from the week of 07/26/2024.

Wildcat

Through Amazon Prime, you can rent Wildcat—a film that follows the life of American author Flannery O'Connor.

Let me say, if you are not familiar with O'Connor, then this film may wildly confuse you. She was a practicing Catholic woman who wanted to demonstrate how truly un-rosy life was for both believers and non-believers. She used often grotesque yet never too far-fetched of characters in her 2 novels and numerous short stories.

Wildcat is biographical as well as interpretive of her storytelling. It was truly fantastic. While we're here, I'll go ahead and push a few other O'Connor items: A Prayer Journal and The Terrible Speed of Mercy: A Spiritual Biography of Flannery O'Connor.

10 Updated Rules for Reading

Erik Rostad is the host of the Books of Titans podcast. He recently posted 10 Updated Rules for Reading that are simple but helpful.

The only rule I deliberately am against is #4, "one book at a time." I simply cannot read theology in the evenings, nor can I do poetry in the morning. Weekends are for literature, and office hours are for ministry related books. Besides, in his comments he says rules are meant to be broken :)

No Better Homes and Gardens

Elissa Joy Watts' family is practically nomadic because of work and other factors God has led them through. She has a lovely article on homemaking and hospitality that genuinely speaks to the heart:

"There is a German proverb I’ve carried with me for years: The house shows the owner. I sometimes wonder if people dislike the reflection they see in their homes. I wonder if this is why we hesitate to bring people into our spaces and into our lives. Glossy magazines and Instagram feeds worship an impossible ideal. I used to work in marketing, so when it comes to tapping insecurities and influencing purchases, I’ve seen how the sausage is made. The house shows the owner. . . so don’t look messy or outdated or cheap . . . or else."



No, Taylor Swift is Not Mary Shelley

When a literature professor aims to equalize Swift and Shelley in the gothic arena, the tweed jackets come off as the most literary of statures defend the status of the true queen of Gothic Romanticism.



"When professors make claims like this they are refusing to teach the young what Mary Shelley’s achievement truly was. In his rush to praise Swift he eclipses Shelley, whose work is of world-historical significance. Swift’s art is not the same as Shelley’s and we should stop telling people that it is, especially the young who deserve knowledge and education rather than the trivial blandishments of an ideology obsessed with the relevant, the accessible, and the popular."

What I'm working on:

• Rhythms and simplicity— but being okay without the former; 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:

"What happens when a person's potential can be fully realized—when things like war, sorrow, pain, and death don't stand in the way? What happens when the best parts of what we have to offer develop unencumbered? We do well to wonder about such things, because this is the hope offered in the gospel of Jesus Christ."

"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?