Mary Ellen Mitchell: They may not know, but I should tell them, that Carol delivers me breakfast every Monday morning and then cleans the shelter; Amber prays for me whenever she passes MaryEllen street, which she does a lot, because it intersects with the street she lives on. Jeannette texts me weekly to let me know she’s thinking of me, in between doing legal favors for Lydia’s House, because she’s an attorney.
16 yr old son musing after dinner: If LOTR didn’t exist, I think I’d actually be a different person?
pickles, various
Many neighbor chats are still about the whole World Cup unlikely-patriotism borne of tourists' reported love for all things USA. True where you are?
I have central air for the first time in my adult life, and it is a MAJOR upgrade.
I should give up YouTube shorts, but the Caitlin Clark clips make it SO hard.
I’m sure it’s pure coincidence that I’ve become completely obsessed with the robin family awaiting babies in the tree outside my window in the summer before my daughter leaves for college
Got some new stickers for my office from Sight Study.
KYE discussion with Jack Hanson on Magnifica Humanitas is excellent.
Finished reading: Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout 📚 More tales in the diaspora of Olive Kitteredge. Strout can generate so much from very little.
Every interview with Christian Wiman is chock full of poetry and aphorisms to think with, and this one is no different. Especially grateful for this, though: Simone Weil says, “There are two atheisms, of which one is a purification of the notion of God,” which can be helpful. Years ago I said that sometimes God calls a person to unbelief so that faith can take new forms. I think faith is always trying to take new forms.
My daughter’s hand-printed thank you cards for her graduation gifts. ❤️
Thanks to Robert Coles for making me feel like less of an academic weirdo: “So what was he? Dr. Coles variously described himself as a doctor, child psychiatrist, wanderer, oral historian, social anthropologist, teacher, friend, storyteller, busybody, nuisance and ‘idiosyncratic oddball.'” RIP.
In other news, I have reached the precise age known as Speaks Aloud to Nesting Birds Outside House Window.
I wrote about our strange contemporary wilderness of public bioethics.
My RA is teaching me the conics and quadratic equations. (Long story, for a project, I know absolutely nothing beyond very basic math.) She suggested we each do a 15 min zine in a meeting to see where our respective heads are. So helpful.
Regular random reminder that, bang-for-buck wise, homemade salad dressing and homemade granola beat anything you can buy. For very little effort (except making sure you’ve got ingredients always around).
Pleased to see the BBC at least engage a theologian (the great Rowan Williams) in the public bioethics of assisted dying.
I loved this KYE episode on Talarico and his faith in politics. Names the range of feelings I have about his self-presentation of faith. And much more to think about too, as always with Sitman and Adler-Bell.