"You can talk about anything you like, other than Johnny Bairstow’s disappointing form with both bat and gloves."
I came across a video explaining Cricket to baseball fans and I meant to watch it but haven't. My guess is that there are superficial similarities that make the games mutually and utterly baffling to respective partisans. As a Yank (and a New York Yankees fan at that! Ha!) I do love me some baseball. Some of my best childhood memories. So as a gesture of international harmony I will see if I can find that video and try to fathom what this whole Cricket thing is about.
Can you give some thought to the notion of "observer input" into life's events. Do you believe an observer is a mute bystander and the event is not influenced by such observation? I don't just mean the observer has an interpretation; I mean he actually influences the outcome, perhaps to the point where there are, in fact two outcomes?
Couple of reading recommendations, if I may: Charles Taylor, 'Sources of the Self', and a short essay he wrote called 'A Catholic Modernity?', easily found online. The first is a bold attempt to trace how our modern understanding of self evolved historically. The latter has an interesting idea about dividing the world into three: secular humanists (this life is all there is); Neo-Nietzscheans (there is more to life, through death and suffering); and believers in a transcendental good beyond this life. Either of the two groups can gang up against the other on some principle. Taylor's conclusion as a believer was that, bewildered by modernity, we must nonetheless avoid either embracing or rejecting it wholesale but rather 'find our voice from within the achievements of modernity' by making a judgement about what are extensions of the gospel (e.g. human rights), and what are negations of it.
I got to Taylor through philosopher Stephen Toulmin, who in his work Cosmopolis rails against Descartes and Newton for poisoning our minds with modern pathologies, and wants to revive earlier, Renaissance ways of thinking.
Just some ideas readers might be interested in.
Bairstow needs to check the rules of cricket in my opinion. Have a nice summer!
SF has a long and interesting history of priest protagonists so I thought I'd try something similar with the fantasy genre. And so I wrote a bit of a portal fantasy about faith and belief, about a man trapped in a different world but refusing to give up.
Hi Paul, you’ve probably already read it but I’m going to put it out here in case anyone hasn’t… Martin Buber’s I and Thou. I’m re-reading after several years and it feels even more resonant. Especially in the time of gardening,
IN THE BEGINNING IS THE RELATION
Buber reminds us to consider the language of ancient people. And gives an example where we as modern people would use the phrase “far away” …
He writes how earlier people’s used relational poetic language:
“The Zulu has a sentence-word that means: “ Where one cries, ‘mother I am lost.’ And the Fuegian surpasses our analytical wisdom with a sentence-word of seven syllables that literally means: They look at each other, each waiting for the other to offer to do that which both desire, but neither wishes to do.
In this wholeness persons are still embedded. What counts is not these products of analysis and reflection, but the genuine, original unity, the lived relationship.”
Just a reminder that we are living in a unique moment of epic disconnect. And how the poetic is helping us to remember. I definitely feel this in the liturgical services. Anyways, just sharing some inspiration. Have a good summer with family and friends and thanks for all of your thoughtful reflections on our times.
I had to pick one thing I’ve learned from Paul it’s that you don’t have to stick with the beliefs you had when you were young and impressionable. As we age we should question our beliefs and see if they hold up. I’ve always been a questioner, but Paul’s example helped me see that I’m not just being contrary or fickle . It’s part of maturity to revise .
Ok, I have a great vacation book for you! If you have any sense at all, you must appreciate the comic genius of Wodehouse (I just read Something New, his first Blandings book, hilarious). Looking for one of his for my yearly summer Wodehouse read, I came across and was scared away from his early book Mike and Psmith - all the American reviewers say they have no idea what’s going on, apparently it’s chock full of cricket terms, which we are constitutionally forbidden from understanding. So have a wonderful break and, as a cricket connaisseur, do what I can’t and enjoy that Wodehouse humor!
“ If you view child sacrifice as a self-limiting anomaly, the trans craze as a phase, and identity politics as a passing fancy, you’ll be tempted to sit back, relax, mind your own business, and wait for the madness to subside. Those tactics will get you nothing but a nonbinary grandchild. I am imploring you to realize that, in the absence of God, the madness is the norm. You cannot wait-and-see your way out of it, you can only repent-and-revival your way out of it. Our godless elite are not leading us into brave new worlds of depravity, they’re taking us back to where we started. ”
Question for Paul and other writers in the salon about your writing process, especially in light of Paul's comments about "technological asceticism" (which I'm trying to practice!) in the re-posted Free Press essay.
What does your writing process look like, and specifically, what tools (hardware and software) are you using? I hate writing on a laptop, for myriad reasons. I enjoy writing longhand, but can't do it for long, and transcribing it into the computer is a pain. I've recently looked into the "Freewrite," and that seems promising (though it irks me they must call it a "smart" typewriter). I'm interested to hear about what Paul and others use. Thanks!
Have a very well-deserved summer, Paul. Thank you for all that you've done here over the last two years.
What I'm interested in lately is the connection between autism and faith. I started a new series on my Substack called "Be Not Conformed" to cover my own experiences at this intersection. I was raised without religion but had a constant yearning toward Christianity. It finally bloomed into my life around 7 years ago. I'm teasing out the ways in which autistic consciousness is, in a way, "primed" for transcendence. https://natashaburge.substack.com/p/burning-out-toward-god
I'm also re-reading Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, which I think might just be the most life-affirmingly beautiful summer novel of all time. Utter poetry and joy on every page - highly recommend!
I was recently reading the book "The God of Jesus Christ" by Pope Benedict and I came across this passage:
"What then does 'the name of God' mean? Perhaps it is easiest to grasp what this entails if we look at its opposite. The Revelation of John speaks of the adversary of God, the 'beast'. This beast, the power opposed to God, has no name, but a number. The seer tells us: 'Its number is six hundred and sixty-six.' It is a number, and it makes men numbers. We who lived through the world of concentration camps know what that means. The terror of that world is that it obliterates men's faces. It obliterates their history. It makes man a number, an exchangeable cog in one big machine. He is his function - nothing more. Today, we must fear that the concentration camp was only a prelude and that the universal law of the machine may impose the structure of the concentration camp on the world as a whole. For when functions are all that exist, man, too, is nothing more than his function. The machines that he himself has constructed now impose their own law on him: he must be made readable for the computer, and this can be achieved only when he is translated into numbers. Everything else in man becomes irrelevant. Whatever is not a function is - nothing. The beast is a number, and it makes men numbers. But God has a name, and God calls us by our name. He is a Person, and he seeks the person. He has a face, and he seeks our face. He has a heart, and he seeks our heart. For him, we are not some function in a 'world machinery.' On the contrary, it is precisely those who have no function who are his own. A name allows me to be addressed. A name denotes community. This is why Christ is the true Moses, the fulfillment of the revelation of God's name. He does not bring some new word as God's name; he does more than this, since he himself is the face of God. He himself is the name of God. In him, we can address God as 'you', as person, as heart."
The paragraph goes on just a bit more, but that is its essence. When I read it, it felt very resonant with many of the themes shared in The Abbey of Misrule, so I thought it might be worth sharing.
Have a nice break!
Is cricket the greatest game of all time?
"You can talk about anything you like, other than Johnny Bairstow’s disappointing form with both bat and gloves."
I came across a video explaining Cricket to baseball fans and I meant to watch it but haven't. My guess is that there are superficial similarities that make the games mutually and utterly baffling to respective partisans. As a Yank (and a New York Yankees fan at that! Ha!) I do love me some baseball. Some of my best childhood memories. So as a gesture of international harmony I will see if I can find that video and try to fathom what this whole Cricket thing is about.
Here it is. For my fellow Americans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWpbtLIxYBk
Enjoy yer holliers Paul..
Can you give some thought to the notion of "observer input" into life's events. Do you believe an observer is a mute bystander and the event is not influenced by such observation? I don't just mean the observer has an interpretation; I mean he actually influences the outcome, perhaps to the point where there are, in fact two outcomes?
Couple of reading recommendations, if I may: Charles Taylor, 'Sources of the Self', and a short essay he wrote called 'A Catholic Modernity?', easily found online. The first is a bold attempt to trace how our modern understanding of self evolved historically. The latter has an interesting idea about dividing the world into three: secular humanists (this life is all there is); Neo-Nietzscheans (there is more to life, through death and suffering); and believers in a transcendental good beyond this life. Either of the two groups can gang up against the other on some principle. Taylor's conclusion as a believer was that, bewildered by modernity, we must nonetheless avoid either embracing or rejecting it wholesale but rather 'find our voice from within the achievements of modernity' by making a judgement about what are extensions of the gospel (e.g. human rights), and what are negations of it.
I got to Taylor through philosopher Stephen Toulmin, who in his work Cosmopolis rails against Descartes and Newton for poisoning our minds with modern pathologies, and wants to revive earlier, Renaissance ways of thinking.
Just some ideas readers might be interested in.
Bairstow needs to check the rules of cricket in my opinion. Have a nice summer!
Random question. Anybody here have a specific morning routine? What does it look like?
For anyone looking for a bit of fiction on this fine day, I thought I'd share a story I had published last autumn: https://www.mysteriononline.com/2022/10/heretic.html
SF has a long and interesting history of priest protagonists so I thought I'd try something similar with the fantasy genre. And so I wrote a bit of a portal fantasy about faith and belief, about a man trapped in a different world but refusing to give up.
Hi Paul, you’ve probably already read it but I’m going to put it out here in case anyone hasn’t… Martin Buber’s I and Thou. I’m re-reading after several years and it feels even more resonant. Especially in the time of gardening,
IN THE BEGINNING IS THE RELATION
Buber reminds us to consider the language of ancient people. And gives an example where we as modern people would use the phrase “far away” …
He writes how earlier people’s used relational poetic language:
“The Zulu has a sentence-word that means: “ Where one cries, ‘mother I am lost.’ And the Fuegian surpasses our analytical wisdom with a sentence-word of seven syllables that literally means: They look at each other, each waiting for the other to offer to do that which both desire, but neither wishes to do.
In this wholeness persons are still embedded. What counts is not these products of analysis and reflection, but the genuine, original unity, the lived relationship.”
Just a reminder that we are living in a unique moment of epic disconnect. And how the poetic is helping us to remember. I definitely feel this in the liturgical services. Anyways, just sharing some inspiration. Have a good summer with family and friends and thanks for all of your thoughtful reflections on our times.
I had to pick one thing I’ve learned from Paul it’s that you don’t have to stick with the beliefs you had when you were young and impressionable. As we age we should question our beliefs and see if they hold up. I’ve always been a questioner, but Paul’s example helped me see that I’m not just being contrary or fickle . It’s part of maturity to revise .
Ok, I have a great vacation book for you! If you have any sense at all, you must appreciate the comic genius of Wodehouse (I just read Something New, his first Blandings book, hilarious). Looking for one of his for my yearly summer Wodehouse read, I came across and was scared away from his early book Mike and Psmith - all the American reviewers say they have no idea what’s going on, apparently it’s chock full of cricket terms, which we are constitutionally forbidden from understanding. So have a wonderful break and, as a cricket connaisseur, do what I can’t and enjoy that Wodehouse humor!
Ps whatever y’all do, don’t be a normie!
https://gaty.substack.com/p/dont-be-a-normie
“ If you view child sacrifice as a self-limiting anomaly, the trans craze as a phase, and identity politics as a passing fancy, you’ll be tempted to sit back, relax, mind your own business, and wait for the madness to subside. Those tactics will get you nothing but a nonbinary grandchild. I am imploring you to realize that, in the absence of God, the madness is the norm. You cannot wait-and-see your way out of it, you can only repent-and-revival your way out of it. Our godless elite are not leading us into brave new worlds of depravity, they’re taking us back to where we started. ”
Question for Paul and other writers in the salon about your writing process, especially in light of Paul's comments about "technological asceticism" (which I'm trying to practice!) in the re-posted Free Press essay.
What does your writing process look like, and specifically, what tools (hardware and software) are you using? I hate writing on a laptop, for myriad reasons. I enjoy writing longhand, but can't do it for long, and transcribing it into the computer is a pain. I've recently looked into the "Freewrite," and that seems promising (though it irks me they must call it a "smart" typewriter). I'm interested to hear about what Paul and others use. Thanks!
Have a very well-deserved summer, Paul. Thank you for all that you've done here over the last two years.
What I'm interested in lately is the connection between autism and faith. I started a new series on my Substack called "Be Not Conformed" to cover my own experiences at this intersection. I was raised without religion but had a constant yearning toward Christianity. It finally bloomed into my life around 7 years ago. I'm teasing out the ways in which autistic consciousness is, in a way, "primed" for transcendence. https://natashaburge.substack.com/p/burning-out-toward-god
I'm also re-reading Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, which I think might just be the most life-affirmingly beautiful summer novel of all time. Utter poetry and joy on every page - highly recommend!
I was recently reading the book "The God of Jesus Christ" by Pope Benedict and I came across this passage:
"What then does 'the name of God' mean? Perhaps it is easiest to grasp what this entails if we look at its opposite. The Revelation of John speaks of the adversary of God, the 'beast'. This beast, the power opposed to God, has no name, but a number. The seer tells us: 'Its number is six hundred and sixty-six.' It is a number, and it makes men numbers. We who lived through the world of concentration camps know what that means. The terror of that world is that it obliterates men's faces. It obliterates their history. It makes man a number, an exchangeable cog in one big machine. He is his function - nothing more. Today, we must fear that the concentration camp was only a prelude and that the universal law of the machine may impose the structure of the concentration camp on the world as a whole. For when functions are all that exist, man, too, is nothing more than his function. The machines that he himself has constructed now impose their own law on him: he must be made readable for the computer, and this can be achieved only when he is translated into numbers. Everything else in man becomes irrelevant. Whatever is not a function is - nothing. The beast is a number, and it makes men numbers. But God has a name, and God calls us by our name. He is a Person, and he seeks the person. He has a face, and he seeks our face. He has a heart, and he seeks our heart. For him, we are not some function in a 'world machinery.' On the contrary, it is precisely those who have no function who are his own. A name allows me to be addressed. A name denotes community. This is why Christ is the true Moses, the fulfillment of the revelation of God's name. He does not bring some new word as God's name; he does more than this, since he himself is the face of God. He himself is the name of God. In him, we can address God as 'you', as person, as heart."
The paragraph goes on just a bit more, but that is its essence. When I read it, it felt very resonant with many of the themes shared in The Abbey of Misrule, so I thought it might be worth sharing.