Hello there,
I’m going to try really hard for the next few weeks not to make this entire section a complaint about the weather. But it is that time, folks. It’s September and it’s still 90.
In other topics, the United Kingdom has a new Prime Minister and she’s been properly commissioned by the Queen. I bought a new planner for my writing schedules. The front step is covered in orange dirt because of the yard work happening out front. I weeded the cutting garden last week, and the dahlias are about to pop open.
And still, it is 90.
The Part Where There’s an Essay but This Week, It’s Actually Just a List:
A List of Things That Make You a Human and Not God
You don’t know the future.
You aren’t completely understanding the past.
You don’t know what that person is thinking.
You do not determine the weather.
You do not determine elections or political movements.
You can’t fix it.
You are going to step forward today, hoping for the best, but not knowing the outcome.
You can’t change that.
You aren’t the main character in this story.
AND YET
God has promised good to you
“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” - Luke 12:32
God is in the future
“Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” -- Proverbs 19:21
God knows you forget the past, and He loves you anyway
“For the LORD loves justice; he will not forsake his saints.” -Psalm 37:28
For the Anglophiles
I was recently chatting with a friend who is trying to pick a Premier League club to support; she is enjoying watching the matches every weekend but (correctly) assumes that she will enjoy it all the more when she pledges her allegiance to a team.
I gave her a few options, one of which was Newcastle United FC. Newcastle upon Tyne is at the far north of England and is home to one of my favorite English idioms: “carrying coals to Newcastle.” This is an idiom expressing how something would be redundant. Newcastle was once the largest producer of coal in the region, so carrying coals there would be superfluous.
Since my friend is a librarian, I shared this information with her in hopes that it might convince her to pick Newcastle as her team. It’s as good as any other reason. *shrug*
Reads & Listens of the Week
A longer piece from Mere Orthodoxy responds to Rod Dreher’s recent call that “it’s time to panic”: “‘build enduring institutions designed for resistance,’ is great, but you can’t build such institutions when your coalition is filled with enraged, belligerent, anxious people, as are virtually every movement and institution on the anti-woke right.“ (Bonus point for The Godfather reference)
Trevin Wax (in a piece from 2020) reminds us to Love What’s Near: “The love that goes farthest starts with loving what is nearest.”
Though the title is clumsy, I appreciated this piece from The Washington Post: It’s time to appreciate domestic artistry like sewing and baking.
I found this little exploration of work lunch culture in France just fascinating: Why Desk Lunches are Illegal in France.
"There is one political maxim which comforts me: ‘The Lord reigns.’" - John Newton