It turns out this isn’t the first time that Ange’s first season at a new club has resulted in a host of hamstring injuries. I guess it makes sense that high-line front-footed Angeball takes some getting used to!
Large Language Models and the Art of Rhetoric
Many people are using large language models to write for them because they are acutely aware of their own deficiency in the art of rhetoric. But here is the rub: relying on these tools because you are already deficient in the art of rhetoric only makes you increasingly so. Multiply this out on a societal scale, and the outlook becomes even more bleak. Imagine communities of people who already have trouble thinking and communicating clearly about things that matter choosing to outsource their thinking and communication to a tool that can’t think.
This is the face of a dog who loves his new family, but is still learning that when a member of that family leaves, they will come back eventually.
We have also settled on a name for our sweet Blue Heeler mix: Bandit Dunny Jordan. A nod to our family’s elementary sense of humor and our love for Bluey.
Baptized in the Jordan River
You don’t have to travel across the world to be baptized in the Jordan River; only through the space time continuum. By the power of the Spirit of God The still clear water of the modern font Becomes the flow of that ancient river; Cleansing you as it was itself once cleansed by him who came after and yet before. “This is my beloved,” the voice beckons, Echoing from those first century shores,
Currently reading: Life Is a Miracle by Wendell Berry 📚
A blessed Feast of the Epiphany!
The landscape of the Lower Falls at McKinney Falls State Park “looks like something out of Star Wars,” according to our kids. They aren’t wrong.
Before reading his newest Christmas Poem, Malcolm Guite comments on a glass of scotch on his desk:
“It’s a Bunnahabhain—12 years old—it gives you the impression you exist.”
Relieved
The sun remains set but we are both awake. You more anxious than me To go outside. It isn’t until I feel the chill of the air That I realize You aren’t the only one Who has been holding it all night. “What’s the difference,” I ask “Between this and a camping trip? You know the kind Where a shovel counts as outdoor plumbing And you’re grateful for The softness of a leaf?
First family hike of the new year, and our first with Bandit! McKinney Falls State Park - one of our favorite spots in the Austin area.
The second half of Nottingham Forest vs Man U was exhilarating: a Matt Turner give-away that led to an equalizer, a Matt Turner save that led to a successful counter attack, three bold one-touch strikes, and Nuno guiding Forest to their first victory over Man U in nearly three decades.
I have moved all of the content from Substack to Micro.blog for my forthcoming book on Virtues and the Church Calendar. The Substack funds were helpful, but I would rather have the content available to all, and rely on some folks opting to buy me a moment (or two) to write!
The Altar Rail
The altar rail is a microcosm of a universe held together by sacrament. Imposed ashes speak louder than the words. The priest says “Remember thou art dust." But in their eyes, and his, it sounds more like “This year, or perhaps next, I will commend your ashes, not these." “The body of Christ” is heard in ten thousand ways, most of them unspoken. The altar rails is the cosmos in micro.
Steps towards a more analog 2024
2024 will mark the 40th anniversary of the Apple Macintosh. To properly mark the occasion, and in a nod to Steve Jobs—who never wanted our devices to become part of who we are—I am taking some intentional steps towards analoging my life. I will do this in two primary ways, one aesthetic, and one ascetic. For the former, I will work towards making analog things more intellectually and physically attractive, when reasonable.
Merry Christmas from the newest member of our household! Happy to have a dog in the home again.
May He, who by His Incarnation gathered into one things earthly and heavenly, fill you with the fulness of inward peace and goodwill, and make you partakers of the Divine Nature; and the blessing of God almighty, + the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you always. Amen.
Pleased to have Malcolm Guite as our Inaugural Honored Speaker at Coram Deo Academy Dallas!
Fables doing what fables do: remind us of something we need to hear, in a way that allows us to actually hear it.
Smartphones and stoplights
Smartphone and social media addiction is a real plague affecting younger generations. To deny this in any way is to be woefully and intentionally ignorant of reality. At the same time, part of the reason this is a problem in the first place is that the exact same is true of older generations. See Sherry Turkle’s excellent book Reclaiming Conversation for hard data on this front. An illustration from my commute this morning: traffic was held up at a left-turn light because the lady in front of me put on her readers to check her phone.