Miscellany: Introvert Humor, Poetry Interviews, and Marilynne Robinson
Plus, Phillip eats steak during his wife's labour and Andy learns words from Gen Z.
Welcome to Three Things.
We’re a monthly digest of three things to help you engage with God, neighbor, and culture. But this is our monthly Miscellany where we (Andy and Phillip) tell you what we’ve been reading, thinking about and working on.
Women apparently do not think about food amidst the travails of labour. Husbands, however, do. Midway through the process just a little under a month ago, in a moment of quiet desperation, Phillip walked very fast to the hospital cafe for a sneaky steak slice. There and back again in fifteen minutes and sustained by mediocre filled pastry, he returned in time to welcome a third Johnston daughter into the world.
Reading: It is always a delight to discover a writer who makes you laugh. For Phillip, that’s been Jess Pan, author of Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: One Introvert's Year of Saying Yes. He’s been listening to the audiobook, but the true delight is It’ll Be Fun, They Said, her Substack about working in a small London bookshop. Sorry I'm Late - my friend has a hot husband had Phillip and Christa in stitches a few nights ago.
On a more serious note, Phillip picked up Marilynne Robinson’s new book, Reading Genesis. It is filled with gems like this:
The very remarkable belief of these ancient Hebrews that God loved the world and valued humankind persisted among them through every difficulty. It gave them the conception of time as open-ended from a mortal point of view but utterly purposive, shaped by a divine intention for which a thousand years are like a day when it is past. Time is implicated in the idea of covenant or promise. Destiny will be fulfilled, loyalty will be maintained, into a future unlike all the misery and happiness that must intervene between now and then. Within this great certainty little can be assumed.
Listening: Phillip recently felt indicted by musicologist John Ahern’s Alienated Man’s Guide to Modern Music, especially his indictment of classical music lovers as people “swung up and down, up and down, pitilessly, between the kick of disappointing reality and the snare of an evaporated past. Though he cannot hear it in the dulcet strains of Beethoven or Bach, he is in the vise grip of the Beat.” Perhaps it’s true, but he’s still looking forward to hearing The Hanover Band play Bach’s St. John Passion in Arundel on Good Friday. He also receives great comfort from videos like the one below, which have inspired him to play the piano a bit more. Vice grip? Maybe, maybe not.
Andy turned 40 this year. Along with a new number in the tens place, there have been a few other signs that time is passing. This morning, Andy Googled "Why do young people wear one earbud in their ears even when they're talking to me?" Also, he has learned that the words slap, drip, pop off, and cap have sprouted other meanings meant to be opaque to the uninitiated... like the rules of Tennis. A young friend recently asked, “What songs did you like when you were young?” Trying to be hip, Andy said, “Oh, I don’t know. Sufjan Stevens…?” Andy’s friend said, “Who?”
Sigh.
Reading: Phillip likes classical music. Andy likes litRPGs. With our powers combined we make…. a very esoteric newsletter. That is why you should always keep that unsubscribe button handy if you want off this ride.
For those of you who remain, Andy has been reading the Nova Roma series by J. R. Matthews, Heaven’s River in the Bobiverse Series by Dennis Taylor, the Ashtown Burials series by N. D. Wilson, and the All the Skills series by Honour Rae.
For more sophisticated fare, Ben Palpant has continued to interview important modern Christian poets for the Rabbit Room poetry Substack. The interviews are as inspiring as they are challenging. Here are the interviews with Scott Cairns, Luci Shaw, Mischa Willett, and Jeremiah Webster.
Listening: Gen Z, listen to some Sufjan Stevens. Begin with Carrie and Lowell. Denis Haack will be your guide.
Video Saturday: Each week the Patton kids get their fill of screen time in a 45-minute educational YouTube session lovingly known as “Video Saturday.” The children’s questions are collected on the chalkboard during the week and then the answers are sought in video form. This week’s Video Saturday picks are two guys building weird houses out of mud in the jungle, this person explaining the 13 levels of drumming, and John Williams conducting the Imperial March for his own 90th birthday.
New from The Darkling Psalter (Andy’s poetry and Psalm project):
Psalm 119 (Part Two)—Revive me with your word. You know my story.
Psalm 119 (Part Three)—Lord, you have made me well. Now teach me what is good.
Psalm 119 (Part Four)—I am still held in the palm of your love. Now comfort me.
Psalm 119 (Part Five)—Some split their hearts in half to follow one master each.