Saturday Good Reads

Torrential rains and flooding hit southeastern Louisiana, and it took a while but finally the mainstream media noticed. Apparently, the fact that nearly a third of a state under water and 40,000 homes flooded didn’t fit the current media narratives, until people started embarrassing them into coverage (and even then The New York Times started with a story about how it was all caused by climate change). As in 2005 when the government response barely materialized in the first two weeks of Hurricane Katrina, the Cajun Navy, including the placekicker for the LSU football team, launched their boats to rescue people. Rod Dreher talks about what happened when the people began to help to each other.

Malcolm Guite talks about poetry, a writer remembers the words of poet Seamus Heaney (and Heaney comes up again in a reflection about film and poetry), English is birthing new languages, Tim Good continues to find extraordinary beauty in industrial ruins, and a beautiful view of the fjords of Norway.

Faith

A Second Generation Atheist’s Take on the Eyewitness of Jesus – Kurt Bennett at Godrunning.

Wendell Berry and the Revitalized Pastor – Paul House at The Gospel Coalition.

Benedict Option in the Flood – Rod Dreher at American Conservative Magazine.

Depression & Me – Tristan Sherwin.

Life and Culture

Where Her Whimsy Took Me: Learning to Read with Dorothy Sayers – Veery Huleatt at First Things.

How English gave birth to surprising new languages – James Harbeck at BBC (Hat Tip: J of India).

Inside the Head of Trump Voters – Rod Dreher at American Conservative Magazine.

When Parks Were Radical – Nathaniel Rich at The Atlantic.

Poetry

Gladfest Interview: Malcolm Guite – The Gladstone Library.

The Sand Castle – Megan Willome.

Continue my way home – Jim Schmotzer at The Faithful Skeptic.

The Poet’s House: Seamus Heaney and the literature of Violence – Leslie Doyle at Electric Literature.

What I cannot finish – Troy Cady at T(r)oy Marbles.

In and Out of the Marvelous – Joeren van Honk at Curator Magazine.

Art and Photography

Framed Views and Studies of Old Bricks – Tim Good at Pics, Poems, and Ponderings.

Playing with Zinnias – Susan Jones.

Writing

How Secretive Are You About Your Writing Projects? – Ann Kroeker.

How to Work Alone – Paul Jun at 99U.

British Stuff

Sole Survivor: 300-year-old show found incollege wall – St. John’s College, Cambridge.

Fjordlapse Norway

Painting: Dr. Samuel Johnson Reading a Book, oil on canvas by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1775).