I know exactly where I was on July 16, 1969. Six weeks after high school graduation, three friends and I were parked along the Banana River at Cape Kennedy, part of an estimated one million people who had come to Florida for the same reason and to the same destination. We had spent the night in the car, ensuring a clear view across the river to a site about a mile or so away. Parked behind us was a young couple from Canada, who, like us, had spent the night there. We had been the first car to park. We tried to sleep, but lights from cars and vans kept us awake all night. Later that morning, July 16, 1969, we watched and cheered the launch of Apollo 11, carrying the crew that would land on the moon.
I had heard this anecdotally before, but it’s still surprising (and to see it confirmed) to learn which Americans are the most generous, in terms of giving to non-profit organizations. The confirmation is a book, Who Really Cares, by Arthur Brooks, professor of Public Administration at Syracuse University. It turns out that the Americans who give more are the ones who mistrust big government and generally live in the so-called red states.
For the first time in more than 900 years, the Bayeux Tapestry has returned to Britain for an exhibition at the British Museum. It is a woven account of the Norman Invasion of 1066, and it’s almost 230 feet (70 meters) long. The BBC describes five of its key scenes.
More Good Reads
British Stuff
A chaplain’s vindication – Andrea Williams at The Critic Magazine.
American Stuff
165 Years Later, First Bull Run Still Explains Why Americans Misjudged the Civil War – Ryan Thomas LaBee at Military.com.
America 250
George Whitefield: America’s Forgotten Founding Father, Part 2 – Peter Lillback at Institute for Faith & Culture. (Part 1 is here.)
Life and Culture
Feeding My New Orleans Habit – John Shelton Reed at Portico.
Like Fujimara’s ‘Slow Art.’ The Creative Process Takes Patience – Isaac Hans at The Anselm Society.
Faith
Beyond the End Times: What evangelical support for Israel really reveals – Motti Inbari and Kirill Bumin at Religion News Service.
Was the Multiplication of the Early Church a Miraculous Movement? – A.W. Workman at Entrusted to the Dirt.
Questions to Ask a Deacon or Elder Candidate at an Ordination – Jack Wellman at What Christians Want to Know.
Poetry
“One Hundred Visions of War,” poems by Julien Vocance and “Anecdote of the Jar,” poem by Wallace Stevens – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.
Compulsive Memory and Poetic Composition – James Feichthaler at New Verse Review.
Writing and Literature
Teachers of Evil: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Melville – Thaddeus Kozinski at The Imaginative Conservative.
The Looting of Science Fiction – Ali Riza Taskale at Aeon Magazine.
An Ear for the Outsider – Andrew Roycroft at New Grub Street.
My Posts This Week
Decision on the Stairs, a short story – at Cultivating Oaks Press.
Tina Kelley and Field Guide of North American Words – at Tweetspeak Poetry.
The Scenes That Stick from a Chaotic Job – at Dancing Priest.
Sarah Dickinson Snyder and To Eve – at Tweetspeak Poetry.
“The Day is Done” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – Read by Kishore Raghoobar
Painting: Old Man Reading, oil on canvas (1909) by Albert Anker (1831-1910).
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