The "A" word

After I Peter 2:13-17

The “A” word,

the word and idea

we chafe against,

the word around

which our world

revolves: authority.

As much as we

resist it and resent

and disparage it,

it is the system

to establish order

and well-being.

And the “S” word:

submit. With

authority comes 

submission, another

word and idea we

resist and resent,

that every fiber

in our being fights

against. But

submission does not

mean obedience;

it means to arrange

your life to respect

the authority placed

over you.

 

Photograph by Artem Balashevsky via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

“Courtesy,” poem by Hillaire Belloc – Malcolm Guite.

 

Lonely in a Crowd – Madelyn Moses at Reformation 21.

 

“Hymn Before Sunrise,” poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Malcolm Guite.

 

Reading the Bible to Meet God – Barnabas Piper.

Saturday Good Reads - Jan. 4, 2025

More than a decade ago, Britain was rocked by an almost unimaginable scandal – dozens of mostly Pakistani men had been kidnapping and grooming young girls and engaging in gang rape. The hideous crime was made worse when local police actively worked to both cover up the crimes and went so far as to charge victims’ families and the girls themselves with assorted crimes. Britain’s establishment, fearing a fanning of hate against immigrants, turned a blind eye. (Britain’s news media were complicit in turning a blind eye.) The establishment is still turning a blind eye, writes Sam Bidwell at The Critic Magazine. Ben Sixsmith says they’re trying to cover up their own cowardice. The big upsurge in publicity started because of a single tweet by a certain Tesla owner, and then came a followup tweet by Bill Ackman. 

The U.S. State Department’s Global Engagement Center, whose purpose was supposedly to fight disinformation, has closed its doors. Its funding was stripped from the defense spending bill, and it likely faced a quick demise under the incoming administration. What we know about its activities depends upon which media you trust and believe. USA Today says “US nerve center to combat China and Russia propaganda shut down by GOP opposition.” The Wall Street Journal says it battled foreign disinformation. Fox News points out that the GEC was instrumental in censoring Americans who didn’t think COVID originated in a wet market.

 

I usually ignore celebrity stories (and political endorsements), but this one caught my eye because of the implications for public relations. While I knew there was a movie star promotion industry in Hollywood, I didn’t know there was also a celebrity smearing industry, often within the same firm. Neville Hobson suggests some PR ethics lessons from the Blake Lively controversy, while Kat Rosenfeld at The Free Press takes a look at the controversy and the art of the smear and counter-smear.

 

More Good Reads

 

Life and Culture

 

Grandma’s House – Nathaniel Urban at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

British Stuff

 

Buried plaque sends detectorist on WWI quest – Helen Burchell at BBC.

 

The Story of Orange Marmalade – Spitalfields Life.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Life before death – Anthony Daniels at The New Criterion.

 

Voices from the Dead Letter Office – Cynthia Ozick at Harper’s Magazine.

 

How to Read More in 2025 – Thomas Kidd. 

 

The Art of Creative Living – T.S. Poetry Press.

 

Art

 

Busting the myths about my dad Frank Auerbach (according to son Jake) – The Art Newspaper.

 

Poetry

 

Becoming an Instrument of the Poem: An Interview with Paul Muldoon – Caitlyn Doyle at Literary Matters.

 

Start Close In – David Whyte.

 

“Ode written in the Beginning of the Year 1746,” poem by William Collins – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

My Mother’s Teeth – Angela Alaimo O’Donnell at First Things Magazine.

 

“As I Know by Love”: Wendell Berry’s Another Day – Jeffrey Bilbro at Front Porch Republic.

 

American Stuff

 

2024 Year in Review: #1 – The Elephant in the Room: Is America headed toward a second civil war? – Emerging Civil War.

 

Faith

 

Four Remembrances for the New Year – Curtis Solomon at Biblical Counseling Coalition.

 

Simple Love – Alison Krauss

 Painting: Portrait of Giulio Clovio. Oil on canvas by El Greco (1541-1614).

Exiles and sojourners

After I Peter 2:9-12

We are called out 

from the mire that

is the world, called

to know we are

sojourners in this land

of exile. This is our land,

the land we came from,

and this is not our land;

this land is not our home.

Yet we are called to love

here as priests and witnesses,

our conduct in exile above

reproach, sojourners whose

very existence encourages,

illustrates, threatens,

glorifies, challenges, angers,

beautifies, attracts, exemplifies.

Ours is a life of contradictions.

So be it.

 

Photograph by Joakim Nadell via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Noah: Saint and Sinner – Mark Daniels.

 

The New Year’s Prayer Challenge – Robb Brunansky at The Cripplegate.

 

“The Bird in the Tree,” poem by Ruth Pitter – Malcolm Guite.

 

Before – poem by Aubrey Brady at Rabbit Room Poetry.

Three Reviews for "Brookhaven"

An author is always thrilled to receive a review – and doubly thrilled when it’s a positive one. My new historical novel / romance Brookhaven has (so far) three five-star reviews on Amazon; here they are. 

Immensely satisfying

 

A quick admission, I usually have to be drug kicking and screaming to read new novels. So, when this book was placed into my hands, I’m now glad my tantrum was brief and that I settled into both read and enjoy Brookhaven. The novel is lovely, sad, joyful, redemptive, and all around a thoroughly satisfying example of entertaining storytelling. Without giving away the plot, the author artfully weaves in the awful complexity of the Civil War, along with its immediate aftermath, into the lives of the generations that came after, and all with a most satisfying conclusion.

 

 "Brookhaven" kept me up late wondering what would happen next!

 

“Brookhaven” is a retrospective novel set amidst the grim realities of the American Civil (and often not-so-civil) War and its aftermath. While Young’s descriptions of the war feel so authentic and in the moment, it is his love story—one of romantic love and, even more, love of a place and its people—that drew me in. Young’s writing is clear and concise, and he weaves together a complicated tale that is engaging, endearing, and enlightening. I don't have a lot of time to read, but the book managed to keep me up late at night wondering what would happen next. I expect it will do the same for many other readers.

 

I couldn’t put it down.

 

I’m by no means an avid reader and I rarely read a book in a couple of days, but I couldn’t put this book down. It is very well written and the time period of the Civil War was obviously researched very well. The book will keep the reader engaged from beginning to end.

 

Some Thursday Readings

 

For the New Year – poem by Annie Lighthart at Every Day Poems.

 

“Ring Our Wild Bells,” poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

The White-Tailed Deer – poem by David Yezzi at Literary Matters.

Some New Year Readings

Angels of the Uprising: The Courageous Children of Warsaw – The Historian’s Magazine. 

On the Threshold of Bag End – E.R. Scrivener at Story Warren.

 

“A Conceited Mediocrity”: The Story of Tchaikovsky and Brahms – Richard Nilson at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

“The Darkling Thrust,” poem by Thomas Hardy – Malcolm Guite.

 

Up-Hill – poem by Christina Rossetti at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

“Auld Lang Syne,” poem by Robert Burns – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

My New New Year – poem by Susan Jarvis Bryant at Society of Classical Poets.

 

The dock – poem by Christopher Hewitt at The New Criterion.

 

Auld Lang Syne – The Choral Singers of University College Dublin

 Photograph: Thomas Hardy as a young man, about 1866.