"The Art of the Essay" by Charity Singleton Craig

Writers read a lot of books on writing. I’ve learned that books on writing fall into three loose groups. One group, by far the largest, focuses on the craft, similar to lectures by English composition teachers. A second group is by authors who’ve worked very hard to sound wise and profound; I call this group the self-recognized oracles. And the third and smallest group is by authors who genuinely want to help other writers because they love writing and they know how hard it can be.

Most writers of books in that second group will claim their work is actually in the third group. I call that self-deception of self-recognized oracles. 

The Art of the Essay: From Ordinary Life to Extraordinary Words by Charity Singleton Craigf alls squarely, and without pretense, in that third group. This is a narrative that’s written to me as a writer from a writer who loves what she does and wants other writers to love what they do.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

“Justice on Trial” by Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino

In the fall of 2018, few things riveted the attention of Americans like the hearings on the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh for the U.S. Supreme Court. The story unfolded with the high drama of a suspense novel, with unexpected twists and turns, heroes and villains, and a theme of the utter divisive ruthlessness that pervades American culture. 

Writing from a conservative but balanced perspective, Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino tell the story of what happened in Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court. Hemingway, senior editor at The Federalist, and Serevino, chief counsel and policy director for the Judicial Crisis Network, provide an in-depth researched and highly readable account of the nomination, hearings, and eventual confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh.

Mollie Hemingway

The retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy lit the match. Kennedy was the sharply divided court’s pivot. For some cases, he joined the conservatives; in others, he joined the liberal or progressive justices. Within minutes of his retirement announcement and before the identity of the nominee was known, the battle was underway. 

Hemingway and Serevino provide extensive background on the various main players involved and the precursors to the fight over Kavanaugh, specifically the nominations of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas. They examine how events unfolded, the role played by abortion, and the underlying mistrust by conservatives and centrist voters over what happens to supposedly conservative judges when they reach the court (or whether they were really conservative in the first place – Harry Blackmun, who wrote the Roe v. Wade opinion, was appointed by Richard Nixon; David Souter by George H.W. Bush; and Anthony Kennedy by Ronald Reagan). 

The Kavanaugh story is one with a lot of moving parts – history, politics, personalities, surprises, and more. The authors manage to keep the parts moving forward and together in a cohesive narrative. They detail the remarkable events that unfolded – The admission by U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein that she had received the letter accusing Kavanaugh two months before the hearings started but didn’t mention it until it appeared Kavanaugh’s nomination was assured;  the sincerity of Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of a sexual attack when they were teenagers; the jeremiad of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham against the Democratic senators on the Judiciary Committee; Brett Kavanaugh’s passionate defense; and the speech by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, explaining why she was voting to confirm Kavanaugh.

Carrie Severino

We also see the less-than-remarkable events – attorney Michael Avenatti claiming he was representing a victim of Kavanaugh as well; the woman who claimed she had been attacked, only to backtrack and said she made her statement because she felt “empowered;” the details of the political machines on both sides of the controversy; and the less-than-journalistically-stellar performances by the national news media. 

While they reflect a conservative viewpoint, the authors are surprisingly fair, acknowledging missteps, exaggerations, and blatant lies on both sides. And they raise questions that need to be asked about the role of politics and the court, how court nominations have become weaponized, the role of due process of law, and other subjects important to the functioning of the U.S> government.

To read Justice on Trial is to relive the national trauma of the fall of 2018. It’s a hard story to read, but it goes to the heart of the beliefs and actions that are tearing at the fabric of national life.

Clean feet

After John 13:1-17

To wash the feet of another

is an act of humility, an act

of service, an act of servanthood,

recognizing that to lead 

is to serve, to wash the feet

is to disregard 

where the feet have been,

the feet encrusted 

with dirt and mud and filth

from the walking, the journey.

To wash the feet is 

to ignore the calluses and 

scars and deadened skin.

To wash the feet is

to accept those feet,

that heart, that soul,

touching those feet

with eternity.

Photograph by Cristian Newman via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Saturday Good Reads

The phrase always struck me as odd and vaguely irritating, if not dumb. It’s widely used. We’ve even had a U.S. President use it. William Farley at Reformation 21 puts his finger on what’s wrong about it. The phrase is “the right side of history.”

Tim Parks is a teacher taking early retirement, but not for any of the usual reasons. He’s seeing the loss of a foundation stone of American culture; his school won’t let him have a computer-free classroom. See his story in The New York Review of Books.

“When Evgeny Bakhmutsky’s grandfather baptized him, the older man cried—but not just happy tears. ‘He was crying because he knew I might be arrested the next day,’ Bakhmutsky said. ‘And he was crying because he knew Christianity is a road to suffering and pain and likely death.’” Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra at The Gospel Coalition has a brief history of Christianity in Russia in the 20^thand 21^stcenturies: What the Soviets Intended for Siberia, God Intended for Good.

Bradley Birzer at The Imaginative Conservative has two articles about C.S. Lewis and the Inklings: “The Pilgrim’s Regress”: The Allegory of C.S. Lewis’s Conversion and Was Owen Barfield an Inkling?

More Good Reads

Writing 

Curiosity, Creativity, Productivity: Three Pillars to Building Your Best Writing Life – Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach.

Culture

Church, Business, or Government: Which Is Best at Fighting Poverty? – Elise Daniel at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

True Tolerance vs. Moral Relativism in the Workplace – Hugh Whelchel at the Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics.

In Defense of Hometowns – Charles McElwee at City Journal.

Democracy Dies in Delegation – Alexander Salter at Front Porch Republic.

Faith

6 Recent Archaeological Discoveries That Affirm Details in Scripture – Karen Engle at Logos.

7 Ways to Persevere in Your Senior Years – Dawn Wilson at Revive Our Hearts.

News Media

Where will the media take us next? – Seth Godin.

Why Facebook Failed – Samuel D. James at Letters & Liturgy.

American Stuff

What’s Exceptional About American Exceptionalism? – Allen Guelzo at City Journal.

In Search of the dreaded Andersonville – Derek Maxfield at Emerging Civil War.

British Stuff

Boris Johnson’s Challenge – Carl Trueman at First Things Magazine. 

Gertrude Jekyll, Sedate Revolutionary – Judith Taylor at English Historical Fiction Authors.

Poetry

Look Back – Doug Spurling at Spurling Silver.

A Taste of Garlic – Maureen Doallas at Poets Reading the News.

Now Faith – Joe Spring.

Art

Winslow Homer beach paintings—cut in half after a bad review—reunited for Cape Ann Museum show – Aimee Dawson at The Art Newspaper.

Magic Lofoten & Rugged Senja, Norway

Painting: A Woman Reading, oil on canvas by Henry Lebasque (1865-1937). 

A bowl of water

After John 13:1-17

A simple thing, this bowl,

filled with water.

A simple act, to wash

feet dirty from the dust

of travel and walking,

A simple statement, why

do you do this, implied

if not explicit.

A simple outburst, I will

wash your feet instead.

A simple response,

you must allow me,

if you are part of me.

All simple yet not,

understanding not

grasped until explained,

a kind of parable 

of the master who washed

the feet of his slave.

Photograph by Tom Crew via Unsplash. Used with permission.

4 Stories by Glenn McGoldrick

British author Glenn McGoldrick writes stories. Period. That’s the fiction form he uses, and, so far, he’s stuck to it.

McGoldrick once worked for a cruise line, so it’s no surprise that one series of his stories is about cruise ship operations. Another series is his Dark Teesside stories, set in towns in northeastern England near the River Tees (the city of Newcastle is close by). 

What all of McGoldrick’s stories have in common is crime. Here are three of the Dark Teesside stories.

In Red Marks, an unemployed man named Michael Atkins boards a bus and discovers a forgotten purse. He pockets the cash in the purse, and then gradually tracks the purse’s owner. And then he watches, biding his time. What we learn along the way is that Atkins almost strangled his former girlfriend. It’s a chilling story, as if we’re watching the birth of a serial killer. 

Breaking Spirits is a story of double revenge. A young man follows a man from a pub one night, and coldly murders him. The victim is an enemy of the young man’s father, who’s previously served prison time. The young man’s mother committed suicide, and his father had a lot to do with it. Guess who’s going to get framed for murder?

 

In Dead Flies, a man’s adult son has been missing for three years, and it’s now officially a cold case file. The man is still buying a cake to celebrate his son’s birthday, and he replays the last days he and his wife spent his son. It’s a story about people desperate for answers and none are forthcoming.

Not Eligible for Rehire is one of McGoldrick’s cruise ship stories. A woman and her husband work for a cruise ship; they’re getting a divorce but still sharing a cabin. The woman comes to Human Resources and says her husband has been smoking marijuana. The cabin is searched, marijuana found. The man is tested but no trace of the drug is found. An investigation follows; he’s eventually dismissed, not because he was guilty as much as the need for the company to do something. HR is convinced that the lied, but what can it do about her? The story may be about a cruise line, but it fits a significant part of corporate thinking.

McGoldrick’s stories are dark tales, indeed, bringing us into the dark places of the human heart.

Glenn McGoldrick

“Light from Distant Stars” by Shawn Smucker

To quote poet William Wordsworth, the child is father to the man.

Cohen Marah is 40-something, unmarried, working with his father in a funeral home. The story he tells begins as he steps over his father’s body, with blood pooling on the floor. The question is immediately begged: did Cohen just kill his father? The reader isn’t sure; neither is Cohen. AS it turns out, his father is still alive.

Cohen’s story runs on at least three different spools. Contemporary Cohen is struggling with his identity, as he moves back and forth between his father’s hospital room and the confession box at an Episcopal church. Child Cohen #1 is the son of a rather fire-breathing preacher, whose wife writes all of his sermons, whose marriage blows up because of adultery. Child Cohen #2 is the boy in alliance with two rather mysterious children he meets in the woods; together they start the hunt for an all-too-real beast

Shawn Smucker

The three Cohens wind themselves around each other, as their stories coalesce and combine into one complete story in Light from Distant Stars, the new novel by Shawn Smucker. The novel has the kind of narrative approach that could have easily the reader in unraveling threads. Smucker neatly and expertly avoids that problem, and he pulls off an extremely satisfying story. 

Light from Distant Stars is about the past shaping the present. It’s about human evil and human sin. It’s about a man trying to come to grips with his relationship with his father. It’s about trying to hold on to what matters in life, and if that can even be understood. It’s about a child discovering his parents have flaws and failings. And it’s about redemption.

In addition to the novels The Day the Angels Fell and The Edge of Over There, Smucker has published four non-fiction works – Once We Were Strangers, My Amish Roots, Building a Life Out of Words, and Refuse to Drown. He and his family live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Light from Distant Stars is one fine, thought-provoking story. It does what a good story is supposed to do, and that is to unveil the truth in and about our lives.

Related:

My review of The Day the Angels Fellby Shawn Smucker.

My review of The Edge of Over Thereby Shawn Smucker.

My review of Once We Were Strangersby Shawn Smucker.

My review of My Amish Rootsby Shawn Smucker.