Why a promise?

After Galatians 3:15-25 

One wonders: why make

a promise? Why tell

a childless old man

that his offspring

would be countless, like

grains of seashore sand?

What did a promise, 

when to could have been

simply a matter of doing it?

 

Perhaps it is a plan,

the plan unfolding over

time, designed with

a purpose an aim. First,

the promise. Then, the law,

serving as guardian. Then,

the promise fulfilled,

the guardian no longer

needed, the guardian

replaced by faith

indwelled.

 

It is a plan all along.

The earth shook,

the prison doors blew

open. Faith has come;

the promise is fulfilled.

 

Photograph by Pinakeen Bhatt via Unsplash. Used with permission.

"Letterbox Eyes" by Glenn McGoldrick

Glenn McGoldrick can write stories that begin like any short story might but then take a turn into the unexpected. His newest short story, “Letter Box Eyes,” is no exception. 

A young woman lives with her mother. Her parents are divorced; she tried living with her father but his second wife didn’t like her and was undoubtedly glad to see her go. So, she moved in with her mother. 

 

The young woman can’t seem to hold a job. She works for two or three months, and then things seem to go wrong. But she has Mum to fall back on, at least for food and a roof over her head. And that’s all she really wants or needs.

 

And then tragedy strikes.

 

Glenn McGoldrick

“Letterbox Eyes” is a new dark tale by the British author. McGoldrick focuses his stories on the working class, people who often lead lives right on the line between survival and disaster, or between law-abiding and criminal. And every story has a surprising twist.

 

Writing since 2013, McGoldrick specializes in short stories with a twist, and usually a dark and often a deadly twist. He worked for both land-based casinos and cruise ships for a time, basing many of his stories on those experiences. His stories are gritty, and his characters run the gamut of good, bad, and something in between. They often find themselves moving far beyond the boundaries of acceptable behavior. McGoldrick lives in northeastern England (which I’m assuming is not as dark as his stories might imply). 

 

Related:

 

“Waiting” by Glenn McGoldrick.

 

“Shaking Hands” by Glenn McGoldrick.

 

Idle Hands by Glenn McGoldrick.

 

“The Moor Road” by Glenn McGoldrick.

 

“Yellow Feet” by Glenn McGoldrick.

 

Three New Dark Stories by Glenn McGoldrick.

 

“Six Down,” “Somewhere in England,” and “Dark Progresion” by Glenn McGoldrick.

 

 4 Stories by Glenn McGoldrick.

 

3+ Stories by Glenn McGoldrick.

 

Five Mysteries: 2 Short Stories, 2 Novellas, and a Long Story.

 

The Dark Stories of Glenn McGoldrick.

 

Watching Crows by Glenn McGoldrick.

 

Some Light and Dark Holiday Reading.

 

How I Learned About the Coronation

There I was, doing what I do best in gift shops connected to major tourist sites, in this case the Tower of London. It was 2013, and I was looking through the books for sale.  

One caught my eye: Crown, Orb & Sceptre: The True Stories of English Coronations by David Hilliam. And the reason it caught my eye was that I’d begun to think about the third novel in my Dancing Priest series, my alternative history of the British royal family. And this would be the novel in which Michael Kent-Hughes would be crowned. 

 

But I didn’t know much about the specifics of the ceremony, other than it took place in Westminster Abbey and every monarch since Edward I had been crowned there. I bought the book at the gift shop, and it accompanied me home to the States. It was another six months before I read it. It had become part of the research for Dancing King.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Dancing Priest.

Poets and Poems: John Sibley Williams and “Skyscrape”

I grew up in a world where chalk used on driveways and sidewalks meant kids were exercising their artistic instincts or playing hopscotch. As poet John Sibley Williams reminds us in his newest chapbook, chalk on the sidewalk today too often signifies a crime scene. 

Skyscrape is a collection of 20 poems, a slender volume that packs a wallop. While it probes into contemporary issues, like crime, guns, immigration, political fault lines, and race, it’s not a political diatribe. Instead, Williams turns the focus inward, attempting to come to personal terms with what so often seems to be tearing America apart, with no resolution in sight.

 

Contemporary society is so saturated with politics that one’s first inclination might be to turn away from a collection like this one. That would be a mistake. Williams softens the edges by raising the issues in the context of his own life, and the lives of his children. 

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

“A History of the Island” by Eugene Vodolazkin

Sometimes, with some books, it’s difficult to know where to start to describe them This is one of those times, and this is one of those books. 

It’s a dazzling work. It’s a fairy tale. It’s a documentary. It might be a history of Russia, or it might not. It’s a larger story than only Russia. The best I can say, and I’m still fumbling for words, it that it’s a cleverly written commentary on the state of Western civilization. 

 

It’s A History of the Island by Eugene Vodolazkin. 

 

Prince Parfeny and Princess Ksenia are 347 years old. If you want to know they’ve lived so long, you won’t find out if you keep reading. It’s simply that they have the genes for living a long time. They represent two branches of descendants from Caesar Augustus, who is said to have visited the island (never named, but it’s a large one) and on successive nights fathered the two children’s ancestors. Parfeny and Ksenia represent the northern and southern parts of the island, respectively, and their marriage was to unite the often-fractious people.

 

Except Ksenia always wanted to be a nun. And Parfeny loves her so much that he honors her decision.

 

They come to the throne while still children, and so successive regents are appointed. And like many regents often do, Parfeny’s and Ksenia’s regents often want to enrich themselves and run the show. And so, we follow the developments from barely post-medieval to contemporary times, including a quasi-Marxist phase known as “The Brighter Future.”

 

Eugene Vodolazkin

The history is written by a succession of monks, human like the rest of us and subject to their own frailties, loyalties, and events. For a time, Parfeny and Ksenia offer commentary on the history being written. And then they’re asked to be the subjects of a film by a famous French director. Nothing really is real until it’s filmed, correct? But what makes like and what makes great film are often two different things.

 

At times, you’re reading a history of Russia. And then you realize, no, it’s a history of Western Europe. But then you think it’s recognizably American. And then it comes to you: this is a book about Western civilization, a story made of so many impossible and often outrageous elements that it can be nothing other than true. Including the 347-year-old protagonists.

 

A native of Kiev in Ukraine, Vodolazkin works in the department of Old Russian Literature at the Pushkin House in St. Petersburg, where he is an expert in medieval Russian history and folklore. His novel Laurus won the National Big Book Award and the Yasnaya Polyana Award and had been translated into 18 languages. He lives in St. Petersburg.

 

A History of the Island will seem familiar because it is; it’s our story of Western civilization. It’s a commentary on this crazy culture we inhabit, a commentary on capitalism, Marxism, progressivism, and all the other isms; a commentary on Western man and Western Woman; a contemporary fairy tale that will have you riveted to the final, revealing pages.

 

It’s a wonder.

 

Related:

 

Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin.

 

The Aviator by Eugene Vodolazkin.

 

Brisbane by Eugene Vodolazkin.

 

Solovyov and Larionov by Eugene Vodolazkin.

 

Faith, hope, and love in Eugene Vodolazkin’s Brisbane – Nadya Williams at Current Magazine.

A guardian

After Galatians 3:15-25 

The promise comes first;

the law follows. The promise

remains; once made, it’s

inviolable. The law comes

as a guardian, the guardian

who protects. The law isn’t

a promise; the law doesn’t

supplant the promise. It

serves as a guardian,

until the time when

the promise is fulfilled,

when faith comes 

in One. When faith

comes, the need 

for a guardian passes

away.

 

Photograph by Benjamin Wedemeyer via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Saturday Good Reads - April 29, 2023

The coronation of Charles III is scheduled for May 6, and the stories abound. Anglotopia explains how the ceremony has been shaped over the centuries. The Critic argues that the coronation is far, far more than a magnificent piece of theater (although it is that, too). The Stone of Scone, which now resides in Scotland except for coronations, has a disputed history, according to Lizzie Enfield at the BBC. And for fun, Weird Medieval Guys tells us that, no, the king doesn’t own all the swans (maybe only queens can do that).

Major media personalities were rather unceremoniously dumped this week. Don Lemon was booted from CNN, and Tucker Carlson from Fox. Media coverage was completely predictable in our red-blue society. Traditional, mainstream media said it was the Carlson emails that had become part of the Dominion voting fraud lawsuit that Fox settled. Conservative media said it was Carlson having the audacity to show the previously unreleased Jan. 6 videos and the attempt of the NeoCons to regain control of the Republican Party. Conservative writer Rod Dreher writes that, whatever you think of Carlson, his swift and brutal end teaches a lesson. See “The Cathedral Defends Itself.”

 

The media report news, and the media report accepted narratives, sometimes in the guise of news. But what happens when the news shreds the accepted narrative? The Nashville shooting is one example. Another is the worldwide Anglican community, with the recently concluded GAFCON IV providing the news. The community has fractured, although the word “schism” may be too dramatic. But what’s clear is that the Anglicans of Asia and Africa are no longer willing to follow the lead of the Anglicans of Britain and North America. Specifically, they no longer consider the Archbishop of Canterbury as their leader. Richard Ostling at Get Religion wonders, schism or not, what’s next for the disrupted Anglican communion? Sam Ferguson at The Gospel Coalition looks for lessons that can be learned. Lionel Young at Desiring God takes a broader look, and wonders if we’re seeing the end of the so-called “Global South.” 

 

More Good Reads

 

Poetry

 

Hand Print at Font de Gaume – David Whyte.

 

A Sonnet for St. Mark’s Day – Malcolm Guite.

 

Ukraine

 

A Book is a Quiet Weapon – Carol Schaeffer at New York Review of Books.

 

Faith

 

From Suffering to Simplicity – Melissa Evans at Gentle Reformation.

 

Should We Use the Words "Old Testament"? – Mitch Chase at Biblical Theology.

 

The Cosmos Keeps Preaching: My Faith After Forty Years at NASA – Kevin Hartnett at Desiring God.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Mark Twain Fought for the South in the Civil War. He Lasted Two Weeks Before He Quit – Claire Barrett at HistoryNet. 

 

On Milosz, Exile, and Humane Art – Rachel Hicks at Front Porch Republic.

 

Life and Culture

 

How J. K. Rowling Played, then Lost, the Polarization Game – Samuel D. James at The Gospel Coalition. 

 

What Your Country Can Do for You: By abandoning its old standards and appealing to more selfish ends, the military has exposed itself to the likes of Jack Teixeira - Rob Henderson at The Free Press.

 

Cyber-Sophistry, or How ChatGPT Unmasks the Emptiness of AI – Davin Heckman at Front Porch Republic.

 

News Media

 

From Institutions to Individuals: How Americans are now Looking to Public Figures for News and Information – Sarah Fioroni at Knight Foundation.

 

Ukrainian Easter Choir Sings ‘Agnus Dei’

Painting: Grandmother with Two Grandchildren, oil on canvas, 18^th century. Artist unknown.