The End of Reading is Here? Not So Fast.

“In 1958,” Rose Horowitch informs us in a lengthy and grim prognosis of reading habits published in the Atlantic, “the English translation of Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago was the best-selling novel of the year.” Meanwhile, she says, “last year’s top-selling novel was Sunrise on the Reaping, the latest in the Hunger Games young-adult series.”

The point of the comparison? As a society, we once engaged with serious literature! We read the lofty and the literary, the rigorous and demanding. Today, we settle for the puerile and simplistic.

[...]

We’re talking civilizational disaster here, folks.

Still, resist the impulse to leap into traffic. I’ve written about the reading crisis several times and share many of Horowitch’s concerns. Who wouldn’t? But there are a few things in this piece that rankle, starting with Doctor Zhivago

We used to be so literary and now we're just a bunch of reading schlubs says The Atlantic. I've heard this a thousand times — we used to eat so much better, we used to read so much better, etc. When it's looked at more closely, that turns out not to be the case.

As the subtitle to this great piece says, "It’s Easy to Fear the Future When We Romanticize the Past." Definitely worth reading, as are all the pieces from Miller's Book Review.

Notes on Mark: Only One Loaf

Mark 8:14-21
I have never noticed the discrepancies in this bit of scripture. I guess, like the disciples, I wasn't paying enough attention, especially to this very interesting point about "one loaf" being in the boat.

Mark begins by noting the seemingly irrelevant detail that the disciples had forgotten to bring bread and had only one loaf with them. On one level, this simply means that they have failed to replenish their food supplies. But the two miraculous feedings and the ensuing discussions have prepared us to understand: What is the real "one loaf" (literally, "one bread") with them in the boat? It is Jesus! Mark clarifies in verse 16 that actually they have "no bread"--no earthly bread, that is. Bread will not be mentioned again in the Gospel until Jesus announces that the bread is his own body, to be given up for us on the cross (14:22).

Mary Healy, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture: The Gospel of Mark

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Sources and Notes Index  

Le Dejeuner

Le Dejeuner, Henri Le Sidaner

I want to go to there.

Julie came to town to record a podcast. Scott was able to participate after convincing her press people that he knew her for reals.

 Join us for our discussion of Billu in episode 383 of A Good Story is Hard to Find.

We ate like we were somebody ...

"It was a hard life," she told me once, "but we ate like we were somebody a good bit of the time."

Rick Braggs, The Best Cook in the World

That's not only nourishing the body. The reality of food is used throughout the Bible to reflect God's spiritual realities. In this case, everybody is somebody worth a good meal and the love that goes into preparing it.

Baking Bread

Baking Bread, Helen Allingham

What did Jesus actually bring, if not world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world?

The great question that will be with us throughout this entire book: What did Jesus actually bring, if not world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has he brought?

The answer is very simple: God.... He has brought God, and now we know his face, now we can call upon him. Now we know the path that we human beings have to take in this world. Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about our origin and destiny: faith, hope and love. It is only because of our hardness of heart that we think this is too little. Yes indeed, God's power works quietly in this world, but it is the true and the lasting power. Again and again, God's cause seems to be in its death throes. Yet over and over again it proves to be the thing that truly endures and saves.

-- Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth

Amen, amen. And I am grateful.

Snack with Fried Egg

Snack with Fried Eggs, Georg Flegel

Farm-to-table and flatbed trucks

She laughed out loud when she first heard the term "farm-to-table." They had it in her day, too; they called it a flatbed truck. She knows her food is not the healthiest, yet her people live long, long lives, those not killed by gunfire, moonshine or machines. She has never tasted ceviche or pate, but can do more with field-dressed quail, fresh-caught perch, or a humble pullet than anyone I know. With a morsel of pork no bigger than a matchbox, salt, a pod of pepper, and a sprinkle of cane sugar, she can turn collards, turnips, cabbage, green beans, and more into something finer than the mere ingredients should allow. With bacon grease and two tablespoons of mayonnaise, she turns simple cornmeal into something more like cake. I watched two magazine photographers eat it up standing in her kitchen, with slabs of butter. I do not believe they were merely being polite. "They even eat the crumbs," she said. "They were nice boys."

Rick Bragg, The Best Cook in the World

Every time I read this book, this makes me laugh out loud.

Outrage on the Patio

Outrage on the Patio

 Pecan and Jeeves can't believe their eyes! The rabbit looks startled but actually was fairly blasé. It's an urban rabbit — of which we have a plethora this year.

Optional Memorial: Saint Augustine Zhao Rong and his 119 companions

“St. Augustine Zhao Rong”
Artist and Date are unknown. Via Memorial Bench.

Christianity arrived in China by way of Syria in the 600s. Depending on China's relations with the outside world, Christianity over the centuries was free to grow or was forced to operate secretly.

The 120 martyrs in this group died between 1648 and 1930. Most of them (eighty-seven) were born in China and were children, parents, catechists or laborers, ranging from nine years of age to seventy-two. This group includes four Chinese diocesan priests.

The thirty-three foreign-born martyrs were mostly priests or women religious, especially from the Order of Preachers, the Paris Foreign Mission Society, the Friars Minor, Jesuits, Salesians and Franciscan Missionaries of Mary.

Augustine Zhao Rong was a Chinese soldier who accompanied Bishop John Gabriel Taurin Dufresse (Paris Foreign Mission Society) to his martyrdom in Beijing. Augustine was baptized and not long after was ordained as a diocesan priest. He was martyred in 1815.

Beatified in groups at various times, these 120 martyrs were canonized in Rome on October 1, 2000. ...

The fact that this considerable number of Chinese lay faithful offered their lives for Christ together with the missionaries who had proclaimed the Gospel to them and had been so devoted to them is evidence of the depth of the link that faith in Christ establishes. It gathers into a single family people of various races and cultures, strongly uniting them not for political motives but in virtue of a religion that preaches love, brotherhood, peace and justice.

Catholic Culture

I am not sure why but I have always been fascinated by the witness of these brave Catholics in China. Perhaps it is because I've always been interested in China anyway and so these saints naturally draw my attention. Their witness is just as important today as when they were martyred.

You may read more about the individual martyrs.

One of them who recently came to my attention is St. Mark Ji Tianxiang. He was highly respected until he treated himself for an illness with opium and became addicted. Sounds just like the morphine problem after WWII or today's opioid addiction crisis, doesn't it? As he continually struggled with his addiction, his confessor gradually became convinced that the repeated confessions meant that Tianxiang wasn't really trying. So he was banned from the sacraments ... for 30 years. But Tianxiang never turned away from the Church, instead praying that he could become a martyr. His entire family was martyred during the Boxer Rebellion.

Ji begged his captors to kill him last so that none of his family would have to die alone. He stood beside all nine of them as they were beheaded.

That is a beautiful bit of selflessness that I hope I would have the courage to emulate. Read his story here.

These Old Books — The Time-Life Foods of the World Series

I first wrote this review in 2004 and it doesn't need changing. But I wanted to share this again since it's been so long.

One of the best things about sorting through books to donate to the school carnival is the rediscovery of books that I haven't read in a very long time. In this case, I'm enjoying rereading the Time-Life Foods of the World series. It includes 27 volumes which cover different countries as a whole, with the U.S. also having six regional volumes. 

My parents signed up for this series as soon as it came out and we knew that every 90 days we would be getting a concentration of food from whatever country was featured. Living in the middle of Kansas but intensely interested in cooking, they were really excited to find out about these cuisines which were so exotic. Italian and French food were exciting as it was. They got to try Indian and South Pacific cuisine and culture too! This excellent series helped form American tastes today for that very reason. 

Believe me, I have looked at a lot of current cookbooks that purport to cover different countries and none do a better job than this series. These books are around 30 years old but they still are au courant in telling the foods and customs of practically every cuisine that exists. 

Each country has two books, a large hardback book and a smaller spiral-bound book that only contains recipes. Different expert authors were used for each book and they lend their own special styles to each. The hardback has a lot of cultural information, with some of the recipes included. It is a look back at cooking and culture told to us in the 1960s. The spiral bound books are 100% recipes and include many more than are in the hardback.

I have used some extensively, such as the Italian one which I open every year when I'm making Pesto. Others I just read for pleasure. All are delightful.

Most libraries have a set of these classics and you can often find various volumes in used book stores. 

If you are at all interested in either reading or cooking food from other cuisines, these are the books to go to.

Gorgeous Stained Glass

Domestic window by Dirck Crabeth for the house of Adriaen Dircxz. van Crimpen, of Leiden. (1543)
via Wikipedia

Van Crimpen was a member of the government. The scenes show seven scenes from the First Book of Samuel in the Old Testament and five scenes from the Acts of the Apostles. Though the house is still standing, the stained glass is now in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.

Light and Darkness in Hawaii

My brother is lucky enough to live where this is a commonplace sight. Click on the photo to see it enlarged. I'm including today's quote below because the two go together so wonderfully.

It's important to note that God does not obliterate the darkness; rather, God names it and limits it — puts boundaries on it. The boundary is the light.

Lisa Sharon Harper, The Very Good Gospel

Amen, amen.