Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Lagniappe: Rule #8

Rather, very, little, pretty — these are the leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words. The constant use of the adjective little (except to indicate size) is particularly debilitating; we should all try to do a little better, we should all be very watchful of this rule, for it is a rather important one, and we are pretty sure to violate it now and then.
Rule #8, "An Approach to Style," Elements of Style, Strunk & White

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Well Said: Principle and Practice

The Church is intolerant in principle because she believes; she is tolerant in practice because she loves. The enemies of the Church are tolerant in principle because they do not believe; they are intolerant in practice because they do not love.
Father Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange

Monday, December 19, 2016

Well Said: Dracula and the difficulty modern man faces in accepting the supernatural as reality

Rare is the literary critic who looks at the recurring theme throughout the book of the difficulty modern man faces in accepting the supernatural as reality.

From its first page to its last, this is what Stoker is most interested in shaping his story around. The book has become so ingrained in our culture that millions who have never read it have absorbed the gist of the plot from the past century of adaptations, rip-off’s, and parodies in film, television, theater, and books.

This is part of the reason why the concept is missed, but the greater reason is the one Stoker illustrates time and again in his book – we deliberately ignore what we can’t comfortably explain.
William Patrick Maynard, Black Gate blog

How the Choir Converted the World by Mike Aquilina

How the Choir Converted the World: Through Hymns, with Hymns, and in Hymns 

by Mike Aquilina

I often catch myself humming or singing snatches of hymns when I'm cleaning the kitchen. This makes me laugh because I never in a million years would have thought I'd be the sort of person who sang hymns around the house. But it goes to Mike Aquilina's main point.
Our lives have a soundtrack, and the soundtrack has a lyric sheet. When we remember music, the words come back with it. Music is the most effective delivery system for words and ideas. And we don't need to read or study to get the message ... music is the most effective way to make a message memorable ...

The [Church] Fathers knew the power that music had over our minds—power over thoughts and feelings—and they respected that power. And they used that power to maximum effect. They knew that beautiful music could change the world. It makes us remember, it moves us to virtue, it heals us, and it makes us one.

The Fathers knew all these things—and one more important thing as well: they knew that music is a foretaste of heaven.
Aquilina talks about the power of music in the context of Jewish and Christian history. These chapters are fascinating and don't feel at all like history lessons. He takes us effortlessly into the times when music permeated the air, both from pagan rituals and Jewish worship as well as everyday life lived in the open. We learn why the Jewish music was unique and how it meant more than just a good tune to get you in the mood to think about God.

As the story continues through history we see the development of music into what we are more familiar with today. I began thinking about the music during Mass in a whole new way. In fact, I broadened my sights and began considering a lot of things in terms of the music which is often integral to them.

This book is really insightful about both music in relationship to human beings and to faith. It was much more than I was expecting from a book which I feared would be more interesting to music professionals than it is to me. I'll be honest. It was not only insightful but revelatory because it made me think about music and how integral it is to us in a way that just never occurred to me.

(I just never think about music at all, honestly. Certainly not like that. Talk about a whole new world.)

Aquilina points out that the earliest Christians used music to tell truths which helped change a violent, ugly, pornographic culture. Our culture mirrors that early one in a lot of ways, sadly. This book helps reorient us so that we can also make and appreciate music which can tell the truth to a world desperate for beauty and truth.

Note: The typesetting and layout are beautiful. That is all too rare these days and that visual beauty is especially complementary to Mike Aquilina's message that the beauty of music helped convert the world.

Sunday, December 18, 2016

Jesse Tree - Day 18: Jeremiah

This is as far as I'm going to be able to get on the Jesse Tree this year. I have felt a real sense of connection to salvation history through Advent as I worked on this and I hope it has enriched your Advent also.

========

Our online Jesse Tree is to help us prepare for Christ's coming by studying His roots and Salvation History. 

Jesse Trees follow the same general outline but I've found they are widely varied in some of the details. Some may have one day for Moses, others may spend 4 days on different aspects of his life. I'll be following the basic outline but, therefore, using my own discretion in a few spots.

My sources for days and symbols are Catholic CultureLoyola PressFaith Magazine, and A few beads short.  

Day 18: Jeremiah

Symbols: tears

Jeremiah, Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel ceiling

Jeremiah 1:4-10, 2:4-13, 7:1-15; 8:22-9:1-11

Jeremiah is often called the weeping prophet because of all the trouble he encountered in his 40 years of warning the people about the consequences of their sinfulness. He also continually expresses God's sorrow over Judah's lack of repentance.
O that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night
I myself always think of the better known passage which expresses Jeremiah's vocation and doubts.
Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations."

Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth."

But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, `I am only a youth'; for to all to whom I send you you shall go, and whatever I command you you shall speak. Be not afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD." Then the LORD put forth his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me, "Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

Rembrandt van Rijn, Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, c. 1630

Saturday, December 17, 2016

Jesse Tree - Day 17: Isaiah

Our online Jesse Tree is to help us prepare for Christ's coming by studying His roots and Salvation History. 

Jesse Trees follow the same general outline but I've found they are widely varied in some of the details. Some may have one day for Moses, others may spend 4 days on different aspects of his life. I'll be following the basic outline but, therefore, using my own discretion in a few spots.

My sources for days and symbols are Catholic CultureLoyola PressFaith Magazine, and A few beads short.  

Day 17: Isaiah

Symbols: burning coal, scroll

Tiepolo, The Prophet Isaiah, 1726
Isaiah 1:10-20; 6:1-13, 9:1-7, 40:10-11; 62:1-3

You might be surprised at how many sound bites you know from the book of Isaiah. It is used fairly often in the liturgy and especially during Christmas and Easter. Almost all the familiar parts are related to the Messiah and how he will save us from our sins. He would not only be a king but a suffering servant. Here's a bit we'll hear soon.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. ... For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." 
Isaiah also has the roots of the tree of Jesse reference which lent itself to the Jesse Tree. And, my favorite part, there is the story of Isaiah receiving his vocation. He has a vision of heaven and a sudden vivid understanding of himself when faced with God himself. But his response is so instantaneous and honest that it can bring tears to my eyes. May I respond as honestly and as well.
And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"

Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

And he touched my mouth, and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven."

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."

12 British library, Isaiha and tree of Jesse, 12th century

Friday, December 16, 2016

Worth a Thousand Words: Mount Fuji

Mount Fuji, taken by NNE, CC-BY-SA-3.0

Well Said: The only real choice we have to make

For me to accept baptism, I had to believe in Christ’s reality—in the reality not just of his life but also of his miracles and death and resurrection.

But how could I? Such things don’t happen. Look around you. There are no miracles. There can be no resurrection. The clockwork world is all in all.

But such things don’t happen, I knew now, was the ultimate irrational prejudice of the human mind: the belief that the symbols of reality are more real than the reality they symbolize. That’s us all over. We believe that money is more valuable than the work it represents, that sex is more essential than the love it expresses, that an actor is more admirable than the hero he portrays, that flesh is more alive than spirit. That’s the whole nature of our deluded lives, the cause of so much of our misery. One by one, we let idolatry ruin each good thing. ... The choice between idolatry and faith—which is ultimately the choice between slavery in the flesh and freedom in the spirit—is the only real choice we have to make.
Andrew Klavan, The Great Good Thing

Thursday, December 15, 2016

The Great Good Thing by Andrew Klavan

The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ 

by Andrew Klavan
No one was more surprised than Andrew Klavan when, at the age of fifty, he found himself about to be baptized. Best known for his hard-boiled, white-knuckle thrillers and for the movies made from them—among them True Crime (directed by Clint Eastwood) and Don’t Say a Word (starring Michael Douglas)—Klavan was born in a suburban Jewish enclave outside New York City. He left the faith of his childhood behind to live most of his life as an agnostic in the secular, sophisticated atmosphere of New York, London, and Los Angeles. But his lifelong quest for truth—in his life and in his work—was leading him to a place he never expected.
I listened to this as read by the author. It was inspiring, as all conversion stories are, and worth reading for that aspect alone. However, this book was so much more. In the story of Andrew Klavan's dysfunctional family, the way literature and Western civilization led him to self discovery, and his descent into and ascent from madness, we are given the story of a truth seeker in an age of disbelief.

I found Klavan's story resonating in unexpected ways. Every conversion story is at once the same, in its discovery of ultimate truth and love, and at once unique, as is each person who discovers God. I knew I would find things that reminded me of my own journey and that showed me new facets of God's love in Klavan's experiences. What I did not know was how familiar his life story was to certain aspects of my own and how that actually helped me to understand myself better. My own difficult father was much less so than Klavan's, for example, but they were enough alike that Klavan's insights about his own personality enlightened me as well.

I will also say that his experience with prayer has haunted me, in a good way, and rejuvenated my search for closeness to God.

Much of the story was outside my own experience, of course, and I have to say that I really appreciated Klavan's feelings about his Jewish heritage which gave me insights that I'd not gotten from other sources.

Klavan is hard headed, questions himself and his experiences, and does not go easily into Christian faith or, indeed, into faith in God in general. I really liked that aspect because many of the objections he struggles with are precisely those which we have all been taught to raise these days. Whether one believes in Christ or not, no one can say that Klavan accepted him blindly. In fact, no one need worry that Klavan is trying to convince anyone else to believe. This story is strictly about his own experience.

Highly recommended.

Well Said: Hamlet and Moral Relativism

Morality especially has come to seem to [Hamlet] completely dependent on his own opinions. "There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so," he declares.

How wild was this? Shakespeare had predicted post-modernism and moral relativism hundreds of years before they came into being! ...

But there was one big difference. Hamlet said these things when he was pretending to be mad. My professors said them and pretended to be sane. Shakespeare was telling us, it seemed to me, that relativism was not just crazy, it was make-believe crazy, because even the people who proclaimed it did not believe it deep down. If, after all, there is no truth, how could it be true that there is no truth? If there is no absolute morality, how can you condemn the morality of considering my culture better than another? Relativism made no sense, as Shakespeare clearly saw.

Andrew Klavan, The Great Good Thing:
A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ

Worth a Thousand Words: Ships

Franklin Booth, Ships
via The Franklin Booth Project

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Well Said: God is not susceptible to proofs and disproofs

Anyway, God is not susceptible to proofs and disproofs. If you believe, the evidence is all around you. If you don’t believe, no evidence can be enough.

Andrew Klavan, The Great Good Thing:
A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ

Worth a Thousand Words: Snow Light

Snow Light
by The French Sampler

Punk rocker describes his return to Catholicism

Terry Chimes, the drummer for The Clash, has written a book about returning to Catholicism.
Chimes describes stumbling across a copy of CS Lewis’s book Mere Christianity at a car boot sale in 1998 and reading about Lewis’s analysis of the sin of pride.

Chimes said: “There was a chapter entitled The Great Sin. The great sin is pride, the tendency we all have to think we are better than someone else. I had always known that pride existed but wondered why it’s referred to as the great sin. That was until I realised the significance of pride as an obstacle to spiritual growth.

“The problem with pride is that those who have the most see it the least. CS Lewis said that if you have done some good works, read some spiritual books, perhaps practiced meditation or given up drinking and you take pride in that, thinking that you are more spiritual than someone else, then Satan will rub his hands with glee, because he will have caught you in a spiritual trap from which escape is very difficult.”

He continued: “As I read those words I had the chilling awareness that I have been in just such a trap for twenty years. I put the book down and went to sit on the sofa. I was reeling from the realisation that I’d been in a trap for all of that time. Within minutes I was having the most extraordinary experience of my life.”
Read the whole article in The Catholic Herald. It was also C.S. Lewis who said in Surprised by Joy:
In reading Chesterton, as in reading MacDonald, I did not know what I was letting myself in for. A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. . . . God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous.
Indeed.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Worth a Thousand Words: Bookplate

The Library of Congress, Bookplate of Helen Louise Taylor

Well Said: The quest for religious solace

Seen from the outside, the quest for religious solace looks preposterous. Soren Kierkegaard said that religion has a truth so purely interior that it approaches madness.
Judith Shulevitz, The Sabbath World

A Daily Defense by Jimmy Akin

A Daily Defense: 365 Days (plus one) to Becoming a Better Apologist
by Jimmy Akin
The history of Christianity is one of debate. As the gospels reveal, Jesus was challenged right from the start. Rival schools like the Pharisees and Sadducees posed pointed questions to him, trying to trap him in his words and even to get him in trouble with the authorities. ...

Our world is very different from the one in which Jesus lived, but the more things change, the more they stay the same. If people posed challenges to Jesus, they will do so to us as well.
I'm really glad I received a review copy of this book because otherwise I probably wouldn't have picked it up. This excellent book provides an easy daily reminder of our beliefs and how to defend and explain them. Each day presents a challenge to the Catholic faith, a (one-sentence) defense, and an explanation of the belief. Sometimes there is also a final one-sentence tip which may range from a cogent summary to a reading recommendation to directing the reader to a related page with a different wrinkle on the topic.

Some of the objections are that I just don't encounter such as "Matthew's genealogy of Jesus omits some generations and thus is wrong" or "The Bible originally taught reincarnation, but the relevant passages were struck out by the Council of Nicaea." For me the answers to these are academic, but interesting.

Many, though, are those I am familiar with. I love the way that Akin's defense statements often turn my usual thoughts on the subject into a new direction. The explanations are thorough and often include information or positions I wouldn't have thought of. And I thought I knew a lot about how to explain some of these topics.

Highly recommended.

Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy: A Notable Story of Redemption and Joy

This is one of my favorites by one of my favorite authors. This review ran back in 2007 and I'm rerunning it since a lot of Rumer Godden's titles have just been released for the Kindle. Get this one and In This House of Brede (my favorite) and maybe also China Court. You won't be sorry.

Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy

by Rumer Godden
"I took Vivi home." Why? Lise had asked herself a thousand times. "There's a little church in England," she told Soeur Marie Alcide, "at Southleigh in Oxfordshire, which has an old, old mural painting showing a winged Saint Michael holding the scales of justice. The poor soul awaiting judgment is quailing because the right-hand scale is coming heavily down with its load of sins: but on the left our Lady is quietly putting her rosary beads in the other scale to make them even. I saw it long ago, but in a way I suppose something like that happened to me.

"It happened to me," and Lise started to tremble. "How did Vivi come to have those beads?" Lise asked that for the thousandth time. "She wouldn't say. She never said ..."

Now, in the cafe, Lise seemed to hear Soeur Marie Alcide's firm voice. "Put it behind you. That is one of our first rules. You will probably never see Vivi again." and, "It's time you caught your train," Lise told Lise.
This is an inspiring tale of conversion and redemption told in flashback sequence. We meet Lise when she is being released from prison where she has served her term for murder. She is going to join an order that ministers to those on the fringes of society. Through Lise's thoughts, we watch her go from being a young WWII staffer in Paris, become seduced by a man who has a brothel and eventually turns her into a prostitute where later on she becomes the manager. The reasons behind the murder become clear as the threads come together again in the people around Lise in current time.

The first third of the book can be tough to read as Godden is devastatingly emotionally honest as always. Despite the fact that much of the book takes place in a brothel the words used are unobjectionable so one needn't worry about that. As I read, I suddenly realize that I must have tried this book at least once before but always stopped as it was too painful. However, I was selling the book short by never pressing on as the last two-thirds took an upward swing that surprised and enchanted me.

Throughout it is strung the rosary, sometimes in surprising ways and always as a pointer toward action to be taken. Interestingly, Lise doesn't even enjoy saying the rosary but it is somehow integral to her journey of faith despite that. She cannot seem to escape it no matter how she might try.

I didn't realize how integral the rosary was to the book until I was very far into it. After I finished the book and thought about it over the next few days, I wondered about the title. What did it mean? Suddenly it came to me. Five [mysteries] for sorrow, ten [mysteries] for joy. It reflects the rosary itself. Reading the book with that foreknowledge might yield even more riches. I will have the opportunity to find out as I definitely will return to this book.
It was a revelation to the aspirants that the sisters, some of them elderly impressive nuns, filled with quiet holiness, should publicly admit their faults. Could Soeur Imelda de Notre Dame, that calm saintly person, really have snapped sharply at anyone? Could Soeur Marie Dominique have lost her temper? "Then do you go on being you until the very end?" they could have moaned. "Even after all this trying and training?" "Always," Soeur Theodore would have told them. ...

Scott searches for strings. Julie searches for a good story.

They find a paper samurai, a snow monkey, and a beetle in Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast.

Monday, December 12, 2016

Fake News, The BBC, and Pope Piux XII

In a significant finding, the British Broadcasting Corporation has conceded that in their main evening news bulletin, seen by millions, it falsely described the Church as being ‘silent’ in the face of Nazism and that it has not reported correctly on the Church’s opposition to Hitler.

The finding was made by the BBC’s internal watchdog after Father Leo Chamberlain and I jointly lodged a complaint. Chamberlain, a Benedictine, is a historian and former headmaster of Ampleforth College.

The broadcast was made last July during a visit to Auschwitz by Pope Francis. The reporter stated as fact that, “Silence was the response of the Catholic Church when Nazi Germany demonized Jewish people and then attempted to eradicate Jews from Europe.”
No one who has read Church of Spies is surprised by the truth that the Church was not "silent" and gave the Nazis quite a bit of opposition. But that's the way it goes with even the most prestigious news organizations these days. They can be just as liable to perpetuate fake news and propaganda as everyone else.

Here is what it takes to make people report the real news — dogged determination. In the immortal words of Galaxy Quest, never give up, never surrender!

Read it all at Crux.

(Thanks to Scott Danielson for the heads up on this.)

Well Said: Show me

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint on broken glass.
Anton Chekov

Worth a Thousand Words: Quenching Thirst

Quenching Thirst
by Remo Savisaar

Friday, December 9, 2016

Well Said: The moral disaster of losing good manners

Good manners depended on paying moral attention to others; it required one to treat them with complete moral seriousness, to understand their feelings and their needs.

... How utterly shortsighted we had been to listen to those who thought that manners were a bourgeois affectation, an irrelevance, which need no longer be valued. A moral disaster had ensued, because manners were the basic building block of a civil society. They were the method of transmitting the message of moral consideration.

In this way an entire generation had lost a vital piece of the moral jigsaw and now we saw the results: a society in which nobody would help, nobody would feel for others; a society in which aggressive language and insensitivity were the norm.
Alexander McCall Smith, The Sunday Philosophy Club

Worth a Thousand Words: Sewing

Sewing (1898), William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Last Testament: In His Own Words by Pope Benedict XVI

Last Testament: In His Own WordsLast Testament: In His Own Words by Pope Benedict XVI

I actually preordered this by accident or I'd never have read it. As it turns out, I'm glad I did.

Journalist Peter Seewald continues the interview format that he used for his previous books with Pope Benedict XVI. This book serves not only as Pope Benedict's last testament but as a good overview of his entire life. I was interested in reading about the decision to step down as pope and what Benedict's life has been like since.

I was much less interested in his life story but am glad that I read it because it gave me a much better understanding of his journey in faith. I never realized that as a young man Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict) was a progressive who was considered possibly dangerous and who was good friends with Hans Kung. Ultimately Ratzinger chose to adhere closely to the liturgy in his zeal to bring the church into better touch with modern times. And that has made all the difference.

I wasn't familiar with some of the theologians or controversies which Seewald kept coming back to. However, even in reading about those one gets a look at Pope Benedict and how he approaches conflict.

Very interesting overall, a super fast read, and I found it ultimately inspiring.

Something Delicious: Parmesan Crusted Asparagus

Pick it up at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

Monday, December 5, 2016

Genesis Notes: Abram's Practicality

GENESIS 13
When Abram gives Lot the first choice of land, we begin to see not only his generosity but his wisdom. Abram is willing to put family peace above what he might want personally. We also see that there is a bigger lesson about wealth being taught here.

The Parting of Lot and Abraham mosaic from Santa Maria Maggiore
Abram's wealth meant that he and Lot could not dwell together on the land. This created strife in the family, which leads to a separation. It is worth taking note that this first mention of great wealth in the Scripture is associated with unhappiness and lack of peace. This will become a constant theme in the rest of Scripture. It is no surprise, then, when Jesus tells His followers not to bother laying up treasures on earth. If the heart of man is so closely connected to his treasures, better that he should build treasures in heaven, where there can be no threat to happiness or peace (see Matt. 6:19-21).
This also is a continuation of what God showed Noah through the rainbow, the use of physical things as sacraments.
If Abram's descendants were ever to become a "great nation," as God had promised, the first thing they would need was land. Tribes of people without land of their own remain just that-tribes of people. God told Abram to take a good look at the land itself. This was the concrete reality that lay before his eyes. The land was real to him; the promise of descendants to fill it was still a hope, which depended entirely on God's trustworthiness. This is reminiscent of God's use of the rainbow with Noah. He uses here a concrete reality within nature as a sign of His promise to act. In the Church, God continues to do this in the sacraments.

Abram may have been thinking the same kind of thoughts we think when we approach a sacrament. "All I see here is land-dirt, rocks, bushes. God says this will be the home of my great nation. I don't have any kids, and my wife is barren. Can I really believe this?" In the sacraments, we are always faced with these very human questions. "This is just water on a baby's head. Is this child really being washed from original sin and given the Holy Spirit?" "This looks and tastes like bread and wine. Can I really believe that I am eating the Body and Blood of the Lord and that it will give me eternal life?" When we think those thoughts, we are much like Abram, walking through that desert land, pondering the promises of God. That is why his response will be of interest to us.

All quotes from Genesis, Part II: God and His Family. This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Friday, December 2, 2016

Worth a Thousand Words: Chrysanthemums

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Chrysanthemums
via Arts Everyday Living

Well Said: To every life there eventually came a moment when one had to accept the fact that the future was entirely out of one's hands

In the morning when Mrs. Pollifax awoke she realized at once that a fateful day was beginning. She lay and thought about this dispassionately, almost wonderingly, because to every life there eventually came a moment when one had to accept the fact that the shape, the pattern, the direction of the future was entirely out of one's hands, to be decided unalterably by chance, by fate or by God. There was nothing to do but accept, and from this to proceed, doing the very best that could be done.
Dorothy Gilman, The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax
I've been listening to The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, which is the first in the series about the grandmother who becomes a CIA spy. It's been a real pleasure revisiting a beloved character anew through Barbara Rosenblat's excellent narration. When I was young my mother would bring home the Mrs. Pollifax mysteries from the grocery store and it would get passed around. We all enjoyed Mrs. Pollifax's personality and ingenuity, as well as the author's talent for weaving a spy novel with a light touch.

I reread these so many times that the plot is coming back to me, several decades later, but it doesn't diminish my enjoyment.

Lisa Nicholas's Omniblog

New website alert - Lisa A. Nicholas who has her fingers in a lot of pies but most especially in Catholic writing and editing has launched a new website. Of most interest to me is her Omniblog which gathers all her blog posts from various sites. Check it out!

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Worth a Thousand Words: Snowball

Snowball
taken by the incomparable Remo Savisaar
Living in Texas, the trees are just beginning to hit full color and we're hitting our first cold weather. Not only is this little fellow adorable but the snow on the branch reminds me that winter is in full swing in some places.

Well Said: Love can be hated when it challenges us.

God is love. But love can also be hated when it challenges us to transcend ourselves. It is not a romantic “good feeling.” Redemption is not “wellness,” it is not about basking in self-indulgence; on the contrary it is a liberation from imprisonment in self-absorption. This liberation comes at a price: the anguish of the Cross. The prophecy of light and that of the Cross belong together.
Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Lagniappe: Nature was absorbed in making cabbages when Mrs. Vesey was born

Some of us rush through life, and some of us saunter through life. Mrs. Vesey SAT through life. Sat in the house, early and late; sat in the garden; sat in unexpected window-seats in passages; sat (on a camp-stool) when her friends tried to take her out walking; sat before she looked at anything, before she talked of anything, before she answered Yes, or No, to the commonest question — always with the same serene smile on her lips, the same vacantly- attentive turn of the head, the same snugly-comfortable position of her hands and arms, under every possible change of domestic circumstances. A mild, a compliant, an unutterably tranquil and harmless old lady, who never by any chance suggested the idea that she had been actually alive since the hour of her birth. Nature has so much to do in this world, and is engaged in generating such a vast variety of co-existent productions, that she must surely be now and then too flurried and confused to distinguish between the different processes that she is carrying on at the same time. Starting from this point of view, it will always remain my private persuasion that Nature was absorbed in making cabbages when Mrs. Vesey was born, and that the good lady suffered the consequences of a vegetable preoccupation in the mind of the Mother of us all.
Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White
My favorite Wilkie Collins' book is The Moonstone, especially because it is so funny, but The Woman in White also has touches of Wilkie Collins' humor. The passage above is a favorite of mine.

Worth a Thousand Words: Titan Travel Poster

Titan
from NASA's Visions of the Future collection
Frigid and alien, yet similar to our own planet billions of years ago, Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has a thick atmosphere, organic-rich chemistry and a surface shaped by rivers and lakes of liquid ethane and methane. Cold winds sculpt vast regions of hydrocarbon-rich dunes. There may even be cryovolcanoes of cold liquid water. NASA's Cassini orbiter was designed to peer through Titan's perpetual haze and unravel the mysteries of this planet-like moon.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Monday, November 28, 2016

Worth a Thousand Words: The Red Umbrella

The Red Umbrella
painted by Edward B. Gordon

Well Said: God delegates to His creatures

For he seems to do nothing of Himself which He can possibly delegate to His creatures. He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what He could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye. ... We are not mere recipients or spectators. We are either privileged or compelled to collaborate in the work.
C.S. Lewis, The Efficacy of Prayer

Genesis Notes: The Call to Abram

GENESIS 11-12
Genesis now spends a long time studying Abram and Sarai. I never thought about the fact that these are the first two people whose lives are looked at in great detail and this is a sign of their extreme importance. We get to see God interacting with them and especially Abram in a way that has not been shown before. Therefore, not only do we learn more about these people but, through them, about God.

Life Application Study Bible tells us a bit about Abram's background.
Abram grew up in Ur of the Chaldeans, an important city in the ancient world. Archaeologists have discovered evidence of a flourishing civilization there in Abram's day. The city carried on an extensive trade with its neighbors and had a vast library. Growing up in Ur, Abram was probably well educated.
So when Abram followed God's call to the wilderness he was leaving a lot behind, a pattern we see over and over right up into our own lives.

I also never noticed before that everywhere Abram goes he is busy building altars. I like the fact that Abram's altars are a connection we still have with us today in the Catholic church.
It is worth taking note of the use of altars in man's relationship with God. Noah built an altar to the Lord and pleased Him with the sacrifice he made on it. Men after Noah everywhere built altars to deities. Through ignorance and perversion, many men worshipped false gods. Yet there was among men a common understanding that an altar is appropriate when men approach the Divine. Why? It is because men know instinctively that they owe God something. The altar represents man's desire to give something to God. In false religion, the offering is made to a deity out of fear or a desire for manipulation. When men worship from the heart, the altar is associated with praise and thanksgiving. In the life of Israel, the altar would take on a central significance in the relationship between God and His people. It would be a visible expression of atonement for sin and of thanksgiving to God. In the life of the Church, the altar continues to be a central, visible expression of the atonement that Christ won for us on Calvary, as well as the place where our offerings of thanks ("eucharist" means "thanks") are joined to His perfect offering as we renew our intention to be His covenant-keeping people.
Abraham's Counsel to Sarai (watercolor c. 1896–1902 by James Tissot)

One thing I never really understood in previous readings was the whole "Sarai is my sister" ploy that Abram trotted out ... she really must have been a looker which is something else I never considered. Still, God uses Abram's human weakness to lead him back on the right path. I like the point that is made here about how God shows Abram that He is everywhere.
It seems that God did what was necessary to convince Abram to live righteously. He shows great patience with Abram's weakness. He understood the fear that prompted the sin and so sets Abram back on the path to restoration. In addition, for Abram to see God at work in Egypt, following him wherever he went, would have taught him a profoundly new lesson. This God is not like pagan deities, who were associated with specific locations. This God is everywhere. God did not want to start over with someone more reliable; He wanted to make Abram into a more reliable man. Will Abram cooperate with God? This is the question God had put to Cain: "If you do well, will you not be accepted?" (Gen. 4:7). It is the question He asks each one of us. He shows Himself willing to work with us in our weakness; it is rebellion and turning away from Him that will exclude Him from our lives.

This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Well Said: God and little green tree frogs

From the universe we learn that God is infinite, that we cannot compass him at all. From such things as insects, flies, little frogs, mice and flowers, we learn that to us he is something else. He is Father, brother, child, and friend.

If you have ever had a little green tree frog and watched him puffing out with a pomposity worthy of a dragon before croaking, you must have guessed that there is a tender smile on our Heavenly Father's face, that he likes us to laugh and laughs with us; the frog will teach your heart more than all the books of theology in your world.
Caryll Houselander
Someone was musing the other day, wondering what sorts of jokes Jesus laughed at. I think he must have laughed at a wide variety, considering some of the really funny things he said, such as about the plank in your own eye. This, though, is what sprang to mind. We've got examples all around us that whatever Jesus laughs at, it is never mean spirited but always a tender laughter.

Monday, November 21, 2016

Worth a Thousand Words: Ocean Waves

Ocean waves, Katsushika Hokusai
via Wikipaintings
I love the sense of motion and grandeur conveyed here. We almost feel that we are these boatmen, dwarfed. Do they feel afraid? Exhilarated? I plump for exhilaration, but in reality ... I might be hanging on for dear life.

Well Said: Dictating to the Holy Ghost

Everyone knows how terrible it is to come into contact with those people who have an undisciplined missionary urge, who, having received some grace, are continually trying to force the same grace on others, to compel them not only to be converted but to be converted in the same way and with precisely the same results as themselves.

Such people seem to wish to dictate to the Holy Ghost. God is to inspire their neighbor to see things just as they do, to join the same societies, to plunge into the same activities. They go about like the scriptural monster, seeking whom they may devour. They insist that their victims have obvious vocations to assist in, or even be completely sacrificed to, their own interests. Very often they unwittingly tear out the tender little shoot of Christ-life that was pushing up against the dark heavy clay, and when the poor victim has been devoured, he is handed over, spiritless and broken, as a predigested morsel for the next one-hundred-percent zealot who comes along.
The Reed of God by Caryll Houselander

A Priest and an Imam Walk Into Amazon Prime



You've probably seen this already but we liked it so much when it came on during the Cowboys' game yesterday that I thought I'd share it.

It's rare to see an ad promoting true understanding that has such a light touch. Yes, they are selling something, but the bigger thing they are selling is understanding each other as people. Really perfect.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Genesis Notes: The Tower of Babel

GENESIS 11-12

The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1563)

One of the familiar stories contained here is that of the Tower of Babel. According to Life Application Study Bible:
The tower of Babel was most likely a ziggurat, a common structure in Babylonia at this time. Most often built as temples, ziggurats looked like pyramids with steps or ramps leading up the sides. Ziggurats stood as high as 300 feet and were often just as wide; thus they were the focal point of the city.
When an atheist friend challenged me with this story as showing that God hates people gaining knowledge I didn't have any response. Too bad I hadn't read Genesis Part I: God and His Creation yet because they point out it is not the knowledge God disapproves of, but why the tower is being raised ... because of man's pride.
These descendants of Ham reached a high degree of technical proficiency. This seems to have created a great deal of power among them. They did not want anything to threaten that power. They especially seemed to dread having to move out over the uninhabited parts of the earth. Perhaps they feared their power would dissipate if they got separated. Perhaps they didn't want to leave the comforts that come with civilization. Their desire to build a tower to heaven speaks of an arrogance and autonomy that has been dangerous when we have seen it in others (Adam, Cain, Lamech, Ham). The tower represents a physical manifestation of the pride of man, which, in its birth pangs, leads to disobedience to God; when pride is full-grown, it can lead to a direct assault on God Himself, with the desire to be rid of Him for good. The tower comes provocatively close to that. Of course, when Heaven came to earth, in the body of the Son of God, Jesus, men actually were able to assault Him, putting Him to death ...

The diversity in human languages represents the pride and arrogance of man, who abused his original unity with others to work against God instead of for Him. On the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the apostles to begin the work of creating the Church, it is of no small significance that there was a miracle that undid the effects of Babel. It was a thrilling sign that what God was about to do in men would now enable them to use their unity in the right way-to live as God's family on earth.

This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Worth a Thousand Words: The Fighting Temeraire

The Fighting Temeraire. 1839, by Joseph Mallord William Turner.
I've been insanely busy, as is always the case this time of year, working on my annual catalog layout project. It does give me lots of time to catch up on audiobooks (Bleak House - Naxos recording - because twice is not enough times to read that wonderful book) and podcasts.

The In Our Time radio show (via iTunes podcast in my case) is a favorite. They cover a wide variety of topics, from The Epic of Gilgamesh to Penicillin to the William Wilberforce and beyond.

Their most recent is about The Fighting Temeraire which I didn't even realize was a painting. But when I went to see what it looked like, I could see why it would get people's attention. So I thought I'd grab a few quick minutes to share it.

I'll be back full time by mid-December. Until then I'll drop in when I can with quick items.

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Julie grooves to Earth, Wind, and Fire and Scott likes Vivaldi. ...

... Yet they've been able to do this podcast together for 6 years. The Intouchables (2011) is the subject of Episode 146 of A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast.

Monday, November 14, 2016

Well Said: The Endless Variety of Motion

The order of God's Providence maintains a perpetual vicissitude in the material being of this world; day is continually turning to night, spring to summer, summer to autumn, autumn to winter, winter to spring; no two days are ever exactly alike. Some are foggy, rainy, some dry or windy; and this endless variety greatly enhances the beauty of the universe. And even so precisely is it with man (who, as ancient writers have said, is a miniature of the world), for he is never long in any one condition, and his life on earth flows by like the mighty waters, heaving and tossing with an endless variety of motion; one while raising him on high with hope, another plunging him low in fear; now turning him to the right with rejoicing, then driving him to the left with sorrows; and no single day, no, not even one hour, is entirely the same as any other of his life.
St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life
The chaos and uncertainty that seem so predominant right now are all part of "heaving and tossing with an endless variety of motion." As St. John Paul II reminded us, be not afraid.

Thanks to my good friend Scott for bringing all this to mind recently. This is a favorite quote of mine from this wonderful book and so appropriate to the national mindset at the moment.

Friday, November 11, 2016

Freakonomics — Trust Me

It's an understatement to say that we're seeing a lack of social trust in America these days. This Freakonomics episode came out the day after the election. It is interesting overall but the best part is the last few minutes. It will leave you inspired and hopeful ... no matter who you are and how you are feeling these days.
Societies where people trust one another are healthier and wealthier. In the U.S. (and the U.K. and elsewhere), social trust has been falling for decades — in part because our populations are more diverse. What can we do to fix it?
(If you don't want to listen, they have the transcript at the link. But it's not that long.)

Genesis Notes: The Noachide Covenant

GENESIS 6-9
The Complete Bible Handbook gives a different perspective on the consequences of Noah's story than I'd seen before. It resulted in the Noachide Covenant which laid down laws for how the Jews would deal with Gentiles who kept their laws.

The rainbow is the sign of God's covenant with Noah.
It came from a spot where you can read the seven laws of Noah.
Within the structure of the Bible as a whole, the covenant with Noah is the beginning of god's work of repair and healing. Having come to regret making humans on the earth (Gen 6:6), God now blesses Noah and his descendants and makes promises of further blessings, tied to certain conditions that they must keep. Then God gives the rainbow as a sign of the covenant that they have entered into (Gen 9:1-17). This covenant later came to be understood as one that embraces all people, not just the Israelites and Jews, because in chapter 10 the three sons of Noah -- Shem, Ham, and Japheth -- become the fathers of all the nations of the world. Noah is thus sometimes seen as the "second Adam."

This all embracing covenant came to be known in later Christian and Jewish tradition as the Noachide covenant, and it was thought to contain seven commands. These are listed differently in different texts, because they are derived not from this chapter in Genesis alone but from the appeals in the rest of Scripture to the Gentiles (non-Jews) to live justly. The usual list of seven is the command to establish a system of justice, prohibitions against idolatry, blasphemy, murder, adultery and incest (regarded as one, and often interpreted as sexual immorality in general), robbery, and eating flesh torn from a living animal.

A Gentile who keeps these laws is already in the covenant with God and does not have to convert to Judaism in order to become a part of the "world to come" ('olam ha-ba). Jews have a special vocation to keep the 613 commands and prohibitions of Torah, not for themselves or for their own advantage (since "righteous Gentiles" stand on the same footing), but for the good of the whole world, in order to show what life lived under the guidance, or Torah, or God can be like.

At the outset of Christianity, a decision had to be made concerning how many, if any, of the laws in Torah a new convert was obliged to follow. It is possible that the decision in Acts 15:20 is an early reflection of the Noachide covenant.
This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Worth a Thousand Words: Ural Owl

Ural Owl
taken by the incomparable Remo Savisaar

Well Said: The Music of the Lines

All I'm looking for is an excuse for certain experiments in dramatic dialogue. To justify them I have to have plot and situation; but fundamentally I care almost nothing about either. All I really care about is what Errol Flynn calls "the music," the lines he has to speak.
Raymond Chandler, letter 1948
And this is actually why I love reading Chandler. The plots are often convoluted and don't really make sense, but it is the poetry and dialogue and clever wit of his writing that I love.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

After the Election: Let's Be Kind to Each Other

I received an email this morning hoping I would have something inspirational to say after the election.

That made me realize the reason I posted a delicious recipe was that sharing a meal is the best way to come together with those you love. When you don't have adequate words then cook for someone, right?

It goes to the heart of what has been echoing in my mind all morning.

Be kind. We need to be kind to each other right now. We need to shed light not heat. Whether our candidate won or lost, we need to be gentle with each other.

I think President Obama really hit those notes well in his remarks on Donald Trump's election.

I liked the reminder that this is how the process works, that when you've won then someone very different has lost. But we can all be adult about it.
Now, it is no secret that the president-elect and I have some pretty significant differences. But remember, eight years ago President Bush and I had some pretty significant differences. But President Bush's team could not have been more professional or more gracious in making sure we had a smooth transition so that we could hit the ground running.

And one thing you realize quickly in this job is that the presidency and the vice presidency is bigger than any of us. So I have instructed my team to follow the example that President Bush's team set eight years ago, and work as hard as we can to make sure that this is a successful transition for the president-elect.
I especially liked the reminder that we are all Americans first, before politics.
Now, everybody is sad when their side loses an election, but the day after we have to remember that we're actually all on one team. This is an intramural scrimmage. We're not Democrats first. We're not Republicans first. We are Americans first. We're patriots first. (Speech transcript is here.)
Just on a practical note, be careful about believing dire predictions. Remember how accurate the media was about this election? A little sense of perspective for us all as we head into the next news cycle.

I'm surprised to find, upon gingerly checking my feelings this morning, that I have a sense of curious interest. The future is uncharted. I'm curious to see how this will all play out.

In the meantime, we all have our own part to play. Right where we live and work and go to school ... and have dinner together. It's the same job we have every day and it can change the country just as much as a new president ... if we all do it as honestly and genuinely as we can. And it begins with being kind.

Beef Meatballs with Oricchiette, Kale, and Pine Nuts

Whether the election results have left you mourning, celebrating, or (like me) simply bemused, this recipe will make everything better.

Rose made it last night and we simply couldn't believe how savory it was, how satisfying, and what a nice blend of textures.  It is not difficult to do in stages but just complex enough that if you want to take your mind off your problems then it will take your full attention.

And it is nice to give people a delicious meal whatever mood they are in.

Monday, November 7, 2016

Blogging Around: Getting a Sense of Perspective Before the Election

For everyone who isn't a True Believer in one of the two major party candidates and needs a good dose of perspective. I know I found them welcome.

First, this is far from the worst set of elections we've had as a nation. I knew of the John Adams and Thomas Jefferson stories which can be hard to believe if one is used to thinking of them only as noble Founding Fathers. The piece below reminds us that this isn't the first time we've sunk low for candidates' behavior. Read the whole thing but here's something to get you started.
If 2016 won’t be remembered for its civility, the elections of 1824 and 1828 were no more ennobling. Mr. Guelzo thinks they’re the only ones that can compete with 2016 for “the sheer depth of the nastiness.”

Neither John Quincy Adams nor Andrew Jackson earned an Electoral College majority in the first round, throwing the election to the House, which broke for the son of the second president. Old Hickory spent the next four years assailing the “corrupt bargain” he said Quincy Adams had struck with the House speaker.

David Reynolds, who teaches the Age of Jackson at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, remarks: “Very improbably, the intellectual and rather snobbish John Quincy Adams was charged with being a pimp, because as minister to Russia he had allegedly offered his nursemaid to the czar as a kept woman in exchange for political favors. Then there was the scandal surrounding Andrew Jackson, who was charged with being a bigamist.” Jackson got his revenge on JQA in 1828, but he blamed the vitriol for the coronary that killed his wife the same year.
Joseph Rago, History Repeats as Farce, Then as 2016
Peggy Noonan wrote a good piece reminding us that life will go on and this is far from the end of the road. First her note of hope for the future. We've got nowhere to go but up.
A memory that stays with me is a college student down South who in September asked me if the young, experiencing national politics for the first time this year, should feel despair. No, I said, you should be inspired. You’re not even out of school yet and you can do better than this. All of you will have to set yourselves to saving us. It got a laugh but I meant it, and the audience knew.
Peggy Noonan, Democracy's Majesty and 2016's Indignity
This was followed by a good overview of why we wound up with these unpopular candidates and what they represent. It seemed impartial to me, since I'm a fan of neither.

I especially liked her ending note though. It has occurred to me forcibly since I've been reading the Bible in chronological order and recently got to a lot of prophets from around the same time. The point she makes below is one that God has been trying to make for thousands of years.
A closing thought: God is in charge of history. He asks us to work, to try, to pour ourselves out to make things better. But he is an actor in history also. He chastises and rescues, he intervenes in ways seen and unseen. Or chooses not to.

Twenty sixteen looks to me like a chastisement. He’s trying to get our attention. We have candidates we can’t be proud of. We must choose among the embarrassments. What might we be doing as a nation and a people that would have earned this moment?
Peggy Noonan, Democracy's Majesty and 2016's Indignity
Be sure to read the whole thing. The Wall Street Journal usually charges for online content but I'm glad both the above pieces are available free. They provide good perspective as we try to gain footing in the midst of chaos.

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Genesis Notes: Noah's Resume

The Life Application Study Bible profile helps us see the key lessons from Noah's life. I like best the extreme patience, faithfulness, and obedience that Noah must have had to accomplish his task. Also, I love the lesson that God does not protect us from trouble, but takes care of us in spite of trouble.

Noah giving the gesture of orant as the dove returns
Strengths and accomplishments:
  • Only follower of God left in his generation
  • Second father of the human race
  • Man of patience, consistency, and obedience
  • First major shipbuilder
Weaknesses and mistakes:
  • Got drunk and embarrassed himself in front of his sons
Lessons from his life:
  • God is faithful to those who obey him
  • God does not always protect us from trouble, but cares for us in spite of trouble
  • Obedience is a long-term commitment
  • A man may be faithful, but his sinful nature always travels with him
Vital statistics:
  • Where: We're not told how far from the Garden of Eden people had settled
  • Occupation: Farmer, shipbuilder, preacher
  • Relatives: Grandfather - Methuselah. Father - Lamech. Sons: Ham, Shem and Japheth
Key verse:
"Noah did everything just as God commanded him." (Genesis 6:22)

Noah's story is told in Genesis 5:29-10:32. He also is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 1:3, 4; Isaiah 54:9; Ezekiel 14:14, 20; Matthew 24:37, 38; Luke 3:36; 17:26; Hebrews 11:7; 1 Peter 3:20; 2 Peter 2:5..

This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

I'm with Chaput - Let's Punch the Devil in the Nose

The Blessed Virgin Mary punching the devil (13th century MS, British Library).
Via Gregory Wolfe and Catholic News Agency
I featured this artwork about a month ago. Today I got a complaint that it is not treating Mary reverently enough ... and also that it might be pop art.

For me this shows Mary as a powerful spiritual warrior, especially when I look at the expression on both faces. I'd like to think I could be like that.

I'll be fair. Mary could also be holding a seal of some sort with which she is marking the devil.

Looking around for a proper reference to prove it wasn't pop art I wound up at the Catholic News Agency. The bonus was this wonderful talk by Archbishop Chaput which used it as a springboard to exhort us to be like Mary.
“If we want to reclaim who we are as a Church, if we want to renew the Catholic imagination, we need to begin, in ourselves and in our local parishes, by unplugging our hearts from the assumptions of a culture that still seems familiar but is no longer really ‘ours,’” Archbishop Chaput said.

“This is why Mary – the young Jewish virgin, the loving mother, and the woman who punches the devil in the nose – was, is, and always will be the great defender of the Church,” he added.

Archbishop Chaput addressed the 2016 Bishops’ Symposium at the University of Notre Dame on Wednesday. He spoke on “Remembering Who We Are and the Story We Belong To.”

He began his talk referencing an illustration, reportedly from the Middle Ages, of the Blessed Virgin Mary punching the devil in the nose. “She doesn’t rebuke him. She doesn’t enter into a dialogue with him. She punches the devil in the nose,” he said.
I love that guy. Read the whole thing. It's good medicine.

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

What We've Been Watching: The Good Place


At last, a new television show that is light, engaging, humorous, and makes you think. All while celebrating the virtues that lead to being good.

After a freak accident, Eleanor (Kristen Bell) wakes up to find that she died and wound up in The Good Place (as opposed to The Bad Place, of course). Hearing the long list of humanitarian behavior that led to her arrival is a surprise to Eleanor. Because the system, overseen by immortal Michael (Ted Danson) had a glitch that assigned her the completely wrong history. Eleanor was never very nice and always selfish which means she is in The Wrong Place.

Luckily, she's met her "soulmate" who was an expert in morality and ethics. He agrees to give her lessons to teach her how to be good. Naturally complications arise and we meet other Good Place neighbors who, though perfectly good, are dealing with their own dilemmas.

What all this leads to for the viewer is a refreshing change from the usual sitcoms. The show is being allowed to develop at its own pace and this lets us grow along with it.

One thing we especially enjoy is the mini-philosophy lesson which Eleanor learns and which is echoed in each episode's general plotline. You get a sense, albeit surface level, of different philosophical concepts of virtue and being good. Which is, in itself, refreshing.

It's not just high minded though. The humor is loopy, oddball and fun, in the best way possible. And the set design is deceptively simple but done with the sort of attention that makes me think of Pushing Daisies which was another favorite of ours.

The show was developed and is being run by Mike Schur who's known for his involvement in The Office, Parks and Recreation, and Brooklyn Nine Nine.

NBC has all the episodes available on their website. I think they're letting it grow through word of mouth, which is also refreshingly different these days. You need to watch them in order because it is one big story.

Rose pushed us to watch this because she wants it to keep going. It only took a few episodes for us to see why. So I'm pushing it too.

Take a look. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

(For a more indepth look, check out The AV Club's pilot review.