5 Quick Things #319 🤖
Chesterton, calendars, machines, & working slow
Hey there,
Happy third day out of forty into Lent! It feels a little strange to wish someone a “happy” Lent, but I really do agree with Merton and find this season to truly be happy in the I-wish-all-of-us-well meaning of the word. It’s hard, but it’s good.
I know this isn’t the case in the Southern Hemisphere, but I find the overlap in the liturgical calendar and seasonal calendar quite apropos. More often than not, Ash Wednesday falls on a gray, drizzly day, and we can feel in our bones—in real time—a thawing of our bodies, minds, spirits, and earth on which we walk as we move through Lent. It’s during this season when I fully plant our backyard garden and watch the soil sprout new life. And if all goes well, Easter falls on a deliciously warm spring day, when we can feel that Lent-forbidden A-word1 in our bones.
Here’s to late winter and early spring! And here’s to Lent.
5 Quick Things ☕️
1. In case you missed it, I wrote a practical guide to Lent if you want to participate but aren’t sure how or where to begin: “If the overall purpose of Lent is penance, and if the purpose of penance is to shed ourselves from what keeps us from being more of who we’re meant to be — a saint — then our ultimate goal when we participate in Lent is virtue. After all, this is our overall purpose for all of life, which is to say: a habit of virtue is the act of becoming more fully human in the original sense of it all (you know, pre-fall).”
2. I’m reminded that my observation of the Lent/Eastertide + spring combination is no mere coincidence, thanks to
’ latest issue: “To our ancient brothers & sisters in the Church, the timing of these feasts was crucial—calendars and timekeeping were holy pursuits, and spoke of incarnational realities. They used the sun to tell the story of Christ’s birth, and the sun & the bright spring moon to amplify the story of his salvific work. Flowers are budding and leaves are unfurling, and it can seem incongruous with the penitential nature of Lent; our forebears, though, used the terms ‘Lent’ and ‘Spring’ synonymously, and there’s wisdom in that intersection.”3.
has the right words for those of us who need to work slowly right now (raises hand): “Van Gogh, during his lifetime, made more than 30 drawings and paintings that depicted sowers… What was Van Gogh if not a sower of seeds? A life of persevering in the work, of dedication, and of living in the unknown. …I can easily imagine being that sower in his painting, walking steadily through the fading field, the cool dusk, a seed bag bumping my hip as I go, taking one handful of seeds after another and casting them into the field behind me, just walking and casting. Barefoot, perhaps, the dirt crumbling in between my toes.”4. The older I get, the more I appreciate the genius of G.K. Chesterton, so it was a delight that this episode popped up into my podcast feed! It’s long, but worth it — run your errands, fold your laundry, weed your weeds. And then pick up Orthodoxy.
5. And finally, I am genuinely enjoying the father-son letter back-and-forthing in
and ’s new newsletter — like in this particular letter: “Dad, Your latest email was streamed directly into the wifi chip I had implanted the other day in my brain stem (and yours, while you were sleeping). As a result the exchange also briefly opened a neural window into your consciousness, which explains why the dink dink song from Spaceballs was playing on loop in the background the whole time. How do you stand that all day?”
Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚
On the Incarnation, by St. Athanasius
Quotable 💬
“Lent is a time for discipline, for confession, for honesty, not because God is mean or fault-finding or finger-pointing but because he wants us to know the joy of being cleaned out, ready for all the good things he now has in store.”
-N.T. Wright
What book title describes your current season in life? 📚
This was a tricky one for me, but I went with Their Eyes Were Watching God, mostly because there are so many new unknowns in our life right now (which was why I almost picked Brave New World). So far this year in my morning prayer time, I’ve heard God answer every one of my questions with a simple, “Watch and see.” Hopeful and encouraging—but still daunting and with no small amount of faith required.
I have a feeling that those of you who chose either Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close or Where the Wild Things Are are in the thick of parenting small children. Just a hunch. And should we be concerned that only two percent of us live in a house of mirth and that a whopping seventeen percent are in the thick of a discontented winter? I hope not…
The Winter of our Discontent: 17.7%
Brave New World: 17.3%
Their Eyes Were Watching God: 16.3%
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close: 16%
Where the Wild Things Are: 13.6%
Peace Like a River: 6.7%
The Perks of Being a Wallflower: 6.7%
No Country For Old Men: 3.3%
The House of Mirth: 2.3%
Find this week’s poll here.
Lent is Here, But You’re Not Behind ➕
If Lent has surprised you with its showing up, not to worry — I’ve been there, too. It’s an invitation for everyone, so come on in when you can. (The water’s fine? I don’t know…)
Anyway—if you’d like a companion for the six weeks left of Lent, give my book, Bitter & Sweet: A Journey Into Easter, a whirl. Each week I unpack one the seven vices—along with its corresponding virtue—and how they show up in our ordinary lives. I wrote the thing I needed for Lent. And like my Advent book, it includes a playlist and art, and it’s good either as a solo contemplation or as a family devotional.
Quick Links 🔗
Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔
What are three small things you’re thankful for right now?
Have a good weekend,
- Tsh
p.s. And I thought I enjoyed our parish’s Shrove Tuesday pancake potluck this week… the stakes have been raised.
You know, a-l-l-e-l-u-i-a.
Merton is always where my Lenten heart goes, too - his "four walls of freedom" comment pops up into my head this season.
Thanks for sharing our Lenten collection of goodness! That spring/Lent combo is a potent blend.