5 Quick Things #322 🖼

good art, the art of living, the dark side of dumbphones, & neighborhood walks

Hey there,

Happy start of Spring Break to all who celebrate! I get that we in the South are typically a few weeks to a month earlier than other folks’ spring breaks, but it’s felt weirdly long since the holiday break... Our kiddos are super stoked to get a respite from schoolwork and studies, and I’m particularly thrilled that our oldest in college is coming home for a week! We’re not doing much other than enjoying each other’s company (including a short local camping getaway), but it’s more than enough and I’m grateful.

This means that I’m taking a week’s break from 5QT, so heads up that after next Monday’s book chat for subscribers and then a quick episode of Drink¹, you’ll hear from me again in a few weeks. …I have no doubt you’ll manage just fine. 😉

Spring at Pontoise (1872), by Camille Pissarro #

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5 Quick Things ☕️

1. In case you missed it, earlier this week I encouraged us all to not just talk about unplugging, but to actually unplug — I also included my top ten small, doable suggestions for doing so: “If we’re not intentional, we’ll be driven by an effort to be the reigning Thought Leader™️ on how to live without AI and start one-upping each other on how extreme we are about unplugging from The Machine—and in the process, we’ll stop making regular, fruitful time from actually unplugging ourselves. And in doing so, we’ll stop reaping said benefits from living analog.” Great thoughts from you guys in the comment section, too.

2. I appreciate L.M. Sacasas for

The Convivial Society

’s recent essay on the art of living, which instead of being a vague platitudinal woo-woo phrase, he defines as “the art of learning to work creatively within the constraints of the medium.” In particular, he names our chief constraint as embodiment—as in, when live in temporal, finite bodies within space and time, and this defines the frame with which we compose the artistry of our lives: “I can only be here now, and I can be here now only for so long, which means there are only so many things to which I can meaningfully attend at length and at depth. I may choose to accept this reality and respond creatively to it, or I can resist it and seek to transcend it and embrace every tool that promises to help me do so.”

3. To continue with a resonant theme I see emerging in this collection,

Autumn Kern

revealed the dark side of the dumb phone, seeing as it’s now been one year since she bid adieu to her smartphone. (It harkens a bit to my essay above, where I reminisce on the quick-to-judginess of certain internet segments.)

4. We know it’s good to slow down and contemplate the things in life that matter… But what does that mean? As in, how does one practically do that? I appreciate this simple, doable two-step process from John Cuddeback: “I think the heart of our problem with contemplation is that we have not yet understood what it is. Or perhaps more to the point, we are inexperienced in really doing it. Yet there is no need to be discouraged. It comes as no surprise that what we are called to do, each according to his state in life, is an arduous good that will require much study, cultivation, and prayer.”

5. And finally, Brian Holdsworth unpacks why good art matters (an idea we’ll explore more on the podcast in a few months) — and why much in the modern art niche doesn’t belong in our sacramental life (church, in particular).

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Currently Reading, Watching, Listening 📚

Swallows & Amazons, by Arthur Ransome (we just finished it this week as our read-aloud and felt that loss of a good friend…)

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Quotable 💬

“Don’t you know what that is? It’s spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you’ve got it, you want—oh, you don’t quite know what it is you DO want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!”

-Mark Twain

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What’s your favorite Richard Scarry house? 🏡

This was a super fun question — my most well-worn, beloved childhood book was Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever. I still love poring over its pages.

Lots of his houses are cool, but right now I’m Team Treehouse. C’mon y’all… What a great abode. My youngest son, however, finds it anathema that more of us didn’t choose boathouse (see recent read-aloud, above).

• Thatched-Roof Cottage: 30.3%

• Chalet: 27.4%

• Stone Cottage: 18.9%

• Modern House: 13.2%

• Treehouse: 8.6%

• Boathouse: 1.6%

Find this week’s poll here.

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Quick Links 🔗

• 📐Create your own Rule of Life

• 🎧 Listen to A Drink With a Friend

• 📖 Read my books

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Question(s) For You to Ponder… 🤔

What’s one thing you can take off your current to-do list?

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Have a good weekend + next week — I’ll see you then,

- Tsh

p.s. Paternoster elevator.

1. Typically it’d go out today. But… It’ll go out early next week instead.