Well worth your time . . . .

Posted on by albrooke

Jake Meador provides a very nice analysis of Wendell Berry’s novel Jayber Crow, a must-read for anyone who loves that novel, though if you haven’t read it, there are many spoilers:

  • In this sense, Jayber Crow is a story of how one man learned to love. That, of course, sounds syrupy and sentimental to us moderns who have grown up on hallmark cards and made-for-TV movies. But it is the manner of the learning that is important. The love Jayber learns to practice is an extremely physical love grounded in practical acts of devotion that sometimes by their very nature require that he not do things he deeply desires to do.

“The Ethics of Jayber Crow,” The Rabbit Room (Jan. 4, 2024) [link].

Harrison Scott Key writes a Christmas memory unlike any other you will ever find: “I have enjoyed many happy Christmases and plenty of disappointing ones, like the one I spent eating alone at a Waffle House due to an ice storm, or the Christmas my father accused all the unmarried relatives of being gay. But of all the sad Yuletides of my life, the one I spent guarding $100,000 worth of explosives on the surface of the moon tops the list. The year was 1996. . . . ”Christmas on the Moon,” Longreads (Dec. 6, 2023) [link].

Matthew T. Martens writes about the American criminal justice system: “Since the advent of forensic DNA technology in 1989, 3,284 people have been exonerated after having been convicted of crimes. These aren’t cases of people who later got off on legal technicalities. These are people who did not commit the crimes but collectively spent more than 29,000 years in prison before their innocence was discovered. . . .” Martens, who has worked as both a prosecutor and defense attorney, is no stranger to the criminal justice system, and does not want to reform it, but rather to re-initialize (my word) it to more closely match its original form. “3 Things that Must Change in the American Justice System,” Crossway (Nov. 6, 2023) [link].

Jonathan Rogers teaches writing and here gives some thoughtful advice about drafts and efficiency: “It’s an inefficient process. I’m afraid you’re just going to have to get used to inefficiency.” “The Third Pancake,” The Habit Weekly (Nov. 7, 2023) [link].

Born at the Right Time

Posted on by albrooke

Born at the Right Time What the Incarnation means for us all
A sermon delivered December 18, 2016 and lightly edited for posting

Taiwan, it seems, has one of the highest rates of Caesarian births in the world, which leads to two questions: “What are you talking about, Al?” and “Why is that?”

A Caesarian section is an operation whereby a baby is born by surgically opening the womb of the pregnant woman, usually because of some medical emergency. It was done in ancient times, nearly always at the cost of the life of the mother. I would have guessed that it was called a Caesarian birth because Julius Caesar was born that way, but that is apparently a myth. In any case, it is relatively common these days, and not terribly dangerous.

Continue reading Born at the Right Time

Born at the Right Time

Posted on by albrooke

What the Incarnation Means for Us All

December 18, 2016 | Galatians 4 (“In the fullness of time . . .”)

born-at-the-right-timeTaiwan, it seems, has one of the highest rates of Caesarian births in the world, which leads to two questions.

“What are you talking about, Al?” and “Why is that?”

A Caesarian section is an operation whereby a baby is born by surgically opening the womb of the pregnant woman, usually because of some medical emergency. It was done in ancient times, nearly always at the cost of the life of the mother. I would have guessed that it was called a Caesarian birth because Julius Caesar was born that way, but that is apparently a myth. In any case, it is relatively common these days, and not terribly dangerous.

It is apparently very common in Taiwan, even when it is not medically indicated.

A study followed 150 women in Taiwan who were pregnant with their first child, and found that 93 of them had caesarean deliveries before 39 weeks, though none of them had any complications.

This seemed decidedly odd, since of course pre-term Caesarean births require more medical and surgical intervention, require longer hospital stays, cost more money and are somewhat more dangerous for mother and baby. To be clear, these were not emergency Caesareans, these were elective Caesareans by women who had never been through childbirth before. Continue reading Born at the Right Time