c o m m o n p l a c e s

An Old Friend

Posted on November 6, 2017November 8, 2017 by albrooke

The Manticore Sometimes it is nice to revisit a novel you have not read in a long time:

“The procedures of the law are much discussed, and people know about lawyers and courts and prisons and punishment and all that sort of thing, but that is just the apparatus through which the law works. And it works in the cause of justice. Now, justice is the constant and perpetual wish to render to everyone his due. Every law student has to learn that.”

Robertson Davies, The Manticore (1972) (p. 62 in the Penguin ed.).

Some people find the re-reading of novels to be odd, but it seems to me not unlike listening to a favorite piece of music, or viewing a well-loved painting, or returning to a known hike, or visiting an old friend. You do not return for an identical experience, for you yourself are different.

—

Another nice passage, this one about about advocacy from David Staunton’s legal mentor:

“I think you’ll make an advocate,” said he. “You have the two necessities, ability and imagination. A good advocate is his client’s alter ego; his task is to say what his client would say for himself if he had the knowledge and the power. Ability goes hand in hand with the knowledge: the power is dependent on imagination. But when I say imagination I mean capacity to see all sides of a subject and weigh all possibilities; I don’t mean fantasy and poetry and moonshine; imagination is a good horse to carry you over the ground, not a flying carpet to set you free from probability.”

p. 227.

Thank you, Martin Luther

Posted on October 31, 2017 by albrooke

For being obedient, though flawed, in the time and place God placed you. #Reformation500 #solagratia

Reformation chronology

May we aspire to do at least as much.

Listening, not arguing

Posted on October 26, 2017October 26, 2017 by albrooke

current reading 2 Recommended to me by my brother-in-law (the polymath), an old* piece from Nick Carr on the values of reading:

In our day-to-day routines, we are always trying to manipulate or otherwise act on our surroundings, whether it’s by turning a car’s steering wheel or frying an egg or tapping a button on a smartphone. But when we open a book, our expectations and attitudes change. Because we understand that “we cannot or will not change the work of art by our actions,” we are relieved of our desire to exert an influence over objects and people and hence can “disengage our [cognitive] systems for initiating actions.” That frees us to become absorbed in the imaginary world of the literary work.

Nicholas Carr, “The Dreams of Readers” Rough Type (Jan. 9, 2014) [link] (Carr is quoting Norman Holland in the internal quotations.)

That seems to me to be exactly right. If we read properly, we are not immediately arguing with everything. We can listen to an author in a way that we too seldom listen to the people in the room with us. This is easier with novels than with history and easier with either than with newspaper editorials, but (I think) always easier with the written than the spoken word.

*Obviously, if I am just now reading blog posts from 2014, I am never going to catch up. Fortunately, this piece seems to be included in Carr’s new book, Utopia is Creepy and Other Provocations (2017) [link]. That can be my next book of essays after The View from the Cheap Seats, which I continue to dip into when I am between books.

For reading and reflection

Posted on October 25, 2017October 25, 2017 by albrooke

current reading 2 From Alan Jacobs at Snakes & Ladders:

1. “Reconsidering ‘Evangelical'” [link] and

2. “Accountable” [link]

And, continuing the conversation started by LeCrae and John Piper, from Raymond Chang, The Exchange:

3. “Open Letter to John Piper on White Evangelicalism and Multiethnic Relations” [link]

(for earlier parts of this conversation — called to my attention by my older daughter — see LeCrae’s conversation at Truth’s Table [link]; and Piper, “My Hopeful Response” [link]. If someone has the link to LeCrae’s written piece, please send it to me).

From fivethirtyeight.com

Posted on October 25, 2017 by albrooke

538 Yankees

A sad statistical truth. A wonderful season. 112 days to go until Spring Training.

Playing with house money

Posted on October 13, 2017October 19, 2017 by albrooke

Baseball It seems that those preseason predictions mean there is no pressure now, and the Yankees are outperforming all expectations:

4th in the AL East per bleacher report [link]

5th in the AL East per CBS [link]

4th in the AL East per SB Nation [link]

4th in the AL East per 538 [link]

4th in the AL East per USA Today [link]

4th in the AL East per Sports Illustrated [link]

3rd (tie) in the AL East per Fangraphs [link]

And “The Yankees’ rotation will flounder: And being both unable and unwilling to land a top-flight starter via trade, the prodigious Yankees offense is wasted as New York hangs around .500 all year. (As do the Oakland A’s, which tells you everything you need to know about the Yanks’ campaign.)” per FOX Sports [link]

Houston, you may have a problem.

Posted on October 12, 2017October 12, 2017 by albrooke

I know that the Astros must be happy that they don’t have to defeat the Indians themselves, but . . . as JS says, “You can’t predict baseball.” Anything could happen now.

2017 ALDS Game 5 Yankees