Saturday on Substack - 8.VII.2023
Happy Saturday evening to all of you! I seem to be running up against the size limit for email, so I’ll get right to our Saturday tradition now!
Writing
Reading
The Yankee and the Czar - American Heritage A very interesting article about John Quincy Adams’ stint as Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Court of His Imperial Majesty Alexander, Czar and Autocrat of All the Russias. The article is from 1958, and I love the writing style!
I hate to be posting this, but since this is more than some random person on Twitter spouting nonsense; the issue comes from a Theological University, it’s more mainstream than most of us want to admit, and hence why I’m sharing it. (My mom went to a college that had a seminary back in the 1970s, and even then, she said she believed most of the theology professors were there because their views would not be tolerated by a regular church parish.)
I think I want to expand some of my thoughts on this to a full post, but in the meantime, this was interesting:
A comment from a recent Rod Dreher post that I thought was worth posting: Jonah R. Jul 4
What do I love about America?
That we're ornery. When I was a kid, I wanted what I perceived to be the order and greater sophistication of Europe. As an adult, I'm glad my country is an energetic, churning mess.
I like that for all the dumbasses we produce, we also produce more than our fair share of geniuses, experts, and quirky obsessives. Need the world's expert on sharks? Want to join a group of meticulous Revolutionary War reenactors? Have a question for someone who's walked every known inch of the Underground Railroad on foot? Need to find someone to custom-forge you a sword? Need a philosopher to compile a reading list for you on value theory? We've got that. All that and more. Every time I think I understand the sort of individual greatness our country produces, I learn about someone else—a poet, a scientist, an artist, a historian, whatever—and down the bottomless rabbit hole I go.
I love that we're a country founded on ideas, even if it's our lot to fail and forget them on a regular basis.
I love that our national birthday celebrations are so potentially dangerous that "Have a great Fourth!" and "Be safe!" go hand in hand.
I love that despite the sameness of the interstate highway system, every place along it is different. Louisiana is nothing like New York (and parts of Louisiana are only vaguely like each other). Georgia is nothing like Maine. California and Texas are their own worlds. Despite social media and mass media and a large federal government, we're still a land of unfathomable cultural variation and, for a guy like me who's on the road for work all the time, a land of endless surprise.
I love that foreigners hate America, until they actually come here, and then they almost always find something to love.
I love that our Constitution still basically functions after nearly 250 years, despite the efforts of large majorities of people to wreck it or water it down.
I love the McDonald's cheeseburger. Oh, I can be a food snob with the best of 'em, but man: The umami of that corner of processed pseudo-cheese as it pokes out of the edge of a bun that is either slightly stale or slightly toasted, with just the hint of a minced onion....it's my white trash Proust's macaron.
Today's not a day to dwell on things I don't love about the U.S. Those are some of the things I love.
I’ve linked to Naomi Wolf before. She’s recently been very, very ill, to the point of near death, and she’s got a piece here starting to talk about the unseen world. As a Christian, I believe that we have to be very careful with these types of things, but as somebody who is Orthodox, I believe that the Orthodox Church is one way through which there is consistency to discernment in evaluating them. She’s coming at it from a different perspective, of course, but it is incredibly interesting on a lot of different levels.
Music
Yesterday was Ringo Starr’s birthday, so here’ya go… (For some reason, cocaine is in the news again right now… /sarc)
Listening
Paul Revere’s ride with some background and some context of the collection it came from.
I hope to get to see “Sound of Freedom”, but it’s not something I’d take the kids to. This was kind of an interesting video on how it’s really outdone itself at the box office.
Learning
Laugh a little
This didn’t quite make it into my “Stars and Stripes” post.
Thank you for reading! May you all have a great week!
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