Quickly Commonplacing #13

Friendship saving the world, authors as drinks, and accepting what's on the plate in front of me

Welcome all and sundry to another installment of Quickly Commonplacing! If you haven’t read a post in a while, or are new to my Substack, I am excited to let you know that I have turned on paid subscriptions for $50 a year, or $5 a month. I’ve already created some posts for my paid subscribers, so now is a good time to join! Curious about what paid subscribers have access to? Read this post. As for what’s going on in my life offline, please keep scrolling to Quickly Commonplacing’s newest section!

Current Reads:

1. Reread: The Two Towers By: J.R.R. Tolkien

   1. Tolkien’s focus on community and friendship is really sticking out to me this reread. Finding local friendships, and maintaining long-distance ones, has been a serious (and at times disheartening) struggle of my adulthood. Tolkien’s work reminds me how important it is not to give up on the endeavor of forming/feeding friendships and embedding myself in my local community. And this is because such endeavors are among those unhistoric acts that contribute to the growing good of the world (as George Eliot would say). In The Two Towers, the friendship between Merry and Pippin allows them to maintain hope in the face of their captivity by orcs, and strengthens them such that they are able to escape when the opportunity arises. And by escaping, they run into Treebeard, with whom they develop a touching friendship, and help inspire the Ents to destroy Isengard. Likewise, the friendship between Gimli, Legolas, and Aragorn strengthens them to pursue the captured Merry and Pippin, which pursuit leads them to Rohan in its hour of need, which leads to Rohan being able to come to Gondor’s aid, which leads to there being an army to distract Sauron so that Frodo and Sam can bring the Ring to the only place where it can be destroyed, which leads to Sauron’s ultimate defeat. And of course, the beautiful friendship between Frodo and Sam, and the love they share for the community of the Shire, is the only reason the Ring makes it to Mount Doom in the first place. In short, good friendships and good communities save worlds and defeat evil; though such friendships and communities may initially seem far removed from the “main events” or lack “major players.” So I will keep plugging away at tending to my friendships and my community, and trust in the Divine Providence that will bring good out of it all.

2. New Read: Body and Identity By: Angela Franks and This is Happiness By: Niall Williams

   1. I am so grateful to Fairer Disputations and What We Need Now for putting Angela Franks’ book on my radar (to read an interview with her click here). Franks’ description of the narcissistic character of our culture, which all of us are affected by, is both painful and spot on. And her exploration of the history of thought around the concept of “identity” is incredibly thorough. Unlike many commentators, she doesn’t assume that our age of “liquid bodies and empty selves”(as she terms it) is a product only of recent history. Finally, I am thoroughly enjoying the mental workout that is reading Franks’ book; some intellectual muscles are being stretched that haven’t been used in quite a bit! On the fiction side, This is Happiness is providing a helpful balance to my other two reads. A contemporary novel set in rural Ireland in the 1950s, it is a charming read. I love the narrative voice Williams has developed for Noe. And having recently read two other novels by Irish authors (Maura Laverty and Mary Beckett), it’s been interesting to see what is common among them and what characteristics might be said to “define” the Irish novel.

Recent Commonplace Quotes

1. “I stayed in the cellar. For the two solid hours allotted us for preparation I stayed there. I wandered about examining every bottle and taking a drink here and a drink there. And one tasted better than another. The good mellow satisfying ale of Milton, the heady bubbling champagne of Shelley, the tingling burgundy of Browning. Byron was rum and whiskey and other virile manly drinks tat filled you with the reckless courage of the Corsair himself. And the Sonnets were liqueur brandy, every tantalizing drop amber-rich in fire and light and color.” (Delia Scully, Never No More By: Maura Laverty)

   1. Maybe at some point I’ll stop talking about this book. But it’s hard not to rave about it. I love Delia Scully’s comparison of her poetry anthology to a drinks cellar. I’ve long loved the idea of your home library operating as such a cellar: a repository of “drinks” that will be brought out at the right time and the right occasion, with favorite “bottles” receiving multiple visits. I also love the way Delia draws out the truth that reading is not merely an intellectual/abstract activity. All the best readers know that there is a real physical dimension to reading; we can all bring to mind cherished memories of reading that are based on the sights and sounds and scents that were part of that particular reading experience. Or we can think about the way certain books are easier/better to read at specific times of the year, just as certain foods and drinks are tied to certain seasons. Finally, I think it would be a fun exercise to assign drinks and/or foods to all of my favorite authors, or even to specific books by my favorite authors. Feel free to share thoughts about this in the comments!

2. “Imagination, always so far in advance of reason, or even propriety, carries me to further lengths, and obliges me to go upstairs and count laundry in order to change current of ideas. ” (Narrator, The Provincial Lady Goes Further, E.M. Delafield)

   1. This book was a thoughtful birthday gift from my Mother-in-law, and a much needed breath of fresh air in the midst of reading about Kristin and Erlend’s questionable life choices. While the first book in the series is my favorite, the sequel is still charming and hilarious. This line pinpoints a lot of what I found appealing in both books. There are times when Delafield holds up a mirror, and gently invites me to have a good laugh at the reflection I see, and to not take myself so seriously. There are so many times that I have become stuck in my head in various ways that are “far in advance of reason.” And the best solution is almost always to come down to earth by focusing on the physical duties of the life to which God has called me in order to “change [the] current of ideas.”

Crocuses blooming in our front yard

Excellent Earworms:

1. Music: Dance to You All Night (Odhran Murphy), One Last Drink (Enter the Haggis)

Substack Shares:

• The Maturation of Mutual Submission By: Dr. Greg Bottaro: This was a thoroughly well put together post that will, I think, enact genuine good in the lives of every one who reads it. Dr. Bottaro’s application of Newman’s criterion for genuine development of doctrine to this topic is incredibly helpful. And his insight into the ways that poor interpretations of biblical headship cause genuine harm, and are often times part and parcel of the very ideological currents that people who defend such interpretations decry, is fascinating. Finally, the historian in me wanted to learn so much more about the examples of female leadership within the medieval church that Dr. Bottaro described.

• Reviewing Every Adaptation of Little Women (Part 1, Part 2) By: Kate Marigold: I’m a sucker for pretty much any Little Women content, so this deep dive into its various adaptations was right up my alley. I also appreciated the love that both the PBS adaptation (which I think, despite the portrayal of Amy being on the weaker side, is overall stellar) and the 1949 adaptation got. The 1949 adaptation is particularly nostalgic for me, as it was the first film version I saw, and therefore forever shaped how I picture the characters. It also inspired me to read the actual book, and it was shown to me by my late grandmother. And because of the meaning that movie has for me, I found Kate Marigold’s point about the choice to not age Beth, and the potential symbolism of that choice, very intriguing. Always nice to look at something beloved with fresh eyes.

• Pressure Cooker Life By: Leah | Blessed Endurance: Leah’s beautiful writing and undeniable wisdom has provided a great deal of food for thought. I really enjoyed the specificity of the pressure cooker metaphor she used in this post, because boy oh boy could I relate.

  • “No matter how many times I see the image of my Lord, crucified, I still squirm away from the crosses His Father places upon my own back. Isn’t there some other way? I ask. Can’t I have the homeschool life I want, instead of this other thing You’re asking of me? It’s a fine question, I think. Jesus had a Gethsemane. And even if our crosses are far less weighty than the sin of the whole world, I think we are permitted our own Gethsemanes, too. God asks many things of us that we wouldn’t have naturally chosen for ourselves, and the agony of prayer happens in the gap between. But the Christian life has to find its peace, in each cross-bearing, with the eventual admission: Not my will, but Yours, be done.”

• How far back in time can you understand English? By: Colin Gorrie: This was just so much fun. I loved this imaginative tour through the English language, and the detective work I had to do further and further back to get the gist of what was going on.

Little Bits of Life (Updates from the real world):

The garden is officially underway, thanks to my husband’s hard work. I’m most excited for the peas this year; they are popular with everyone in the house (which can’t be said for most vegetables) and their flowers are absolutely beautiful. We’ve finally had some genuinely warm weather and I couldn’t be more thrilled. It truly feels like a mini-resurrection of sorts: not only is the natural world coming back to life, but so is my mood. And watching the joy of my coatless children running around and wondering over the bulbs is pretty special. Alas, though, no joy in this world is unalloyed. My husband already found the first tick of the season crawling around on his leg.

As Lent wraps up, God has lead me to consider, rather than adding more to my plate, I learn to be content with my plate as it already is, and actually/thoughtfully/gratefully “consume” the good things He has already put in front of me. It turns out that I am the spiritual equivalent of my 3-year-old screaming and crying for “mooooooore” even though she has been given what is appropriate for her needs and appetites, and will not actually consume anything extra that is added to her plate. Like my daughter, I can get caught up in, as a priest termed it in confession, setting the expectations for God rather than letting God set the expectations for me. I compare my plate to that of others with different needs, metabolisms, and appetites than myself and, in doing so, ignore the goodness and (over)abundance and opportunity right there in front of me. I am not truly trusting that my Father in heaven knows what’s best for me. I am trying to bite off more than I can chew in an effort to somehow “prove something” to Him, to others…and to myself. And boy oh boy does the imaginative, overachieving “exceptional student” in me not want to hear that I really shouldn’t, and maybe even can’t do more. Limits are uncomfortable and humbling and, in our culture, even embarrassing things. But to become like the child worthy of entering the kingdom of heaven, they might very well be exactly what we need.

Bulbs popping up and a beautiful blue sky

Onions and lettuce and peas, oh my!

Polling the People:

Last poll, I asked about which genre of literature you would like to read more of. Predictably, Classic Literature and History/Historical Fiction tied for first place (32% each). Poetry came in a strong second with 26% of the vote; it’s where I might put myself as wanting to/feeling the need to read more of. Feel free to offer me some recommendations. Memoir/Autobiography had only 6% of the vote, and Contemporary Fiction 3%. I would like to read more contemporary fiction with some guidance. It can feel really hard for me to justify spending time and/or money on something that I might very well find a waste of mental energy (can you tell I’ve been burned before?), which is why I tend to gravitate towards classics. But if I want there to be classics worth reading in the future, I know I need to devote at least some time to contemporary authors. So, again, feel free to shoot me some recommendations in the comments.

For today’s poll, inspired by the quote from Never No More, I am asking you to tell me about your ideal reading (seasonally based) scenario. Is it something you’d answer differently at different times of year, or do you have an unchanging and ideal Platonic form of a reading environment?

Because the polls have word limits, read the following descriptions first, then vote!

1. Spring: A picnic blanket spread out next to a babbling brook. Wildflowers all around, a light breeze rustling through fresh green leaves. A cup of homemade lemonade to drink.

2. Summer: A towel (or folding chair) on a sunny beach (that is miraculously uncrowded). Ocean waves crashing, a cold beer (or margarita) to slowly sip on. No sunburns allowed.

3. Fall: Sitting at a table next to the window of your favorite coffee shop, which is located in a quaint pedestrian only (or at least traffic light) main street. Tea and/or coffee on the table with you, along with your favorite pastry. A comfortable sweater wrapped around you.

4. Winter: A squishy armchair by a roaring wood fire. Hot coco and cookies on the side table next to you. Favorite blanket(s) keeping your toes warm. Christmas tree lit up nearby.

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