Tyler Cowen draws attention to the remarkable life and work of the Catholic religious scholar R.C. Zaehner, whose Wikipedia page is, indeed, fascinating and wild. 📚
Currently reading: The Bible and Poetry by Michael Edwards 📚
Finished reading: Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury.
I love Bradbury’s simple, relentless enthusiasm for writing. 📚
A beautiful evening by the lake. I read; the kids built driftwood boats. 🏡
One should act like a man of thought, and think like a man of action.
~Henri Bergson, quoted by Iain McGilchrist in The Matter with Things 📚🏡
Can’t wait to dig into this one. 📚
Some days, you get lucky. Very, very lucky.
Wordle 785 2/6
⬛⬛🟩🟩⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Current listening: Johnathan Blake, Passage. Blake is a master. Always brings the fire. 🎶
True confession: I’m so inept at using the MacOS Photos app that if I want to use a photo, I usually resort to just taking a screenshot of it instead. 😬
Currently reading: Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury 📚
It’s incredible how many good book groups, seminars, & tutorials the Catherine Project is offering this fall—and all for free! I’d love to join them all. 📚
Currently reading: In Search of Lost Time Volume I Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust.
It’s been a decade or so. Just 25 pages in, I can’t believe how many gems I’ve already forgotten. 📚
Current listening: Tyshawn Sorey Trio, Continuing.
Four tracks, 53 minutes. As wide-ranging as ever for this group, which features Matt Brewer on bass and Aaron Diehl on piano. 🎶
Click through for more detail—it’s worth it. Suddenly considering a trip to the Netherlands just to see it.
Finished reading: The This by Adam Roberts.
Lots to think about with this delightful book. Roberts calls it a Hegelian sequel to his Kantian book The Thing Itself. I think it can be equally read as a sort of hellish prequel to Purgatory Mount (is Paradise next?), or as a sci-do cautionary-tale companion to Nita Farahany’s The Battle for Your Brain.
In any case, science fiction at its strangest & best. 📚
A beautiful summer morning 🏡
Rest in peace, my dear old friend David MacKay
David was already retired from IU by the time I started grad school there, but he and his wonderful wife Carole hosted grad students at their house weekly for discussion & dessert. Quick-witted, opinionated, kind-hearted, and erudite, David had a profound influence on me.
Even though I wound up leaving academe, I still recognize David’s influence on my life & my faith. And when I walk through my woods, I think of the times he took me on trips around his own woods in his side-by-side, driving like a maniac, with a look of maniacal delight on his face.
Finished reading: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen.
Rather sobering to have finished it on Father’s Day. But, like all of Austen, full of wisdom: a reflection on good judgment. 📚