From the glass frame hung the half of a comb by a string—but if I had to describe that patriarch or die, I believe I would order some sample coffins. It had come down from Esau and Samson, and had been accumulating hair ever since…
Excerpt From Roughing It by Mark Twain
If one has not lived in God’s word, even Mark Twain will be less funny.
This past month has been quite heavy, but rather than enumerate the things burdening me, I decided I needed to find some light reading. And in these weeks retreating to feathered prose, I couldn’t help but think of G.K. Chesterton’s grand finale to Orthodoxy:
There was something that He hid from all men when He went up a mountain to pray. There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation. There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth.
Excerpt From Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
I had a birthday this month and yet felt nearer to childhood by raising my own son. As I have written before, my toddler has been teaching me. I merely give him the language to say the sacred things already stored up in him.
This morning Leo saw some of the neighborhood children walking down our street and naturally he stepped out for a moment to say, Hiiiiiii! A few days ago he discovered our bedroom window is within earshot of our neighbor’s kitchen sink. He shook the trees with his voice reaching,
Hiiiiii Liiiiiiindaaaaaa! Where are you!?
As our summer evenings stretch sunlight closer to midnight, we read bedtime stories by solstice light streaming through our blinds. Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water… but wait, I tell Leo, this is silly. Water runs down hill. Why wouldn’t they pipe it down to their home? This story really doesn’t make sense Leo!
Then he turns the pages to Jack falling down and breaking his crown, exclaiming with care,
Oh!!! no!!!
Turning his face to mine, his expression says, Dad, this isn’t about physics or homesteading automation. Can you have some compassion for Jack’s crown? Even Jill is now tumbling down! Yes, Leon, of course. That makes sense. Thank you for reminding me there’s more meaning to every story.
Men once trusted God to bring forth food from the earth and water from the sky. I think Jesus must have smiled, at least inside, when he asked his disciples to feed the five-thousand. How often I have forgotten that this isn’t His miracle alone but a spectacular sight carried out by twelve tired men learning to share what little they had as though they were children again.
Many people have told me they won’t have kids because they can’t afford it, and of course they are correct. I will not be surprised if even this one child of mine exhausts every coin I will ever collect. That seems to be the point of it. Those of us who have kids remember the ancient promises. How even man came from dirt and so did his bread until one day in the wilderness it fell on his head. How water rained from the sky until the drops no longer did. Then rocks poured forth streams of abundance. It would seem wealth was never a requisite for raising children.
Parenting is the no-off-switch endeavor of returning to reverent and mystical religion. I don’t know what uuu tummin means until I see my son pointing towards the forest wondering if I too will wander with him deeper into the woods. You coming Dad? is what he means while waiting for me to abandon my interior imprisonments and remember every human was made to harbor a bit of heaven.
That was the lightness I have been looking for.
Until next week,
-Steven
PS. This month I published a trilogy of videos on YouTube about my every day carry. Congrats to
for getting the Biblical humor in this video. I often weave little things like these into my videos and it’s always fun to see who catches them. Most recently, I teamed up with Lochby to review their latest Pocket Journal. If you’re in to good ol’ pen and paper notes, watch the video and then pick up a journal with the link in that video. Finally, one of my Kindle videos passed 100,000 views this month and another one is already on the way. I’m thinking about doing a few more round ups of what I have been reading. Let me know if a mid year roundup is something you’re interested in. And if you made it this far, let me know your favorite reads for the first half of 2024. Abundant Blessings Always.
Ha, about Jack and Jill's well being up the hill.
I recently finished the three volume biography of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris and it was excellent. Would recommend. Reading it may leave you wanting to memorize poetry and read more books and think the best of people and live a strenuous life and have kids and laugh loudly and hike and make the best of whatever situation is before you.
It's full of delightful sentences like, "On one 'relaxing' summer day, Theodore Roosevelt played 92 games of tennis, the winner of each game recorded in his diary."
And did you know, right before "The Man in the Arena" part of the Sarbonne speech, TR comes down hard on users of birth control? He said not being able to have children is a tragedy, if you purposely choose not to have children, he doesn't care what you accomplished in life. He said this to the French, who had a plummeting birth rate at the time. He enjoyed his six children immensely and told one of his sons, "I think we have had more fun in the White House than any other family."
Congrats on the YouTube milestone! For what it's worth, reading wrap-ups are my favorite.