News from the Front Porch Republic
Greetings from the Porch,
The snow and ice storms that have hit large swaths of the US this week have certainly disrupted plans and brought cold and darkness to many households preparing to celebrate Christmas. But there is still something remarkable about the way ice can coat the mundane world and render it marvelous.
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In this week's Water Dipper I recommend essays on Mary Bailey, Francis Bacon, and San Francisco.
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Jon Schaff recommends celebrating Christmas with a bit less spectacle and a bit more charity: "We sometimes criticize those who prefer simplicity at Christmas as 'Grinches.' This last statement is ironic as the whole point of Dr. Suess’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas is that even after the Grinch steals the trees, decorations, presents, and the roast beast, Christmas still comes. Apparently, if we learn anything from the Whos down in Whoville, you can have the very merriest of Christmases without any of the accoutrements."
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Ben Christenson explores the incalculable value of cultivating relationships rather than chasing a career: "The happiest boomers I know love nothing more than talking with their old friends about their new grandchildren. So, my holiday recipe for fighting loneliness is lots of face-to-face talking–with strangers, family, and everyone between."
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Wally Chamberlain reimagines a Dr. Seuss classic in a more localist vein, and his poem is accompanied by beautiful illustrations:
Yes places need people, and this one does too,
And maybe this place, and these people, need you.
Your family, your friends, these hills, and this town,
They’d not be the same, without you around.
So leave if you must, but perhaps not today.
Stop and consider all the ways you can stay. -
Gregory Reynolds reviews Andrew Witmer’s Here & Everywhere Else and considers the value of such local histories: "What local histories may lack in terms of professional methodology they make up for in terms of personal knowledge. Witmer has provided a fine model for weaving the threads of the big picture into the local historical tapestry."
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John Murdock releases Chris Arnade's keynote lecture from our fall After Virtual conference to listeners of the Brass Spittoon podcast.
In his delightful book The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs, Joel Salatin invites us to imagine whether Christ would have been born in the “stable,” or factory house, of our industrial American food system:
Matthew Sleeth, founder of Blessed Earth, asks a profound question: “Would Jesus be born in a factory house?” He was born in a stable. Undoubtedly this stable had several kinds of animals in it and was fairly small. Some have even suggested it may have been a bit of a cave. Or it may have been the ground floor of a house. I have no idea, but knowing the Hebrews and the times, I’m confident it was bedded with straw, fairly small, and inhabited by donkeys, sheep, goats, and perhaps a cow and some chickens. It was a quiet place. It was an inviting place. Rude, to be sure, but far different from a modern industrial factory.
This brings us to the question, then: What does a beautiful farm and food system look like? If the hand of the Christian is to touch the world with beautiful artistry that illustrates the creative genius of a magnificent God, what does such a farming and food system look like? Does it look like the bowels of a factory chicken house? Or does it look like something different?
Does it smell like a confinement dairy, a cattle feedlot, or a fumigated strawberry field? I suggest that a godly farm—may I say good farm?—should be aromatically and aesthetically sensually romantic. It should attract us, not repel us. It should beckon our senses with whimsical enticements of participation rather than assault our senses with repugnancy. It should be something we want to embrace rather than escape. Is not this the yearning of God’s heart, to use His people to extend His creative beauty into the nooks and crannies of our communities?
Thanks for spending some time with us on the Porch,
Jeff Bilbro