News from the Front Porch Republic
Greetings from the Porch,
Autumn has arrived here in Western PA. The leaves are turning and the cool temps at night are delightful. We’ve added a few more locations for local FPR gatherings; take a gander and see if any are in your neck of the woods.
-
In this week’s Water Dipper, I recommend essays about Congress, the filibuster, and original sin.
-
Andrew Figueiredo describes the history and culture of Minde, a hyper-local language in Portugal. In the process, he articulates the importance of stewarding the precious cultural inheritance of each of the world’s languages.
-
Ashley Hales defends the goods of limits: “What might happen if we tried embracing our limits as gifts for our flourishing rather than barriers to our success?”
-
Robert C. Thornett reflects on what he learned from his students at a community college. Their resilience and motivation made him wonder if a non-traditional route is actually better, at least for some.
-
I sat down for a conversation with author and now film-maker Joe Loconte. We discussed the influence of the Great War on the imaginative literature of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, and he described what he’s learned in the process of turning his book on this subject into a film series.
Since Tolkien is on my mind after talking with Joe this week and watching the first episode of his film series (it’s quite good), I thought I’d close today’s email with one of my favorite passages from Tolkien’s correspondence. This is from a letter to his son Christopher in 1943. Christopher was at a training camp preparing to enter the war:
Well, cheers and all that to you dearest son. We were born in a dark age out of due time (for us). But there is this comfort: otherwise we should not know, or so much love, what we do love. I imagine the fish out of water is the only fish to have an inkling of water. Also, we have still small swords to use.