Reading George Fox’s Journal (founder of the Quakers) and particularly after his opening despair/spiritual awakening, there’s very little of the actual ministry he gives, but then in the period between Cromwell and Charles he actually relates a message he gave at a Meeting: an old couple, their house destroyed by war, has a series of people come and offer to rebuild it, but each in turn takes the money and then says “this house cannot be rebuilt” and leaves. He likens this to different religious leaders telling people that the perfection of Adam and Eve cannot be restored, but the people must tithe anyway, and concludes with the message that Christ comes to do the work freely, and that the house (and divine state of perfection) can in fact be restored. I don’t entirely agree with the theology, but I find the message surprisingly affecting, particularly in the context of Fox’s moment. I wish I knew more of what was being said then.

The rare shot of siblings enjoying each others company in their natural habitat.

Heard a chicken squawking while on a work call today and after watching it go running by, caught a couple pictures of this lovely specimen of local wildlife (who I think didn’t get to dine on our birds today)

Watched “Darmok” with kiddo (5) this evening and about halfway through as Picard & the other captain are starting to figure it out at the campfire, she turned to me and excitedly proclaimed “they’re figuring out how to talk to each other!”

I think I want one more sweatshirt and a long-sleeved shirt to be very visible trans-friendly. Anyone know of any good fundraisers/artists I should look up? (Bonus points if Quaker-connected)

A lovely reflection on a 250 year anniversary from a Quaker Meeting in Durham, ME. riverviewfriend.wordpress.com/2025/03/0…

Making s’mores with the brush pile

Lovely ice curls coming off the barn

Good company while trying to recover from the flu

The part of DS9 where they get an airborne aphasia virus and no one wears masks is … interesting …

Really loved and heartily recommended Gautam Bhatia’s The Sentence, and I hope it gets wider distributionn and availability. 📚

Littlest kiddo was sick over the weekend, so both her parents had an excuse to watch our favorite movies with her. She made it through Hunt for Red October in two sittings, and did about 45 minutes of Chariots of Fire with me, which was enough time to remember that movie is just all Scenes. Like there may be connective tissues, and they couldn’t happen in any other order, but each one is its own set piece, for particular purpose, in order to establish the moment. And it’s probablyy because I watched it young and with an uncle I thought was really sophisticated and so imprinted in odd ways, but I absolutely adore it.

“- that I am, and will be whilst I breathe … (cow moos, all laugh, the intensity dissolves in comedy briefly) … a Scot”

Anyway I’m also reading The Sentence (and looking forward to reading Abigail Nussbaum’s review once I finish. It’s an excellent speculative legal thriller, and at times is reminding me of Chariots of Fire. There’s something in both of working out “what, exactly, is the thing I need the reader to see and understand at the end of this” (in Chariots, I think it’s the tensions of the moment, a center which cannot hold, but also the idealism that makes you at least believe that they can be put aside for a while, and perhaps that while can be long enough. Montague’s opening line to his mother about: I know you and pa are disappointed I’ve given up my shorthand, but if you were me, with the chance to compete for the world championships, you’d be just as big a fool). And then carefully working out exactly what is needed to convey that wholeness and putting together only what’s obsolutely necessary to construct that whole. I’m really looking forward to forward to completing The Sentence, and unlike the last book I said that about, I also trust the author along every step of that journey - feeling in very very good hands.

Now two chapters into “The Sentence” and bits like a government cobbled together and held stable for a hundred years seem somewhat silly, but the basic premise, and the twin challenges of big constitutional mediation and an individual cold case seem promising to mash together. 📚

Next book up is Gautam Bhatia’s “The Sentence” 📚

Finished “Menewood” by Nicola Griffith yesterday. Really loved it. Hild is a joyful character to follow. The relationships are incrediblebly well-observed, and the whole thing feels wonderfull. I’m also reading Chris Hayes’ “The Siren’s Call” about the attention economy, and in some ways I am finding it persuasive, and I even think I agree with him that there is somethingng particularly important aboutt social attention as opposed to other forms of attention, and but also I cannot help feeling if that actually the popularization of evolutionary psychology was a mistake and we would all be better off if we never again asked ourselves in what way we are or are not like our imagined Savannah ancestorss. (It may be useful as an actual academic discipline, with its limitations understood) (But in popular books it seems to me it’s used as a way to assert the author’s argument without actually giving evidence from our contemporary times. “This thing is uniquely important and not contingent on our current state of society, which I would probably describe differently from you, so I will imagine another time that neither of us understand, persuade you that it was uniquely important then, and use that to bootstrap you believing me about the current state of of our society because that’s less work than just explaining the current state state of our societyy in a persuasive way”. Which is true! It is less work! And more persuasive! But also kinda bullshit.)

Finished “Siege of Burning Grass” and I am befuddled why there is such emphasis on the main character being a pacifist when he is … not? Like not even not my (Quaker) version, but not at all on his own terms 📚

Finished my first playthrough of “Rebirth” by Reiner Knizia. Highly recommend, both the game and the aesthetics

I sometimes join a Quaker parenting group on Thursdays. Tonight I was reminded of one of New England Yearly Meeting’s advices “Stand still. Wait for divine guidance. Then act.” Also when we lamented the state of things, I realized I cannot be wholly angry at a world where my kids have the words to tell me who they are and find community, which is a gift only recently available.

On Siege of Burning Grass, I like very much the way that the world building unfolds gradually and by upsetting expectations (I have reframed my view of the protagonist at least 2 or 3 times). I am definitely reading to get to the end and see what to make of this pacifist in a world that isn’t 📚

Reading “Siege of Burning Grass” and (as a Quaker) having the first true pacifist representation in SFF that I’ve read in a whilee be entirely secular and reasoned is very jarring.

It seems kinda important at that in our world a butterfly flapping its wings can lead to a hurricane, and in speculative fiction it more or less can’t. Any recommended reading about the lack of Chaos Theory in fiction?

Hard Times Coming

youtu.be/Et9Nf-rsA…

(Re-watched Le Guin’s speech today & figured someone else’s might want to as well)

I do actually need to figure out out how to say something about believing in individual transformation that can be both total and immediate, and the potential for worldly transformation that can be total, if neither immediate nor through any clear mechanism other than a lot of individual transformations, and how SFF sees essentially the reverse

I had not seen “The Lion In Winter” and now I have, and I am I think the better for it.

Overcast has added 2024 stats and yes but also anyone have some recommendations for geeky deep dives that aren’t helmed by white guys?