Odds and Ends, Vol. 8

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen! A very happy Bright Week to us all. I mentioned last week that I had another Odds and Ends in the hopper, and so I do! A great list of links for your reading pleasure. 

photo via Lettuce Lift Up

Even though we are just past Holy Week, and all its temptations and trials, I still think this article is worth reading and thinking about: Work, Rest and Holy Week.  I think the lesson can be applied throughout the year.

Vladimir Denshikov's amazing knotted linen icons.  Stunning, just stunning.  Be sure to look at all the photos and take in the detail to fully understand the intricacy of his work.

Vladimir Denshikov, via

This article had me at "overwhelm".  Brigid Schulte talks to a staffer at The Atlantic about her new book, which discusses why Americans are so stressed out, tired, overworked and yes, ovewhelmed all.the.time.  The article is geared more to women who work outside the home, but honestly, I know just as many SAHMs who would find themselves in this article, myself included.  From the article: 

"We all feel like we’re not doing enough for our children, so in our guilt, we do, do, do, and overdo: more lessons, more teams, more sports, bigger birthday parties, more educational outings. And we all feed off each other—particularly as we look to the future, see a changing global economy and so much uncertainty about what “success” will look like. There’s so much fear and we’re so worried that our kids will somehow be left out, or left behind. That’s part of what fuels the craziness of the parenting merry go round.

And as for chores—man, all you have to do is open up any magazine and you’ll see that, for women, you can never be enough. Debora Spar, president of Barnard, called it the “triple whammy” in her recent book Wonder Women: Sex, Power and the Quest for Perfection. You have to keep house like Martha Stewart, parent like Donna Reed, work like Sheryl Sandberg, and look like Jennifer Anniston. That’s nuts. We all know it’s nuts, and yet it’s hard to break away from those cultural expectations."  Yes, yes, yes.  

And more: 

"How to try to live and work in a sane way when you’re in the middle of insanity: a voracious workplace that will eat you alive, friends and neighbors who raise eyebrows if you pull your kids out of some competitive activity. He gave some important advice: Create your own community, a network of like-minded people. Humans are wired to conform—that’s why these cultural pressures, however silly they may seem, wield such power over us. So find a group that fits your values that would make you happier to conform to."  

This has been our goal since day one of having children, since we knew we were going to making choices against the grain, and while we are still seeking out like-minded individuals, we are starting to have a nice little group around us.

Tired of trying to make childhood magical? Yeah, me too. (Although in truth, I was never trying that hard to begin with)  I think this article applies not just to raising children, but to a general attitude toward life, which is messy, difficult, and not usually magical. To find beauty in this life, we must actively seek it out, not passively wait for it to find us. "When we make life a grand production, our children become audience members and their appetite for entertainment grows. Are we creating a generation of people who cannot find the beauty in the mundane? Do we want to teach our children that the magic of life is something that comes beautifully gift-wrapped -- or that magic is something you discover on your own?"

Dreher discusses living in the Christian shadowlands--the post-secular landscape of belief/unbelief that characterizes our society.  A good commentary, and a nice jumping off point for an online discussion that has been making rounds in Orthodox circles about raising children who stay faithful.

In related parenting articles: Raising A Moral Child (it's trickier than you think)  We all want our children to be kind, compassionate, and helpful, but teaching them to internalize these values is a little bit hard.  This article tackles the why and offers some ways to help.

Sometimes being a student of history is useful for putting things in perspective, and sometimes it is just a scary reminder that what goes around comes around.  Benjamin Lockherd discusses how the common mind (and with it a sense of shared civil society) is at risk of falling away.

And in further esoteric news, the internet is ruining Big Words.  People no longer learn them, and they don't fit nicely into 140 characters.  This makes me so sad.  Sometimes complex words are the best way to convey an idea, or to express oneself adequately.  Narrowing language by definition narrows the mind.  That said, I do agree that one shouldn't use big words simply for the sake of using big words, or to obfuscate.  (how's that for a doozie??)  One should be clear, precise, and yet maintain richness and complexity.

Via

A sprawling mural drawn only in Sharpie.

I've known for a long time that the garment industry does a number on women's psychology with sizing and numbers and so forth.  One of the reasons I like sewing for myself is that I'm very familiar with my measurements, which are a better indicator of size, rather than a randomly assigned number on a tag.  I found this article to be particularly illuminating about the whole rigmarole.  In short?  We'd be better off giving some random non-numerical assignation to sizing, because it really means nothing.  In a somewhat related article, fozmeadows unpacks the bad science behind BMI as a measure of health, and how the number on the scale is only one factor.

I think a lot about clothing (clearly), as it is such an obvious point of self-expression and even, dare I say it, a kind of stress outlet for me? Sewing and knitting my own clothes gives me such an outlet of creativity and tactile satisfaction, and I love the thrill of the thrift hunt, and finding reasonably priced vintage clothing that fits me well is such a treat.  I'm increasingly disturbed by the waste of the modern fashion industry, and was distressed to discover that most "fast fashion" clothing isn't designed to last more than three washes!  It has certainly given me pause to reconsider those "bargain" purchases, and to think even more about sustainable living, particularly in regards to clothing.  I'm sure there's another blog post in there somewhere.

Downtown Abbey costume exhibit at Winterthur (photo by me)

I was thrilled to discover that someone is doing something positive to combat the hyper-sexual message of fashion for young girls.  You can bet I'll be patronizing this young woman's business when my girls get to be that age.

Carolynne discusses the minimalist approach to wardrobe, both for women and kids.  (Links for all the articles in the series are at the bottom of the entry).

Via Chronically Vintage

Jessica shared some fantastic rare color Edwardian photographs a few weeks ago. It is interesting to me how a color photograph makes the people in them seem less remote to our time.  I also found a pinterest page for early autochrome photographs that was equally fascinating.

Jen Fulwiler on 5 Big Ideas that changed her life.  Jen is ever the good one for looking at forests instead of trees, and I found this article particularly thougtful.

Jessica Griffith talks about how cultivating an attitude of gratitude in one's children is overrated, and may possibly be the wrong approach all together.  This article resonated with me quite strongly, as I'm somewhat prone to feeling put upon, and wondering why my children don't seem to notice or care about all the things I do for them all the livelong day.  The point?  It's not about me.  Duh.

This one is important: My longtime friends, the Wilsons, have just adopted a darling little girl from the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Legally, as far as the U.S. and the DRC are concerned, she is their daughter, but the DRC has suspended all exit visas for at least 12 months so they cannot take her home.  Please take a moment to watch this brief video, read a little bit about their story, and if you are so moved, sign a petition to Congress to apply some diplomatic pressure for all the children stuck in limbo in the DRC to come home with their families.

And finally, a little Dante to round out this list.  Dreher digs deep into Purgatorio, and notes that nostalgia is really a longing for Eden.  As a keen nostalgist, and historian, I found this a welcome corrective.  From the article: 

"It’s a psalm of praise to God, speaking of eternal joy and freshness within the shelter of God and his righteousness. Matelda is trying to make Dante re-orient his moral imagination around divine poetry, and the truths disclosed therein. Though the pilgrim has been purified of his sinful dispositions, he still hasn’t learned to see with new eyes. As Hawkins puts it, a lifetime of reading the classics doesn’t leave the memory simply because Dante’s will has been purified. Dante has a history; hishabitus cannot be easily eliminated. In other words, his will may have been purified, but his imagination has not yet been fully redeemed

...

The lady suggests that the ancient poets’ longing for a Golden Age is, in fact, an expression of the ancestral memory of Eden, of our race’s first home. All the poetry that speaks of Arcadia comes from the collective memory of the Paradise we once shared. Ovid and all the classical poets were not entirely deceived, though their moral imagination was fallen. Still, they captured in their art glimmerings of the real world beyond our own. Here in Eden, the dreams of the poets are made innocent again, and fulfilled. Dante’s mental images of the natural world and how to read it are being restored."