3.6 KiB
From out of the Ashes
Dr. Anthony Esolen
(125) When the monks of the Rule of Saint Benedict build their monasteries across Europe, planing them even in the dark pagan forests of norther Germany and Ireland and England, they were outposts of memory. (166) "Lately the family has taken to using the room for storage" - interesting how consumerist culture makes us view the past as inconvenient, then causing a cascade where the near past even becomes inconvenient. (176) "It's as if a boy could still learn how to play baseball if he went to a special baseball camp, or as if we all could still learn how to converse with our neighbors if we went on a special conversation retreat." (208) "Sometimes the name of a thing remains long after the essence has been lost. In that case, people will still say that they do this or that, without knowing that in large part it is no longer true." (245) "The pulsing heart of the universe is a liturgy; a worship-work." (370) "I make no boast about what I would or would not do. I insist instead, if I prove myself to be on the verge of breaking a solemn promise, that other men hold me to it, just as a corporal orders the recruit to remain at this station, and his buddies make sure he does. Nobody knows what the baattlefield is like until the bullets fly and the grenades explode. That is precisely what vows are for." (403) "This is not the ecommon talk of ordinary people in ordinary times. When the fishermen on an old schooner set down for the night, they did not talk about democracy, diversity, equality, inclusivity, and the rest of the nonsense. They talked about their work: the sea, good spots for cod or halibut, the ropes, the bad food, sails that needed repair, what ports they had visited, and what they saw and did there. They talked about home, their children, the woman waiting for one of them in Saint John's, various misadventures with the police. They talked about human things. They might sing songs, or play cards or chess or checkers, or whittle scrimshaw. If one of them did launch into political cant, he'd be roared down by the others or have a shot of whiskey splashed in his face." (245) "the pulsing heart of the universe is a liturgy, a worship-work." (262) "refuse to utter the lie, or to use its language." (262) we lie to obstruct/obfuscate language and to hide the bad things we've done (434) "we have to immerse ourselves in things: trees, stars, mud, grouse, hay, stones, brooks, rain, dogs, fire; and the manmade things closest to the human hand and its work: hammer, shovel, paintbrush, wrench, wheel." (434) "it is hard to go completely mad if you spend your free time being free and accepting the free bounties of the world round about." (449) - if we are always encountering things at first before obscenities, when we come across obscenities, they are obvious folly. Natural immunity > vaccination - but we must first understand the body's natural state. (603) "Notice what it is that people believe to be most important in our common life on earth. If you went to the Great Exposition, you might suppose that the most important thing is to make machines that turn things, so as to work other machines, to do things we want them to tod, or to make things we want them to make. If you went to Chartres, you would not need to suppose, you would simply and readily perceive that the most important thing was to sing with the Psalmist, "I rejoiced when I heard them say, Let us go up to the house of the Lord."" (1178) "we avoid religious questions at the cost of avoiding the most human questions." (1178) be bold. ask daring questions. 'be tactful' is one thing, 'be boring' is another. do some good 1:1s