A mercifully truncated weekend column today, as we finish prepping for our week at Kanuga. (Probably goes without saying but next week will be light on content). Happy Father’s Day!
1. First off, an incredibly moving picture of collective grief in Charleston, via John Zahl, who was present at a citywide prayer service at Morris Brown AME Church. Our hope is truly built on nothing less:
2. The new issue of The Mockingbird is here! And copies shipped to subscribers yesterday afternoon. Order your copy, or subscription, here. By way of reminder, anyone who signs up for monthly support of Mbird not only receives a complimentary subscription, but a free copy of Law and Gospel as well. Also, very pleased to announce that A Mess of Help: From The Crucified Soul of Rock N’ Roll
3. A great O’Connor-ish quote from psychoanalyst Carl Jung, smack dab in the middle of Alec Wilkinson’s rather ponderous article on Jacob’s Struggle With the Angel in The New Yorker:
Shortly before [Carl] Jung died, he was interviewed by a writer from Good Housekeeping, who asked what his idea of God was. “To this day God is the name by which I designate all things which cross my willful path violently and recklessly, all things which upset my subjective views, plans and intentions and change the course of my life for better or worse,” Jung said.
4. The Guardian previews a book of photos documenting the vanishing Christian communities in The Middle East. Powerful.
5. Social Science Study of the Week is definitely the one that claims that “drummers are more intelligent than everyone”.
6. Humorwise, this list of 18 Great “Game Of Thrones” Quotes On “Peanuts” Comics is pretty clever.
7. Loved this post on “Judgment and Justification at the World’s Largest Magic [The Gathering] Tournament”.
8. Salon reports that, The Wire is right about everything. Fascinating. Speaking of which, as we ready ourselves for Sunday night’s True Detective premiere, Vanity Fair’s profile of showrunner Nic Pizzolatto will get motors running. Intense guy:
“The [characters] inhabit a poisoned dystopia. It’s literally toxic…. These stories take place in areas where the revelation has already happened. The apocalypse has come and gone, and no one’s quite woken up to that fact.”
9. Great article from Cameron Cole about “Following Christ in Abundance and Affliction” that takes an interaction at one of our NYC Conferences as a starting point to riff on how youth ministers often inadvertently set their kids up for disappointment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZLOYXKmIkw
10. Breathless write-ups of Pixar’s Inside Out keep pouring in. I am counting the seconds! Especially after reading the final paragraph of A.O. Scott’s review in The Times:
“Inside Out” is an absolute delight — funny and charming, fast-moving and full of surprises. It is also a defense of sorrow, an argument for the necessity of melancholy dressed in the bright colors of entertainment. The youngest viewers will have a blast, while those older than Riley are likely to find themselves in tears. Not of grief, but of gratitude and recognition. Sadness, it turns out, is not Joy’s rival but her partner. Our ability to feel sad is what stirs compassion in others and empathy in ourselves. There is no growth without loss, and no art without longing.
11. Finally, in The Atlantic, a wide-ranging follow-up to our post about Aziz Ansari’s Modern Romance and the “Soulmate Mandate”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiOxoOG08JY&feature=youtu.be
COMMENTS
One response to “Another Week Ends: Jung’s God, Smart Drummers, Game of Peanuts, Justified Magic, Disappointed Youth, and Inside Out”
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this comment from Christopher Orr about the new Pixar film jumped out at me
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/06/inside-out-review-pixar/396311/
“See it now. Savor the moment. And do your best to forget that Cars 3, Toy Story 4, The Incredibles 2, and Finding Dory are all rumbling down the pipeline behind it.”
That’s praise with not-so-faint damning there, but I’m looking forward to the new film and, yeah, I’ll see The Incredibles 2 when it comes out.