This Week's Miscellany (08/26/23)
Cut yourself some slack, Austen's darkness, King Arthur, and more!
Hi, I’m Haley! Book midwife (editor) and author. Hello to new subscribers and welcome all to another edition of This Week’s Miscellany. TWM is full of my favorite things from around the web, typically trending literary.
When I started writing 15 years ago, I wrote primarily about motherhood. It was the most earth-shattering experience of my life so far and I was trying to make sense of it. The best way to do that was by writing about it. As my kids have gotten older, I’ve written about parenting less—partly because I’ve realized I don’t know anything and partly because as kids get older, the challenges of parenting them are very much their story, not just mine.
But I had a humorous epiphany the other day that I thought was worth sharing: my most neurotypical child is the one born after I had given up on making baby food from veggies in my garden, delaying vax schedules, and avoiding screentime. I skipped everything I thought was so important with my older kids because I just didn’t have the bandwidth anymore. When I had my most neurospicy kids I was cloth diapering, pureeing baby food, no screens ever, gluten free, and moved to the country for the best air (didn’t matter! They still developed asthma!). All my kids are wonderful and I would not change one thing about any of them. But I wish I could have told myself as a young mom to cut myself some slack and just enjoy loving on those babies and that they emerge from the womb as they are: high needs and intense or chill and content. Puree your homegrown sweet potatoes if it makes you happy! But just embrace the babies and enjoy the ride. Okay, stepping down from my soapbox.
Housekeeping
Before we dive in to this week’s links, I wanted to clarify that for the Year of Jane reading schedule for Sense & Sensibility, the date listed is the date you should have completed that week’s reading. I’ll make it more clear in tomorrow’s reflection but tomorrow’s email will discuss chapters 23-29.
Links
If you’ve been here awhile you know that my life is basically an Austen fan account so we’ll start with…
Austen’s Darkness by Julia Yost
Even in Austen’s arcadia, death lurks, along with other consequences of the fall: hatred, fear, privation. As for class difference, it was not instituted primarily for the testing and vindication of meritorious young ladies, but gives cover to the cruelties we perpetrate without admitting it, the hatreds we deny we bear.
But long before my Austen obsession began, I was obsessed with Arthurian legends. As a 10-year-old, I checked out every book I could find on King Arthur at the library where I volunteered weekly (my nerdiness is not a recent development). So naturally, this was a shoo-in for TWM’s links:
Was King Arthur Real? by Shawn Phillip Cooper
There are professional hazards associated with being a scholar of Arthurian literature. When I tell people that I study fifteenth-century literature, their eyes frost over and they say, “That sounds interesting.” They mean, of course, that any further information on the topic may render them instantly and irretrievably comatose. But if I say instead, “I study King Arthur,” a golden light at once fills the eyes, and the questions come quick and fast. They are usually the same questions, and the first is often, “Was King Arthur real?”
And I loved this beautiful piece by my longtime friend of the dinosaur days of the Catholic blogosphere, Kelly Mantoan. My family’s story is not as dramatic. Our life on a farm was always meant to be a temporary step to figuring out what was next: homesteading/farming? Something else? We ended up with a little backyard homestead and a homeschooling life. Now we’re in a season where we barely have a kitchen garden and the kids are all in school! That transition was tough—perhaps harder for my husband than for me because he had such a vision of what our homesteading/homeschooling life would look like. And then when one of our kids with a challenging combination of neurodiverse diagnoses needed something different, it threw us off at first. Weren’t we The Homeschooling Family with goats and chickens (until wild dogs murdered our flock)? Anyhow, Kelly has always been a mentor to me in joyful living and I’m sure you’ll love this piece:
Pruning My Idea of the Perfect Life by Kelly Mantoan
It was a slow process to find joy where I didn’t think joy could exist—in illness, in exclusion, even in suffering. I found no matter what, I could be thankful, and because there was always something to be thankful for: there was joy. God was directing all things to a larger, joy-filled purpose I didn’t always understand, but I now knew existed. My life was not a beautiful glossy spread from Mother Earth News; we were not self-sufficient, and I realized we were never meant to be. We were meant to lean on one another, lean on our families and friends, and lean absolutely on God as He walked with us in our struggles and tried to show us the joy and beauty we weren’t allowing ourselves to see.
And one university’s loss is the internet’s gain. It will be the first year that scholar and writer Karen Swallow Prior is not teaching and she is going to share her love of British literature on her Substack. I’ve followed her work for some time and I think she might be a kindred spirit.
On Not Going Back to School by
One of the reasons I started this newsletter was to find a way to help fill the hole in my life that has come with not being in the classroom. And it recently occurred to me that I could—just for fun, as an experiment (only you, dear readers, will determine how it goes!)—journey here through some of the literary works I would be teaching if I were teaching my usual British Literature survey.
Sarah Clarkson remains one of my favorite living writers. If you haven’t read This Beautiful Truth, you simply must. This piece is written on a similar theme in the ever brilliant Plough quarterly:
My Mind, My Enemy by Sarah Clarkson
The hands of our king are, in Tolkien’s words, “the hands of a healer.”
I read those words in The Lord of the Rings during the early, dark days of my illness, as I struggled to come to terms with my precious, hostile mind. I had been waiting for God to act, assuming that would mean an end to my mental illness, an end to the shattered self I had become. I wasn’t sure what would be left, but it wouldn’t be the self I knew, fragile and bewildered. It was in Aragorn, Tolkien’s exiled king, that I glimpsed a God whose power in my life might arrive as a cradling of my broken mind, a healing of my fragmented identity, a bearing of my frailty.
And Sarah’s sister, my dear friend
is coming out with a new book soon!As you can see, the cover is beautiiful.
And I’m grateful to Aleteia for this piece on my new book for children:
“Mouse nuns” solve mysteries and bring mercy by Theresa Barber
There are so many things to love about this series — the whodunnit plots, sweet illustrations, and gentle education in virtue — but perhaps my favorite is how the chapters are just the right length to be a perfect daily read-aloud with my children.
Is it too late for summer reading? Well it was a record 102 degrees here yesterday so I say NO.
And I just opened up orders for signed copies of any of my five books. Ordering books directly from authors is a wonderful way to support them because we make a greater percentage of the sale. I’ll be shipping these out mid-September (or sooner). I only offer this once or twice a year (because the post office is a purgatorial experience) so if you want signed copies to save as Christmas presents for the kids in your life, then fill out this Google form (quick and easy).
Reading
-Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson
The Year of Jane
The third reflection for Sense & Sensibility drops tomorrow! Keep an eye out for the weekly reflection and discussion question email.
Coming Soon!
-An Interview with playwright Laura Pittinger about her new play about Servant of God, Dorothy Day
-Excerpts from my recent talk on G.K. Chesterton’s detective fiction
-Mini book reviews (for paid subscribers)
2024 Pilgrimage
One week after announcing it, our pilgrimage to Belgium and Germany is already half full! We’re keeping it small (we just love the experience of a smaller group of pilgrims). Considering how many sign ups we already have, I would advise interested parties to register immediately:
REGISTRATION NOW LIVE: Heavenly Hops Pilgrimage with Fr. Harrison Ayre to Belgium and Germany.
Got questions? I’m happy to answer them. Let’s go to Belgium!
And that’s all folks! Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. And a huge thank you to Christen for upgrading to a paid subscription. This is a reader-supported newsletter so if you enjoy getting these emails, please consider supporting this Substack by upgrading to a paid subscription with the button below.
And if you’re not in a position to pledge a monthly subscription but you enjoyed this post, you can always just throw some change in the tip jar.
Thanks for reading!
Haley
(Editor of Word on Fire Spark, Author, Former Podcaster)
Haley’s Children’s Mystery Series about Mouse Nuns
Okay I love neurospicy
As always, thanks for sharing such lovely and thought provoking reads. I saw you’re reading Lord of the World-I hope you enjoy it! I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since I first read it.