It hailed today. Again. Bigger hail this time, and it lasted longer.
Clearly, we have offended Divine Providence. In the spirit of all modern politics, I shall not hesitate to call for full confession of all our corporate sins, just as long as the sins I’m talking about are those of the party I’m not in.
Through the good offices of a friend, I got a replacement for the lost grill on Mrs. Hermanson, my ’98 Chevy Tracker, today. He even put it on for me. It’s maroon, while Mrs. Hermanson is white, which makes her look a little like a circus clown’s face. But my last two cars have been white, and I’m kind of hungry for some color on my ride.
Also, painting it would be like, you know, work.
Tonight I’ll pack her up so I can get an early start for Story, City, Iowa tomorrow. It’s supposed to rain all night, and continue raining tomorrow, and in Story City they project a 50% chance of rain Friday and Saturday. So I have a feeling this isn’t going to be the best weekend ever.
But I promised to be there, and we Vikings keep our vows.
By way of Libertas, here’s another incisive piece by novelist Andrew Klavan, this one from City Journal. It’s about children, and what our culture is doing to them.
The teacher told me that she once had to explain to the class why her last name was the same as her father’s. She dusted off the whole ancient ritual of legitimacy for them—marriages, maiden names, and so on. When she was done, there was a short silence. Then one child piped up softly: “Yeah . . . I’ve heard of that.”
I think our culture, which probably prizes children more than any in the history of the world, nevertheless sins against those children by hitting them from two sides. On the one side, the sexual “options” we give their parents deny them the security of stable homes. But we figure, “That’s OK. The state can parent them.” Only the state’s a lousy parent. So the kids end up with (at least) two sets of dysfunctional families.
But the heart of Klavan’s article is a call to creative conservatives to make a cultural impact that will show the kids there’s a different way.
Conservatives respond to this mostly with finger-wagging. But creativity has to be answered with creativity. We need stories, histories, movies of our own. That requires a structure of support—publishing houses, movie studios, review space, awards, almost all of which we’ve ceded to the Left.
When can I expect to buy my kids the kid version of Erling’s Word? We’re Jewish, but it would still work.
I think that by the time that happens, your kids will be old enough to read the grownup version.
But I appreciate the thought.
Most conservatives I know (read: my friends and family) don’t think that narrative has any intrinsic worth — particularly if it’s fictional. Sadly, they ignore the fact that fiction in particular and stories in general play an important part in any society: They teach us what to love.
More true than I like to admit. Which is part of why we’re doing what we’re doing here.
Loren, are your friends and family Christian? If so, can you ask them to consider whether the story of the good Samaritan is valuable.
I had an argument about this (about fantasy, actually) in Comments on some other blog recently. The woman who objected would or could not see the point. Stories from Jesus were different from stories from us. I’ve run into this with other people too. They live by lists of rules, many of them man-made and unconsidered. They’re very uncomfortable outside those boundaries.
Come to think of it, I’m probably like that too. Only in other areas.
Jesus isn’t the only one in the Bible who uses stories. Nathan and Joab both use them in King David’s court. Jotham uses one earlier when Abimelech tries to become king. I’m sure there were others I don’t remember at the moment.
I could argue this point more from later Jewish sources, but those would be after the Judeo-Christian split and therefore won’t help convince Christians.
Do any of the New Testament epistles use parables?
Not that I can think of. The epistles are mostly straight teaching of theology and church practice, mixed in with standard letter stuff — “Say hello to Prisca and Aquila. Tell Euodia and Syntiche to kiss and make up. When you come to see me, bring the coat I left in Troas.”
Ori,
Good point! My friends and family are Christians out of the Reformed tradition — mostly conservative Presbyterians and Baptists. Unfortunately, they rarely stray beyond the boundaries Lars mentioned, which are deep-rooted. When John Bunyan wrote “Pilgrim’s Progress,” he had to spent most of his introduction arguing our very same point.
Perhaps you could find some kind of giant maroon wig so that Mrs. Hermanson can be Ronald McDonald for halloween.
Lars Walker: They live by lists of rules, many of them man-made and unconsidered. They’re very uncomfortable outside those boundaries.
Ori: I hope I am not offending anybody here, but are these the same people who profess to believe in “sola gratia” and that the Law has been fulfilled?
If making stories was bad for us, God would have told us something about it. Instead, He gave us stories about talking donkeys and had His prophets talk about sheep and His scribes preserve stories like “Ehud the Assassin” and “Jonah’s Fish”.
The operative word is “unconsidered.” These ideas are mostly hold-overs from the past, like Bunyan’s time, or from others. The Puritans, as I remember, did not want to waste their time or dip into worldly things, so fiction was not profitable and Christmas celebrations were worldly. But life was generally harder than it is now. We inherited a strong work ethic from them.
But really people have always argued over what is worthwhile or productive. Some people ask how what you’re studying in college will get you a better job as if that is the bottom line. Some people won’t read fiction because it didn’t really happen or because they don’t see what would be gained from it–what knowledge, what skill. But these are unconsidered ideas for them. They have a poor understanding of leisure, of how to worship the Lord through mundane tasks, of knowledge and how we understand anything from history, and I don’t believe the Reformed tradition or the church at large is solely to blame.
I’m running out of time to leave comments, but let me say that several Reformed church leaders are raising their voices in support of literature and the arts. For example, the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America) often deals with this subject in this relatively new magazine, “By Faith.”
Just for the record, I hold no grudge against the Reformed tradition. In fact, I’m a member of a PCA church.
Michael: What a great idea. I’ll write it down somewhere.