Brad offers characteristically smart—and characteristically numbered—musings on Nolan’s Odyssey, though he’s overall less enthused about the movie than me. John Ehrett has the best apology that I’ve seen for what Nolan was trying to do.
Watched: Toy Story 5 🍿
Saw it last Sunday with the family (minus Corrie) for Kristyn’s birthday: it was good! I get the complaints over the movie’s ambivalent messaging about screens/tech, but I wasn’t bothered by it. I wouldn’t expect a Kingsnorthian treatment of screens in a Pixar movie 🙃
the grand miracle
“The Grand Miracle” by Mary Karr
(source)
Jesus wound up with his body nailed to a tree—
a torment he practically begged for,
or at least did nothing to stop. Pilate
watched the crowd go thumbs down
and weary, signed the order.
So centurions laid Jesus flat
on a long beam, arms run along the crosspiece.
In each palm a long spike was centered,
a stone chosen to drive it. (Skin
tears; the bones start to split.)
Once the cross got propped up,
the body hung heavy, a carcass—
in carne, the Latin poets say, in meat.
(—The breastbone a ship’s prow . . .)
At the end the man cried out
as men cry. (Tears that fill the eyes
grow dark drop and by drop: One
cries out.) On the third day,
the stone rolled back, to reveal
no corpse. History is rife
with such hoaxes. (Look at Herodotus.)
As to whether he multiplied
loaves and fishes, that’s common enough.
Poke seed-corn in a hole and see if more corn
doesn’t grow. Two fish in a pond
make more fishes. The altar of reason
supports such extravagance. (I don’t even know
how electricity works, but put trust
in light switches.) And the prospect
of love cheers me up, as gospel.
That some creator might strap on
an animal mask to travel our path between birth
and ignominious death—now that
makes me less lonely. And the rising up
at the end into glory—the white circle of bread
on the meat of each tongue that God
might enter us. For 2000-near years
my tribe has lined up at various altars,
so dumbly I open this mouth for bread and song.
Finished reading: Biblical Authority after Babel by Kevin J. Vanhoozer 📚
A compelling vision of “unitive Protestantism” and “Pentecostal plurality” (Vanhoozer is always good for a few memorable turns of phrase).
Finished reading: Summer for the Gods by Edward J. Larson 📚
A Pulitzer Prize winner for a reason; a magnificent history of the Scopes trial and its afterlife.
Watched: Lady Bird 🍿
Watched with Kristyn to cap our anniversary celebration; a moving film with a beautiful depiction of the bond between mother and daughter.