Hirby Family Weblog, 2nd Edition » Other Blogs

Wendell Berry’s Whitefoot

Steve — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 02:55:59 +0000

Catherine Falsani, writing on the Sojourners Blog, reviews Whitefoot, a children’s story by Wendell Berry that she calls “a beautiful, subtle book,” surely in part because of Berry’s luminous writing, and also due to the illustrations by Davis Te Selle.

Wendell Berry’s Whitefoot – Cathleen Falsani – God’s Politics Blog.

As compelling as the book seems, based on the review, I was equally taken by the Berry poem, “The Peace of Wild Things,” with which she ends the review:

As I read and re-read Whitefoot, I was reminded of Berry’s famous poem, “The Peace of Wild Things.” In this moment when the foundations of our world economy are trembling (along with our souls), it bears repeating:

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

“We can’t do this anymore.”

Steve — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 03:11:39 +0000

This is an excellent commentary from Thomas Friedman on the vain and vacuous consumptionism that has characterized the American economy increasingly during the past several decades. We’re talking about a vicious cycle that seems now to have brought our economy to its knees – to say nothing of the harm that it’s doing to our planet. There’s a theological point to be made about this, of course, but it’ll just have to wait. Crux of the critique:

We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more Chinese …

We can’t do this anymore.

Op-Ed Columnist – The Inflection Is Near? – NYTimes.com.

Foodoro (Cooking For Engineers)

Steve — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 03:53:50 +0000

The Cooking for Engineers blog has new content only occasionally, but when it does, I often find it interesting. As a (former) engineer who likes to cook, I must be in their target demographic! Anyway, this mention of a Bay-Area website Foodoro seemed worth sharing:

Foodoro is an online marketplace where people buy products directly from independent food producers (Foodoro refers to them as “foodmakers”). According to Jay, their goal is “to connect independent foodmakers directly with their customers” and it does seem like the website is geared towards that goal.

Foodoro – Cooking For Engineers.

Re: Snowy Days and Hot Soup (Dorie Greenspan)

Steve — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:00:47 +0000

I enjoy reading Dorie Greenspan’s blog for two reasons: She’s a great cook, and she often writes in a quite down-to-earth way about her Paris neighborhood (in the 6th arrondissement). During our pilgrimage to France in September 2009, we stayed just on the easternmost edge of the 6th (on the Boulevard Saint Michel) in two different hotels. So the neighborhood and the places she describes feel very familiar to us.

This entry is about snow in Paris, a walk to the Marché Saint-Germain market and back home around the Luxembourg Gardens, and a favorite vegetable soup. Both the market and the gardens were on our itinerary during our days in Paris, and her blog entry helps keep the memories alive.