barlowfarms

I just finished listening to Jane Eyre on audiobook. It was great, and the reader’s English accent was very pleasant. When I finished listening to the book, I immediately thought of looking up literary criticism to find out who Rita is. Throughout the novel, Jane writes, as in a diary, to someone named “Rita” and yet there are no epistolary artifacts – a diary written *to* someone seemed to be an interesting thing to explore. Of course, as I told Ann what I was hoping to research, it dawned on me that “Rita” is “reader!” My train of thought – maybe “Rita” is a pun for “reader” and then, doh…

I thought this roundtable was helpful in thinking through the recent controversy caused by the TGC article. The real lesson of the whole event is that it’s a bad idea to process thoughts about race in public. It’s a perilous topic to broach and there are no rewards for failure that aren’t overwhelmed by the likely punishments for failure. You’re better off serving your immediate neighbors or making your garden a more beautiful place.

I overheard a guy talking to a Russian acquaintance of mine who has a thick accent. The guy said, “where are you from?” My acquaintance said,”Russia.” The guy said, “Oh, I lived in Europe for two years- nice area.”

A few that I identified this afternoon with a new app that someone suggested to me:

California Vervain (violet flowers)
Largeleaf Lantana (yellow flowers)
Largeleaf Lantana (yellow and reddish orange flowers)
Climbing Euonymus
Japanese Spindle Tree

Let me assure you from recent, foolishly obtained experience, that while 4 O’Clocks are technically edible, this fact should not sway you to try so much as a tiny piece of a leaf unless you truly want to learn what the “marvel of Peru” entails.

On Tuesday, I saw:

1. A black bear
2. Elk, including a suckling baby Elk
3. Butterflies in droves, hanging out together
4. Wild turkeys
5. Either grouse or pheasants

I also saw:

1. Chestnut oak
2. Sycamore
3. White oak
4. Black-Eyed Susan
5. Bee Balm
6. Milkweed
7. Various Rhododendron
8. Blackberries
9. Muscadine

I thought I understood Maximus to have posited the existence of two kinds of wills: a will that pertains to nature (natural will) and a will that pertains to person (gnomic will). This was a distinction designed to enable theological talk about Jesus’ having only the gnomic will of the second person of the trinity but having fully harmonious natural wills from both human and divine natures. What I can’t remember is whether this implies for Maximus that each person of the trinity has his own gnomic will yet his natural will is the one natural will of the divine nature. It would seem to follow, but I can’t remember if he made this implication explicit.

I know this is an artificial construct, but doesn’t it imply three wills of a sort and do justice to the biblical data? Would the anti-hierarchical guys in the current debate grant the orthodoxy of this position or are they looking for a single divine “will” simpliciter?

Man, I love this plate that I ran across on a gallery website:

The colors are like the grecian pottery – red, yellow, black, etc.

There’s a contemporary artist, Cleon Peterson, who must be saying something about violence, who uses these very powerful, simple colors in his series of paintings, murals, and sculptures:

Man, these coconut fizzy waters from Kroger are amazing. Even coconuttier than the Lacroix ones.