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Emilee Hackney mentioned pineapple casserole so I had to find out more. Turns out, it’s pretty good!
jabel
Latest posts
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Emilee Hackney: To this day, I’ve never been to an Appalachian funeral where there wasn’t a preacher and a sermon. It’s the same around here. I keep hearing that cremation is now the majority practice but I can count on one hand the number of services or memorials I’ve attended that involved a cremated body. Here, the body is almost always in an open casket and the funeral service always has a…
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Started reading All That’s Unseen: An Appalachian Memoir by Emilee Hackney a couple of days ago. I’m about a hundred pages in and I think this is going to be a good one.
This too
Some thoughts about my reaction to One Day , not the book itself. There is a part of me—let’s call it “red hot and righteous” after a book title that has never left my mind after seeing it in a used bookstore; let’s shorten that to RHAR and pronounce it rahhrrrr!—that demands that I “do something” in response. Let’s be fair to RHAR: that part of me has done some good work. The work might not be…
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Finished reading One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This . Thanks to @jaheppler for reminding me of it. As I read it, the phrase kept rolling through my mind, “the empire must die.” Selfishly, for my family’s sake, I hope its death is not sudden and violent. Maybe there was a time when the empire wasn’t thoroughly corrupt; I wouldn’t know. It’s lies all the way down at this point…
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Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This : The idea that walking away is childish and unproductive is predicated on the inability to imagine anything but a walking away from, never a walking away toward—never that there might exist another destination. The walking away is not nihilism, it’s not cynicism, it’s not doing nothing— it’s a form of engagement…
Excursus on Dake
Thinking about Bibles in the Holiness churches of my childhood this morning. Thompson Chain Reference was standard issue. Everyone who wanted to study the Bible had one of these. (Needless to say, Holiness churches were KJV-only.) The conceit of the Thompson–and what made it appealing to Holiness folks–was that it was not a study Bible full of “man’s opinions”; it was…
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I mentioned last month going to an old time music jam where Steve and Nancy Dickey were present. I went again tonight and recorded him playing . He’s about to turn 82.
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I was never good at being young but I’m going to be great at being old.
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It’s strange how a competent biography that attempts to explain someone’s motivations and context can make them more sympathetic. Because, y’all, if Ann Lee was operating today, not one of us would think she’s worth listening to. Not that anyone is holding her up as a model, but you know what I mean
As the Spirit gave them utterance
In 1773, Ann Lee and other Shakers were arrested for causing a disturbance during a service at Christ Church in Manchester. Afterwards she was questioned by ministers. Richard Francis, Ann the Word : Once when recounting the tale of this religious interrogation, Ann said she spoke for four hours and the ministers - the ‘greatest in those parts’ (suddenly we hear the illiterate daughter…
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You could read today’s Cory Doctorow column or you could watch this Nathan MacIntosh bit . 😉
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Another good thing today: it’s Wendell Berry’s 92nd birthday. Happy birthday, uncle Wendell!
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First day of school around here. It’s nice to see the buzz of activity again. Kids walking in their first day of school outfits. Big yellow buses rolling around town. I love these cycles of life. Even the neighborhood cat Ralph was enjoying it as she sat with some kids waiting for their bus.
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Also, about that last post , could you monotheists please let the rank and file know this is a complicated question, please? Most of the Christians where I live think anything that isn’t fundamentalist Christianity is straight up demons. If we’re going to start encouraging a more enchanted world, then we also need to figure out how to avoid turning it into “Witch Trials 2, Now…
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I appreciate the nuance in “ Christianity and the problem of the gods ”. These issues are why I don’t find monotheism compelling. Even the most generous monotheism ends up twisting itself into knots. For me, John Michael Greer’s book A World Full of Gods is not only persuasive but somehow more natural
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Been feeling flat for the last few days and realized the reason this morning: I’ve been an inside cat too long. Heat and busyness have kept me inside for weeks, so I and my walking stick headed to Murray Woods this afternoon. Just what I needed.
One year ago today
I left my old job one year ago today. Me, walking out the door: I started my new job five days later. I seriously underestimated the difficulty of transitioning from a job in which I was an expert to a job where I knew exactly nothing. My confidence was shattered there for a while. But a year later, I know more than nothing and my confidence has picked itself up from the floor and found the…
The monster of mechanism
Sometimes Hillman gets so close: The folly of reducing mind to brain never seems to leave the Western scene. We can never give it up because it is so basic to our Western rationalist and positivist mind-set The rationalist in the psyche wants to locate causes you can put your hands on and fix. Machines provide the best models for meeting this desire. Take them apart, find their inner mechanisms,…
Voice of the daimon?
For years now I’ve thought of myself as conflict avoidant. Maybe there’s another way of framing that. And maybe what I’m about to say is self-justification for continuing unhelpful behavior–but hear me out. If it’s true that we all have a daimon, guardian angel, inner voice, Self, whatever you want to call it, then it follows that one of the primary ways that inner…
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Someone recommended the Mamaw Gail videos to me, saying they reminded them of their own grandma’s cooking. I’ve watched several (let’s take this one as an example) and something seemed odd about them, especially in the context of “cooking shows.” So I talked through it with Rachel last night and I think we’ve figured it out. It does remind us of our childhoods, specifically church cooking at all…
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Another thing about The Testament of Ann Lee : it reminded me visually (and to some degree thematically) of Robert Eggers' The Witch , which is my favorite supernatural(?) horror(?) film. I know basically nothing about the technicalities of film but some internet searching tells me other people noticed it as well and it has to do with lighting and period authenticity. Couldn’t prove it by…
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I watched The Testament of Ann Lee this morning—thanks to @canneddragons for reminding me of it. Could not have loved it more.
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I’ve been reading James Hillman’s Soul Code , published in 1996. He’s mentioned “family values” several times and it’s taken me back to when that phrase was a battleground. It’s inspired a little fantasy. It’s 1996. Jeremy is driving his Ford Bronco up the big hill on the highway near his house. It struggles, slowing down to 45mph by the time he reaches the top. James Dobson is on the radio and…
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I hadn’t listened to bluegrass in years until last weekend when I was frying green tomatoes. (You gotta have music to match the cooking.) I got the itch again today. Now playing: Ralph Stanley, “Clinch Mountain Gospel” 🎵 It’s so good.