Philosophy
🎥 Did Emily Wilson Rewrite The Odyssey?
Excellent and even handed assessment of Wilson’s translation of the Odyssey. I’ve read her translation three times, the first two back to back. I much prefer the translation by Robert Fitzgerald, but Wilson’s is worthy of any bookshelf.
I entrust our desire to the Mother of Christ, to the Woman of the Magnificat, that she may guide our steps through this time of change and preserve in each of us true faith in the Gospel, so that we may bear witness to the grandeur of humanity, in which God has made his dwelling.
That title was not a coincidence.
Mini Tacos, Murder, and the Problem of Getting Exactly What We Want:
Maybe a seemingly infinite set of choices inspires infinite pickiness. Making the haystack bigger doesn’t make it easier to find that one shiny needle you’re longing for.
In politics, in private life, in nearly all aspects of our lives, we create the scarcity that we fear.
💔 Grandmaster, Popular Commentator Daniel Naroditsky Tragically Passes Away At 29, via Chess Dot Com
I’m gutted. He was a delight to watch. Momento Mori.
9/11, Charlie Kirk, and Walt Whitman
Reflecting on 24 years since 9/11 takes on a new poignancy in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination. I’m reminded of the opening line’s of Whitman’s 1860 poem, “States!"…
Were you looking to be held together by the lawyers? By an agreement on a paper? Or by arms? Away! I arrive, bringing these, beyond all the forces of
courts and arms, These! to hold you together as firmly as the earth
itself is held together. The old breath of life, ever new, Here! I pass it by contact to you, America.
Whitman understood that mere self-interest would never be sufficient to maintain Union, the “lawyers”, the “agreement on paper” is a reference to the Constitutional compact of Union. It was tearing apart, not only because of Southern recalcitrance to maintain slavery, but also because of Northern callousness—a belief that perhaps it would be better to let them go their own way.
Whitman sought to remind us that there is a deeper bond amongst us Americans, but it needed a renewal of sorts. Here, in the opening he refers to it as the “old breath of life”—a clear reference to the Holy Spirit (cf. Genesis 2:7) among many such allusions in the Bible). But this wasn’t just a Christian, spiritual renewal. What Whitman goes on to describe is a romantic, patriotic friendship that binds not just the Northerns and Southerns—as individual persons—but his scope for that bond was continental, encompassing Canada, Mexico, and Cuba.
Here is Whitman’s closing:
I will plant companionship thick as trees along all the
rivers of America, and along the shores of the
great lakes, and all over the prairies, I will make inseparable cities, with their arms about
each other’s necks.For you these, from me, O Democracy, to serve you,
ma femme! For you! for you, I am trilling these songs.
After 9/11 there was a brief moment of such renewed bond of civic friendship. I don’t just mean the brief 90 percent approval rating of George W. Bush—I mean the way that Americans spoke to and about one another. Even amongst disagreement, even sharp ones, there was a respect and deference that we were still friends. I remember many long conversations with classmates, all of us across the political spectrum and religious beliefs—we debated political issues in good faith. And although I’ve lost touch with those friends from 2001, I’m grateful that among my closest friends, we’ve maintained this spirit of companionship, thick as trees.
I hope and pray that even some of us can recover this old breath of life, reach out to someone with an opposing view on something and just talk.
A stoic lesson during a family medical crisis
My seven year-old has been in the hospital since Thursday night (wee hours of Friday, to be precise). He has parainfluenza that triggered a full respiratory crisis. We needed an ambulance because he was non-responsive. ER docs needed to sedate and intubate him to help him breathe.
The wife and I are taking shifts with him. He’s making great progress but it’s slow and steady. Every medical specialist coming through is very glad with his vitals and the direction they’re all moving. That helps reassure his mother and I who are concerned for our little boy.
It are crises like these that stoic principles are tested. Remembering that anything could be lost without our choice hurts. But that pain reinforces the gratitude we have for every moment with him (and our other children). Last night I read his favorite bedtime stories to him. He couldn’t respond like he usually does to his favorite parts, but it was a cherished moment for me to hold his hand, and read aloud to him.
I woke up early this morning to the update that he improved a few points on important vitals. Nothing big enough to warrant removing the ventilator or anything just yet, but crucially, they’re all going in the right direction.
📰 Mathematical Thinking Isn’t What You Think It is, Quanta Magazine
Whenever you spot a disconnect between what your gut is telling you and what is supposed to be rational, it’s an important opportunity to understand something new. And then you can start this game of back-and-forth. Can you articulate your gut instinct and place it within a rational discussion?
“I don’t at all expect to resolve the Riemann hypothesis,” he says. “But we hope that wondering about something we don’t understand will help find something that is beautiful or maybe even useful.”
“Sensational Breakthrough” on the Reinmann hypothesis
Currently reading: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy 📚
Part of the year-long book club with Footnotes and Tangents on Substack.
I might have to steal this great idea for 2024.
And with that, I just finished a full year with Ryan Holiday’s daily stoic journal. What a process. 2022 was hodgepodge, stochastic, and inconsistent. But once I got going, keeping it going became a major focus of my daily habits this year. 📚
📚2024 War and Peace book club, Footnotes and Tangents, Substack
I’m joining, come do it with me! We start tomorrow, one chapter per day.
Want to read: Beyond Revenge by J. B. Minton 📚
JB is on Substack. Never heard of him before, but now I’m hooked. This one is near the top of my 2024 queue.
Kaczor on Rapinoe’s miss kicked ⚽️
I don’t often agree with Megan Rapinoe’s outspoken politics, but these attacks of her reaction are deeply unfair. The poet William Blake would have understood. In his “Proverbs of Hell,” Blake wrote, “Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps…"
One of my students emailed to tell me he read the Declaration of Independence this morning. My work here is done. God bless, America! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
“If you argue with a madman, it is extremely probable that you will get the worst of it; for in many ways his mind moves all the quicker for not being delayed by the things that go with good judgment. He is not hampered by a sense of humour or by charity, or by the dumb certainties of experience. He is the more logical for losing certain sane affections. Indeed, the common phrase for insanity is in this respect a misleading one. The madman is not the man who has lost his reason. The madman is the man who has lost everything except his reason.”
—G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
🤯 James Webb telescope detects evidence of ancient ‘universe breaker’ galaxies
“It’s bananas,” said Nelson. “These galaxies should not have had time to form.”
I’m struggling to put into words my grief over the passing of Pope Benedict. I learned so much about the faith from his writings, and his sermons. He became an intellectual north star for me at a formative time in my life. His abdication taught me humility beats ambition.
I didn’t watch the Super Bowl, didn’t even see scores until the morning. I’m surprised how deeply content I am with that. 🏈