Stories & Soliloquies

In my last post, I talked about using this blog as a pensieve, scooping thoughts and ideas out of the chaotic swirl and putting them onto a blank canvas where I can look at them in a neat, organized way, and then dive into them at will. Essentially, I want to lose myself in an idea, rather than have ideas get lost inside my head.

Here’s a little glimpse at what I’ve got swirling around in my pensieve right now:

1) I’m auditing a class on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales through the Mythgard Institute, and it’s fantastic. We’re only two stories in and our focus has been on Chaucer’s debt to Boethius, but I’ve already become possessed by comparisons between the Canterbury Tales and Plato’s Symposium. I’m not sure what I can do with this idea, but so far it’s led me to a hunt for articles and books on Chaucer and Plato.

2) Thanks to this post by Guymax at The World Knot, and this quote posted on The Hebdomadal Chesterton, I’ve been rethinking the balance between human greatness and human humility in religious thought (particularly monotheistic Abrahamic religion). Abdul Qadir and Chesterton seems to strike both registers with beautiful clarity, and yet I still can’t really grasp the relation. It’s a tension I’ve felt in Augustine (being made in the image of God means we are both God-like and yet merely an image), and in Kant’s Kingdom of Ends (wherein we are ideally both subject and sovereign in our freedom). This swirl of thoughts also includes a balance between the tenets of Catholic Social Teaching and Deep Ecology – how can we be both part of the whole and still matter as free agents? What’s the right balance of self-subjugation and self-love?

3) It’s not an idea, per se, but this is beautiful, and I can’t stop watching it. It’s a video of Eric Whitacre’s vocal setting of Goodnight Moon paired with the pages of the book.

4) My farm share starts today! I can’t wait for weekly fresh veggies. I’ve got all sorts of recipes in mind. And in two weeks, I get fruit too. I’ve also recently discovered a start-up app called Bushel that’s meant to make Community Supported Agriculture an easier, more communal experience. They’re still getting started, but I’m really excited to see how the app turns out.

Anyway, that’s just a little glimpse at what’s going on in my head, occasionally getting in the way of my productivity, but mostly just keeping things interesting.