Whild Walkers: The Life Cycle Of A Beach Read

Sex almost always disappoints me in novels. Everything can be said or done now, and that's what I often find: everything, a feeling of generality or dispersal. But in my experience, true sex is so particular, so peculiar to the person who yearns for it. Only he or she, and no one else, would desire so very much that very person under those circumstances. In fiction, I miss that sense of terrific specificity.

— Anatole Broyard, born on this date in 1920

“Life is a dream walking, death is a going home.” 
Japanese Proverb

Think you want clarity?

Robert Glazer, via LinkedIn

You can’t handle the truth! Why we hide from what we want most.

Memories of Whild Walkers came back as I came across Reverend Jim Whild's  Darling Pointers ;-) who reminded MEdia Dragon about the 17 Years of Blogging and prior to than Internet forums ... (

Ian Walker  

Philip Bradford:

When I was first ordained I had the privilege of working with a very wise and experienced Rector, Canon Jim Whild. I remember soon after I started working with him he said to me- ‘in our work we will have many interruptions. You may be struggling to get a sermon written and the phone will ring and you will have to stop what you are doing and go to see someone. Always remember he said, the interruptions are part of your ministry, so don’t resent them but welcome them.” Good advice but hard advice.

Becoming a hermit at twenty 

 

Olga Khazan on The Reason Anxious People Often Have Allergies:

“There is good circumstantial evidence that’s growing that a number of mental illnesses are associated with immune dysfunction,” says Sandro Galea, a physician and epidemiologist at the Boston University School of Public Health.

From its enthusiasm for literature to its rousing finale, Peter Weir’s film is a salute to inspiration itself

Dead Poets Society: 30 years on Robin Williams' stirring call to 'seize the day' endures  

 

Lifestyle can still lower dementia risk even if you have high genetic risk, study suggests. 

As Playwright Luis Alfaro Adapts Immigration Stories, He Says Greek Dramas Are The Primal, Perfect Canvas

Alfaro met a 13-year-old promising playwright in 1999, but she was in a program for felons: She had killed her mother, who had put a hit out on her father. Then he started re-reading Electra, by Sophocles, and it hit him – he could retell Greek tragedies, but set in Chicanx and Latinx communities in Los Angeles. “‘The Greeks are so primal,’ Mr. Alfaro said. ‘They get to the essence: why we hurt each other, this inability to forgive.'” – The New York Times

Is Failure A New Literary Genre?

Karl Ove Knausgård devoted several autobiographical volumes to everyday failures in My Struggle, and since then there has been a deluge of ‘fail-lit’, both in fiction and non-fiction. Could failure be the new literary success? And if so, doesn’t that mean it’s not really failure at all? – BBC

The Life Cycle Of A Beach Read

Ouch, why did you have to zing all of us who have ever been on vacation, NYT? – The New York Times

The Christian Publishing Industry’s Biggest Scandal: The Boy Who Now Says He Didn’t Come Back From Heaven

In 2004, six-year-old Alex Malarkey’s skull and spine were separated in an automobile accident and he spent months in a coma. Six years later, his father (who was driving at the time) published, with himself and Alex listed as co-authors, The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, an account of the visions of (Christian) heaven Alex had while in the coma and afterward, and it became a major bestseller. Six more years later, Alex (still a quadriplegic) turned 18, said that nothing in the book was true, and sued the publisher. Journalist Ruth Graham talks to Alex, both his parents, and others about the writing and publication of the book and the messy family history behind it. – Slate

Sci-Fi Is Trying To Prepare Us For An Uncertain Future (And Present)

A contingent of science fiction writers – that is, novelists, to be clear – are being hired by companies to predict the future. Yes, really. “Mega consulting firm Price Waterhouse Cooper published a guide on how to use sci-fi to ‘explore innovation.’ The New Yorker has touted ‘better business through sci-fi.’ As writer Brian Merchant put it, ‘Welcome to the Sci-Fi industrial complex.'” – Wired

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Want to live longer? Drink alcohol, new study says.

Pabst Blue Ribbon releases alcoholic coffee.


Cardinal Newman saved both our lives | Catholic Herald


Unlikely Pilgrim is one convert's incredible journey 

Regnery’s travels in Slavic countries invite a comparison to Patrick Leigh-Fermor’s account of his walk from Holland to Constantinople, far-away countries of which we know little. The author visited the forgotten places that held Christian artistic treasures, like the painted monastery in Romania’s Voronet. Built in 1488, its walls and interiors are covered with hundreds of frescoes, and it’s called the Sistine Chapel of the East. I had never heard of it and, fascinating though they were, virtually every place Regnery visited was new to me.

The Uber Driver Whose Opera Singing Videos Went Viral

Actually, he’s an opera singer by training and design and only an Uber driver – in Durban, South Africa – by economic necessity. Still, though, the viral videos taken by a passenger were a welcome surprise. “The exposure has rocketed Mngoma to semi-stardom. He has since been interviewed by radio and TV stations across the country and auditioned for the Cape Town Opera. He has even been invited to participate in iPop, an international talent contest in L.A. this December — a step toward his dream of international stardom.” – NPR

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Massage Therapy for Tired Feet (and Plantar Fasciitis!).