News When I Travel

I am presently on a month long road trip. I have thus far driven from Richmond to Pullman, Washington. Tomorrow, I will sleep in Salt Lake City. The night after that, Denver. Then Moab, San Francisco, and Palm Springs.

I brought three CD wallets on the trip, but when I’m alone in the car, I listen to the radio. When I am a long way from home, I find it more satisfying (more fitting) to let fate choose the music. If fate chooses for you to hear the same song twice while on vacation, you cannot help remembering it years later. Last time, it was “Say What You Want” by Texas.

“This Is The Day” is the song fate chose for this trip.

How Much Lecture Is Necessary?

“How much lecture is necessary?” is a divisive question because there’s really no standard definition of “lecture” among classical educators. Some teachers think a lecture is an uninterrupted 45-minute talk on why Jane Austen didn’t like the city of Bath, which sounds a bit dull and unlikely to incline students to virtue—and the idea that a lecture is an uninterrupted 45-minute talk isn’t absurd given that it’s what a lecture is at a conference.

However, when teachers debate the relative merits of lecture, they always say “lecture” and not “a lecture.” There’s a considerable difference between the two.

-from my latest for CiRCE

Historians Always Judge Like Strangers

“History is a merciless judge. It lays bare our tragic blunders and foolish missteps and exposes our most intimate secrets, wielding the power of hindsight like an arrogant detective who seems to know the end of the mystery from the outset.”

-David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon

The First Gibbs Classical Meetup Is August 12

You’ve read the blog posts, listened to the lectures, and signed up for the classes. Now, eat the food. On August 12, I am hosting the first Gibbs Classical Meetup at my home in Richmond, VA. Come to my place and let me cook you dinner.

If you would like to come to the Meetup, please send me an email with “RSVP” in the subject line and let me know how many of you are coming. You can also RSVP through the Gibbs Classical contact page. I can only host 25, but I plan on throwing several such dinners in the next year. If you don’t make it into the first 25 spots, you’ll be toward the top of the list for the next Meetup. There’s no cost, you don’t need to bring anything, and I can work around your allergies. 

Against “Teaching To Your Top Third”

“Perhaps my objection to “teaching to your top third” is most clearly expressed in my objection to the idea a pastor should “preach to his top third.” I’ve never heard anyone put forward that idea before, of course, but I imagine most pastors would scoff if they heard it. “Preach to your top third? What sort of a thing do you take preaching to be if you believe there is a top third? And what do you expect your top third to do with this preaching that is tailored to them? Write better commentaries on Hebrews? Is that what pious old Mrs. Whitlock is going to do with your sermons?” On the other hand, a good sermon about the Beatitudes is going to hit your most pious congregants between the eyes—and your least pious congregants, too.”

-from my latest for CiRCE