Love What Lasts: Wine

This often happens: a taste or two into a $15 bottle of red, I think, “This is so good, I should go back and buy a case.” And yet, halfway through the second glass, I think, “This is actually a bit too sweet to be all that interesting.”

It is easy to confuse sweetness, which is easy to like, for goodness.

Only Man Can Be Healed

“Of all sentient beings, humans are unique in this: once spiritually broken, they can be repaired. Like angels, man may fall. Like animals, man may die. But unlike angels and animals, between the falling and the dying, a human being may be restored to God.

A classical education is the education that naturally follows from this premise.”

-From Only Man Can Be Healed, my latest for CiRCE

On The Basis

I bought this one on the basis of hot recommendations from Sofia Coppola and Nick Hornby (both of whom I trust pretty far) and found it so good, I had to pace myself to make it last.

I liked it so much, in fact, that I really didn’t care how badly it ended (I am terribly picky about endings), but I found the last twenty pages immensely satisfying. The best new novel I’ve read since My Year Of Rest and Relaxation.

Free Webinar: Reconciling Beauty and Progress

On June 9, at 8:00pm EST, I am delivering “Reconciling Beauty and Progress,” a free webinar for newsletter subscribers to GibbsClassical.com.  

Beauty is rightly understood as an overflow, a surplus, and a gratuity. Beauty contributes nothing to our survival. Beauty is luxury and privilege. On the other hand, progress is now a cultural pursuit typically associated with Marxism, socialism, egalitarianism, and equality. What could beauty and progress possibly have to do with each other? Quite a bit, in fact.  

In this forthcoming webinar, I will address the hidden, paradoxical connection between a traditional understanding of beauty and a common-sense approach to cultural progress.

This video will not be available as a recording.

Gutsy Ecumenicalism

“A Presbyterian teacher should sound like a Presbyterian, not ‘a Christian.’ A Lutheran teacher should sound like a Lutheran, not ‘a Christian.’ An ecumenical school must be on guard to not create an image of ‘a Christian’ for students which is generic, vague, non-committal, and more concerned for diplomacy than truth. I would rather my own daughters hear about the rapture from their teachers—an idea I do not take seriously—than for them to constantly hear ‘everybody believes different things about the future.’ That’s just secularism with a cross on top.”    

-from Keeping An Ecumenical Project From Becoming Generic And Gutless

We Need Fewer Philosophy Teachers And More Philosophy Coaches

“As a philosophy teacher, I think coaches have it pretty good. Coaches never struggle to convey the importance of their work. Because the work of coaches is more important than the work of teachers, coaches are allowed to speak to students passionately, realistically, and without sentimentality. Part of the reason kids take sports seriously is because coaches yell, ‘Get your head in the game, Mason! Quit messing around! What’s wrong with you?!’ when they need to.

Philosophy teachers aren’t allowed to talk like that, though. In most cases, philosophy teachers have to say encouraging piffle like, ‘So, you’ve done some interesting things in this essay, and I see some positive signs of good progress, but I still think you can make improvements in the following areas.’ Sounds real important, right? Yawn.“

-From We Need Fewer Philosophy Teachers And More Philosophy Coaches, my latest for CiRCE 

Registration Is Now Open On GibbsClassical.com For All 2021-2022 Classes

Registration is now open on GibbsClassical.com for all 2021-2022 classes. There are a limited number of Student level openings in Foundations of Modern Politics, British Ladies of the Nineteenth Century, The Divine Comedy for Beginners, and Modern Romance: The Cult of Courtly Love in Theory, Literature, and Film. All these classes have an Auditor option, as well. Additionally, there are 16 slots open for Teaching High School Humanities for Beginners.

The 2021-2022 year is a significant expansion on last year’s GibbsClassical.com offerings. I am deeply grateful for all the interest shown in my work and for the support of readers, subscribers, and Proverbial listeners. Thank you very much.