The Best Days Aren't a Waste of Time in Florida
Digest No. 21 - May 2025
On Commonplacing
“You don’t think I'm doubting my own mother?” cried Curdie.
“There are other people in the world quite as well worth believing as your own mother,” said his mother. “I don't know that she’s so much the fitter to be believed that she happens to be your mother, Mr. Curdie. There are mothers far more likely to tell lies than the little girl I saw talking to the primroses a few weeks ago. If she were to lie I should begin to doubt my own word.”
“But princesses have told lies as well as other people,” said Curdie.
“Yes, but not princesses like that child. She's a good girl, I am certain, and that’s more than being a princess.”
George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin (New York: William morrow and Company, 1986). p 160.
Great Ideas: Honor, Judgment, Virtue & Vice, Logic
I’ve had occasion to return to some great fantasy works of late. This is my second time through Princess Irene’s story and I was struck by how many commonplaces it contained. MacDonald litters the story with nuggets of wisdom, often embedded in the simplest of conversations and the most unassuming of characters. This little nugget comes from Curdie’s mother. That last little bit, about how being “good” is more important than being “a princess,” has really struck a chord with me.
I’ll probably press on to The Princess and Curdie later in the Summer and see what other treasures I come across.
On Reading & Writing & Publishing
As I noted, I’ve been diving into some Christian fantasy of late. I’ve not quite finished The Bloody Crown of Conan, but I had to set aside for the time. I’ve done a quick run through a few Tolkien tales, including Roverandom, Farmer Giles of Ham, and Smith of Wooten Major. I’ve also begun re-reading The Fellowship of Ring, though I’m not terribly far in it. Add to that MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin along with Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and it’s been a very full couple of weeks of reading. I’ll go through Andrew Peterson’s On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness one more time as part of this as well.
I’ve picked up some books for review as well, including David Hein’s Teaching the Virtues,
’s Thoroughness and Charm, and ’s Classical Catechism. I’m about done with all three of those, and will get started on Adam Roberts’s Fantasy: A Short History after I send those reviews off.I’m still on track to finish the Burroughsverse (with John Carter of Mars already finished) as well as the Conan stories before the end of Summer. I have some reading to do for other projects.
Now that my first graduation speech is complete, I’m turning my attention to two impending works. I’ve written a piece on Classical Education and civic virtues which a magazine has expressed interest in. I would be quite pleased to have them put it out for the reading public, so I’m hoping to wrap up those edits soon. I also am working on my talk for the ACCS Repairing the Ruins conference, which is in mid-June. I’m hoping to use whatever time I have left for some longer term projects I’ve put on the back burner.
On Traveling & Speaking
The month of May was a wild time, indeed. Though my contract with the University of Arkansas is not complete until the end of June, I’ve had to go ahead and relocate my family to Florida in preparation for my next gig. It was a lot of things that came together which precipitated the early move, and it has resulted in a wonky travel schedule.
After driving a U-Haul the first week of May, we unloaded and turned around to go back to Fayetteville. We had a piano concert and a children’s concert at church, as well as some other appointments to keep. Some friends were kind enough to tolerate us for over a week, and then we made a mad dash back to Florida. We unpacked a couple more boxes, and then I delivered the commencement speech at Trinitas Christian School.
We then headed for Houston to attend my wife’s commencement ceremony at the University of St. Thomas. While we were out that way, we spent a day in New Orleans browsing the Insectarium and Aquarium. It was a fun time, though incredibly hot.
We’re headed back to Fayetteville after a nice week plus of settling in here in Pensacola, and the month of June looks to be even more hectic in terms of travel. Here’s hoping for a mild July.
On Listening
My father talked about music a lot, or least that’s one of the things I remember most. Certain bands immediately make me think of him and subsequently remind me that he’s not here. One of them is Peter Gabriel. My dad would sometimes just belt out the refrain from “Sledgehammer” completely unprovoked. I don’t remember him ever talking about “Solsbury Hill,” but I imagine it was one of the ones he liked (particularly the video). And here lately, it is one that has evoked his memory a lot. Plus, the video is the kind of weird that my dad always enjoyed.