I don't even want to read the dadblamed thing.
103 responses to “”
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I’d like to find the time to read it, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to want to talk about it. 🙂
AMDG -
Me neither, Maclin. I don’t think I will.
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It’s rather long. Is that usual?
When I was in Rome earlier this month I was able to see Francis at the Corpus Christi Mass. He looked tired. Maybe he was burning the midnight oil to get it done? -
To clarify: I’m sure there are many fine things in it–I’ve seen some excerpts to justify that. I’m also sure that there are some things that I think are factually wrong or at least doubtful. And I’m so unspeakably sick of the partisan spinning of it that I don’t even want to try to sort it all out.
Yes, it is quite long, I hear. Overly long, perhaps. -
“I’m also sure that there are some things that I think are factually wrong or at least doubtful.”
I agree.
“And I’m so unspeakably sick of the partisan spinning of it that I don’t even want to try to sort it all out.”
Same here. I suspect it’s a mixed bag. -
I still haven’t read Spe Salvi.
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Someone on Facebook said he wasn’t going to read the new one till it had ceased being “weaponized.” That’s pretty much the way I feel.
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Re: Ceased being “weaponised.” That’s a good way of putting it.
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I skimmed through it on my phone first things yesterday morning over a couple of large cups of tea and enjoyed it a lot. All the kinds of things which some of my colleagues have patronized me as a crazy cat lady for saying are endorsed by the pope, which is kind of nice. I feel as if I was right all along without knowing. Its full of beautiful things. When I was 18 or so I asked my father if it was worth reading Martin Heidegger and he said ‘Heidegger is good if you skip’. I would offer similar advice here…..
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I didn’t know what you meant with that comment, Maclin, until I read the thread. I suppose theologians by nature have a large appetite for that kind of thing.
I don’t mean skip stuff one disagrees with. I mean skip stuff because you already read something like that a few paragraphs back.
I was agnostic about man-made climate change two days ago, and I’m still agnostic. I’m not an absolute denier, I just think it’s possible than in fifty years time they will think the earth is getting warmer for a different reason, or they won’t think the earth is getting warmer at all.
Of course the theologians are arguing online about the level of assent the encyclical requires.
But it doesn’t bother me at all – I read it through with great enjoyment. I think most everyone here would do so, with few exceptions. I’m going to read it a bit more slowly and carefully on the camino and I do not doubt that I will profit from doing so. -
I’m sure I will, too, when I finally read it. But I can’t read it now without hearing the voices of those who use it as a weapon, and either arguing with them or agreeing with them, and in general trying, even though I don’t want to, to fit it into the political war. In every sense except the physical “weaponizing” is what they’re doing: using it as an instrument to damage or destroy their enemies. I’ve got to get that out of my head before I read it.
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It’s odd, because I’m completely unbothered by it. It’s not that I have not heard about the weaponization of the encyclical amongst my academic colleagues! In one university I know about where the survival of the ‘two theology course’ requirement is in doubt, a large group of professors signed a petition asking for one theology course to be replaced by a course on ‘Eco Literacy’ – and they quoted the fact that the pope was writing an encyclical on it as a kind of Catholic justification for replacing a theology course with an ‘Eco’ course. So I know about the kind of weaponization you are speaking of.
I was not looking forward to the encyclical. I really did not want to be hammered about global warming by the pope.
As I said, that seems to me to be a changeable scientific hypothesis that popes would do well to steer clear of.
But I opened it on my phone yesterday and just loved it. -
BTW Janet, speaking of technology, my android says a book by Anne Pellowski has been downloaded on to it. But I’ve no idea where it is or how to find it.
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I found it!
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I’m glad you found it because I was going to be no help with that whatsoever.
AMDG -
The sidebar looks like we are a bunch of bratty little so-and-sos.
AMDG -
heh. So it does.
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I wish I could be completely unbothered by it, Grumpy. It’s not only the intra-Church abuse of it, but the secular headlines I see constantly, which are 100% of the “Pope rebukes climate deniers” sort. If there was any notion at the back of his mind that his support of the global warming cause would get his pro-family etc message a better hearing, he was wrong. As anyone who knows American (at least) journalism and politics would have expected.
Though now that I think about it, it did probably prevent or blunt some attacks–it would be more useful to the cause to propagate the anti-global-warming message than to attack the anti-abortion message. -
As if on cue to prove your point, Mac, here’s Hillary Clinton with two back-to-back Tweets:
@Pontifex is right—climate change is a moral crisis that disproportionately harms the neediest among us. We need leadership, not denial. -H
Welcome news: The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled to protect women’s ability to access safe & legal abortion throughout the state. -H -
I saw those tweets, Marianne. Very aggravating.
“The sidebar looks like we are a bunch of bratty little so-and-sos.”
😀
Maclin’s next post should be entitled “Nyah nyah nyah” – or similar. -
heh
Yes, that’s perfect, Marianne. -
Happy Father’s Day to all you fathers.
I always wonder if I should say “Fathers’ Day” or “Father’s Day,” especially when I’m talking to a lot of fathers.
And all of you that I know well enough to know are very good fathers, which I appreciate very much and I’m sure your wives and children do to.
AMDG -
Well said, Janet.
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Thanks, Janet.
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From 109: “The technocratic paradigm also tends to dominate economic and political life. The economy accepts every advance in technology with a view to profit, without concern for its potentially negative impact on human beings. Finance overwhelms the real economy.”
Sounds not unlike what a few of us were saying here a couple weeks ago. -
Yep. I haven’t read the encyclical yet, and plan to wait till the furor has died down. But the quotes I’m seeing from it are a really mixed bag.
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I’ve read about 2/3 of it. Given the nature of its larger argument it’s really difficult to evaluate selections apart from their context. A Catholic priest friend wrote, “I could quibble over several points of theology and science, but I do not believe any of my objections changes the ultimate truth of the document,” which he refers to as “not just true, but achingly, woundingly true–evoking repentance, summoning all to gratitude and grace.”
That’s roughly my response so far. It’s Wendell Berry on stilts. -
Well then. Hopefully I’ll have some free time to read on Sunday afternoon. I’m pretty much booked until then.
AMDG -
I’ve ordered a copy. Hopefully it will arrive within a week, so I can read it on my long-haul flight to New Zealand ….
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New Zealand? That ought to be interesting.
I’m really tempted to make some reply to your comment, Rob, but it would be based on ignorance and hearsay, so I’ll restrain the urge. But here’s something that ought to be interesting: Laudato Si and Romano Guardini. Guardini’s name always catches my eye, though I’ve only read one small book by him, because Walker Percy uses a quotation from him as the epigraph to one of his novels…can’t remember for sure which one, maybe Love in the Ruins. -
Where to in New Zealand, Paul? If it’s Dunedin, where I live, make sure to bring your woolies and wellies — lots of really cold wind (or as the Kiwis say “freshening”) and plenty of rain right now!
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Thanks for the tip Marianne! We’ll be spending 2 nights in Dunedin at the end of the month (before doing the Catlins and the Fjords and flying home). As far as I can tell our itinerary gives us a choice between the 6 p.m. vigil mass in the Cathedral, and the 8.30 a.m. Latin Mass in the Cathedral Chapel. I don’t know if you have any recommendations either way?
I read somewhere that New Zealand was drier in winter. Is that just relative to summer, or have we picked a wet year? -
I’ve tried to read Guardini a few times, having read what Flannery O’Connor and Josef Pieper have to say about his writings. I’ve always found him hard to focus on. Last time I tried his book on the Virtues (which has some dreadful semi-Pelagian title in English, but in German is just something like “some notes on virtues”) I stuck with it better than with anything else, but felt tremendously beleaguered. Very strange experience. Good stuff, though.
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I was actually considering putting down Guardini for 52 authors, to force me to read more, but decided that that wasn’t the best approach. I might just end up hurrying through to get it over with, while looking for things to say, rather than just absorbing what he has to say.
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I don’t really know if the weather here in NZ is usually drier in winter — I’ve been here almost eight years now and all I know is it rains a lot, and it seems all year round. This last month, though, has seen an extraordinary amount of rain and some quite severe flooding.
I’ve not been to the vigil Mass at St. Joseph’s Cathedral, I’ve only been to the 10:00 a.m. Sunday Mass. I have done the 8:30 a.m. Latin Mass, but only once — too early for me, I’m afraid. It seems to have a dedicated congregation, and because the chapel is very small and intimate, I felt an object of interest. Which put me off slightly because I’m as shy as they come. The chapel and the cathedral stand out among the churches here because they’re built on traditional lines, unlike the meeting hall style of most others. Aside from the Latin Mass, though, the liturgy at the cathedral and the other Catholic churches here is rather rough going. -
The one small Guardini book I read was The Lord’s Prayer. I thought it was pretty good but I don’t recall being exactly bowled over, and to tell the truth don’t remember it very well at all. I think that must have been ten years ago. He’s still on my mental “read more of” list, though.
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From what I understand, Guardini’s Letters from Lake Como are very insightful. I haven’t read them, though.
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Well, there are six of us. Might that swamp the chapel?
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Fr. Barron doesn’t mention it, but in the encyclical there are quite a few citations of Guardini’s The End of the Modern World, which ISI reprinted about 10 years ago.
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I’m pretty sure that’s the book Percy quotes. I definitely want to read it.
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My God, my God, my God.
AMDG -
We knew it was coming. There was never really much reason to hope that the court would decide otherwise.
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No, but it’s still overwhelming.
AMDG -
The voice of contemporary liberalism, just heard on Facebook: “This calls for a celebration, we need to go see a big fat gay marriage movie where everybody has a single-payer system health care and don’t have to look at rebel flags.”
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For comfort, look at the cover of the June Magnificat.
I don’t feel overwhelmed, but I do have a sense of finality. -
Well, since then I have been to Mass and had lunch, and I’m thinking it’s probably best to get it over with.
And then I feel justified in my conviction that politics is useless to us now.
AMDG -
And then, part of the reason I was overwhelmed has to do with where I work.
AMDG -
I mean, I could have to deal with this at the door or on the phone at any moment.
AMDG -
Not sure if I should be saying this publicly…I guess it’s ok…there is a priest here who is being in essence persecuted by a lesbian couple. Well, I don’t have first-hand knowledge so I suppose their charges could be true. But the opinion of those close to the situation is that this is revenge for his refusal to treat them as married.
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“I don’t feel overwhelmed, but I do have a sense of finality.”
Same here.
I’ll pray for that priest, Maclin. -
Paul, I maybe went a wee bit overboard on the size of the chapel with that “intimate,” a very subjective reaction. The chapel is small but there should be plenty of room for the six of you. And the priest will be very happy to see you there.
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I hope you aren’t too shy to meet for a cup of tea that weekend, Marianne? (I realise I’ve been rather vague in my dates: it’s 31 July to 2 August that we’ll be in Dunedin.)
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What a nice idea, Paul, and I think I’ll be able to muster up the courage for a face-to-face ;). How can we be in touch?
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Does Janet or Mac have your email address? If so, perhaps they can send you mine. If not, I’m sure some alternative can be arranged.
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Maclin’s email address can be found by clicking on “Profile” above. Maybe you can exchange email addresses by writing him.
AMDG -
I’m in a slightly agitated state. Maybe I’m venturing into crazy land, but I’m actually feeling very concerned about the Jade Helm 15 military exercises about to commence in Texas. I’d appreciate any prayers. Thanks and God bless.
http://kxan.com/2015/05/08/gov-greg-abbott-speaks-about-jade-helm-concerns/
My neighbour says there are tanks and other military vehicles lined up for miles along the railway near the Hardy Toll Road – a major road near our area. Military helicopters were flying overhead yesterday and I did not feel at all good. -
I’ll pray.
AMDG -
Paul, I’ll email Mac and ask him to send you my email address.
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I read today that Pope Francis sad AC was bad. Well, he lost me there. 😉
AMDG -
One immediately wants to know if he would do without it, especially in a climate like ours.
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If God didn’t want us to have AC He wouldn’t have given us electricity. 🙂
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If God didn’t want us have AC, He wouldn’t have invented the south.
AMDG -
“One immediately wants to know if he would do without it, especially in a climate like ours.”
To be fair, in context it’s plain that his implication is that it’s the overuse that’s bad. He doesn’t reject it outright. -
Well, that’s good. I thought I read more of it than just that statement, but to tell you the truth, I’ve been so busy, I can’t remember.
AMDG -
I could live without air conditioning. I would certainly miss it, but I could put up with it, especially if I had electric fans. I certainly would not do any more physical labor than I absolutely had to, though. People who farmed without machinery in this climate were heroic.
What I REALLY have trouble imagining is life in this climate without window screens. Imagine having a choice between having no air circulating through your house and being devoured by bugs. -
Once when I lived in Washington, D.C., a summer storm knocked out the electricity in my neighborhood for five whole days, so not only no air conditioning, but no fans. I don’t know how I survived. I think I stayed at the office until very late — in a building where the air conditioning was so cranked up that I always had to wear a sweater at work.
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The only way to deal with such a climate is to move away. 🙂
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Yours is even worse than ours, Louise.
It’s certainly the case that we overdo air conditioning. Saw something earlier today about Europeans sneering at us about it. They have a point, but on the other hand even the further north regions of the U.S. are south of the parts of Europe where I would guess most of the sneering is coming from. Rome and Chicago are at the same latitude.
Still–Americans seem to have the idea that ever to sweat at all is unacceptable, so you have all those offices full of women wearing sweaters. And not just women. I kept an old sport coat in my office for that reason. -
I often wonder how people felt about summer in the days when God had already invented the south but hadn’t yet given us electricity. Was everyone just resigned to being miserably uncomfortable all summer, sweating and stinking and being surrounded by other stinky people? Or were they somehow habituated or adapted and it didn’t seem unpleasant to them?
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I’m pretty sure they found it unpleasant. But they no doubt had a higher tolerance for discomfort than we do. There’s a nice description of pre-AC though not pre-electricity southern summer in the early pages of To Kill A Mockingbird.
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That was, I believe, one rationale for slavery. White men couldn’t work in the summer heat. I’m not saying I think that’s a good excuse, although there may be a bit of truth to the idea that darker people can tolerate it better–the sun anyway. Then I could be completely wrong.
In Eric Brende’s book, Better Off, he talks about farming in the heat and how hard it was until one day he had some kind of physical change and after that it was okay. If you’re living in the city, I would think it would be impossible to adapt like that because you are constantly in and out of places with AC.
AMDG -
I just saw what you said about the fans, Maclin. The first year we moved to Mississippi, we tried to do without air conditioners in the living room and dining room, which are two fairly big rooms with 10′ ceilings that open onto one another. We kept the ceiling fans going all the time, and we spent the summer on the couch trying to get up the energy to do anything at all. Of course, our windows are very small and that did not help. Well, there’s no window in the dining room at all.
You know we live in a house that used to be a dogtrot cabin, and sometimes I think it would be really nice to open up what is now my foyer and hall closet and see if that would help with the heat.
We have screens, but we have tons of bugs–little bugs that come in through the screen and bigger bugs that come in I don’t know how.
AMDG -
My first three years in south bend I lived in a rented house with no a.c.. Only in the second year did someone get the Windows open. Middle of the third summer we figured out how to put an a.c. unit in one window.
It was bloody horrible.
My fourth summer I was in my own new bought house and it was cold all summer.
American offices are ridiculously cold in the summer. I used to feel guilty about going to the office and leaving Stan and P I u s to roast.
The nights were the worst -
“so you have all those offices full of women wearing sweaters. And not just women. I kept an old sport coat in my office for that reason”
Yes I think when you are made cold to that degree, the AC is turned on far too cold!!
Grumpy, that sounds really horrible!
I’m pretty sure I would never have consented to come here without AC.
As for Europeans sneering, surely none of them have summers as bad as the South. -
Yes but I think the Americans go to excess with the freezing cold offices
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And grocery stores.
AMDG -
Megan McArdle takes on the self-righteous Europeans.
I remember one of my children reading a Sherlock Holmes story and laughing at Watson saying that because he had been in India “A thermometer of 80 was nothing to me.” 80 (26C) is the morning chill here in July.
Not to say that American buildings aren’t often unpleasantly chilly. Being here by myself all day and working at my desk, I turn the thermostat up to 78 and am comfortable. If I start moving around a lot that begins to seem too warm, but not miserable. -
Almost 11pm, temperature 85F/29C.
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It’s become sort of a joke, the “dry heat” thing, but it’s true. 90 degrees in low humidity is much more tolerable than the same temp. in a higher humidity. I’ve lived in both (Pittsburgh, which can be very humid vs. Dallas, which is generally quite dry) and can speak to the difference.
Relating this to a/c, remember that besides lowering temperature it also acts as a dehumidifier.
Oh, and by the way, the print edition of Laudato Si came out this week. Amazon has it in a couple different editions in the $10-$12 range.
I mentioned before how when I first read it I immediately thought of Wendell Berry. Lo and behold, a couple weeks later this showed up at First Things:
http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2015/07/the-pope-and-the-plowman -
I am having a birthday party for my grandson and husband on Sunday. I have pools for the kids and we are cooking outside, but it’s supposed to be 97F. I just don’t know.
AMDG -
97 is just wrong.
I thought Dallas was fairly humid, too, Rob. I looked just now and Dallas and Mobile are only a couple of percentage points apart: 63% and 65%. Phoenix on the other hand is 44%. We may be a bit drier than usual right now. I don’t pay that much attention but I think 65% is a little low for us.
Francesca mentioned how miserable the un-air-conditioned and windowless nights were. A few times when we’ve been without power post-hurricane I’ve been kind of surprised at how difficult it can be to sleep on a really hot night. And that was with open windows. -
We are currently 84% and frequently it’s 90%. Sometimes it’s a bit difficult for me to breathe outside. The AC helps this a lot. It may be more important than the cooling factor–or as important anyway.
AMDG -
Generally speaking, Pittsburgh’s humidity is pretty decent, but we do have some occasional very hot and humid spells, and they are brutal, especially when there’s no breeze. We had a four or five day stretch of that a couple weeks ago — nights where it didn’t fall below 80 and the humidity was in the 70s. Not particularly good sleeping weather even with a/c.
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If you could just figure out some way to sleep without touching the bed, it would be okay.
AMDG -
I have to do some yard work this afternoon. This conversation is not helping my motivation.
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“I remember one of my children reading a Sherlock Holmes story and laughing at Watson saying that because he had been in India “A thermometer of 80 was nothing to me.” 80 (26C) is the morning chill here in July.”
Heh! I often think of that from, say, March through to late November! -
Yes, 78 is absolutely fine, if you’re not moving. I definitely agree with Francesca and Janet about the offices/grocery stores.
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Good luck with that yard work, Maclin!
“A few times when we’ve been without power post-hurricane I’ve been kind of surprised at how difficult it can be to sleep on a really hot night. And that was with open windows.”
Yes it’s miserable. I remember nights back home that were very hot in the summer (only a few per year thankfully) where it was very difficult to sleep. (No AC then). -
Sleeping porches would be nice.
AMDG -
Enclosed ones with a/c.
Just kidding.
AMDG -
Hehehe
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Humidity does make heat worse, but at a certain point whether humid or dry, heat just becomes unbearable. Fresno, Calif., for example, where I grew up, is going to hit 107 next Wednesday, and it’s gotten as high as 115. I last spent some time there in the summer of 2003, and it was so hot I usually only went outside before around 10:00 a.m. and after sunset. It’s farm country there; imagine doing fieldwork in that heat.
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Downright dangerous.
I recall a cartoon from some time ago: a devil ushering people into hell and saying, “Yes, it is hot. But you’ll find that it’s a dry heat.” -
Oh, and about Laudato Si, I guess I’m getting close to a point where I can read it.
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115 is beyond disgusting. I think it got to 106 here yesterday. 😛
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I’d forgotten about the “heat index” — that’s the summer version of “wind chill,” and calculates the “felt temperature” based on the combination of temperature and relative humidity. There’s an explanation and a chart on Wikipedia under “heat index.”
Generally we don’t get a heat index report in the weather up here unless both the temperature and the humidity are going to be quite high, say temperature over 90 and humidity over 70. That yields a heat index number of 105, which could be dangerous for the elderly, asthmatics, etc. -
Weatherpersons love the heat index, because it gives more impressive numbers. Sometimes it’s explained as “actually x but feels like x + y” E.g. weather.com right now says the temp in Mobile is 90 but “feels like” 100.
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“Weatherpersons love the heat index, because it gives more impressive numbers.”
Heh!
It feels hot. That’s what it feels like! -
We’re 90 and the heat index is only 99–but then, it’s 6:08. Who knows what it was like at 3:42? I stood in the wading pool in my dress and let the kids attack me with soakers.
AMDG -
At 6:25pm in Fairhope it feels like I’ve been mowing the lawn in July.
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We seem to have given that up for the moment.
AMDG -
I’m enjoying a mild winter in the southern hemisphere all the more for reading this.
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Sounds good, Paul!
I hope you’ve recovered, Maclin.
Light On Dark Water 
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