That moral certainty is perhaps the keenest taste left by Berry’s multitudinous writings. It was never self-righteous—Berry was often self-deprecating, self-questioning, or drily funny—and neither did it pretend that “going back to the past” was any kind of easy solution to the complex mess of the present. His enemies liked to pretend that both of these things were true, but what they probably disliked most about him was that he actually practiced what he preached. Berry never bought a computer or used a smartphone; he wouldn’t use air travel; and he lived and worked in the small rural community he brought to life with his words. Unable to call him a hypocrite, his critics had to content themselves instead with calling him an unrealistic fossil, wedded to a dead past. But there was nothing simple about Wendell Berry, and he was not committed to some Romantic fantasy. He was committed to real human lives and real human work, in real, living communities. The ongoing destruction of all of these things was the fire lit under his words.
I have a tip for anyone teaching Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday. Begin your class thus: “Imagine that you’re sitting on a bench under a tree reading this book. An acquaintance comes up and asks what you’re reading. You show her. She says, ‘Hmmm. What’s it about?’ What do you say?”
Green jay on javelina; South Texas represent. Via Texas Parks & Wildlife.
Mark Humphries: “To my mind, the traditional research paper as a tool of differential assessment is now dead. And I think it should be left to rest in peace.” I believe this judgment is correct.
Morning on campus.
This has been a dark day for me in many respects and now I learn that Wendell Berry has died. One blow too many. Thanks be to God for his message and his work. We shall not look upon his like again.
Teri and I are re-watching Better Call Saul Season 1. It is, as we remembered, amazingly good. We’ll go at least through Season 3; a certain event occurs at the end of Season 3 that, I think, takes some of the energy out of the show. But up to that point at least it’s an absolute triumph. 🍿
If I had a serious professional podcast, the intro music would be “The Super-Natural,” by John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers. 🎵
I had to give Walter Martin a piece of my mind, such as it is.