Monday Morning

UPDATE: Now Monday Evening. Some updates on the topis discussed below:

An eventful weekend....First, that stomache thing is back-it is not as bad as the first go around (yet). Secondly, while Mrs. Curley was at the doctor's office on Saturday, I decided to fix (once and for all) our bathroom faucet leak. The faucet and I have been going at it since almost the day we moved in. I have changed stems, washers, handles, stems, and more washers. No more fooling around-Iwas going to get this right this time no matter what....Well it beat me. I got it to the point where it wouldn't leak-or turn on at all. That was the best I could do. I couldn't even get it back to the leaky state. (This certainly was to Mrs. Curley's liking as she had wanted a new faucet for some time. It's terrible when your wife cheers at your defeat...) Well, she got her new faucet. I am now the proud owner of more worthless plumbing parts. This is the kind of stuff yard sales are made of...

Interesting post here from "Stella" on the disconnection of family in today's culture. UPDATE: CeT Sunday night journal (here) discusses this very topic.

Several recent posts worth reading here and the follow-up here on the "V-monologues" and feminism.

Of course the Crunchy Con thing is still going on. A commentor on The Crunchy Con Blog said: "As someone who lives in a predominantly rural state, I can tell you that there is nothing romantic about farming. ...Farming involves a degree of uncertainty, stress, and physical labor that few of us could stand. If you mean small farms, that is even more work and would probably require that children engage in strenuous labor....So I find the idealization of rural life unrealistic. Who can say for sure what attracts people to the lost cause of rural life? Is it fear of the modern world? Frustration with its less appealing aspects? Naive idealism? I know one thing: We should all be glad that the industrial North defeated the rural South." Rod Dreher asks Caleb Stegall to respond....Can't wait to read it.

UPDATE: The Caleb Stegall response:

“Small communities are hell!” “You want to turn back the clock!” and
especially, “You romanticize the land!” To which I always want to ask, this is
the same America we’re talking about isn’t it? The America from the mountains to
the prairies; from the redwood forests to the Gulf Stream waters; the America of
purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain? The America that once carried
on a torrid love affair with its land, its nooks and crannies, its high places
and low places? Yeah, I’m a romantic all right. I don’t think I could be fully an
American if I weren’t.

But then comes the description of how hard life on the land really is, as if
this fact makes self-evident the folly of the romantic. In fact, it is the
difficulty that is at the heart of the romantic attraction Americans once had
for their land, their families, their communities, and even their country. It’s
putting oneself in service to something more than one’s own desires that is at
the core of every romantic impulse in man. This is what makes John Wayne a
conservative hero.

Note the words of the romantics: effort, pain, death, duty, discipline,
inconvenience, discomfort. The prospect that these words might carry the germ of
lasting satisfaction and happiness is a prospect American ears have a difficult
time hearing today. But as I said earlier, they are the true basis for finding
love, friendship, and a meaningful life. Master one’s passions, deny oneself,
and love others.

Things to think about...

From Bethany, the small holding in Bethune...Oremus pro invicem!