St. Margaret of Scotland. Her book of the gospels is on display at the Bodleian Library; we were able to see it when we were in Oxford.
A reference to Russell’s teapot came across my feed, and I’ve been ruminating on it for a few days now. I confess at the outset that I used Claude to give me the outlines of a Thomistic response to it, and I think I have my head around it now. It was an interesting exercise, and it’s prompted me to revisit metaphysics a bit. To that end, I have Edward Feser’s Five Proofs of the Existence of God on the way, and it should be here before we leave for some long-awaited vacation time.
In brief:
The teapot is used to argue that the burden of proof for God’s existence lies with the theist who makes the assertion, and not on the atheist to disprove. For finite, contingent beings, this is a reasonable stance to take within the framework of empiricism. If someone says “I saw Bigfoot,” but provides no evidence, you’re not under any obligation to believe the person or act as if Bigfoot existed.
God, however, is neither finite nor contingent, but a metaphysical necessity for everything else that is. The only answer to the question ‘why is there something rather than nothing,’ the only answer which obtains is ‘because of something which is ipsum esse subsistens.’ Trying to use the teapot to somehow disprove God (or the reasonableness of God’s existence) is something of a category error, and so on. God isn’t a thing among other things in the universe, or the question of a reason for existence would still remain - the essence of the third proof in the Summa.
We covered some of this in Fundamental Theology, but that was a while back, and I enjoyed wading back into it a bit, with the added bonus of looking up some of the required vocabulary in Spanish, just in case.
Thus, the reading landscape for my immediate future is as follows:
- Graham Greene’s Complete Short Stories for the nightstand
- de Sales' Treatise on the Love of God for spiritual reading
- Feser’s Five Proofs for ongoing study
This feels like a pretty good set-up, and I’m going to try to maintain a three-pronged approach going forward.
Currently reading: Complete Short Stories by Graham Greene 📚
Farm and forage report
A list (in progress) of edible things growing on our property:
- Black walnut
- Mulberry
- Brambleberry (aka wild blackberry)
- American persimmon
- Pawpaw (planted, but native)
- Elderberry
- Passionflower
NB - this list doesn’t include things that are said to be edible in the ‘probably ok’ category, like hackberry and the wild grapes that are all over the place, nor does it include small, herb-y things such as dandelion greens, purslane, wild garlic, woodsorrel, and the like. I don’t do wild mushrooms, though I harbor a fantasy of discovering morels. None yet, alas.
I’ve harvested exactly one (1) walnut, and it was a tremendous amount of work for a barely edible bit of nutmeat. The passionflower vines produce edible fruit (“maypops”), which are pretty tasty, but not really in quantity. The most bang for our foraging effort has been with the brambleberries, which tend to yield well and are just now starting to ripen.
The mulberry trees can apparently switch sexes, so some may bear fruit and others not, and the situation tends to be fluid over time. The large ones in our wooded area are showing fruit, but it’s all way too high to reach. The persimmons also looked like they were blooming, but any fruit will likewise be out of reach, which is a bummer.
I’ve made elderflower syrup before, and am hoping that the 5 bushes I planted from cuttings will give us enough fruit this go-round to try for a cordial.
For everything else, both pear trees are fruiting well but have some sort of blacktip thing going on, which I’m hoping only affects the leaves. The apples are usually hit-or-miss; this year looks like a miss. The muscadine is going completely crazy, so I’m looking forward to doing something with grapes later this summer. Fig is still sending up new growth, and I’m hoping it fruits as well as it did last year. Our climate here is such that figs will die right to the ground over winter but then re-emerge like gangbusters over the summer. The container tomatoes continue apace, and the habanero is moving like mad - lots of new growth and blooms showing up.
Tal vez sea el evitar la tentación de juntar palabras para hacer una obra. Dijo Claudel que no fueron las palabras las que hicierion la Odisea, sino al revés.
— Ernesto Sabato, “El principal problema del escritor”
Currently reading: El Escritor Y Sus Fantasmas by Ernesto Sabato 📚
More LatAm lit on the way: Ernesto Sabato, Adolfo Bioy Cesares, and Julio Cortázar (along with the complete short stories of Graham Greene).
Finished 2666, which I liked a lot. Started Como agua para chocolate and am enjoying it. Not entirely sure where to go next. I may go look at more stuff by Yoko Ogawa or John Crowley’s Aegypt books. Blake Couch’s Wayward Pines series is also coming highly recommended to me.
Mexico was nice, though the weather was a bit weird. The wind kept it cooler than expected. The hotel was lovely and the food was excellent. Looking forward to England and Scotland in a few weeks and it will be the longest vacation we’ve taken since…uh…maybe ever.
Wrapped up S2 of Severance and am thoroughly invested. Very interested to see where they go next and how they address a couple of large-ish unanswered questions related to Irving. I love, love, love the visual design of the show, especially the weird dissonance of the props: older cars and retro-tech on the desktops, but also iPhones and whatnot.
Otherwise, we’re slowly transitioning to summer-mode here. Hasn’t really gotten too warm yet, but all in good time.
