KATE RAE DAVIS

KRD's notes-to-self on writing and influences. Lots of book excerpts. Expect theology, literature and literary theory, spirituality, feminist thought, film. Also some life photos.

[lac0rneille]

[kateraedavis]

THIS, in the context of the poem, is what Mary Oliver implores with her question "what will you do with your one wild and precious life?"!!!

[captaindibbzy]

Many Brazilians wept after their 200-year-old National Museum was destroyed in a devastating fire last September. Twenty million objects, many of them irreplaceable, were thought to have been lost. But eight months later, staff have salvaged more treasures than they expected, and there are hopes that one of the great museums of the world can be brought back to life.

This is excellent news and makes me very happy.

BBC News - Brazil National Museum: ‘Little surprises’ salvaged from the ashes

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-48023691

[kateraedavis]

Resilient objects.

[probablyasocialecologist]

[kateraedavis]

I love how this was foreshadowing for the current season.

[poetsandwriters]

“…all you can do is write the story you have to tell and hope that it heals someone else’s wound besides your own.”

—Jami Attenberg (2016)

[freckles-and-books]

TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

Howard Zinn (via freckles-and-books)

[slightlypretentious-deactivated]

[kateraedavis]

WHICH IS WHAT DEATH MEANS.

That’s the whole life-death-resurrection thing. That’s why the gospel writers wrote about the resurrection; it was a cultural queue to be like, HEY, something of the whole thing was transformed here!

It’s why myths so rarely actually allow death. Narcissus is a flower; Echo is stone; Medusa is beheaded but her head remains potent to petrify. These figures must end in some way that’s not death, because death would actually open up a possibility of transformation, resurrection, goodness.

Death always means new life. Just not in the way we (Christians) often say that.

[flyartproductions]

St. Paul was under the impression everyone wrote they own epistles

St. Paul writing his epistles (1620), Valentin de Boulogne / Solo (Reprise), Frank Ocean ft. Andre 3000

[kateraedavis]

Especially hilarious in the context of the epistles that are generally attributed to St Paul, but historically we’re pretty certain that he didn’t write them.

[kateraedavis]

women's magazine

Page 14: You're beautiful the way you are

Page 15: How to quickly lose weight

Page 16: Cake Recipe

[oupacademic]

Word of the Day: fairy ring

n. A circular mark on the ground supposed to be formed by fairies

Image: Fairy rings in moss in Iceland by Chmee2/Valtameri. CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

[gtasoldier]

“We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.”

Madeleine l'Engle (via gtasoldier)

[explore-blog]

Bryologist Robin Wall Kimmerer’s ode to the grandeur of life through the smallness of moss is the most beautiful thing I’ve read in years, a Thoreau for our age – do your soul a favor. 

[shootingstarsaretearsofheaven]

Here a calming gif

[kateraedavis]

I wish my watch used this one instead of the stupid flower thing.

[explore-blog]

Fantastic read on the trouble with “finding yourself.”

[kateraedavis]

Yes. It’s more a process of developing a self, which always requires developing a self-in-relation, or self-in-community.

[philosophybits]

The only way to atone for being occasionally a little over-dressed is by being always absolutely over-educated.

Oscar Wilde, “Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young” (via philosophybits)

[npr]

Matthew Shepard, the young gay man brutally killed on a chilly night in Wyoming 20 years ago this month, was finally laid to rest at Washington National Cathedral on Friday. A reflective, music-filled service offered stark contrast to the anti-gay protests that marred his funeral two decades ago.

The public remembrance at the filled 4,000-seat cathedral was led by the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Episcopal bishop of Washington, and the Right Rev. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay man elected a bishop in the Episcopal Church. After, his ashes were interred at the cathedral’s crypt in a private family ceremony.

Robinson was emotional throughout the public ceremony, tearfully addressing the large crowd. “For Matthew to come back to church,” he said, “is a remarkable step forward.”

He extended a particular welcome to attendees who are LGBT, saying, “Many of you have been hurt by your own religious communities, and I want to welcome you back.”

Shepard’s parents’ requested that their sons ashes be interred at the cathedral after 20 years of reluctance. They feared his gravesite would be desecrated.

‘You Are Safe Now’: Matthew Shepard Laid To Rest At National Cathedral

Photo credits in captions

[kateraedavis]

So there’s the temptation to be ashamed of my church for not doing this sooner when they really should have, but also: this makes me really proud to be a part of the Episcopal Church. They did the right thing. And they did the right thing even with the shame: the right thing now acknowledges and condemns the years and years that they did the wrong thing.

[kateraedavis]

I was into this sweater at @jcrew but the back of tag pretty much plagiarizes Mary Oliver, which quickly disenchanted me. #meetmycrew https://www.instagram.com/p/BqoMIaVHO3HsyLwtXX8n-v0_JeSQqQwjp9jXHs0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=2q5bxcqqid4j

[freckles-and-books]

So tempted to re-read Uprooted…but I have too many unread books for that right now.

[kateraedavis]

This post summarizes my entire month.