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The Unattainable Good Life of Elliot Roger

What is the good life? Alan Noble takes a look at recent tragedy and analyzes his own heart. 

• I‘m afraid that if I have to work retail for a career, my life is done.

  This was one of the most important realizations of my adult life, because it forced me to recognize that I had a stupidly narrow conception of what a “Good Life” looked like. I had wrongly come to believe that the only way my life could be meaningful and significant was if I had a job as a college professor. And the fear of not achieving that status filled me with existential dread. A failure of imagination had led me to believe that my worth as a human was tied up in this single vision of the Good Life which I just had to attain.

There's something there. Read more.

What Our Boys Need

Ann Voskamp writes about boys and dads. It's really good.

• Dear Future Men of ours:

  The flyers are all coming through here this week, everybody looking for something to buy for Father’s Day.

  I see you four boys flipping through the glossy ads about Dads.

  I see you four sons of ours trying to figure out how to be men, about how to live in this economy that your Dad works in.

  And I pray about what kind of men you will be in a world that too often says you will have to buy more, climb higher, be bigger.

  Please hear me and don’t ever think otherwise:

  You are rich when you’re content with a life full of things that money can’t buy.

I love the way she writes. This is spot on. Read more.

Read This Book…

Sarah Clarkson writes a quick review of a book that looks like a real winner.

• I’m sitting in a coffee shop, supposed to be busy as a bee at about a dozen different and deadlined tasks, but I’ve just begun a marvelous book and I’m momentarily rebelling against responsibility in order to tell you that I think you should read it too. It’s called Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child, by Anthony Esolen. My lovely friend Lancia set this in my hands two days ago, and though I’m only into the first chapter,  the book promises to be a lively and convicting exploration of what imagination is, why it’s so precious in childhood, and what exactly we are all doing to kill it. Yes, kill it dead. I’m assuming it will also suggest how we might spark it alive as well.

I added the book to my amazon wishlist. Read more.
 

What is the Best Grocery Store Coffee?

My mom sent me this one (Hi Mom!). Some coffee snobs taste-tested coffee from the grocery store shelf. Hilarity ensued.

• Lorenzo went into this tasting intending to give official scores on the Specialty Coffee Association of America Coffee Cupping Form (the SCAoACCF, for "short"), but the scoring sheet quickly went out the window. These coffees were truly off the charts.

   
  5. MAXWELL HOUSE
  Aromas: Wet dog, burning
  Flavors: Fish oil, despair
  "What death tastes like."

  You're not feeling very hospitable.
  You're feeling horrible.

So great! Read more.

Around the Warren:

Shadows & the Magic of Green

Ming-Wai Ng writes beautifully of life and longing and chasing after.

• What if you woke up one day in a world where everyone had forgotten the color green?

  Can you describe the magic of green to someone who has never seen it?

  Try.

  Tell of the cold, new green of unfurled leaves, and the soft light of a morning sun sifting through a canopy of emerald – how it is tinted and dances happily on the ground. Explain how green is the smell of cut grass, the sound of the first bright notes of an Irish jig, and the taste of water washed in spring.

  Try over and over.

Don't stop there, go read the whole thing. Read more.

It's What You See

Great text design and image from Paul Boekell, illustrating Thoreau:

Get a closer look!

A "Creativator" With A Cause

S. D. Smith presents an interview with Clay Clarkson.

• Sarah was about four years old then, and one day out of the blue she blurted out to Sally and me, “When I get my divorce, I want to come and live with you.” Most of our singles ministry leaders were from broken families of one sort or another, so it was just what she had heard. Our nearly three-plus years in California planted a seed in our hearts that we wanted to strengthen families.

Get to know Clay. Read more.

Tumbleweed Thompson and the Popping Pepper, part 2

The conclusion of the story we started last week. Fun!

• So there I was, waist-deep in the San Pedro River, caught on the cusp of my first real gunpowder-related adventure, and my partner in crime conveniently out of sight.

  There was only one thing to do.

  I raised my hands and tucked them behind the head.

  The water beside me churned, and Tumbleweed popped up, just out of the range of the beam. “What are you doing?” he hissed.

  “I’m turning myself in quietly. That’s what we’re supposed to do,” I hissed back.

Read more.

Something to Do with Your Kids:

Melissa Taylor at Imagination Soup is pointing to books and fun activities for the summer: Read more.

And Something Fun to Watch

This gentleman got stuck in the Las Vegas airport all night. He made the most of his time.

Thank you for reading. We're on your side.