Around the Web:
What Do You Do with the Cares of Your Heart

Rachel Wojnarowski writes briefly and beautifully about the cares of her heart.

• Recently I was reading Psalms during a wait and I’ve just soaked myself in the Psalms lately. It seems I read one and then just keep going and pretty soon, I’ve read ten or fifteen without stopping.

  God’s Word is so relevant and current. Each time I read, I find myself thinking “Wow, that was for today.”

  Psalm 94:19 fed my soul in particular:

  When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.

I love simple reminders like this. Read More.

Computer Programmed with Fables Reveals Storytelling Is, Like, Hard

Over at KillScreen, they're writing about an attempt at getting computers to tell stories.

• Researchers at Australia's University of New South Wales recently designed the Moral Storytelling System, a computer program that forgoes all the messy human parts of writing a story to bring you undiluted, AI-generated narratives.

  However, the Moral Storytelling System, or MOSS, focuses exclusively on fables, because less straightforward storytelling remains still too complex for artificial intelligence. Developer of the program Margaret Sarlej told The Guardian, "When you consider all the different things that could happen in a story—all the possible events, their outcomes (which may vary depending on the situation), and how characters react to these events—it's an extremely complex space which needs to be very precisely defined.

Maybe storytelling is part of what's uniquely human. Read more.

Own Your Attention, It's All You Really Have

In a culture of distraction, this quote from Jonathan Harris really rings true.

• We have these brief lives, and our only real choice is how we will fill them. Your attention is precious. Don't squander it. Don't throw it away. Don't let companies and products steal it from you. Don't let advertisers trick you into lusting after things you don't need. Don't let the media convince you to covet the lives of celebrities. Own your attention — it's all you really have.

Helping our kids grasp this is a big deal. Read more.
 

Tolkien's Tips for Writers

From his letters, some tips distilled:

• 1. Vanity Is Useless
  I certainly hope to leave behind me the whole thing [LOTR] revised and in final form, for the world to throw into the waste-paper basket. All books come there in the end, in this world, anyway. (Letter to Sir Stanley Unwin on 31 July 1947) 

This guy knew some stuff about life and writing. Read more.

 

Around the Warren:

On the Goodness and Glory of Things

Josh Bishop brings us a meditation on stuff itself.

• “I do not think there is anyone who takes quite such a fierce pleasure in things being themselves as I do,” G.K. Chesterton wrote. “The startling wetness of water excites and intoxicates me: the fieriness of fire, the steeliness of steel, the unutterable muddiness of mud.”

  This is no mere materialism or naturalism. Ian Boyd has written that “the material world has a sacramental character for Chesterton: the whole of creation is a divine theophany.” For people who share this sacramental view, the world around us simultaneously points to and participates in the goodness of God.

  The muddiness of mud testifies to the God who would make it so unutterably muddy; and in its muddiness, mud brings glory to God. Honest food and fine ale are good because they are food and fine ale — and because in being food and fine ale they tells us of God’s grace.

I wish I'd appreciated this earlier in my life. Read more!

Imagination Grows by Exercise

Pertinent quote from W. Somerset-Maugham, art by the creative P. Boekell.

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Get a closer look.

The Art of Mysteries: Blue Balliett

Laura Peterson loves connecting people like us to great authors. She introduced Blue Balliett this week.

• Sometimes there’s nothing better than curling up with a good mystery, right? When I was young, one of my favorites was E. L. Konigsburg’s From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I think of it almost every time I see Michelangelo’s name in print or look at one of his works. I picked up Mixed-Up Files again recently and was totally surprised to see a copyright date of 1967; almost 40 years ago! It never felt dated or old-fashioned to me, and I hope it still holds up with today’s readers. That discovery set me on a path of wondering if any contemporary authors were writing the same type of book these days; a mystery with a bit of adventure and lots of knowledge about art and culture thrown in. One of the authors I was glad to discover is Blue Balliett. 

Read on!

Rebecca: Who Slammed Doors for Fun and Perished Miserably

A hilarious poem from Hilaire Belloc:

• A trick that everyone abhors
  In little girls is slamming doors.
  A wealthy banker’s little daughter
  Who lived in Palace Green, Bayswater

Funny stuff. Read more.
 

Something to Do with Your Kids:

Over at She Knows, they've got a few activities to help you ramp up the learning as summer draws to a close. Check it out!
 

And Something Funny to Watch

This was a fun combination of pop culture and silliness:

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