The Warren & The World Vol 3, Issue 23

The Warren & the World is Story Warren’s weekly newsletter, providing a round-up of our favorite things from around the web as well as a review of what was on our site over the past week. We’re glad you’re here!

Around the Web

What is Hospitality?

I’ve shared posts about hospitality before, so I hope I’m not beating a dead horse, but I felt like this one gives such a good biblical perspective on the act that I had to share it with you. Hospitality is an art form, one that even those who want to call themselves “not creative” can participate in. At the Mom Initiative, Lynn Mosher shares her thoughts on hospitality.

To the ancient Greeks and Romans, hospitality was actually one’s sacred duty. They were obliged to obey the Sacred Law of Hospitality, which meant offering bread, water, lodging, and protection to any traveler who came to their door, treating him or her as a guest. The guest was allowed to stay as long as he or she liked.In those days, bread was thinner and crispier than our bread today, which brought about the term “breaking bread.” It signified sharing fellowship at a meal, or as it was called, the bread of fellowship.
So, if the homeowner and the guest broke bread together, they were bound together by the strongest ties of friendship, as in a covenant. This was a pledge of reconciliation and peace that would descend to their heirs for perpetuity.

26 Essential Jokes Every Dad Must Know

Dads have a sacred duty to their families: they are the ones to must tell bad jokes. In case you didn’t know this, or if your arsenal of dad jokes is running low, Buzzfeed had 26 brilliant groaners for you. For example:

Does anyone need an ark built? Because I Noah guy.

Five hundred new fairytales discovered in Germany

So, “new” may not be the best adjective for this piece, as it was actually published in 2012, but it just came across my radar this week and I thought it was pretty cool. Evidently a collection of fairytales gathered by historian Franz Xaver von Schönwerth had been locked away in an archive in Regensburg for over 150 years. Some of them are regional versions of familiar stories, but others are entirely new fodder for the imagination.

A whole new world of magic animals, brave young princes and evil witches has come to light with the discovery of 500 new fairytales, which were locked away in an archive in Regensburg, Germany for over 150 years. The tales are part of a collection of myths, legends and fairytales, gathered by the local historian Franz Xaver von Schönwerth (1810–1886) in the Bavarian region of Oberpfalz at about the same time as the Grimm brothers were collecting the fairytales that have since charmed adults and children around the world.
Last year, the Oberpfalz cultural curator Erika Eichenseer published a selection of fairytales from Von Schönwerth’s collection, calling the book Prinz Roßzwifl. This is local dialect for “scarab beetle”. The scarab, also known as the “dung beetle”, buries its most valuable possession, its eggs, in dung, which it then rolls into a ball using its back legs. Eichenseer sees this as symbolic for fairytales, which she says hold the most valuable treasure known to man: ancient knowledge and wisdom to do with human development, testing our limits and salvation.

5 Things to Avoid As an Introverted Parent

I know many introverted parents. My sister, who shared this post with me, is one of them. There’s some good wisdom in here from Kristen Brunner.

My old college buddy Gwen and I were exchanging parenting stories a few years ago, when we found ourselves on the thrilling subject of naps. “Cole took this super long nap the other day,” Gwen explained. “I was able to clean out the hall closet and fold laundry, and then I started pacing the floor, thinking, C’mon Cole, wake up! I’m bored and ready to play.”At this point in the conversation, I nearly dropped my coffee mug on my foot.
Um… Did I just hear her right? Did she just say she WANTED her child to wake up from a nap? I wondered with amazement. Seconds later, my confusion was replaced with feelings of guilt for wishing my two boys would sleep as long as humanly possible. A little internal debate ensued, and all I could bring myself to say was, “Wow. What a great napper.” And with that, we moved on to which Elmo toy drives us the most crazy.

Around the Warren

Pearls Before Breakfast

Kelly Keller shares some good thoughts on taking the time to stop and listen.

This week I began some more intensive poetry study with my literature students. It’s spring; we’re all getting itchy to be done with school; the flowers are blooming, and gosh I’m in a poetry mood. Fortunately, my last-August self had the foresight to plan poetry for this time of year because I knew that would be the case.We started with an illustration of how we, being busy human beings, don’t notice beauty around us.

“…teach them to yearn…”

The words of Antoine de Saint Exupery. The artwork of Paul Boekell.

A Library of Their Own

Liz Cottrill suggests using this summer to help your kids build their own personal libraries.

If you can imagine this, when I was a child, a little Golden book cost $0.25. My grandmother used to slip a quarter into her letters to our family for me, and it was a treat to go to the local “dime store” (also a phenomenon of past days) to buy a new book. Along with Christmas and birthday gifts of books, this surely was the beginning of my habit of book collecting, and fed my growing love of stories.One practice we can adopt to involve our children in reading books, in addition to reading to them, is to see that they have their own private library. Children prize what is their own possession. Whether it’s a bookcase that matches their bedroom furniture, or boards and bricks, it is worth making room for a place for books. Children need to learn to care for, arrange and order these books for themselves. When the shelves become overcrowded, let them do the weeding, selecting which to part with or store away in specially labeled boxes to hold this treasure till they leave home. I am currently helping my fourth child pack before her wedding, and, as with her older siblings, a significant number of boxes containing her personal library are departing with her.

Cora’s Party Shoes

Helena Sorensen and Breezy Brookshire pair up to bring us the tale of Cora’s lovely new party shoes. Helena’s tale and Breezy’s illustrations are a delightful combination.

Something to Do with Your Kids

Math has never been my favorite thing. Once we passed counting beans and blocks in first grade, it was a mystery to me. Maybe, though, if I’d played calculator hopscotch, I would have enjoyed it a bit more! Learn how to play at Parents.com.

And Something to Watch

My friend saw Jurassic Park for the first time this week–in preparation for the upcoming Jurassic World release. She texted me to tell me about it and I vividly recalled my first time seeing it. “It was a formative movie experience for me,” I texted back. “I was in sixth grade and it was the first blockbuster I ever saw in the movie theatre, and I was intermittently thrilled and terrified. My parents were sitting with their friends a few rows behind while I sat with the other kids. It was like we were out on our own.” Maybe your kids are old enough to have that experience when the new movie comes out this summer. Maybe not. Maybe dinosaurs aren’t your thing. But everybody likes cookies, right? And this Jurassic Park parody from Sesame Street is kind of brilliant.