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“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.”

–Douglas Adams

Donald T. Williams on Three Things Evangelical Authors Can Learn from Flannery O’Connor. (Touchstone Magazine, September, 2007, via Pen and Palette.)

My fellow Evangelicals publish reams upon reams of prose. What we have not tended to write is anything recognized as having literary value by the literary world. What makes this failure remarkable is that our Protestant forebears include a number of people who did: Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, George Herbert, John Milton, and John Bunyan, to mention a few.

Equally remarkable is the host of near contemporary conservative Christians—sometimes quite evangelical and even evangelistic, though not “Evangelicals”—who were also important writers. G. K. Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, T. S. Eliot, Graham Greene, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, Walker Percy, and Flannery O’Connor are all recognized as important literary figures even by people who do not share their Christian commitment.

Where is the contemporary American Evangelical who can make such a claim?

Read the rest here.

“This endeavor is well on its way:
From the words that begin with an A
Through the alphabet, we
Will continue to Z,
Writing limericks day after day.”

Here.

I tried this recipe from Real Simple the other day, and it was so good I thought I should share it with you! This is very likely to become part of our regular rotation of dinners. Since it was the first time I tried the recipe, I made a few minor mistakes (I let the water/coconut milk for the rice boil over, and I mis-read the instructions and had to pull the chicken back out of the pan and cut it into smaller pieces), but I’m sure it will be easier the next time around!

Anyway, the chicken and peppers are sauteed with garlic, the rice is boiled in coconut milk, and the beans are seasoned with cumin. While these flavors may seem disparate, putting them together resulted in a fabulous meal!

The only thing I’ll change is that Jefferson said that the coconut flavor of the rice was a little too strong (though I’ve never met a coconut dish that was too strong, myself), so I’ll either use a smaller can of coconut milk or make more rice next time to soften the flavor.

Whoops! I almost forgot to mention that I automatically substitute brown rice for just about any other kind of rice in a recipe, and that’s what I used in this recipe.

“Dogwood”
Acrylic on Canvas, 12 x 36 inches
A.M. Otwell, 2007

(As with “Maria’s Lineup” and “A Dream Home,” this piece may ultimately be for sale.)

Here. (The library pictured above is Queen’s College Library, Oxford.)

The Museum Of Bad Art (MOBA) is the world’s only museum dedicated to the collection, preservation, exhibition and celebration of bad art in all its forms.

Here.

. . . or at least be prepared for the consequences! (funny video; very short)

“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
1 Corinthians 13:12, NIV

“That’s the way things come clear. All of a sudden. And then you realize how obvious they’ve been all along.”
-Madeleine L’Engle

Thank you, Mrs. L’Engle, for passing on the glimpses that you saw. Thank you, God, for Mrs. L’Engle.

Story (with excellent bio) here.