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"Reading and writing were like magic, and the people who knew their secrets as rare as wizards"
Don Brown, Across a Dark and Wild Sea
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My son gave me a wonderful Christmas present. It has my favourite things all wrapped up in one: history, culture, cooking and keeping notebooks....curious?? It's a book, (a signed copy, bless his heart! ) called Bought, Borrowed and Stolen: Recipes from a Travelling Chef. The idea is wonderful; based on her diaries as a child travelling with her family (her father made historical atlases) and then on her exploration of the food of other cultures as a chef, Allegra McEvedy turns what were essentially her notebooks on travel and food into a gorgeous and inspiring conversation (with the occasional salty word, just so you know.) As if the personal experiences, photos, ephemeria and delicious menus weren't enticement enough, she also shares photos of the knife collection she has made on her journeys. She has sought out a handmade knife from each country she has visited.
So why this note under Book of Centuries? (I knew you would ask.) McEvedy's knife collection immediately made me think of the way Mason's students would pick one special thing to follow and draw throughout the centuries, often in the same position on each page. (I am sure had McEvedy kept a Book of Centuries, she would have been drawing knives.) Beyond that even, there is a map on the flyleaf which appears to be a map of the world with the countries she has visited circled in coloured pencil. I had already had in mind to make the last map page of my Book of Centuries my hand drawn map of the world with a list of the countries I have traveled to listed on the lined page opposite with the dates of my journeys. This cinched it! Now, what to cook first?? "Now some folks dislike my use of my books in this way. They love their books so much that they think it nothing short of sacrilege to mark up a book. But to me that's like having a child so prettily dressed that you can't romp and play wiht it. What is the good of a book, I say, if it is too pretty for use? I like to have my books speak to me, and then I like to talk back to them." Phillips Brooks
"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity."
Attributed to Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967) It will be discouraging to some and consoling to others to realize that very little of our growth as readers can be planned. It is certainly possible to read the 189 books Charles Van Doren associates with The Joy of Reading, the 173 indispensables that he and Mortimer Adler list at the end of How to Read a Book, and most certainly the sixteen texts that Michael Dirda says will open the world of literature to you--but it is not possible to acquire by force of will the enjoyment of all of them, or any. The 'self-conquest' Auden recommends will always be achieved, when it is achieved at all, by hook or by crook, unmethodically, unpredictably. We must consent to be guided by the invisible hand of serendipity. Alan Jacobs
"They were not going to school to learn where they were, let alone the pleasures and the pains of being there, or what ought to be said there. You couldn't learn those things in a school. They went to school, apparently, to learn to say over and over again, regardless of where they were, what had already been said too often. They learned to have a very high opinion of God and a very low opinion of His works--although they could tell you this world had been made by God Himself.
What they didn't see was that it is beautiful and some of the greatest beauties are the briefest." Wendell Berry, Jayber Crow |
"Ideas
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"Perhaps this is one of the secrets of life--to know 'glory' when we see it."
~ Charlotte Mason
Virtual Life?
A wee explanation: this website was created as a way to amplify the daily surprise of seeing glory in one small life. The notebook entries represented here are all selected from things actually lived and noted on paper in an effort to live the full life British educator Charlotte Mason so ably championed.
In Appreciation
Images are linked to their original posts where possible. They were chosen because I have found something of value there and hope my readers will likewise find a helpful resource as we explore the philosophy of Charlotte Mason together. In the case of miss-attribution or if you desire your work not be linked, please let me know.
Images are linked to their original posts where possible. They were chosen because I have found something of value there and hope my readers will likewise find a helpful resource as we explore the philosophy of Charlotte Mason together. In the case of miss-attribution or if you desire your work not be linked, please let me know.
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