Love Letters, Tara Fallaux

To illustrate how she feels about love letters herself, Fallaux quotes one of the young men from the documentary, who says that writing a love letter is akin to sharing a diary. “It’s something extremely personal,” Fallaux said. “Something that leaves you exposed. I think everyone has a need to be heard and noticed, so receiving a letter feels very precious. And it appeals to the senses. You can feel the paper, smell the ink, enjoy someone’s handwriting. And you can save it. The letter becomes an extension of the writer, capturing a particular moment in time that the receiver can keep forever.”

“Making this film,” she added, “is my ode to the strength of vulnerability.”

Of course I can’t resist a good story about letters.

music: ‘if we were vampires’

If we were vampires and death was a joke
We’d go out on the sidewalk and smoke
And laugh at all the lovers and their plans
I wouldn’t feel the need to hold your hand
Maybe time running out is a gift
I’ll work hard ’til the end of my shift
And give you every second I can find
And hope it isn’t me who’s left behind

It’s knowing that this can’t go on forever
Likely one of us will have to spend some days alone
Maybe we’ll get forty years together
But one day I’ll be gone
Or one day you’ll be gone

Very clever.

St Francis de Sales

Today’s saint, St Francis de Sales, may have been one of the first post-Reformation saints that I hesitatingly read about (you see, it’s one thing for a Protestant to say he admires St Francis of Assisi or St Anthony the Abbot, and quite another to profess an interest in a Doctor of the Church known for his effectiveness against Calvinism). And I think the principal lesson that has stuck with me in the last few years has been about that mysterious cooperation of the soul with grace that can take place when one resolves to trust entirely in the love of God. It takes courage (surprisingly!) to do so; it takes courage to be humble, and gentle, sweet and generous. I often think of St Francis and St Therese in one breath for this reason: both lived out a way to love God despite fear (of predestination; of not doing enough pace Jansenism) and flung themselves into the arms of Him who is all mercy and all good.

this week’s reading

It seems almost unbelievable that we’re already 11 days into the new year! Soon enough it will be Easter, and Pentecost, and Advent again.

The year has gotten off to a quiet start, mostly, and I’ve had ample time to read (books in their own section here). The last few days’ articles have included:

• The secret music composed by medieval nuns, Michael White in the Catholic Herald / “Reciprocally, convents sought out novices with musical ability, sometimes waiving the dowry requirements if the woman came with particular talents – like the ability to sing a bass line or to play the bass viol in the consort of instruments that might accompany more elaborate polyphony”;
• ‘This music is in our blood’, on Westminster Cathedral’s 2015 recording of Alonso Lobo’s music;
• The epiphany of celibacy, Fr Paul Scalia in the National Catholic Register;
• The Catholic genius of JRR Tolkien, Joseph Pearce in the National Catholic Register (an oldie, I think, but still a goodie);
• Recalling America, St Teresa of Calcutta in First Things; and
• Solitude and Leadership, William Deresiewicz (an address later published in The American Scholar).

new year; new reading!

2018 was a year of long-drawn-out books, which was so trying. Happily, I ended the year and began the next one with a spate of reading, and an itch to catalogue what was good about the books that carried me into a quarter-century! Hopefully this list will stay more or less up to date.