Leah Libresco's Blog, page 21
November 2, 2015
Hosting a Hamilton Listenthru
If you’ve been enjoying listening to the Hamilton cast album, I definitely recommend hosting a listenthru party. I had about 30 friends over this weekend to hear the whole album together, and we all had a great time. We started the afternoon with the rule “No singing along, and, if you can’t stop yourself from mouthing along, [Read More...]
October 31, 2015
October 30, 2015
7QT: Magic, Secrets, and Bureaucracy
— 1 — I already love Ikea, source of all my bookshelves, but I particularly like their new line of plush toys, all designed to look like actual kids’ drawings. There are more examples, all delightful, at this link. — 2 — Another example of glorious inventiveness: the Mahler Hammer. I found this via Hello [Read More...]
October 28, 2015
The People I Don’t Learn to Love
After reading my essay on “Both/And Philanthropy,” one of my friends told me that there was something I was leaving out of my hybrid approach. Here’s how I said that I balance attentiveness to material and spiritual goods: And when it comes to the fundamental divide between Beer and MacAskill, for my own part, I [Read More...]
October 27, 2015
Offering Magpie Prayers to God at First Things
When Arriving at Amen, my book on learning to pray, came out, I gave a talk on some of the unexpected ways I found to reach out to God (Fermat’s Little Theorem, people mummified in honey, etc). First Things has just made the video available, if you’d like to check it out! [The video isn't embeddable, [Read More...]
October 26, 2015
Building a Both/And Philanthropy
Over at Fare Forward, I’m doing a paired review of Jeremy Beer’s The Philanthropic Revolution: An Alternative History of American Charity and Will MacAskill’s Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference and talking about how to balance the spiritual and material goals of charity. Reading the two books side by side, it’s clear [Read More...]
October 22, 2015
7QT: Drunk Historians, Silly Bodybuilders, Clever Proofs
— 1 — I’ve usually avoided Drunk History (a show where heavily in their cups historians summarize a notable life or event, and then have their garbled retellings reenacted by actors) because I saw an episode that involved vomiting, which I’d prefer not to see. But this episode about Harriet Tubman’s in the Civil War [Read More...]
How To Offer Community Without Communion
I’m over at First Things today, talking about why people may want to drop barriers to Communion out of fear of excluding the people who most need strength and support, and offering suggestions for other ways to see, know, and love our pewmates: Communion is often the sign of acceptance that people seek—not just because it’s [Read More...]
October 20, 2015
Extending Family and Keeping an Honorary Aunt in your Basement
I love this essay by Mikkee Hall (“Why I moved 1,600 miles to live downstairs from my godchildren”) on expanding families and supporting unusual vocations to love in the Washington Post. As I hit my mid-30s, I knew it was time to make a radical change. So when my best friend and her husband moved [Read More...]
October 15, 2015
How Do You Lance A Festering Resentment?
I’m curious what readers (religious or not) wind up doing when you’re frustrated by/or angry at someone. I’ve just been reading Letters to a Beginner: On Giving One’s Life To God by Abbess Thaisia of Leushino and she writes sharply against idle talk and gossip: It begins under the pretext of conversing, of discussing some business, but [Read More...]
