Leah Libresco's Blog, page 33
February 26, 2015
Can’t I Love You Into Being Happy?
When Ellery Weil guest posted yesterday on The Last 5 Years and the demanding kind of support that Jamie offers Cathy, I realized that Jaime could have benefited from internalizing a meme I’ve seen floating around on tumblr. Golbats for Equality spun up a quote from Nidoqueen into this image: In the musical, Jaime doesn’t know how [Read More...]
February 25, 2015
The Story of Shmuel and Tailoring Support [Guest Post]
This is a guest post by Ellery Weil on The Last 5 Years. I’ve included a video clip of a “Story of Shmuel” performance, but it’s not the one Ellery is discussing. The Last Five Years is a story of love lost, or maybe love that was never really there. But more than that, it’s a [Read More...]
February 21, 2015
Effective Altruism and Caritas [Radio Readings]
You can listen to “Fights in Good Faith,” my weekly radio program, streaming today at 5pm ET and tomorrow (Sun) at 1pm. I’ll update this post when the episode is available to stream. This week’s program is about the Effective Altruism movement ways to resolve tensions between its recommendations and the Christian aim of charity. I gave a [Read More...]
February 19, 2015
7QT: New Riffs on Prayer, Booze, and Logic
Last call to sign up for my book updates email list if you want to be eligible to win an early review of Arriving at Amen, my book on prayer. I’ll be sending this month’s email (where you can enter my lottery) this afternoon. — 1 — While reading an article about why cocktails have wound [Read More...]
Asking a Lover for Too-Limited Support
When I hosted a party to watch The Last 5 Years, one of my guests tried to play diagnose-the-heresy with the two leads and claimed that they were both Pelagians, seeing happiness/success/virtue as simply a result of their own efforts. I disagreed for several reasons, the most important being that I think Pelagians think that a [Read More...]
February 18, 2015
Contemplation and Comment Moderation for Lent
Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent — the season of preparation for Easter. The whole church fasts from meat on Fridays, during this season, and individual Catholics usually make personal commitments to give something up or take something on as a discipline this season. In Lent and in any other time, I sometimes [Read More...]
February 17, 2015
No Villains, Just Inept Lovers in The Last 5 Years
The Last 5 Years tells the story of Jamie and Cathy’s relationship, from the moment they meet, through when they marry, to the moment, five years after they relationship began, their marriage ends. The musical is a series of sung monologues–Jamie and Cathy each telling the story of their relationship in alternating songs, that cover [Read More...]
February 16, 2015
Promises No One Asks the Church to Keep [Saints bookclub]
In 2015, I’m reading and blogging through Ronald Knox’s collection of sermons on Christian exemplars, Captive Flames: On Selected Saints and Christian Heroes. Every Monday, I’ll be writing about the next portrait in the book, so you’re welcome to peruse them all and/or read along. In this week’s chapter, Ronald Knox is describing St. Gregory the Great, and [Read More...]
Love Applied to Charity and Fighting in New Haven
I’m making speaking appearances in New Haven today and tomorrow, so here’s a heads up for students in the area. Effective Altruism and Caritas Yale Effective Altruists Monday, Feb 16, 5pm JE Dining Hall When looking for high-impact opportunities to give, how should we weight the effect that different ways of giving have on the giver? [Read More...]
February 15, 2015
Independence and Injustice [Radio Readings]
You can listen to “Fights in Good Faith,” my weekly radio program, streaming today at 5pm ET and tomorrow (Sun) at 1pm. The episode is now available to download and stream. This week’s program is about the systems we build to administer justice, and the ways that these systems lose our trust Every week, I put up a [Read More...]
