Tried With Fire

Cranford is one my favorite novels. It's a charming work set in a small town in England in the 19th century and contains all the ingredients an Anglophile like me could possibly want. But in addition, the author, Elizabeth Gaskell , paints an accurate picture of the class system that was entrenched in society. Perhaps that is why I love her character Captain Brown because he defied those conventions. He had to make do on a very limited income but was unashamed and kind to all people regardless of their class. He helped a poor woman carry her meal from the communal bakehouse to her home and did not apologize for this act, even though the Cranford gentry thought he committed a grave social faux pas. Given the influence of the past, I can't help but wonder if we inherited some of those same classist ideas. We ape our betters by trying to keep up with the Joneses. We pretend we live in a world where everyone is middle class and no one we know (especially not us!) is living from p...

I didn't bother following the election returns on social media last night and fully expected to wake up to a Clinton presidency. I am stunned. I voted for an independent candidate rather than casting an anti-vote, so I'm not quite sure how to process my feelings. However, I will say this: America has become even more polarized in the last 8 years, and I fear it is will continue to head in that trajectory. This election has also amplified the fact that American "Christianity" sees itself as political force. Hence all the big names making sure we knew how to vote if we were to be "good evangelicals." Unjust laws should be changed but laws can't change people's hearts. If we put all our eggs in a political/high court basket, we will be sadly disappointed. Things will only change when the church begins to address issues like race, misogyny, poverty, and the sanctity for all life down at the local level. Absolutely preach the gospel, but the gospel app...

I love the novel   Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. In addition to the humor and the delightful characters, Gaskell provides insight into the British mindset of the mid-1800's. I also wonder if she has put on paper what many of us think: “Elegant economy!” How naturally one falls back into the phraseology of Cranford! There, economy was always “elegant,” and money-spending always “vulgar and ostentatious”; a sort of sour-grapeism which made us very peaceful and satisfied. I never shall forget the dismay felt when a certain Captain Brown came to live at Cranford, and openly spoke about his being poor—not in a whisper to an intimate friend, the doors and windows being previously closed, but in the public street! in a loud military voice! alleging his poverty as a reason for not taking a particular house. The ladies of Cranford were already rather moaning over the invasion of their territories by a man and a gentleman. He was a half-pay captain, and had obtained some situation o...