A Week in the Life: March 3-9, 2025
A blessedly normal week in most ways, but I see that most of my media diet has been driven by my children in one way or another. I'm waiting on a Phish 201 syllabus from my buddy Andy for our next bookclub meeting, so much of what I listened to this week was in service of broadening the music my kids are exposed to. In my reading, I've turned my recent urge to read more to focus on history in advance of our upcoming short trip to Boston.
I put aside Wendell Berry this week, but I thought about him a lot nonetheless. As we sat in church this morning, I reflected on how I've been brought back into the flock, so to speak, through Berry's repeated illustrations of the importance of community connections. My Catholic upbringing leads me to feeling guilty that I'm not there in service of a more properly devout "faith," but I trust that needing to be connected to something greater than myself is reason enough.
I also thought about Berry's Port William often as I read about the founding of the "Appalachian Nation" in Colin Woodard's American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regions of America. Many of my doubly distant kinsmen ended up in places very much like Port William, Kentucky, and while such a place seems so far from my experience, I can see the affinities between my extended family, Berry's characters, and Woodard depictions of the settlers of the region.
Books
American Nations, Colin Woodard (started): Started this for a newly formed bookclub of two that will be in search of "fascinating reads" and probably genre fiction. This book fits the former designation, and it posits a theory that there are 11 cultural "nations" that make up the US, and by understanding where the people of those nations came from and what they have historically prioritized you can better understand everything from the Civil War to why neighboring counties might vote blue and red in elections. Having finished the first part of the book, it's pretty compelling as an argument and completely fascinating as a read. Seeing the germs of the foibles of my family made up of Scots-Irish and German immigrants has been eye-opening and all too familiar in some ways.
The British Are Coming, Rick Atkinson (continued): This depicts the war, even before Washington's arrival as General (which I just read), as far bloodier and more gruesome than I had ever realized - though I probably haven't given the Revolution much thought since I last learned about it in school. I remember it being given to me as an underdog story in 5th grade or so, and then in high school I think we focused more on the founding of the government and the new nation rather then the very real battles with the old one. It's been a great read so far, and we're taking the kids to Boston at the end of this week, so I'll be ready to tell everyone in the family a bunch of stuff they don't really care to know. I'm leaning into the dad-ness of it all.
Family Romance: John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers, Jean Strouse (started): I love Sargent's work and wish I knew more about it, so here we are. I've just cracked the first few pages, but my hopes are high.
Music
The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Revolver: My son has become a Beatles fan, and I welcome the development with great relief. In part, I suspect his interest is a reaction to the other kids in our car pool who only want the Top 40 channels on XM. Another part of it is probably a desire to please me, which is both adorable and fleeting, I know. Finally, I think he actually really likes it for its own sake. It's a giant leap from the emo soundscape of YouTube videos that he usually goes for.
We sat down with some albums this weekend, and he poured over the covers and lyrics like so many before him. He prefers Sgt. Pepper's to Revolver and he's a staunch Ringo man at this point. His growing interest in "A Day in the Life" gives me hope that he'll grow into a John or, dare I hope, George fan, but I suspect he's already wary of Paul. Smart lad.
Sensing my opening, I tried to get him and my 6 year-old daughter interested a few other songs I thought they'd go for. She requested "the song with the guys in the car":
And then she went hard for the Beastie Boys, and I couldn't be more proud.
Finally, we finished the lesson with the best version of "Stairway" I've ever heard:
Episodes and Articles
This Old House: S37:E01-5: This is an older season that features both Norm and Kevin, who, for some reason, I have decided is a dunce despite the fact that he seems like a perfectly nice guy. Oh, it also has this guy from the Episode 1 thumbnail on Tubi:
I love watching this show, but I can't help but wonder the obvious question: Where do these people get the money to do these projects? It's no House Hunters, but come on: "Well, we've obviously spent millions on this house that we're gutting, but the budget is really going to decide what we do with this claw foot cast iron bathtub. What's that you say, Dunce? Our sewer line is made of clay and will disintegrate the next time we flush it? Of course we can replace that without blinking - and let's add the butler's pantry we had discussed in an earlier episode..."
A Rare Version of a Shakespeare Sonnet is Discovered (New York Times): This version of Sonnet 116 seemingly recontextualizes the poem to be read "more as a celebration of political loyalty than romantic love." I love these kind of discoveries, mostly because they reinforce my belief that literary meaning is fluid.
Games
I'm about to win my first game of Civilization 7, and I found myself printing out paper with hexagons printed on it to better understand how to plan out my cities. I spent a good amount of time with this video as well from One More Turn:
I literally dreamt about adjacency bonuses this week the same way I used to see Tetris pieces falling as I fell asleep in my Gameboy days. I've said this before, I think, but the immersive quality of this game is, for me, pretty much unmatched. I start it and think about nothing else until I realize it is far past my bedtime. It's my ultimate entry State of Flow and pure escapism.
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