Jason Shankaran

Reading with the 8yo this morning. She’s quite taken with Hector after the scene with Astyanax. I don’t have the heart to tell her how it will go. @TheGreatB00ks @gilliancross

I have never seen this before. It is very beautiful. Christ Rescuing Peter from Drowning by Lorenzo Veneziano (1370). Thanks @BBHerodotus

I had never read The Hobbit prior to reading it aloud to my son over Christmas. The Hobbit now permeates his conversations. The death of Kili and Fili has had a great impact on him. We have just finished watching the Hobbit Trilogy. Reading the book, then watching the films with a child is very moving experience as their emotions are heightened. Each scene was worth a conversation afterwards, whether it followed the book or changed. I’m reminded of the scene with Johnny Depp in Finding Neverland where he places children in the audience to watch the the play Peter Pan in the company of adults. The expressions of wonder and emotion change the viewing experience for the adults. I experienced something similar watching the Hobbit Trilogy with the boy. We are on to reading The Fellowship now.

Say something nice about the Hobbit Trilogy

@prayandfast2 I bought this painting as a present for my daughter this Christmas. She has a fascination with St Joan. She said it was too dark for her (all pink) room but insisted that it go above her reading nook in our library.

"I am not afraid, for God is with me. I was born for this!" - St. Joan of Arc

Today is the Solemnity of St Joseph. Happy Feast of St. Joseph!

Some pre-Easter reading while the 8yo practices with her track team.

This discussion really is exceptional. @Athens_Stranger's tempo, cadence and pace make this a pleasure to listen to for anyone with some knowledge of the source material. Also, he does a stellar job at understanding when has reached a more complicated area or idea. He then goes back or stays on a point to reinforce it before moving on.

Friends, My recording on Thucydides’ entire “archaeology” is completed and I’ve made it available for everyone because of how relevant it is for us today. It took me over a month of editing to ensure none of your time is wasted in listening. I hope you enjoy it. (Link below)

I had never read The Hobbit nor LOTR prior to reading it aloud to my son. The Hobbit now permeates his conversations. The death of Kili and Fili has had a great impact on him. While reading The Fellowship last night we came to the famous passage (neither of us knew it was famous prior to). “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” The boy, let out a deep sigh and said, “Whoa, that’s heavy”. This incredible work of art depicting Frodo and Gandalf was created by @AlanLee11225760

Spent the better part of this morning explaining to the kids the phrase ‘Beware the ides of March’. They did not understand my enthusiasm.

Thanks to @Athens_Stranger for recommending @IvanKenneally perspective on Mark Twain. My morning was spent reading his article in the @hedgehogreview ‘Mark Twain’s Absurd, Noble America’. I would never come across these types of articles without accounts such as these.

@Andrewnsnyder I’ve reread the chapter, Eulogy on Abraham a few times now. The examination of what one believes one’s faith to be and what faith is, has caused me to become less sedative. So far, its reminded me that faith isn’t a comfortable state.

“But Abraham had faith, and therefore he was young, for he who always hopes for the best grows old and is deceived by life, and he who is always prepared for the worst grows old prematurely, but he who has faith – he preserves an eternal youth.” - Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling

@Gentleman_Ways Have a wonderful weekend @Gentleman_Ways

It’s time to sail into the weekend. Here’s to relaxation, good company, and a little adventure. Fair winds and following seas, my friends.

Listening to a discussion by @Athens_Stranger on Thucydides, Plato and Christianity with glass of Japanese whisky. A nice start to the weekend. open.substack.com/pub/athenians/…

@Pergament_F “Dad, don’t you have enough books?” - My 11yo as he accompanied me into a used bookstore. In the end, it was he that walked out of the store with books in hand.

"The buying of more books than one can read is nothing less than the soul reaching toward infinity." A. Edward Newton

@Gentleman_Ways Thank you very much Sir.

@Gentleman_Ways It doesn’t matter how small the room might be, but a study or a personal library that manifests you, will inevitably lead to many contemplative evenings.

Reject the man cave, embrace the study

What an incredibly powerful and moving memorial.

@SketchesbyBoze Agreed. Considering how even plays and theatrical interpretations dramatically change the meaning of the books themselves.

I can't stress enough how important it is that you buy physical books.

@TheJewishAlly 21 men, from ordinary walks of life, who showed us what faith is.

History 11 Years Ago ISIS brutally executed 21 Coptic Christian Workers on a Libyan beach. On February 15, 2015, after kidnapping them in Sirte (mostly poor Egyptian migrant laborers supporting families back home, plus one Ghanaian), ISIS-Libya forced the 21 men—dressed in identical orange jumpsuits, hands bound—onto a desolate Mediterranean shore near Tripoli. The high-production propaganda video, titled “A Message Signed with Blood to the Nation of the Cross,” shows black-masked jihadists marching them in a line at knife-point as waves crash indifferently behind. Each captive was given a final, mocking ultimatum: renounce Christ and live. Not one did. Instead, as the blades were raised, several whispered their last words—“Ya Rab Yesou” (“O Lord Jesus”)—before the killers methodically slit their throats one by one in a synchronized act of savagery, cameras capturing every gurgle, every spray of arterial blood soaking the sand and staining the surf crimson. The executioner’s English-speaking narrator gloated over the scene, vowing to “mix” the sea with Christian blood in revenge for distant grievances. These were not combatants—they were unarmed construction workers, fathers and sons from humble Egyptian villages in Minya, abducted solely for their faith after refusing to convert during weeks of captivity and torture. Their decapitated bodies were discarded in a mass grave near the execution site in Sirte, Libya—not left exposed on the beach as the video implied, but buried hastily to conceal the crime. Families in Egypt waited in agonizing uncertainty for over two years, some villages losing over a dozen men in a single day, clinging to faint hope amid endless grief. Eleven years later, the footage still exists in dark corners of the internet—a calculated instrument of terror that turned cold-blooded murder into global spectacle. The 21 Martyrs are now venerated as Saint by the Coptic Orthodox and the Catholic Church, yet the raw horror endures: ordinary men who chose a slow, agonizing death over betraying their God, while their executioners smiled for the lens. Darkness did not have the final word—but on that beach, it screamed loudest. Repost The Coptic Nation

Some heroes wear capes — Chief Aaron Edwards wears blue.