Well, it’s nice to see how much more peaceful and orderly things are now that we’ve flipped the calendar to 2021.

I wrote about a new kind of school: The School for Scale.

My newsletter features Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merryman.

Malcolm wishes you a Happy New Year.

H. Jack Geiger, RIP: “The clinic ‘prescribed’ food for families with malnourished children — to be purchased from Black-owned groceries — and the bills were paid out of the center’s pharmacy budget. The governor complained, and a federal official was sent to Mound Bayou to scold Dr. Geiger for misusing pharmacy funds, which, the official said, were meant to cover drugs to treat disease. ‘Yeah,’ Dr. Geiger replied, ‘well, the last time I looked in my medical textbooks, they said the specific therapy for malnutrition was food.’

Wesley Hill: Christ our salvation.

Jessica Martin: “That is the great mystery we ponder on this day, the day of the remembrance of his birth. Why did God confine himself?”

No þinge is meriar þen Ihesu to synge. — Richard Rolle

Gjertrud Schnackenberg, “Advent Calendar”

Currently reading: God’s Hotel by Victoria Sweet 📚

It’s so great to see Tim Carmody writing the Amazon Chronicles again. Tim is an exceptionally gifted writer who has had some hard, hard times.

My local coffee shop/cocktail bar, Dichotomy, does Christmas better than anybody. Even an Advent fundamentalist like me can get behind this. (Especially in this craphole year.)

When I read this essay my first thought is: Thank you, Lord, that Slack is not mandatory or, really, even possible in my line of work.

A wonderful essay by my friend Beverly Gaventa: “I have been teaching for over 40 years. I have taught undergraduates, seminarians, and doctoral candidates. I have taught adult education and continuing education courses by the score. But teaching Greek to an eight-year-old may be my crowning achievement.”

Currently reading: How to Speak Money by John Lanchester 📚

I wrote a post on the relevance of Emile Durkheim to our moment.

Kevin Williamson: “You’ll notice we are not having a national debate about paying off poor people’s mortgages. We could do that just as easily if the self-declared champions of the poor had any interest in anything other than their own status and their own appetites. They don’t.”

I am inclined to think that the single most important political essay published in the last five years is “The Constitution of Knowledge” by Jonathan Rauch. Everyone: please read, mark, and inwardly digest. (And look for Jonathan’s forthcoming book on the subject.)

Here’s a lovely essay by my friend Richard Gibson on charitable writing.

Two years ago, autumn in central Texas was spectacular; last year, wan; this year, pretty darn nice!