I wrote this as a response to a post I saw on IG. Putting this here as reminder of where I'm going.

Thanks for asking about my thoughts surrounding the lament, common good, etc. My thoughts are not fleshed out at all but this is a very brief outline of what I hope to work through more fully. A bit of background to set it up. I’ve been in a lamentable situation for about 6 years with no end in sight at this point. It has been an extended period of lamenting. I’ve read a few books, have a couple of close friends with whom I can share, but other than that I have been at a loss as to live in this period. And yes, part of the reason is the loss of the practice of both corporate and individual lament. We grieve, but that is short-term.  Last year, at Hopewords writers conference, Andy Crouch’s keynote address was how our best creativity is born out of lament. Yep, there was my key. I practically tackled him after the address to thank him and to pass on another resource.

All that to say this is my current outline for understanding how the topics below are integral to one another.

1)      Understanding what the phrases “common good” and “flourishing” mean. Are they universal and/or local? Does the beatific vision guide us here? I’ve read Jake Meador’s book, In Search of the Common Good, and plan to work through James K. A. Smith’s Kingdom series.

2)      When flourishing/common good are lost due to sin/fallenness what does our grieving and lament look like? Does the loss tell us, show us what has been lost, tell us something about the good that has been lost? Does experience of loss precede knowledge of the good? Does the practice of lament help us to name the loss and the good? If it does, then perhaps the loss of corporate lament has been a larger factor in our loss of common goods. More here: https://fisherlane.blogspot.com/2019/09/recently-i-was-asked-about-lament_30.html

 Working with books by Tim Keller, Wendy Alsup, Kelly Kapic and other essays on suffering, grief, lament.

3)      Creativity, as Andy illustrated, is a natural outworking of those who seek shalom while working from a place of lament. Unfortunately, I can’t lay my hands on my notes, but when I do, I will send you more details on this. (why am I so disorganized when I’m home all the time? 😉 ) Creativity is needed to recognize, repair, recover as best we can the good. I’m compiling a list of books about creativity, theological anthropology, etc.

4)      To recognize, repair, recover will require struggle and sacrifice.

5)      And now to the question that is more difficult for me at this point. Can we come to an agreement on the common good, or that fact just one common good, that we can all agree on and all struggle and sacrifice for? If so, what? If not, how do we go forward?

One of my favorites

The Power of Stories

Becoming Jane

We saw it last night with another mother-daughter couple with whom we have shared a seminary class studying and summers reading and discussing Jane Austen. It is a fictionalized depiction of the life of Jane Austen and included scenes of her reading aloud her works, dances, fairs, boxing matches. It had some scenes that were light-hearted and fun such as when Jane joins a cricket game. But the most engaging scenes depicted affection; either the presence of, or absence and desire of. The sisters' affection for one another, the Rev. Austen's affection for his wife and children were all well done and brought smiles repeatedly to my face. Jane's struggle with choosing to marry for stability or for affection and her heroic act to stop the elopement after reading an affectionate letter of thanks sent to Tom by his mother were all quite poignant.

One important note though, this movie was created out of the very little information we have on Jane Austen. If you have read the books you will immediately recognize many phrases, characters, and scenes from Austen's novels which does add to the enjoyment of the film. As in most cases it is assumed that a writer is unable to portray something that is outside of his personal experience especially in regards to relationships. While this is not a case where an author's life is read into his work, it is a case of the screenwriters reading her novels back into Jane's life. I won't say much about the plot as the movie is just opening in theaters this weekend and I don't want to spoil it for those of you who will see it. I'll revise my post later to included more details.

Essentially the movie is a fictionalized view of a small period in Jane Austen's life and just another in a long line of Romantic movies that insists in that order to be a great artist or even a great person you must throw off social/moral conventions. It was as if the film makers/writers had never read Mansfield Park. Another typical theme was the usual radical feminist view that women are strong and men are weak. This is a theme that is becoming tired and trite. It shows little understanding of true human nature as possessing both marred and glorious aspects and a lack of imagination to be able to portray both aspects in one human. Understanding and imagination that Jane Austen possessed and used to produce Mr. Darcy, Mr. Knightley, and a whole host of others both men and women. Producers and writers would do well to recognize that a film with both women and men being strong even though flawed is not only possible and but just as true to reality as the one-sided approach they maintain.

But, what bothers me the most was who was given credit for all of the clever Janeisms. This movie presented the idea that Jane's ideas for characters, dialogues, catch phrases, etc. came from others within her sphere, not from her imagination and understanding of both language arts and human nature. It portrayed her fictional characters as being based on real individuals and in certain ways she was simply a stenographer. From this outlook I guess I should be expected to believe that Tolkien hung out with dwarves and elves, Lewis engaged in space travel and Rowling showed up at her interviews with broom in hand wearing a Holyhead Harpies jersey. So much for fertile imaginations.


Warning: Be aware there is one very short scene, viewed from the back, with 2 men stripped down to nothing jumping into a river.