@ReaderJohn I tend to thread this needle by looking to the situation (= plight, mostly) of the Orthodox Christians in Israel/Palestine, which helps me to resist the temptation to root for any of the actors we read about in the daily news.
\nA classmate of my son is now a priest there. Rather than saying that he lives in “Israel” or “Palestine” he just says “Jerusalem.”
@JohnBrady Recently I read two novels by Shirley Hazzard that I’d have to call masterpieces: The Transit of Venus (1980) & The Great Fire (2003). Such fine writing. Transit of Venus has an almost-hidden, heart-wrenching trick ending. A year ago, I’d barely heard of her.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/JohnBrady/90558353","date_published":"2026-05-20T13:03:35+00:00","author":{"name":"john brady","url":"","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2023%2F21%2F25456.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"JohnBrady"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-20 13:03","date_timestamp":1779282215,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90495291","content_html":"@jaheppler Weasels are the worst: (a) they can slither their little serpentine bodies through tiny gaps in your defenses; (b) once they get into a coop they’ll massacre a bunch of chickens for no obvious reason, unlike, say a raccoon, who will kill one chicken to eat it.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/JohnBrady/90495291","date_published":"2026-05-19T16:26:47+00:00","author":{"name":"john brady","url":"","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2023%2F21%2F25456.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"JohnBrady"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-19 16:26","date_timestamp":1779208007,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90454601","content_html":"@JohnBrady. I laughed:
\n>To succeed on Substack you have to understand that everything is a matter of cultural decline. You don’t just post a picture of your sandwich and say “this was a good sandwich”. You post it and say “they don’t make sandwiches like this anymore”. The sandwich represents the West.
\n(via Dense Discovery)
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/JohnBrady/90454601","date_published":"2026-05-19T01:04:13+00:00","author":{"name":"john brady","url":"","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2023%2F21%2F25456.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"JohnBrady"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-19 01:04","date_timestamp":1779152653,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90451255","content_html":"@jabel @mineinmono Every time I read it I spend some time wondering about the dog.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/JohnBrady/90451255","date_published":"2026-05-18T23:46:32+00:00","author":{"name":"john brady","url":"","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2023%2F21%2F25456.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"JohnBrady"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-18 23:46","date_timestamp":1779147992,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90440114","content_html":"@ReaderJohn That was a powerful piece. I spent some time pondering it this morning after reading it.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/JohnBrady/90440114","date_published":"2026-05-18T20:02:42+00:00","author":{"name":"john brady","url":"","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2023%2F21%2F25456.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"JohnBrady"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-18 20:02","date_timestamp":1779134562,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90432012","content_html":"@jabel That’s a fox squirrel all right.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/JohnBrady/90432012","date_published":"2026-05-18T18:06:11+00:00","author":{"name":"john brady","url":"","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2023%2F21%2F25456.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"JohnBrady"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-18 18:06","date_timestamp":1779127571,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90429127","content_html":"@JohnBrady … or was it this one? I went on an Appalachian history spree years ago, read a few histories.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/JohnBrady/90429127","date_published":"2026-05-18T17:21:38+00:00","author":{"name":"john brady","url":"","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2023%2F21%2F25456.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"JohnBrady"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-18 17:21","date_timestamp":1779124898,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90428344","content_html":"@jabel I think this is the book that talked about the farm-and-forest economy as an Appalachian distinctive.
\nI was interested that southern Appalachia mostly stayed Union in the civil war (not many slaves, hardly any plantations); a southern general referred east Tennessee/Kentucky as “Traitordom.” You wouldn’t know it now.
@jabel I’ve started Joyce’s book and remembered this quote. One thought about the peasantry not having a concept of unsullied “nature”: The European peasants he writes about live(d) in a man-made environment, an agricultural landscape. If you talked to an American who lived the “farm and forest” economy of Appalachia – small farming mixed with hunting & trapping in the extensive forests – which existed well into the 20th century, I wonder if he’d feel differently? I don’t know. But I’m appreciating the book greatly.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/JohnBrady/90423989","date_published":"2026-05-18T16:07:41+00:00","author":{"name":"john brady","url":"","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2023%2F21%2F25456.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"JohnBrady"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-18 16:07","date_timestamp":1779120461,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90420830","content_html":"@ReaderJohn I wonder if we’re (finally!!!) reaching the endpoint of “more money makes things better”, or whether we’ll just hang on to that principle up to its complete collapse?
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/JohnBrady/90420830","date_published":"2026-05-18T15:18:34+00:00","author":{"name":"john brady","url":"","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2023%2F21%2F25456.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"JohnBrady"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-18 15:18","date_timestamp":1779117514,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90411283","content_html":"@JohnBrady A few days ago I quoted a recollection of a world when horses were our constant companions, and how that vanished in a few years as cars and tractors took over. Possibly no one alive remembers how the world worked in those days.
\nI remember very clearly how the world worked without the internet. Is this a disappearing resource that I should be using somehow in a helpful way? Already there are many adults who don’t know any world that doesn’t run digitally. I hear/read people say they “couldn’t get by” without the map function on their phone or in their car. How do they think people got from one place to another, only a few years ago? Maybe my own inconsistent Luddism, which seems silly even to me much of the time, comes from a desire to be a witness to the fact that there are other ways of living, not imagined utopias but ways that seemed common in human memory.
@ablerism Ah, we’re neighbors except for an interval of about 35 years! We lived “In Fresh Pond” as local usage has it, used to love walks around the reservoir.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/JohnBrady/90296627","date_published":"2026-05-16T14:30:32+00:00","author":{"name":"john brady","url":"","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2023%2F21%2F25456.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"JohnBrady"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-16 14:30","date_timestamp":1778941832,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90296523","content_html":"@ReaderJohn Maybe my favorite paragraph from the essay:
\n>An Orthodox priest told me that an irritated woman came up to him after the Sunday Liturgy and said, “Father, I didn’t get a single thing out of worship this morning.” He replied, “That’s all right, I wasn’t doing it for you.”
\nIt’s why Ad Orientem is basic, not just a matter of style.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/JohnBrady/90296523","date_published":"2026-05-16T14:26:22+00:00","author":{"name":"john brady","url":"","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2023%2F21%2F25456.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"JohnBrady"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-16 14:26","date_timestamp":1778941582,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90289582","content_html":"@ReaderJohn I stopped trimming my beard several years ago. Fortunately I’m old, so it doesn’t grow down to my waist. I used to wear a bow tie in formal settings, but stopped when I realized no one could tell if I was wearing one. Don’t use any products on it: it seems to do ok on its own.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/JohnBrady/90289582","date_published":"2026-05-16T11:57:59+00:00","author":{"name":"john brady","url":"","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2023%2F21%2F25456.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"JohnBrady"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-16 11:57","date_timestamp":1778932679,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90259350","content_html":"@ReaderJohn For sure. Red squirrels are a different species. We watched one attack a robin’s nest outside our kitchen window and eat the eggs(or chicks) while the parents squawked helplessly. It’s all Circle of Life I know, but it soured our opinion of the nasty little things.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/JohnBrady/90259350","date_published":"2026-05-15T21:36:54+00:00","author":{"name":"john brady","url":"","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2023%2F21%2F25456.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"JohnBrady"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-15 21:36","date_timestamp":1778881014,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90251628","content_html":"@jabel I have fond memories of IN’s enormous fox squirrels. Once our cat was stalking one in our back yard in Richmond. The squirrel turned around and faced him down. The cat backed off and retreated in shame. Rodents 1, carnivores 0.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/JohnBrady/90251628","date_published":"2026-05-15T19:26:18+00:00","author":{"name":"john brady","url":"","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2023%2F21%2F25456.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"JohnBrady"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-15 19:26","date_timestamp":1778873178,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"90246310","content_html":"@ablerism It was made into a movie that was ok in its own right, but astonishingly managed mostly to edit out the Xtian theme.
\n","url":"https://micro.blog/JohnBrady/90246310","date_published":"2026-05-15T18:03:53+00:00","author":{"name":"john brady","url":"","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2023%2F21%2F25456.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"JohnBrady"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2026-05-15 18:03","date_timestamp":1778868233,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":true,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":true}},{"id":"73179125","content_html":"Divna Ljubojević - Agni Parthene. I listen to this often.
\n","summary":"","url":"https://abbamoses.micro.blog/2025/09/02/divna-ljubojevi-agni-parthene-i.html","date_published":"2025-09-02T15:51:43+00:00","author":{"name":"john brady","url":"","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2023%2F21%2F25456.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"JohnBrady"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2025-09-02 15:51","date_timestamp":1756828303,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"72249521","content_html":"I’m drifting toward being one of those “Workflowy for everything” cultists.
\n","summary":"","url":"https://abbamoses.micro.blog/2025/08/21/im-drifting-toward-being-one.html","date_published":"2025-08-21T20:17:16+00:00","author":{"name":"john brady","url":"","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2023%2F21%2F25456.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"JohnBrady"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2025-08-21 20:17","date_timestamp":1755807436,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}},{"id":"69868116","content_html":"Bill Kauffman on artists spurning state sponsorship:
\n\n\n\n\nConscientious objectors who wish neither to wield nor submit to power are as impractical as unemployed poets, whiskey priests, and dandelions.
\n
The libertarian/anti-statist view has never had much of a constituency, but I’ve been thinking about how rapidly it seems to be losing ground these days.
\n","summary":"","url":"https://abbamoses.micro.blog/2025/07/18/bill-kaufman-on-artists-spurning.html","date_published":"2025-07-18T15:32:04+00:00","author":{"name":"john brady","url":"","avatar":"https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/96/https%3A%2F%2Favatars.micro.blog%2Favatars%2F2023%2F21%2F25456.jpg","_microblog":{"username":"JohnBrady"}},"_microblog":{"date_relative":"2025-07-18 15:32","date_timestamp":1752852724,"is_favorite":false,"is_bookmark":false,"is_deletable":false,"is_conversation":false,"is_linkpost":false,"is_mention":false,"note":"","syndication":[]}}]}