Eliza Daley ~ Wordcraft & Musing on Home & Hope
My writing calendar is done for 2021. I suppose I should take my own good advice and refrain from posting through the winter holidays. If for no other reason than I suspect there will be new books to read. May you have a delightful 12 Days and a joyous New Year! Much love from Eliza
https://thebaffler.com/latest/burdened-by-books-zaretsky This article has finally crystalized a growing idea of mine. We need to change how we teach. Fundamentally. We need to train people to read critically and enable them to engage with and reflect upon what they are reading. It is of utmost importance that people be able to determine the merit and reality… Continue reading A Very Short Response to Reading
The stockings are hung. There is a large balsam fir in the doorway that never gets used between the office and the dining room covered with all manner of sparkly flotsam and jetsam. It serves as a fairly decent record of where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing with much of my life. There… Continue reading Wednesday Word: 22 December
Green Man in the cold morning light Today, 20 December 2021, the sun appears to stand still at its most southern point. We call this period of slow change, where day length changes incrementally and then not at all, the solstice, the “sun pause”. In the Northern Hemisphere, this is the winter solstice, the time… Continue reading Sun Stands Still
The second moon cycle in my lunar year is the Midwinter Moon. It is new between 30 November and 27 December; it’s full between 14 December and 10 January. The winter solstice will usually fall in this month, and this moon will be full during the longest nights of the year. It is, therefore, the longest full moon. It… Continue reading Midwinter Moon
Io, Saturnalia! Today we cast off the orders imposed on us from our parasitic overlords and do as we will. Well, we would if our overlords would allow it. Which doesn’t happen any more. That should be telling. Actual slaves in Rome had more freedom than we do. We don’t even get bathroom breaks, never… Continue reading Saturnalia
Saturnalia begins on Friday this week. Much like with Mardi Gras, this holiday is not particularly my thing. But I do relish the breakdown of order. All the more so since I'm not overly fond of most order these days. Tricksters in the Tree The David and David tome that everybody is reading right now… Continue reading Wednesday Word: 15 December
Before Pope Gregory tweaked the Julian calendar and caused a great deal of confusion, 13 December was celebrated as the winter solstice in Scandinavia. The poem by the late 16th century English writer, John Donne, “A Nocturnal upon St Lucy’s Day, Being the Shortest Day” shows that Protestant countries were still celebrating Midwinter in the… Continue reading Santa Lucia
I am reading Sarah Jaffe’s Work Won’t Love You Back. As you can imagine, this is rather like throwing gasoline on a flame. Jaffe’s book is packed with all the things I hate about our working world — or perhaps our not-working world — and she’s put names and vivid life stories with all the… Continue reading The Cult of Busy-ness
In my part of the world, we have reached the days of earliest sunset. Night falls at 4:11pm. Tomorrow will be the same. But Friday, the sun will hover on the horizon for one more minute in the evening. The days will still be growing shorter for a couple more weeks, but that trend of… Continue reading Wednesday Word: 8 December
By My Solitary Hearth 