links - household systems, Dante, knitting, Lent, and more!

Quotidian Moments writes about updating her household systems - not replacing, updating. I like this; it's what I always think of as tweaking. Her musing on this process is thoughtful and interesting. A sample:

Update doesn't have to imply "total change" -- it implies revision, tailoring, starting with the old thing and adjusting it to fit or even to look newer. Remember how young ladies in straitened circumstances would take last season's bonnet and take off the old lace, add some new flowers, so they could enjoy wearing something that looked somewhat fresh even though it wasn't exactly? Like that.

Kerry sent me a link that goes along well with our Lenten read-through of Dante's Purgatorio. It's a blog where the (very educated!) authors are also reading through the poem!

Here's another Lenten post that talks about the idea not just of giving things up, but of taking good things on. Though his conclusion, explaining why we fast, is perfect: "That's the point of denying ourselves during Lent. We want to forget our own power (or the illusion of it) and rely on Christ Jesus, our Savior and King." Yep. Fasting takes away the illusion that we have awesome self-control and that's why everything is going so swimmingly. Nope. It's not us.

Another great Lenten link, Kelly talks about how, in some seasons of life, simplicity is a good Lenten resolution.

Also a bit late, but not too late to use during the season, Kerry's post on a Lenten self-examination.

Katie does two really cool things in this post: she reviews some groovy old knitting books, and she mentions her Lenten resolution - one that I wish I'd thought of before Lent started!

Smithical also has a good Lenten post up . . . I find her reminder that we in the west normally eat like royalty pretty humbling.

You know how they say that Christians divorce as often as the general population? Turns out that's not entirely true . . .

It's not a secret that I'm a fan of Touchstone magazine, but nonetheless, I have to agree with this post. Their March/April issue does look really good.

More wonderfulness from Patricia Wrede, this time on writing "The Big Finish". She talks about what makes a good conclusion to a novel good, including making sure that the biggest climatic scene involves the main plotline, and not one of the subplots. A sample:

But the center of the battle is still defeating the Evil Overlord, and this is what determines the way most readers will see the book. If the Evil Overlord wins, or dies but takes the Main Character with him, then even if the hostage rescue, happy romance, and psychological healing are all wildly successful, the book will still generally be considered a tragedy. If the Main Character wins and survives, then several unsuccessful subplot endings will only make the book “gritty” or maybe “dark” or “realistic,” rather than a tragedy.