Well That Was Fun - Part Two

 

That's right, we climbed off the train at EDI (Edinburgh) and bundled into a cab. "Where to, sir?" Good question, "Royal Scots Club, cabbie," and off we went to the RSC. What a great little club. Back in the day it was very much regimental, and it holds that ethos today, which I like. And here's the thing, the RSC's relaxing, civilized, congenial, and altogether worth joining unless you're a Lib, in which case you'd hate it.

After several hearty meet-ups with the President of the Ghost Club, an old friend, we reluctantly left the RSC to Waverly and thence to the halcyon market town idyl that is Ludlow. Watch out, kids, navigate that change at Crewe, and ride the rails into town. And what a town.

Beautiful, medieval, half-timbered gorgeousness. And oh, let's not forget the bakeries, butchers and market, where you can buy all this real food. Real food, far out, right? Back in the day Ludlow had a wall, with gates, portcullis style. Maybe it will again, let the reader understand.

Caveat in mind, we boarded the train to London several days later. It was easy and involved sandwiches, many sandwiches, which you can order from the buffet car. Tasty as you like and then some, but stop. Do you remember dining cars? You know, with white table cloths, waiters and all of that. All gone, apparently, in our progressively awful new world order.

Devolution of Western Civ aside, we rolled into Euston with the North's great unwashed, no bad thing, mind your wallet. From there? "Reform Club, please, cabbie." Quick as a flash, "Yes, sir," and off we went. And thus began the third evolution of this remarkable adventure. Stay tuned for part three of this foray into the beating heart of the Rainbow Caliphate.

Best,

LSP

Benedict Option - Thoughts

 

Have you heard of Rod Dreher's Benedict Option, in which the author suggests Christians set up communities to preserve the culture, tradition, sanity and virtue of the West, of the Church herself, in a sea of barbarism? No matter if you haven't, the idea's not new, think "righteous remnant."

All that and more in mind, we heard a talk on just this at Mission #2 this morning. Good stuff, and big thanks to our Baylor doctoral speaker for giving it. But let's get down to practical solutions. Here we are in a sea of apostasy and secularism, it's the air we breathe. And with that, we're fragmented, atomized.

Case in point. Set up your local church as a true community of faith and sanity against the rising tide of increasingly obvious barbaric wickedness. Good call, but how, when your church is spread across territory half the width of Wales, in Texas. Hardly the local solution Dreher recommends. Problem.

Solution? Catastrophe. What brought Benedict of Nursia to Monte Casino? The call of God, obviously, but also the decay, devolution and catastrophic fragmentation of the Roman State. It wasn't working anymore and, in fact, had been ravaged by war, plague and just about every other terror.

So Benedict, a nobleman, renounced his wealth and withdrew, with a servant, let the reader understand, to what became the foundation stone of western monasticism and the salvation of its civilization and faith. And my point was this. 

If we're to form true counter cultural communities it might just take a disaster to force us into it. That said, wealthy patrons wouldn't hurt.

As a doomer, I wager the former, ask the dam Monkey.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

A Venetian Coronation

 

The Moslem fleet met its end at Lepanto and Western civilization was saved. Don Juan? Death light of Africa, love light of Spain. A glorious, supernatural, tempestuous, pneumatic, wind-driven victory. 

An exuberance of the Faith, if you like. In our own day the threat's no less real, perhaps more so. Swords about the Cross, are you in?

I'm up, just sayin,

LSP