21 Comments

What a sweet, sweet remembering. Neither my husband nor I care about the privacy rules and don't care if we're mentioned by name. I the picture you painted of everything and everyone -- you're such a poet and see so much good in the world, and that shows in how you speak and write excellently!

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Oct 29Liked by Amelia Buzzard

Wonderful description! I hope you've sent it to the conference organizers-- to everyone attending, in fact-- to encourage them.

Of the list of books, I've only heard of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which indeed is good. It explained Kant to me.

I went to a conference in San Diego last week that wasn't nearly so inspired, but it was constrained by the topic, a misguided new Marxoid economics movement in law schools.

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Dad, you would have LOVED this group of people. Reminds me a lot of our congregation in Bloomington. Lots of Andrew Henry type guys who work with their hands and their minds. (@ those guys, if you are reading this comment and want to start an actual philosopher tradesman network, please contact holster-manufacturer Andrew Henry of Bloomington IN at https://www.henryholsters.com/.)

I will also definitely send you the IVF family law essay from Jeff Shafer (a lawyer who works with New St Andrews) when it comes out. I'm grateful God opened Mom's womb before you could make an IVF child!

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This conference sounds like my dream weekend...maybe one day there will be something similar in the UK! Thanks for writing up your experience, these themes occupy a lot of space in my brain so its heartening to know that others are feeling and thinking the same way.

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You know, anybody can organize a conference, as just an invitation to intellectual friends to come to town and talk about stuff. We should do that. I know someone who organized a conference like that for her husband's 50th birthday.

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Ok this is a very valid point and I’m almost embarrassed because I am actually an event planner by trade…weddings not conferences but how different can it be 😅

I wonder how many people would be interested in something like this…food for thought.

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If I can help organize something like this, ANYONE can.

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I'll second that. It is a long term ambition of mine to start something like the Front Porch Republic here in the UK. I went to their conference in Madison last year which felt like a homecoming.

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Wow, what a spledid tableau you painted here - wish I could have been there! These are the types of live-giving conferences we need to seed and spread. Thanks for sharing and hope your voice feels better :)

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Thank you! The Doom things are so heavy. I find it hard not to hide or rant, but it's still just as simple (and hard) as clinging to Christ and His Body.

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Oct 29Liked by Amelia Buzzard

How does one get invited to such a conference…. (I’m in the Catskills)

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Hey Celia! I found these people rather serendipitously. I think Paul Kingsnorth announced it in a Substack post, and I registered within 20 mins. To meet up with these people at future events, I would recommend following publications like Plough, Front Porch Republic, The Free Press, First Things, Paul Kingsnorth's Abbey of Misrule. For podcasts—Doomer Optimism, maybe Beatrice Institute Podcast. One of our conclusions was that one of the most important things we can do to fight the Machine is to convene, so I'm sure more such events are forthcoming.

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Also, three of us live in Ithaca. So, if you're ever visiting, let me know!

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The best such description of a gathering I've come across. I can see it.

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You saw some of us in Madison last year.

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Oh, I'm sure!!

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The literature recs will be a capsule for posterity :)

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I love the fact that you're open and curious. More people need to be that way.

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Thank you, dear Nadia

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A fiddle? Which songs were you playing and singing to the point of sickness?

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The linked YouTube vid is one of them! Mostly classics like Country Roads, Stand By Me, and some Springsteen.

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