Notes from the Shadowlands

So I couldn’t sleep last night. Now if I had been wise, I would have finished reading the book I’m, supposed to finish before book club tonight, but instead, I watched the show Yellowstone. Yellowstone is an interesting show, it pulls at my heartstrings in many ways. The setting is ranching from horseback and horse training against the beautiful backdrop of Montana, all great passions of my life. I decided to stop watching it, though, because it’s disturbingly dark and some of the ways it pulls at my heartstrings were decidedly not good…more on that in a minute. However, the show got me thinking about power dynamics. The show is essentially about a family who owns a massive ranch in Montana and how they band together to fend off all challenges and challengers. They battle Indian tribes, corporations, and land developers all of whom are trying to capitalize on the beauty of Montana and push the ranchers out. The show certainly sets up their enemies as being overwhelming, which I guess is a requirement for compelling television, but make no mistake; the protagonist Dutton family is rich, powerful, and unscrupulous. They want to destroy all their enemies and led by their patriarch John Dutton (played by Kevin Costner,) they will cross any line to do it. Ironically these were the kind of families who were the villains of earlier Costner period Westerns like Silverado and Open Range.

Anyway, the point about power dynamics is that the show got me thinking. In our culture, we worship power. Even the concept of power dynamics starts with the idea that to hold power is good and to be away from power is bad. Even when we show unscrupulous leaders like the Duttons, we often show them in ways that make their life and lifestyle appealing; this was the part that pulled on my heartstrings in such a dangerous way; it’s a dream of mine to own a ranch in Montana and I could identify with far too many of Dutton’s impulses. It’s not like his impulses are all wrong; he wants to protect the ranch and leave it as a legacy to his children, the same legacy that his father left him. That is a powerful motivation for a man. But in his working of the levers of power, he embarks on a path that will lead him and his family into unspeakable evil. This makes me think of something an Orthodox Metropolitan once told a new Bishop during his concentration service. I can’t quote the exact words, but the effect was that the Metropolitan knew that he was handing the new Bishop great power and authority, but his great fear was that by doing so, he would be leading this man further towards the damnation of his soul. Not that power in and of itself is a bad thing; history and legend hold many examples of leaders who did their best to use their power and responsibilities for good, but there are far more examples of people who used their power for evil.

This points to a large part of what I think our modern discourse on power dynamics misses. To be in power presents a unique set of temptations, temptations that are foreign to someone who has never known power and responsibility, and to seek power, even for the best reasons, is enough to destroy even the noblest of souls. Tolkien understood this quite well as he illustrated with brothers Boromir and Faramir. Boromir, the noble and brave hero of Gondor is overwhelmed by his desire to use the power of the One Ring for good, and it costs him his life and very nearly leads to the destruction of all Middle-earth. Faramir, long my favorite Tolkien character, is not nearly as imposing or accomplished as his brother but ultimately lets the ring slip through his grasp despite his knowledge that bringing the ring home to his father will give him redemption because he knows that the power of the ring will corrupt him and would ultimately cause him to destroy all that his father worked towards.

It seems like many of us in the Church spend much time thinking about power, getting it, holding it, and being angry when we don’t have it. We should be careful what we wish for. As our Lord reminds us, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” All the power in the world, or in Wales, or in the Presidency of the United States, or closer to home, all the ranches in Montana aren’t worth the gain if the price is losing your soul.

It’s that time of year again, time for my neither requested nor anticipated list of top reads for 2021! My only rules for this list are that each book must be a book I read in 2021, and I generally (but not always) avoid adding re-reads to the list unless they were particularly impactful. I once had a rule about not listing multiple works by the same author, but that went out the window a few years ago. I’ve included my top ten favorite reads for the year below and also a link to my Goodreads account for a complete list of the books I’ve read this past year.

Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis

This was Lewis’ final novel considered by many to be his best. It is a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche with Lewis’ brilliant prose and keen insight into the world serving as guides through this powerful and profound tale.

African Kaiser by Robert Gaudi

This is the incredible story of the “Schutztruppe” (Defense Force) of German East Africa during the first World War and their remarkable leader Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. Featuring everything from airships, repurposed guns from a trapped cruiser, and even a fling with a future literary star, this true story has something for everyone and will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Uprooted by Grace Olmstead

A beautiful exploration of the meaning of home and the exodus of youth and talent from small-town America. Olmstead explores the consequences of leaving both for the communities and for the people who leave and in so doing rediscovers stories of people like her great-grandparents and grandparents who chose to make the tiny farming town their home and provides a stirring meditation on the value of a thriving community.

Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides

Sides with his usual engaging storytelling brings us the complex and often messy story of the New Mexico territory in the 19th century, a period that would take it from Spanish frontier outpost to settled American territory. The story closely follows the remarkable life of Kit Carson and the complex and ultimately tragic tale of the Navaho Indians.

In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

In 1933 Berlin, just as Hitler and the Nazis are coming to power, this book picks up the story of the American ambassador William Dodd and his family as they navigate the reign of terror that descended upon Germany. Dodd was a mild-mannered professor who only wanted to be left alone to finish his academic work, yet he could not ignore his growing concerns with the tone and actions of Germany’s new leadership. Meanwhile, Dodd’s daughter was enamored with the prospects of the “New Germany” and was busy philandering with various Nazi officials. These are pivotal times and Larson guides the reader through them with his distinctive flair.

Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall

With colorful maps and a strong knowledge of history and current geopolitics, Marshall argues that a nation’s geopolitical priorities can be defined by its place on the map.

Range by David Epstein

In this ode to the generalist, Epstein draws from examples in the world of business, sports, science, and academia to argue that while the emphasis today seems to be on the value of early specialization, the people who actually have the most successful and fulfilling careers often come to them late. He explores the same research used to argue that early specialization is key to success and then uses that research to build the case that many times, the most impactful people have developed broad interests and diverse experiences, not deep specialties.

The Zealot and the Emancipator by H. W. Brands

This thought-provoking biography follows Abraham Lincoln and John Brown through the tumultuous mid-1800s contrasting Brown’s antislavery crusade and ultimate demise after Harpers-Ferry with Lincoln’s rise from a small-town attorney with unclear views on slavery to his place in American history as the great emancipator. This book tells their story and begs the question of who was ultimately more successful?

Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times by H. W. Brands (I usually try not to include two books by the same author, but I figure that if I can set the rules then I can also break the rules.)

No figure symbolizes the second generation of prominent American figures more than Andrew Jackson and Brands traces his journey from his rebellious childhood, through his time as one of the founding fathers of Tennessee and ultimately to the White House with lots of action, interesting characters, and duels along the way.

O Jerusalem by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre

In this compelling and even-handed work, Collins and Lapierre tell the story of the final hours of British rule in Jerusalem. Drawing from Arab, Israeli, and British sources this book chronicles the desperate scramble for control between Jews and Arabs and the world-shaking figures who created the modern middle east.

If you found these books interesting, check out my full list of books I read this year at the link below. If you have any recommendations or would like to discuss any of the books, please drop me a line!

https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/25827947

A couple of years ago; at the last industry conference I attended before the world changed, I, as one does at such events, walked through the massive hall filled with vendors vying for my attention by offering various giveaways and raffles. It’s really a pretty ingenious model, the vendor scans your badge, thus gaining access to your information so they can send you monthly emails for the rest of your life, and in exchange, you get whatever trinket they are giving out. Socks were the item of the year it seems, and most of the booths were offering variations of socks in all kinds of corporate colors with corporate logos emblazoned on them somewhere. I was fairly selective about the booths I visited, but there was really only one booth that grabbed my attention. It was a booth that gave out various flavors of thick-cut bacon to anyone who would stop by, this of course is a great way to get my attention and I visited the bacon booth as many times as they would let me.

Two years later, all of the socks are gone save for one pair that is simply the most impressive pair of socks I’ve ever owned. They are so comfortable and durable that I found the faded brand name sown into one of the bands around the foot and bought a full supply. Have I ever done any business with the company that gave me the socks? No, I haven’t. And I don’t even remember the name of the company that gave me all that wonderful bacon. 

75 years ago Friday, March 5th 1946, the sitting President of the United States; a man who had never been to college himself, traveled to Westminster College in Fulton Missouri to introduce a guest lecturer, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The resulting speech, delivered by Winston Churchill set the tone for the second half of the twentieth century. It leads nicely into the topic I’m planning to discuss today and if you will indulge me for a moment, I think is worth considering on this, it’s 75th anniversary.

Churchill’s speech was titled “The Sinews of Peace” and the main line that people remember from the speech is Churchill’s phrase “an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.” The term “Iron Curtain” when used to describe the Soviet bloc countries would come to be one of the defining terms of the latter half of the 20th century and would help crystallize our understanding of the Cold War and the difference between the west and the Soviet bloc. Sinew as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “a piece of tough fibrous tissue uniting muscle to bone or bone to bone; a tendon or ligament.” That is to say that sinews aren’t the source of strength, but without them, all the strength of the muscles and bones is useless. Without strong sinews, it is possible to appear strong without actually being strong.

This gave me pause to think about appearances. Humans have been attempting to project the appearance of being something we are not for almost from the Garden of Eden, but it’s never been easier than it is today. Technology and its disembodying influence on our interactions means it is easier than ever to project an image and harder than ever to validate the image of themselves that others are presenting. We see this almost across every sphere we inhabit. In the business world, the primary goals of companies is not to return a strong dividend to their shareholders, but to appear to be strong so as to attract investment. The most extreme examples of this line of thinking are Theranos and WeWork, but there are plenty of other examples. This line of thinking inhabits our political spaces as well with many politicians being more focused on building their personal brand (see Ocasio-Cortez, Alexandria, Cawthorn, Madison, Cruz, Ted, and Hawley, Josh as primary examples) than doing the hard work of actually governing.

I can’t help but think with all the emphasis on branding in our current age, we have created organizations whose “brand” has never been stronger, but are themselves actually weaker than ever. Two millennia ago, the Roman orator Cicero summed up the problem nicely in a letter to a friend “few are those who wish to be endowed with virtue rather than to seem so.” In other words, most of us are more focused on appearing to be virtuous than actually being virtuous. See, when you are focused on making sure everyone knows you have virtue, it leaves precious little time for the actual hard work of being virtuous, and lets not kid ourselves, developing and maintaining virtue is hard work.

My palms were sweaty. I had been sitting there for two hours and was starting to suspect that my name would never be called. When I had first arrived, the row of chairs lined up against the wall across from the long row of cash registers were each filled with a hopeful candidate, waiting for a final interview with a store manager. Now, they were all empty and I was sitting alone against the wall wearing my suit with a copy of my meager resume sitting lap with a mixture of dread and embarrassment welling up in my stomach. My resume was printed on fine paper and tucked into a crisp folder with the word “Resume” printed in gold font across the front; embellishments that I hoped would show how much I wanted the job and overcome the content of my resume which showed my complete lack of experience at well, anything. I was 19 and I needed a job. The camp where I had been working the year previously had shuttered my department and I knew that my income from my beginning violin lessons and whatever random computer repair work I could find would not provide for my immediate needs let alone, allow me to buy a car or move forward in life. 

Finally, a supervisor came over and asked me what I was doing there. It turned out someone had made a mistake somewhere and my name wasn’t on the list to be interviewed that day, but it was still on the list of names to be interviewed. The interview the next week was all but a formality earning me a job making a couple of dollars more than minimum wage stocking and cleaning the shelves at my favorite store, a veritable Shangri La for nerds in the 90s and 00s, Fry’s Electronics.  

Fry’s announced that they were closing their doors permanently this past week, and I’m frankly surprised they made it this long. Their outdated model and legendarily bad customer service finally pushed them into the dumpster of history. 

As a kid, trips to Fry’s were the stuff of legend, not only did they have aisle after aisle of computer parts that I would pinch pennies (plus rebate) to purchase in the vain hope that they bring my hand-me-down computer up to spec to play the latest games. They also had all manner of wonders from transistors to telescopes. Fry’s was the ultimate gadget store. But for me, it was more than that. It was an invaluable teacher. For the sheltered kid with no secular work experience, it was a portal to a world I did not understand. I had worked on the sales floor for 10 minutes when I learned a new expression “FUBAR”, and that it contained a word I had never heard before. I learned that hard work will earn you the respect of the people around you, that hard work must be tempered with wisdom, and that sometimes, a system can be rigged against you and no matter how hard you work, you can’t overcome it and that quitting out of principle sometimes is the best course of action. So thanks for the memories and lessons Fry’s, I’ll miss you, but I won’t miss your childish requirement to show my receipt at the door every time I left the building. 

Commentary from the bleachers — 

— This may be old news to most people, but I saw this week that Starbucks announced that they are closing 500 stores and moving from urban locations with seating to suburban locations focused on takeout and drive-through. As someone who has spent 1000s of hours working from seating in various Starbucks over the years, I hope they don’t get rid of the indoor seating completely. One day the world will go back to normal and the hustle and bustle of a busy coffee shop is one of the best sounds in the world. 

— Bill Gates has been talking about nuclear power recently and has some good ideas. Based on the issues we had last in Texas, maybe it’s an idea whose time has come. 

Here is the list of my top ten favorite books of 2020. The books I read this year that I found most interesting and impactful. Not all of these books were published this past year, but many of them were. The only criteria I have for rating books is did it move me, and did it teach me something? These were books that did both of those things. I enjoyed almost all of the books I’ve read this year, but I found these titles to be particularly interesting, helpful, and in some cases, just plain fun. You can find the full list of books I’ve read this year by friending me on Goodreads.

-Live Not by Lies by Rod Dreher
Expanding on the work of the great Soviet-era dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Dreher explores what it means to live in the truth in an age shaped by lies. With wide-ranging interviews and deep insight into current societal trends, Dreher argues that persecution of Christians may not come to our culture in the way we expect and asks the question how can believers be ready to live in the truth when it carries real consequences?

-A Time to Build by Yuval Levin
Levin looks proffers a diagnosis as to how to build communities and society in an age where outrage and posturing reign and we are often unwilling to work with people who think differently (the last chapter is particularly poignant).

-Educated by Tara Westover
In this moving autobiographical work, Westover tells the story of her childhood and formative years living in a small town in Idaho and growing up as part of a fringe Mormon family. This moving tale reminded me a lot of Hillbilly Elegy and is the story of how Tara grappled with her upbringing and found her way in the world.

-The Decadent Society by Ross Douthat
In this timely work, Douthat chronicles how a society rises and falls and makes the case that we are in the age where we are slowly blasting ourselves apart.

-Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James Hornfischer
Abandoned by incompetent leadership, the men of tiny Taffy 3 find themselves the only thing standing between the full force of the Japanese Navy and General MacArthur’s exposed landing beaches. Out-manned and out-gunned, Taffy 3’s destoryers would charge into the face of battleships in the last battleship engagement in human history. This book is their story, a story historians have called the U.S. Navy’s finest hour.

-Big White Ghetto: Dead Broke, Stone-Cold Stupid, and High on Rage in the Dank Woolly Wilds of the Real America by Kevin Williamson
There is perhaps no finer modern essayist than Kevin Williamson. With his usual brilliant prose, this collection of essays tramps across this great nation telling stories from the farmland, the left-behind small town, the big city, and the oilfield. It is gritty, heartbreaking, hopeful, and always insightful.

-For the Life of the World by Fr Alexander Schmemann
Fr Schmemann puts forward an approach to life rooted in the liturgy and Sacrements of the Orthodox Church and how this experience addresses secularism and the culture of our day and finds answers in the Sacrement.

-A Long Night in Paris by Dov Alfon
Written by a former Israeli spy, this novel is a gripping international thriller that provides interesting insight into the processes of some of Israel’s most elite spy units.

-Socialism Sucks: Two Economists Drink Their Way Through the Unfree World by Robert A Lawson
In this fun and educational book, two economists travel around the world exploring socialist (and fake socialist) countries and detailing what they see and why they work and don’t work and the beers they drink along the way.

-Twilight of the Gods: War in the Western Pacific 1944-1945 by Ian W Toll
In the capstone of Toll’s outstanding Pacific War trilogy, he chronicles the final year of the Empire of Japan and the overwhelming might of the American forces that brought it to its knees. From the sands of Iwo Jima to secret discussions in the Imperial palace and ultimately to atomic destruction, this is a chronicle of Imperial Japan’s Götterdämmerung.

As a history fan who has been a student of the battle of Midway since childhood, I was eager to see the new movie aptly named “Midway” based on the battle. I’ve watched the movie twice now and would like to share a few thoughts on it and perhaps explore the story a bit further. I’m certainly not a naval history expert, but I am a student of the battle and a fan of studying history.

Firstly, I’ve been widely critical of the trend in modern war movies to focus on the individual suffering of those involved in a battle to the exclusion of explaining the broader context of the war in which the story is set. Midway rises far above this bar. In fact, it spends so much time setting up the battle that the actual battle of Midway only gets about 30 minutes of screen time.

In this regard the movie does well getting important details like Admiral Yamamoto’s reluctance to attack the United States, the conflict in the Japanese high command, the significance of the Doolittle raid, the importance of the American intelligence and code-breaking efforts in setting the table for the battle, and the poor quality of American torpedos in the the early months of the war. It even shows Yamamoto’s concerns about leaving Admiral Chūichi Nagumo in command of his carrier force and his trust in the greater competence of Admiral Yamaguchi who perhaps should have been in commend and was ultimately to parish in the battle.

When it comes to the battle itself, the filmmakers correctly show the critical role played by the submarine USS Nautilus and include but don’t dwell on Nagumo’s famous moment of indecision and the ill-fated attack of Lindsey’s torpedo squadron. The movie correctly emphasizes the heroism of Dick Best, Wade McClusky, and the Dauntless dive-bomber crews who ultimately would strike the decisive blows. They include Yamamoto’s last-ditch effort to lure the American carriers into range of his battleships for a night fight and the horrible treatment of captured American pilots and Chinese civilians by the Japanese soldiers and sailors.

I realize that some liberties will always be taken in film, but I do think the movie misses a few elements. The battle of Coral Sea in the prelude to Midway was depicted but the full significance of the battle was not explored. Because of the action in the Coral Sea, Japan was deprived of the services of the Zuikaku and Shōkaku at Midway. These two aircraft carriers were part of the the six carrier “Mobile Strike Force” that attacked Pearl Harbor and had they been present at Midway, they would have given the Japanese an overwhelming advantage in pilots and planes which very well might have been the difference between victory and defeat for Japan. The USS Yorktown on what was to be her final voyage, also receives little attention. The excellent work of her aircrews in sinking the Sōryū and the heroic attempts by her crew to save the ship once she was hit by dive-bombers from Yamaguchi’s final attack are worthy of commemorating. Just as Yorktown was slighted, so was her commander; in their efforts to depict Admirals Nimitz and Halsey as the core American leadership, the film does a disservice to the two admirals who were actually in field command at Midway, Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher on Yorktown doesn’t appear at all and gets no mention for his leadership at Coral Sea and as the man who was actually in tactical command of the American forces for most of the fighting at Midway. Fletcher’s handover of command to Admiral Spruance when he realized that his ship was effectively out of action is a great example of leadership. Fletcher was no fool and he realized that the victor of Midway was going to be a popular hero back home and in the eyes of history, but he did not let that cloud his judgement. He did what his counterpart Nagumo could not bring himself to do by relinquishing command and allowing Spruance to continue the fight and to go down in history as the winner of one of the great naval engagements in history. This leads me to the greatest figure slighted by the movie. Admiral Raymond Spruance was unquestionably the right man at the right place to lead the American forces at Midway. Spruance is depicted by the movie as a colorless figure placed in command by Halsey’s illness. While these events are true, they don’t do justice to perhaps the greatest carrier Admiral in American history. Spruance’s decisions on the timing of attacks and in breaking off the action at the end of the June 4th were brilliant and he would go on to a flawless record of carrier command in the war in the pacific.

As far as film-making goes, Midway is certainly far from perfect, the story is a bit choppy, the dialogue labored and the film leans too heavily on special effects to suite my taste. Still as a depiction of historical events it is solid and while it’s heroes may lack the flash of the Avengers, or of those from a Galaxy Far Far Away, they the are real men and women who lived real lives, conquered real fears, and accomplished real feats of heroism.

Many of these heroes were in their late teens and early twenties when they strapped into the 10,000 lbs of metal, gasoline, and bombs that was the Dauntless dive bomber, took them off of moving ships and flew over hundreds of miles of open ocean towards what they hoped were the coordinates of the enemy fleet. They wandered around trying to find the enemy all the while hoping they had enough fuel to return home and then dove through clouds of enemy fire and while under attack from the fearsome Zero fighters to drop their bombs. Then, they would turn around and pray they had enough fuel left to make it home and could actually find their home carriers. These men are worth remembering and their story is worth experiencing. Midway does them justice.