A Big Announcement for the Holidays
Intro
This is Time's Corner, a weekly newsletter by Christian Leithart. I’m co-founder of Little Word, editor of Good Work magazine, and creator of Psalm Tap, a yearly colloquium for church musicians. By day, I teach, and by night, I edit this newsletter.
It’s been a while since the last issue of Time’s Corner, so this one will be on the long side (though nowhere near the length of an average edition of the Anchored Argosy). I have some life and work updates, plus a big announcement.
It’s Here!
Cry havoc, and let slip the big announcement! Yes, that’s right. My first board book, Ear, Hand, Foot, is for sale. Click here to order your copy. (And don’t wait. They’re selling fast.)
Ear, Hand, Foot is a book of Biblical typology with the colorful pictures and happy cadence of Sandra Boynton’s Blue Hat, Green Hat.
(Speaking of Sandra Boynton, her website is bonkers.)
At Little Word, we believe that nothing in the Bible is accidental. No detail is unimportant. Some of them are technical and complicated. Others are simple, like the fact that both Elijah and John the Baptist wear hairy clothes, and are therefore connected.
We also believe that the Bible is full of patterns that you can actually figure out. Once you do, you begin to recognize examples of those patterns throughout Scripture, which in turn helps you read the world around you. The Bible is God’s explanation of the world He made. If we learn to read the Bible, we learn to read the world.
Leviticus 8 describes the ordination rite of Israelite priests. Among other things (like being baptized), the new priest is marked with blood in three places: his earlobe, his thumb, and his big toe. Why these three places? Remember, no detail is unimportant. Let’s take them one at a time. What are ears for? To hear (Ex. 15:26; Matt. 11:15). What are hands for? To build and to judge (Gen. 9:2; Ps. 95:5; Prov. 10:4). What are feet for? To travel, specifically carrying out the will of God (Josh. 6; Matt. 10:14). Once you understand the roles of ears, hands, and feet in the Bible, the priestly rite makes sense: a priest is being claimed by God as someone who hears, obeys, and follows. Christians, as priests, are called to do the same.
I hope you will buy a copy of the book for your own family. And I hope you’ll buy ten to give away. And don’t wait! I wasn’t exaggerating when I said they’re going fast—almost half our copies have been sold.
Order them here.
Maybe you’ve heard of Tim Ferriss, the “life hack” guy? He can be kind of annoying, but his book The Four-Hour Work Week taught me an important lesson: objective, measurable goals are better than vague idealistic goals. “Learn to speak French” is a vague goal. How will you know when you’ve truly learned? It would be much better to say, “Have a fifteen minute conversation with a native French speaker entirely in French.” You could actually clock that.
Ever since I can remember, my dream has always been to be a writer. But I never bothered to define what “be a writer” meant. Write poetry in my spare time? Write ad copy for a small business? Make the NYT bestseller list? Hold in my hands a physical copy of a book I wrote? If pressed to come up with a definition, I would have mentioned this quote from John Updike:
When I write, I aim in my mind not toward New York but toward a vague spot a little to the east of Kansas. I think of the books on library shelves, without their jackets, years old, and a countryish teenaged boy finding them, have them speak to him. The reviews, the stacks in Brentano’s, are just hurdles to get over, to place the books on that shelf.
I wanted to create books that would speak to children the same way my favorite childhood books spoke to me—personally, intensely, intimately. I wanted (and still do want) to create books that children will daydream about when they’re supposed to be paying attention in class. And I want those books to work on them slowly, like sunlight on a young tree, so that the more time they spend in those imaginary worlds, the more they become like the brave, noble, and human characters that inhabit them.
At the end of the day, I want to write books that people will love. So far, the reception to Ear, Hand, Foot is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.
Dispatch from Broken Bow
When I was young, my dad used to rake mazes in fallen leaves and pinestraw. Here’s the one I made for my kids this year. Then I chased them through it, pretending to be the Minotaur.
I went to an estate sale on my birthday and bought this old Polaroid Spectra.
Very cool. Too bad they stopped making the film for it a few years ago.
Links
I’ve been blogging a lot lately, trying to get as close as I can to two hundred posts this year. Most of them are quotes from books or articles with minimal commentary from me. Time, the ever-constant constraint…
I’ve been really enjoying Manuel Moreale’s series of “People and Blogs.” Despite what you might think, blogs are not dead. In fact, they may be the only live thing on the internet once social media has burned itself out.
Upcoming
I’ll be in the DC area for around Christmastime. If you’d like to meet up, let me know.
Westminster’s spring musical (which I will be directing) is Little Women. I have high hopes for this one. I think we have the actresses to pull it off. Performances are March 7-8.
Psalm Tap 2024 is scheduled for July 17th in Birmingham. Speakers and schedule forthcoming.
Up To
Reading: Lots. I’ll be posting reading notes (aka, “reviews”) of the books I read this year over on my blog. Just to keep things mysterious, here’s a list of some of the authors I’m currently reading: Dorothy Sayers, Hilaire Belloc, Vardis Fisher, Lynne Reid Banks, Edward J. Wood, Maxine Kumin, and Amber O’Neal Johnston.
Watching: Taskmaster, a strange British game show. Contestants are given a series of tasks to do—everything from tossing an egg in a pipe to painting a picture in the dark—which are filmed. The show consists of the contestants sitting a studio while the Taskmaster, a tyrannical Greg Davies, judges their attempts. It’s wacky and cheeky and delightful.
Listening: Home for the Holidays
Eating: My wife and I had the unique experience of eating at Tasting TBL, a “supper club” here in B-ham. I’m hoping to publish a blog post about it soon.
Thursday Question
No Thursday question today because I don’t know when I’ll have time to write another newsletter. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear from you! If you care to reply, tell me about the best book you read in 2023.
About
I’m Christian Leithart, a writer and teacher living in Birmingham, Alabama. I’m not active on social media, but you can read my blog here. Use the button below to share this issue of Time’s Corner, if you so desire. Thanks much for reading.