Blog Post

Beauty, Shoes, & Socks

by Erin Doom

Feast of the Holy Nine Martyrs of Cyzicus

Anno Domini 2020, April 28

Monastery of Simonos Petra on Mount Athos

I'M MAKING a slight adjustment to the format of the Daily Synaxis, partly for your sake - so you can better digest the content - and partly for my sake - so I have more time to get to all the other pressing EDI work.

Thus far you've been receiving a daily feast with LOTS of content.

Henceforth, you'll receive daily appetizers on M-Th in the following format:

Essays et al: one essay, reflection, homily, video, or something of the sort
Books and Culture: a book review and or a poem
Bible and the Fathers: daily bible readings and a Word from the Fathers

Then on Friday, you'll receive a feast for the weekend in the old format, i.e., the following eight pieces: 3 essays, 1 book review, 1 poem, Bible, Liturgy, and Fathers.

Please feel free to share feedback, as this new enterprise continues to evolve (it's now entering its fifth week).

Bon Appétit! Or maybe better put, given the nature of today's first appetizer, Salud!

1. Essays et al: Zapateria by filmaker Travis Lee Ratcliff

If you care about beauty and craftsmanship, you've got to watch this short, three-minute documentary. It concisely and beautifully tells the story of Norman Vilalta, an Argentinian who gave up his career as an attorney at age 31 to become a shoemaking apprentice in Florence. Here are two short snippets from Vilalta in the film:

I make shoes because of beauty, not because of shoes.

In a shoe you will find all the metaphysical characteristics of everything that exists.

Watch the short documentary here.

2. Books & Culture: Odes to Common Things by Pablo Neruda

Neruda was in his late forties when he decided to begin writing one ode every week. Over the course of the next five years, between 1954 and 1959, the Chilean poet published four volumes of 225 odes to ordinary objects and substances, animals and plants, friends and people he admired, i.e., to anything and everything around him.

Back in 1994, Bulfinch Press published a beautiful cloth edition of selected and illustrated odes (25 of them). It's bilingual (Spanish and English) and still available. More recently, Farrar, Straus and Giroux released a single-volume paper edition of all the odes (also bilingual) in 896 pp. You can get a copy of either one at Eighth Day Books.

Here's the opening lines of an ode that goes well with the documentary on shoes: "Ode to My Socks" (you'll have to get the book for the original Spanish).

Maru Mori brought me

a pair

of socks

that she knit with her

shepherd's hands.

Two socks as soft

as rabbit fur.

I thrust my feet

inside them

as if they were

two

little boxes

knit

from threads

of sunset

and sheepskin.

Read the entire ode here.

3. Bible & Fathers: Beauty Will Save the World

Acts 4:1-10, Jn. 3:16-21. Online here.

Today's Word from the Fathers comes from the Archimandrite Vasileios, Abbot of Iveron Monastery on Mount Athos. The Holy Mountain is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, as you'll read in the opening lines to this reflection on beauty. About half way through the reading, there is an echo of St Peter Chrysologus's sermon on Easter (published last week here):

In the new creation, again, a woman becomes the cause of salvation.

The Maiden of Nazareth, unknown and insignificant in worldly terms but humble and pure, is shown to be the one "blessed among women" who receives the Archangel’s greeting and conceives the Son and Word of God.

Read the whole piece here.

*If you’d like to receive the Daily Synaxis in your inbox each Mon-Fri, you can subscribe here.

**All books (and icons) in print available from Eighth Day Books. Please support an independent bookstore that believes in the eighth day resurrection of our God and Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Give them a call at 1.800.841.2541 or visit their website here. And don’t forget Eighth Day Members (Patrons+) receive 10% discount, plus many other perks! Learn more and become a member here.

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