The North Shore & A Canticle for Leibowitz
Updates August 12 - August 18, 2024
The Superior North Shore
Last week, we went on a family vacation to the North Shore. We spent four days in the area around Duluth and Two Harbors, Minnesota. It’s home to two of my favorite spots in the world: Split Rock Lighthouse and Gooseberry Falls. I have been visiting these places since I was a child, and now, I am sharing that with my own children.
My friend, Andrew Snyder, recently said that “most men, whether consciously or unconsciously, are frustrated by never going on sea voyages.” If you’ve never been to the North Shore before, then I can tell you that it is an enchanted land. The rocky shores of Lake Superior are liminal places that impress on the traveler a desire for change and adventure. The cold, vast water is full of promise and peril. My childhood returned to me as I crawled down slopes and balanced precariously across wet, slippery stones. Even Minnesota can be a land of sea-faring adventure, though we’re hundreds of miles from the ocean.
I even bought a collection of ghost stories that take place on ships on the Great Lakes.
As I am writing this, I am realizing that some sort of change did take place. My wife, son, and I all developed a bad case of rock fever, in that we feverishly started collecting rocks. So far, we have collected agate, quartz, basalt, diorite, gabbro and others. The rocks that can be found on the pebble beaches are so beautiful that some look like they’re fragments from the Mountain of Paradise.
I have been watching hours of rock tumbling videos and I am not ashamed of it.
A Canticle for Leibowitz Book Club
I have been putting off the “I Might Believe in Fairies” book club discussion of A Canticle for Leibowitz for a few weeks. I believe I am ready enough to host the discussion now. I am thinking we can discuss it this week, Thursday August 22, 2024 at 09:30 AM Central Time.
Remember, all you need to do to participate in the discussion is become a paid subscriber on this substack. The episode is available for free for everyone after it is released. If you really want to participate in the discussion and don’t have the funds, then message me on Notes.
I will put out a link to the Google Meets meeting later this week for paid subscribers.
God Bless!
We are on the Washing Coast right now. Water itself is a liminal space wherever I have gone. I would love to visit Ireland or Wales again, but this place will have to do for now. We have no holy wells or ancient beehive huts, but perhaps I can bring the Saints with me.