Bianca Keeley

Serving God with trembling and trust. Wife, mother, Classical Education Teacher & Dean. Former lawyer. Opinions my own. Become Christ-like men and women.

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

Hannah is one of my daughter's best friends. Please pray for her; it is a miracle she is alive.

[The Tallahassee Patriots @PatriotsTLH]

Hey everyone,

An Orthodox Christian I met at the CrossRoad 2.0 retreat and just recently saw last weekend at St. Tikhon’s Monastery has been severely injured in a car accident.

Please pray for Hannah and consider donating to her fund.

Lord, have mercy.

https://t.co/n6vz4gZZHB

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

@RepLuna They really think they can continue to do things with impunity, because they have done so for so long, and because, I'm sure, their connections run deep within our own country.

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

@armondboudreaux If we do not see it here, we will not see it after we die (I am paraphrasing one of the saints, and intentionally mixing things up, because they ought to be mixed up).
Beautiful. Water is beautiful.

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

Prepare your children. Christ, martyrs, saints, kings, heroes, mothers, daughters, brave men and women. Your children are not alone. Don't ever let them think they are.

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

@OrthodoxPole81 I don't even have a shovel...

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

Would that we still remembered to honor our dead.
This is why they have stopped teaching the Iliad in schools:

"The Greeks
Had formed around Patroclus a wall of shields
Forward from which they held their spears.
Ajax was everywhere among them, seeing to it
That not a man took one step backward
From the body, or went out in front to show off,
But that all stood together and fought close in.
That was how big Ajax managed it, and the earth
Grew wet with dark blood as the dead fell
Thick and fast on both sides, Trojans, allies,
Greeks too, who shed blood, but less of it,
And with fewer casualties, because they fought
In a tight group and protected each other.

. . .

Around the corpse they kept pressing hard
With sharp spears and killing each other.
Some Greek would say from his bronze mask:

'Friends, there's no point in returning
To the hollow ships. It would be better
For the black earth to swallow us here
If we're going to let the Trojans haul him
Back to the city and win all the glory.'

Or some Trojan would say:

'Friends, even if we're all fated to die
By this body, don't take a step back.'

. . .

Menelaus made his way to his side and said:
'I have bad news, Antilochus. . . .
The best of the Achaeans is dead,
Patroclus. God, that it were not true.
Run to the ships and tell Achilles.
If he acts quickly he might still save the body—
Naked, though. Hector has the armor.'"

(Iliad, Book 17—The Battle over Patroclus's dead body)

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

@OrthodoxPole81 Uzzah in the OT and the idea of "death by holiness" are in the same realm.

[Jesse Sumpter @jesse_sumpter]

Parents shape desires before schools do.

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

Infinity can be found within the finite.
Brilliant portrayal (sometimes "acting" is a poor word).

[The Base @thebasecreates]

“The imminent decay” of England.

Project 39 continues with King John - Act Four, Scene Three.

One of Shakespeare’s least popular plays, King John explores his turbulent reign from 1199 - 1216, especially the disputed succession and tragic fate of John’s young nephew Prince Arthur.

Here Philip Faulconbridge (The Bastard, illegitimate son of Richard the Lionheart) has discovered the tragic death of Prince Arthur and reflects on the decline of the country. The decline of England is a consistent theme in Shakespeare. But this ‘decline-discourse’ has a specific quality. More often than not, Shakespeare’s characters suggest that England, in her prowess, cannot be conquered, but is always in danger of wounding herself.

The critic Harold Bloom thought that the character of The Bastard “redeems” the play. He speaks “his own highly individual language, combines heroism with comic intensity, and possesses a psychic interior.”

The Bastard is played by Mark Strepan

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

@Kilbride_in_ROK @kalezelden As a side note, do I dare hope other people exist who do not like Tolstoy? I am not sure I understand the last sentence correctly—my own bias may be tricking me here. *Fighting stance engaged*

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

Not that reading should ever be pursued for this reason, but one little-known truth is that the one consistent top predictor of college student achievement is the amount of time spent reading every day.
Reading is wealth in itself, but it also has collateral benefits unlike few other human activities.

[Kale Zelden @kalezelden]

We parents must cultivate artificial gardens and force our kids to read.

WiFi is killing our children’s souls. It’s a race to the bottom of the attention hierarchy.

It’s imperative that we cultivate habits of deep reading even if it doesn’t get them into college.

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

No breaks needed lol.
I most definitely did not say that. Student achievement is not the same thing with getting you paid.
The whole point was that spending more time reading and academic success are not divorced.
(One must be like a bee when reading, but that was not the point of my post.)

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

@kalezelden I don't know how people do not see this without any studies. It is everywhere around us. All learning is language-based.

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

@xanon597443 People will always take the truth out of context—I should know ;-)

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

From the wisdom of the Holy Desert Fathers:
"A brother asked abba Poemen, 'If I see my brother sin, is it right to say nothing about it?' The old man replied, 'Whenever we cover our brother's sin, God will cover ours; whenever we tell people about our brother's guilt, God will do the same about ours.'"

[James Bryson @theoeides4]

Jane Austen teaches that evil is apocalyptic—revelatory; yet it must counteracted partly in secret. From a draft of a chapter I am preparing on Pride and Prejudice:

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

Of course. This is about sin, not about wrongdoings. It does not cover those whose very responsibility is to act (though even then exposing is different from acting).
The fathers are consistent in this advice, just as they are consistent in acting when action is needed—see, for example, one of my favorite saints, St. Symeon the New Theologian, who expelled rebellious, disobedient monks from his monastery.

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

Would that we still remembered to honor our dead.
This is why they have stopped teaching the Iliad in schools:

"The Greeks
Had formed around Patroclus a wall of shields
Forward from which they held their spears.
Ajax was everywhere among them, seeing to it
That not a man took one step backward
From the body, or went out in front to show off,
But that all stood together and fought close in.
That was how big Ajax managed it, and the earth
Grew wet with dark blood as the dead fell
Thick and fast on both sides, Trojans, allies,
Greeks too, who shed blood, but less of it,
And with fewer casualties, because they fought
In a tight group and protected each other.

. . .

Around the corpse they kept pressing hard
With sharp spears and killing each other.
Some Greek would say from his bronze mask:

'Friends, there's no point in returning
To the hollow ships. It would be better
For the black earth to swallow us here
If we're going to let the Trojans haul him
Back to the city and win all the glory.'

Or some Trojan would say:

'Friends, even if we're all fated to die
By this body, don't take a step back.'

. . .

Menelaus made his way to his side and said:
'I have bad news, Antilochus. . . .
The best of the Achaeans is dead,
Patroclus. God, that it were not true.
Run to the ships and tell Achilles.
If he acts quickly he might still save the body—
Naked, though. Hector has the armor.'"

(Iliad, Book 17—The Battle over Patroclus's dead body)

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

@dinosaurockee @OrthodoxPole81 Definitely do not be hesitant to approach your priest or spiritual father with this exact question.
For understanding how to read the holy fathers for spiritual help, I could not recommend Fr. Joseph Lucas' book enough https://t.co/SBJ9lLLhft

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

@armondboudreaux @theoeides4 Not all . . .

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

It is political, and I hope it rolls until there's nothing left of what allowed a poor kid to die in the street, at the feet of policemen who should have protected him and helped him.

[Not Josh Firestine @Not_Firestine]

First of all, I happen to know of at least 2 co-conspirators and 1 murderer who do not think it’s a tragedy, and if you’re honest with yourself you’ll admit there’s a whole lot more.

Secondly - I think Britons saw what happened in that body cam footage and saw themselves cuffed on the ground. They saw their own sons. They saw a boy murdered by a weapon that they themselves aren’t legally allowed to carry, wielded legally by a man whose non-British culture makes him a protected class with extra privileges. They had to wait until now to hear about it because the institutions who claim to look out for them hid the murder from them. Nobody reported on it. The government kept it quiet, and now only after the trial has ended, do they mention the story, hoping to GOD Americans didn’t hear about it and report on it. They watched the police, who are sworn to protect them, disregard a boys plea for his life, cuffed him and treated him like a villain, while his murderer stood over his body and watched him take his last breath, still justifying the murder by lying about thought crimes. All the while, native Britons have been terrified of speaking to their own thoughts, under threat of prison for their words, thoughts, and beliefs.

It is political. Britons don’t want to be the next innocent person bleeding out in cuffs because their own police have a policy to treat whites with an automatic disposition of guilt.

It is political because foreigners are allowed to carry weapons they themselves cannot.

It is political because their thoughts and words are crimes, and if someone accuses them of said crime, they cannot defend their innocence - even if they are bleeding out on a driveway.

Policy change is politics. Shame on YOU for using the family’s pain to try and stop what’s coming.

Good Luck from the Colonies, Britain. we are rooting for you. 🇺🇸 🇬🇧

[Bianca Keeley @SafirBlueHawk]

Lovers of Homer and Tolkien, gather up.
The day having been as it has, I thought the Odyssey to be a good choice this evening. As it happens, each time I read it again, I find something new to ponder.

This time, it is this passage about the Phaeacian ships:

"'And tell me your country,
Your city, and your land, so that our ships
May take you there, finding their way by their wits.
For Phaeacian ships do not have pilots,
Nor steering oars, as other ships have.
They know on their own their passengers' thoughts,
And know all the cities and rich fields in the world,
And they cross the great gulfs with the greatest speed,
Hidden in mist and fog, with never a fear
Of damage and shipwreck.
But I remember hearing
My father, Nausithous, say how Poseidon
Was angry with us because we always give
Safe passage to men.'"

(Book 8, ll. 600-613—Alcinous promises a ship to Odysseus to carry him home)

Now think about Tolkien's Silmarillion: the Teleri swan-ships, Vingilótë (Eärendil the Mariner's ship), and especially the Numenorean nine ships of the faithful:

"Nine ships there were: four for Elendil, and for Isildur three, and for Anarion two; and they fled before the black gale out the twilight of doom into the darkness of the world. And the deeps rose beneath them in towering anger, and waves like onto mountains moving with great caps of writhlen snow bore them up amid the wreckage of the clouds.”

What do you think?