Cassandra Nelson

Auspice Maria | A Theology of Fiction:

[Cassandra Nelson @cmnelson71]

A few things make me proud to be from (and in) Wisconsin: the “recombobulation” sign at the MKE airport; three major Marian shrines; plainspoken kindness as the default setting of daily life; and now @CharlieBerens using humor to fight tech companies

[Daniel Medina @dmedin11]

The video got millions of views and @CharlieBerens instantly became the most famous face of a burgeoning resistance movement in Wisconsin that is sounding the alarm on the expansion of hyperscale AI data centers. My @GuardianUS profile. https://t.co/KJikGFCNep

[Cassandra Nelson @cmnelson71]

@duncanreyburn Phew! That makes me feel a little better. My brain kept trying to make it add up and I settled on "exuberance" (like the God who never tires of sunrises, vs. the parent who tires of the children's book on a 34th read). I do love authors who put all their thoughts down on the page

[Cassandra Nelson @cmnelson71]

@duncanreyburn FYI, @Andrew_Stauffer: some intriguingly unhinged marginalia you may want to see (if you haven’t already)

[Cassandra Nelson @cmnelson71]

@sweatersrus @PuseyHouse Very good to know it is possible to attend remotely. Thank you for sharing!

[Nadya Williams @NadyaWilliams81]

Great Books friends: a job opening!

[Cassandra Nelson @cmnelson71]

@MoonRuark Me, I'm wrong like 10 times a day. Sometimes more frustratingly than others. But there's a bedrock hope that however wrong I go, language and Logos will guide me back eventually (that's got to have something to do with the discipline of essay-writing and the discipline of faith)

[Cassandra Nelson @cmnelson71]

@MoonRuark Ha! I actually DO want to write about this now! I feel like there's a tremendous fear of error, of being wrong, right now in our culture, that makes me puzzled/sad. So now I want to write an essay about what's underneath that fear

[Cassandra Nelson @cmnelson71]

@MoonRuark This explains a lot! Some of I was vaguely aware of, about the essay form and why I love it, but I hadn't explicitly connected that genre to...human frailty, I guess? Original sin? The "through a glass, darkly" perspective we have here below? (So thank you and Eric LeMay!)

[Cassandra Nelson @cmnelson71]

@MoonRuark "So, what you’re talking about in terms of searching—that’s built into the essay. You’re like: I’m not quite sure what I want to say, but I know it’s burning within me to be said...For me there’s a great comfort in the fact that failure was built into the origin of the essay."

[Cassandra Nelson @cmnelson71]

@MoonRuark "It wasn’t meant to be perfect. In fact, some of the early essayists felt that if it was too good, it wasn’t an essay. It was something else, a meditation or a reflection or a history. But an essay: it’s messy, it doesn’t quite know what it’s doing...for me that’s very inviting."

[Cassandra Nelson @cmnelson71]

@JMWSPT I was assigned the presentation on Richard Crashaw, and now his imagery is seared into my memory (a kind of fever dream, actually—my shock at Christ as literal mother mixed w/ panic at whether computer lab printers would work and exhaustion). A strangely pleasant memory though

[Cassandra Nelson @cmnelson71]

@JMWSPT In grad school, I took a semester-long class on John Milton with Barbara Lewalski. Sample week’s reading: all of Paradise Lost, plus 200 pp of Of Christian Doctrine, plus one of us 6 students would do a presentation on additional material that Prof L cd not cram on syllabus

[James Matthew Wilson @JMWSPT]

Welcome to the Colosseum.
https://t.co/gLw0QSLRdu

[James Matthew Wilson @JMWSPT]

This is "last call" for the Summer Writers Institute 2026 at @stthomashouston . We have three places left for this summer. Submit your application for this free writers' weekend in Houston.

[Cassandra Nelson @cmnelson71]

@pauljpastor As a former Dept of the Army (civilian) employee, I cannot tell you how alarming I find this development. I find the profession of arms to be a necessary but terrifying and almost sacred duty. This does not benefit servicemembers and their families or U.S. citizens at all

[Cassandra Nelson @cmnelson71]

@suzania But my fervent hope is that all the rest of it will be there, from the Old Masters to the drawings on my fridge

[Cassandra Nelson @cmnelson71]

@suzania This reminds me. I was recently talking to an elementary school art teacher about whether art (e.g., the contents of the Louvre) will be in the New Jerusalem. We decided yes, surely, it must be. Have any actual theologians written about this? (Human artifacts as eternal treasure)

[Cassandra Nelson @cmnelson71]

@suzania And I really really really hope you're right that AI-generated artifacts will NOT be there

[Jonathan Haidt @JonHaidt]

Major new report on global trends in mental health, out today from Sapien Labs. Data from 2.5 million people across 85 countries.

Some of the most important findings:

1) Young adults used to generally have good mental health, compared to older generations. But now, in ALL countries examined, they are doing badly compared to older generations in that country.

2) "Four key factors have emerged that together predict three quarters of this effect. These are diminished
family bonds, diminished spirituality, smartphones at increasingly young age, and increasing consumption of
ultra-processed food."

3) The decline of young people's mental health is "most pronounced in the wealthier and more developed countries." They note that it is in such countries that smartphones are given earliest, junk food is most heavily consumed, spirituality is most diminished, and family ties are looser and often weaker.

4) "A younger age of first smartphone ownership is associated with increased suicidal thoughts,
aggression, and other problems in adulthood."

5) Here is their summary of findings on early smartphone ownership:

"GenZ is the first generation to grow up with a smartphone. Among this group, the younger they acquired their first smartphone in childhood, the more likely they are to have struggles as adults. These struggles extend beyond sadness and anxiety to less discussed symptoms, such as a sense of being detached from reality, suicidal thoughts, and aggression towards others. The effects arise through disruption of sleep, increased risk of exposure to harmful online content, predators, and explicit material as well as increased probabilities of cyberbullying during crucial developmental years. Excessive time spent on smartphones also diminishes the development of social cognition that requires learned interpretation of facial expressions, body language, and group dynamics. The negative impacts are particularly sharp below age 13."

The report is short, accessible, and important. Read it here:

https://t.co/hFGAyoWabs