Angels Over Budapest

And: 'Life remains a blessing/Although you cannot bless'

That is the Hungarian parliament building, from my side of the Danube last night. But those are not stars in the sky. They’re moving. Look at the video from my tweet:

Rod Dreher @roddreher

Bizarre aerial sight just now over Hungarian parliament in Budapest. I am told these are birds.

These are gulls, to be specific, or so I’m informed. It was fun to imagine that they were a chorus of angels singing hymns of protection in the night sky. Watch that clip and tell yourself these are angels. It’s charming.

Sympathy For Lot’s Wife

Here’s a poem, “Lot’s Wife,” by Anna Akhmatova:

And the just man trailed God's shining agent,
over a black mountain, in his giant track,
while a restless voice kept harrying his woman:
"It's not too late, you can still look back

at the red towers of your native Sodom,
the square where once you sang, the spinning-shed,
at the empty windows set in the tall house
where sons and daughters blessed your marriage-bed."

A single glance: a sudden dart of pain
stitching her eyes before she made a sound . . .
Her body flaked into transparent salt,
and her swift legs rooted to the ground.

Who will grieve for this woman? Does she not seem
too insignificant for our concern?
Yet in my heart I never will deny her,
who suffered death because she chose to turn.

That precisely captures the risk of nostalgia. It came to mind this morning as I was struggling to wake up, and found my mind drifting back to the good times in the life of my marriage, and my family. Under what circumstances can happy memories cause spiritual death? Let’s talk about it.