Are you going to the Eighth Day Institute event this weekend in Wichita? Come drink beer and talk about mystery and grace with James K.A. Smith, Bishop James Conley, Your Working Boy, and a bunch of other good guys. My wife Julie and I are sitting by the fire, and I’m working on the talk I’m going to give on Dante. She’s online, and was just looking at the Eighth Day Institute and its pomps and works, especially The Catechetical Academy, and is very, very jealous that I get to go. Said she, “Oh my gosh, if I were a single young Christian woman, I would move to Wichita, get a job at Eighth Day Books, and just stand near that Hall of Men and say eenie, meenie, miney, mo.”

She explained that she doesn’t mean “get an MRS. degree,” but rather that the kind of young men who are serious about God, books, ideas, learning, and agrarianism are the ideal that young women who are too ought to be looking for. So there you have it. And if I were a single young Christian man, I would find some way to live, at least for a time, in Wichita, where they are living and doing the Benedict Option in and around Eighth Day Books.

I hope to see you in Wichita in a few days. Registration is limited, so if you’re going, get on it. A little more information about it is here.