Tea at Trianon: Trending or Tradition?

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Trending or Tradition?

From Crisis:

The two essential components of the parent-child relationship are attachment and orientation. Attachment begins in infancy with tangible practices such as rocking and carrying. If all goes well, attachment to parents grows and progresses with the child beyond the physical to include emotional and psychological attachment that can withstand temporary physical separation. Healthy attachment need not be limited to parents; it can expand to include grandparents and other trusted caregivers and teachers. Within the context of attachment, children naturally take their cues from adults and respond to discipline.

The related concept of orientation describes children’s need to make sense of the world and their need to be shown how to grow up. In the normal course of development, children’s inner compasses point to their parents for answers to these questions; that proper orientation, however, is by no means guaranteed. Like attachment, orientation must be solidly established and actively maintained. Orienting your child can be accomplished by major things such as modeling healthy communication with your spouse and by seemingly minor things such as telling your child what to expect from a new place where you are going. (Read more.)