Distributism, Chesterton's "The Outline of Sanity" is a Place to Start

At the October meeting of the Chillicothe Chesterton Society we, both of us, decided we'd talk about Distributism at the November meeting. So I asked Richard Aleman, a Facebook Friend and the president of The Society for Distributism, to recommend a book to get us started. He and Sean Dailey recommended Chesterton's "What's Wrong With the World" and "The Outline of Sanity". They also recommended Hilare Belloc's "The Servile State". I've got the first two books and will have to order Belloc's. There are also a few blogs and web sites that have a lot of information. In fact I found it overwhelming, so I'm going to concentrate on the first two books as I get started learning about Distributism.

October 21st Meeting

(Pictured above are, from left to right, Tim Binkley, Andrew Thurston, and Bob Cook)
A small, but dedicated, group gathered to discuss all things Chesterton. We began with Lepanto. I had loaned Tim my copy of Christopher Check's CD presentation of "Lepanto: The Battle and the Poem". He was able to listen to it on his drive to work. He said he found it fascinating. Mr. Check's presentation added significantly to his enjoyment of the poem. I'd have to agree. I've listened to the CD several times and always found something new and interesting. The CD is still available from St. John Fisher Forum.

We then talked about many different things: Anita Dunn, White House Communications Director, whose favorite philosopher is Chairman Mao; Charles Krauthammer's latest article in The Weekly Standard, Decline is a Choice; Nancy Brown's facebook post of the Silent Monks Singing Halleluia; a little about Handel and his composition, The Messiah; why people ususally stand for the Hallelujah chorus; (an aside from Wikipedia -- There is another story told about this chorus that Handel's assistant walked in to Handel's room after shouting to him for several minutes with no response. The assistant reportedly found Handel in tears, and when asked what was wrong, Handel held up the score to this movement and said, "I thought I saw the face of God."); and finally, Distributism. I know little, if anything about Distributism. I did know it was related to the Catholic social doctrine of subsidiarity. So we agreed that at out next meeting we would educate each other a bit on Distributism. We'll be using information gleaned from the references on Richard Aleman's facebook info page. We should learn a lot!

Leaving Chesterton books lying around sometimes attracts new readers. (There are several on the bookshelf at Schlegel's.) Here, Julie, displays the Chesterton book she's currently reading. While she didn't join us Wednesday evening, she has found she enjoys the Father Brown stories.

September Issue of Gilbert Arrives

I found the current issue of Gilbert in my mailbox when I returned from work today. A nice way to end my workday and begin my evening. I noted a clever Clerihew on page 49.

Giacomo Puccini

Liked linguini

Had he filmed Tosca

He would have won an Osca.

I'll have this issue available for review at our next meeting, Wednesday, October 21, at Schlegel's Coffee House.