My wife’s internet browsing this morning netted two remarkable pieces of cultural interest. The first, introduced to us by an essay at the First Things weblog, is a great song by the Québec folk-music troupe Mes Aïeux. The song’s expression of desire for connection with the land and for real simplicity and good living – and how these have been compromised and largely lost in much of modern culture – remind me of the reading I’ve been doing lately in the essays of writer Wendell Berry.

And, not unrelated, the bizarre story of women who “play house with fake babies”, whom they call “reborns” (strange bit of Christian theological language, that??). Be sure to view the video. Admittedly, these women aren’t choosing dolls instead of real children (we’re not told why one woman is childless, and one of the women is a grandmother), and it’s not quite the dystopian, childless world of P.D. James’ novel Children of Men (avoid the movie if you care about cinematic faithfulness to literature), but it’s still weird and decidedly creepy in a world of lower birth rates and “contraceptive” abortion.