{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/3809",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 3809,
    "subject": "Silk and St. Francis",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2003-01-25T01:54:24+00:00",
    "last": "2003-01-25T01:54:24+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0301-2811@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Michael Straight",
        "address": "straight at email.unc.edu"
      },
      "date": "2003-01-25T01:54:24+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) Silk and St. Francis",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 2,
          "text": "Waay back on Wed, 23 Oct 2002, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote:\nHere's a connection I've never teased out before: Silk is (in\npart) St. Francis of Assisi, who lived from 1181 to 1226, in\nUmbria;"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "Yes ... his preaching to animals (and birds in particular)\nshould make that clear."
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "There's a *much* stronger connection.\n\nAccording to G.K. Chesterton's biography of St. Francis, Francis began his\ncareer when he heard a voice saying to him, \"Francis, seest thou not that\nmy house is in ruins?  Go and restore it for me.\"\n\nChesterton:  \"Francis sprang up and went...In the coarse conventional\nlanguage of the uncomprehending world, he stole.  From his own\nenthusiastic point of view, he extended to his venerable father, Peter\nBernardone, the exquisite excitement and inestimable privilege of\nassisting, more or less unconsciously, in the rebuilding of St. Damian's\nChurch.\"\n\nSo Francis takes the vision too literally, thinks he's supposed to rebuild\na particular run-down church building, tries to steal money to do it but\ngets caught and gets in trouble.  Then he goes around begging for stones\nto rebuild various churches.  Only later does he seem to realize that he\nwas being called to love, inspire, and thus help restore the people who\nare the Church, rather than saving the buildings they meet in.\n\n-Rostrum"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}