CivicSophisticate

11/01/2024

It's that time of year when all of the spooky stories come out! Enjoy this week's edition of Think On These Things with none other than "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". There are some wonderful literary lessons in this short story.

Enjoy!

https://open.substack.com/pub/civicsophisticate/p/a-literary-halloween?r=1tgfoo&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

10/05/2024

📚"When we immerse ourselves in great literature, we have an opportunity to elevate our thinking, expand our knowledge, and increase our understanding of all sorts of things." - Think On These Things.

The wisdom contained in Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" is well worth your time! You can get a glimpse of his genius by checking out the latest edition of Think On These Things...and be sure to pick up the novel and read it for yourself. Grab a cozy cup of coffee or your favorite glass of wine this weekend and start your journey into one of the greatest novels of all time! 📚📖☕📚📖🍷

📣Also - if you haven't subscribed directly to our Substack yet, why wait?! You can get these excerpts delivered directly to your inbox every other Friday! Be sure to subscribe (it's FREE!) when you check out the link below. 📣

https://open.substack.com/pub/civicsophisticate/p/the-greatest-novel-of-all-time?r=1tgfoo&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

09/20/2024

It's another Friday and you know what that means - it's time to Think On These Things! Check out the latest edition today, delivering some beautiful poetry from the great Robert Frost to head into your weekend. Perhaps you'll be inspired to enjoy his favorite landscape - the great outdoors! 🌳🪻🌼🌿🫐

https://civicsophisticate.substack.com/p/insight-from-an-old-soul-and-the?r=1tgfoo

09/17/2024

On this Constitution Day, we thought it might be fun to do a little knowledge check!

Did you know that the United States has the longest standing constitution in the world? Our national inheritance is rich, indeed, and core to our mission at CivicSophisticate is to help educate in order to preserve and improve the remarkable nation that we have, which has been core to the founding and its original documents from the beginning.

Here are a handful of resources where you can delve deeper to expand your knowledge about this document, its drafting, and its structure that has stood the test of time.

- Introduction to the Constitution: https://online.hillsdale.edu/courses/promo/intro-to-the-constitution
- About the Constitution: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution/how-did-it-happen
- Transcript: https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript
- The Federalist Papers: https://guides.loc.gov/federalist-papers/full-text
- The Great American Story: https://online.hillsdale.edu/courses/promo/the-great-american-story
- The Real American Founding: https://online.hillsdale.edu/courses/promo/real-american-founding
- Think On These Things: https://civicsophisticate.substack.com/p/we-hold-these-truths?r=1tgfoo

09/06/2024

🎨🖼🤔It's Think On These Things Friday! Enjoy some fine art this edition, along with some inspiration from a profound experience that one man had after encountering Rembrandt's work. 🎨🖼🤔

You can read this week's full edition here:
https://open.substack.com/pub/civicsophisticate/p/when-art-speaks?r=1tgfoo&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

08/27/2024

📣Hey CivicSophisticate followers, we need your help! 📣

Thanks for being a part of our small but growing community! Did you know there are a couple of ways you can be a part of our mission to build an educated and civil society? Here's how you can help!!

✅ Subscribe to our Substack, Think On These Things. (link below - it's FREE!) 👇
✅ Share our FB page or Substack with others who may appreciate engaging with this learning, thinking community.
✅ Engage! Comment on our posts, share them out, and become a part of the conversation.

Thanks for being a part of our CivicSophisticate community!

https://civicsophisticate.substack.com/

08/23/2024

Happy Friday! If you need some encouragement to maintain your sanity and civility during this election season, we've got you covered. Check out this week's edition of Think On These Things for some helpful insight to navigate today's most pressing issues through the lens of history's most powerful lessons.

Plus - who doesn't want to watch the Hamilton Cabinet Battle scenes to spice up your Friday?! 🎤🎬🎵

https://open.substack.com/pub/civicsophisticate/p/nothing-new-under-the-sun?r=1tgfoo&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

08/09/2024

Before there was talk of GOATs, there was talk of greats...

Catch this week's inspiration over on Think On These Things as we explore one of the greatest operatic sopranos of all time, Leontyne Price.
We'll see:
✨her moment of inspiration
✨her moment of invitation
✨her rise to greatness
✨her moments of reflection

🎵🎶And also, you'll want to hear her glorious singing 🎵🎶

https://civicsophisticate.substack.com/p/madame-leontyne?r=1tgfoo

07/26/2024

📚☀️🍹When was the last time you picked up one of these timeless tales?! Grab a cool drink this weekend and set yourself up with a good read (or re-read)! Classic literature is good for lots of reasons - and children's stories are some of the best. C.S. Lewis described this well when he noted:

"It is usual to speak in a playfully apologetic tone about one’s adult enjoyment of what are called ‘children’s books’. I think the convention a silly one. No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty – except, of course, books of information. The only imaginative works we ought to grow out of are those which it would have been better not to have read at all."

Indeed, there are lessons to be learned, adventures to be had, and knowledge to be gleaned from great literature. They teach us about human nature. They allow us to dream. They cause us to wrestle with difficult things. They educate us with new words and worlds. They reveal to us what life was like for generations past. They reproach and inspire us when we find elements of ourselves in the characters.

Above all, good stories help us learn to decipher the stuff of Truth, Beauty, and Excellence.

You can check out this batch of recommendations for your remaining summer days at this week's edition of Think On These Things - happy reading!

https://civicsophisticate.substack.com/p/summer-reading-adventures-with-tom?r=1tgfoo

07/19/2024

🍌🪴🎵Sharing some musical fun for your Friday! 🍌🪴🎵
This pieces is titled "Le Bananier" (the banana tree) by Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Pianist, Edward Bara.

You can learn more about this composer in our latest edition of Think On These Things - be sure to subscribe to receive our bi-weekly content, a sophisticated blend of music, art, literature, history, and more!

https://civicsophisticate.substack.com/

07/12/2024

🎫🚂🎹🪘As we settle into the summer season of travel and heat, we bring you some musical spice and a whole lot of travel…piano style!

We hope you'll take a few moments this weekend to read about a lesser known composer, Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829 - 1869), who was the first American composer to rise to fame at a time when the elite European musical scene was hesitate to welcome an artist from "only a country of steam engines." He overcame initial rejections and rose to fame in both Europe and all over North America, South America, and the Caribbean region. His music is full of rich cultural elements from his native Creole home of New Orleans, as well as of African and South American rhythms, sounds, folk tunes. Add to this the dance-like and playful style that he so commonly wove into his compositions, and it's not hard to see how he paved the way for what we now call ragtime decades ahead of its time.

Enjoy! 🎶💃🎹💃🎵💃

The American piano virtuoso and composer who travelled the world and paved the way for ragtime.

07/04/2024

🇺🇸 On this Independence Day... 🇺🇸

Let us remember the principles and ideals that birthed our nation, challenged injustices, and inspired the more perfect union that we enjoy—and must preserve—every day.

American ideals have been worth fighting for since the beginning! There were many events that culminated toward the American Revolutionary War, but it was the Declaration of Independence that set the course for a new nation, its ideals, and its principles.

As Thomas G. West notes in his book (noted below), "The Founders wrote and approved a Declaration of Independence whose central proposition was that 'all men are created equal.' They set up a government that did what no democracy had ever done before: It combined majority rule with effective protection for minority rights. It enabled a larger number of men and women to live in prosperity and liberty than any other nation has ever done...Their policies and institutions were sensible if imperfect means by which the equal rights of Americans would be secured within the limits imposed by an imperfect human nature."

We featured this document, and more of its context in which it came to be, in our most recent edition of Think On These Things. Be sure to check out the full piece at the link below, along with our source materials to help you delve into the full story.

Think On These Things: https://open.substack.com/pub/civicsophisticate/p/we-hold-these-truths?r=1tgfoo&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Additional Sources:
📚"Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story" by Wilfred M. McClay
📚"Washington: A Life" and "Hamilton" by Ron Chernow
📚 "Vindicating the Founders: Race, S*x, Class, and Justice in the Origins of America" by Thomas G. West