Five Things Friday: May 9, 2025 (Vol. 17)

Chris Hughes
May 9
4 min read

Hey friends and other human beings! I am back with another edition of Five Things Friday. This is a list of five things that have been buzzing around in my head this week — be they podcasts, books, news articles, hobbies, games, whatever.

This week, I talk about the religion of Roy Kent, the Kentucky Derby and the best thing on TV right now. Thanks, as always, for reading and joining me on the journey!

Without further ado, here are five things for this Friday:

1. The first chirps of the waking birds

With spring springing, I find myself being woken up by the birds chirping in the trees. There's even one clever little pair who made their nest in a porch light that sits just outside my window at work. Best I can tell, they are tree swallows, and they spend most of the mornings calling back and forth to each other from around the courtyard to their nest of chicks. Birds, spring, death and resurrection have made me think often on the way Thomas Merton describes the first waking of the birds in the early hours of the morning before prayers at the monastery: "The first chirps of the waking birds mark the 'point vierge' (virgin point) of the dawn under a sky as yet without real light, a moment of inexpressible innocence, when the Father in perfect silence opens their eyes. They speak to him, not with fluent song, but with an awakening question that is their dawn state, their state at the 'point vierge.' Their condition asks if it is time for them to 'be'? He answers 'Yes.' Then they one by one wake up, and become birds."

"All wisdom seeks to collect and manifest itself at that blind sweet point," he concludes.

I'm in somewhat of an in-between space spiritually speaking, but I think despite all evidence to the contrary, so much of the world points to resurrection. That's why I loved this juicy quote I stumbled upon from poet David Gate: "I still believe in Resurrection...I see it in the turning soil, the seeds that split the darkness, the trees that bloom though no one asks them to...The world is full of resurrections. It is enough, sometimes, to plant and to wait, trusting that life will come again in its own time."

2. Habemus papam!

Speaking of religion, and a late edition to this week's FTF, we have a new pope and he's an American. In the early evening hours in Rome, Pope Leo XIV appeared on the balcony overlooking St. Peter's Square and gave his inaugural message to a waiting world, saying, "God's love is for everyone."

I imagine there are those who don't think a new pope means much, least of all to non-Catholics like me, but I think it does. I've appreciated following the dispatches of Baptist church history professor, Dr. Steve Harmon, from his firsthand perspective in Rome. "But whoever becomes pope, it will be helpful to resist categorizing him as liberal, progressive or traditionalist. The next pope will surely embody the interrelationship of ressourcement (retrieval of the tradition for the needs of the present) and aggiornamento (updating the church's engagement with the world) in ways that may be more like Francis or more like Benedict. But like Francis in particular, he is likely to surprise us with the manner in which his papacy relates to the two emphases to one another."

Well, it was definitely a surprise to see an American pope elected. And I hear he's a White Sox fan, too.

3. "I always thought it was so stupid until that sunset."

Sticking with the religion theme once more, I loved this interview of Brett Goldstein (Roy Kent, of Tedd Lasso fame) on NPR's "Wild Card" podcast. The conversation ran the gamut of topics, from God to stand-up comedy, to writing and love. Asked about when he felt a moment of awe, Goldstein described being in Barbados, sitting on an island as the sun set over the horizon before him. "I was always an atheist, like there's nothing to it and it's just kind of random chaos ... It was the sunset and it was beautiful ... and I thought to myself, 'If there is nothing else, there is no God, no nothing, why do I feel the profound urge to say thank you?'"

One more juicy bit from the interview—on loving intolerable people, Goldstein had this to share: "I think if you look hard enough at anyone, you can love them. I have to ask the right question. There is a key to this person and if I ask the right question, I will suddenly be filled with love for this person."

4. Derby: Still decadent and depraved

The 151s Kentucky Derby was last Saturday, with thousands of people descending on Louisville for the "most exciting two minutes in sports." I once again went to Churchill Downs with a camera in hand, not as a journalist but as a photographer for one of the high-end areas of the track. I've shared some of my thoughts on what Derby means to me, and how it is becoming more and more inaccessible for the average person. Still, it's a photographer's delight, with all kinds of wonderful and wacky things to capture, and people who want you to take their photo. I was able to snap a few shots for my personal work.

I try to refrain from glorifying Hunter S. Thompson, but his essay "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved" always comes to mind. Much of it is still accurate, too. "Pink faces with a stylish Southern sag, old Ivy styles, seersucker coats and buttondown collars. 'Mayblossom Senility' (Steadman's phrase)...burnt out early or maybe just not much to burn in the first place. Not much energy in the faces, not much curiosity. Suffering in silence, nowhere to go after thirty in this life, just hang on and humor the children. Let the young enjoy themselves while they can. Why not?"