Remodeling “Normal”

When I began reading “The Evangelical Imagination,” I was also listening to “NeuroTribes” by Steve Silberman on the history of autism research. The topics seemed disparate at first, but the two books dovetailed remarkably. The former book delved into how our imaginations teach us explicitly and more often implicitly what is “normal.” The latter book recounted what happened to those who were considered outside the bounds of that definition by the majority society of the time. Sadly the stories of misunderstanding and mistreatment outweighed the stories of flourishing for those who did not fit the norm.

The non-able-bodied and non-able-minded were considered such threats to the general population that forced sterilizations were implemented by law in the US and Germany pre WWII for the “good” of society. The assumption was the “feebleminded” would produce children with the same characteristics, thus weakening their respective nations. Horrible. In fact, it was a majority of the US, 32 states, that carried out forced sterilizations beginning in 1907. Those “good old days,” right?

I believe this example shows the point of the culture wars – the power to control the imaginary which then has the power to decide who is “normal” and who is not. Who is worthy of legal protection and the rights of personhood under the law and who is not. At its most extreme, anyone not like “us” should be eliminated, controlled, or shunted to the side of society. It’s still with us today with selectively aborting babies with Down’s syndrome, racism, ableism, and nationalism. But the power of the “norm” can be more subtle.

In the places you work or go to church, are there ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant bathrooms? Are the buildings even accessible with ramps or push plates for automatic doors? I don’t think most businesses or churches are trying to be deliberately discriminatory. I truly hope not, especially for churches. But it may not be on their radar because of who they assume will “walk” through their doors. But what if the lack of accessibility is keeping some folks who it would otherwise be “normal” to see if only they could find a way into the building? But the decision to remodel an entrance doesn’t start with a general contractor. It begins in the imaginations of the people who use and own the building.

Who do you want to see come through the doors? Everyone, of course. Well, does “everyone” include someone with a motorized wheelchair? If the bottom line is cost, a business may be content to stay grandfathered under an old building code. But what about churches? I am not advocating a patronizing ableist savior attitude, but a perspective of humility. Who are we missing because our imaginations are too small?

My daughter participated in a church membership class a couple years ago. One of the prospective members was a young woman with cerebral palsy. It affected her speech and her gait, so she used a cane to assist with walking. But in the class, she was just as much a valid participant as everyone else. When the class leader had folks take turns reading Bible passages, this sister took a turn too. She asked questions. When she had something to say that was a bit lengthy, she typed it out, and someone read it for her. It may have required more patient listening, but it was worth it because every member of the body is important. Every member of the body has something to contribute regardless of their speech facility.

If the Evangelical imagination needs serious remodeling, one of the places I want to start is reconsidering what it means to be “normal” and my willingness to change for the sake of accommodating others. If it requires more patience and empathy on my part, who doesn’t need more fruit of the Spirit? I do! I need the whole body of Christ. Abled and disabled. Neurotypical and neurodiverse. I also want to love my abled, disabled, neurotypical, and neurodiverse neighbors too. They all bear the image of God, and I want to see and treat them that way.

Lord, help me to do so.

Review: The Evangelical Imagination

Picture of the cover of "The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images & Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis." The cover is white with nested brightly colored boxes in yellow, red, purple, blue, and tan. The inside box contains a painting of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. A line of smaller yellow boxes trail to the left and down like thought bubbles.

The Evangelical Imagination by Karen Swallow Prior, Brazos Press, 2023, 304 pages.

I never paid much attention to air quality until this summer. It seemed hazier than usual one morning when I left for work, but I assumed it was typical humidity. But later in the day, I received a text from my daughter telling me to be careful when I went outside. The air quality was bad, unhealthily bad from wildfire smoke from Canada moving down the East coast. Since I didn’t want what was clouding the air in my lungs, I took precautions by masking up.

I never considered what was in the air, where it came from, or what could pollute it on its way to me. I assumed it was safe until I was warned by someone who cared. So by way of metaphor, “The Evangelical Imagination” asks us to consider the cultural “air” we breathe as Evangelical Christians. What’s in it? Where did it come from? And what could possibly harm us if we are left unaware?

This “imagination” is not a kid’s make-believe nor the stuff of fantasy novels. The “social imaginary,” coined by philosopher Charles Taylor, consists of all the influences that tell us what it means to be a person and how one is to be in a given culture. It affects and may even govern every aspect of our lives. These influences can be explicitly taught as mental concepts. But more often, they are implicitly caught by the culture’s inhabitants through language we use, stories we read, and iconic images we see.

This book examines crucial components of the Evangelical imaginary. Drawing from history, literature, art, and current events, author Karen Swallow Prior discusses many themes which include Conversion, Testimony, Domesticity, Empire, Reformation, and Rapture. I’m leaving some out because I want you to read the book and find out for yourself!

Most of these themes are not all bad in themselves, but they can cross a line and wind up being contrary to what Scripture calls us to. As Christians, we can naively think that only the Bible informs us, but until we dig a little deeper into why we believe, feel, and act as we do, we won’t know. It may not be purely biblical but a mixture of many influences that hover in the “air” unbeknownst to us. That’s why this book is important.

I learned so much in reading The Evangelical Imagination. One major takeaway was that the Evangelical movement has a specific historical and geographical context beginning in 18th century England. As its children, we inherited its ethos, but we inhabit contexts of our own. We aren’t timeless like God. We are limited by bodies that can’t escape the time and place we live. We may share much with other saints past and present, but our take on the world and Christianity isn’t the only one. Knowing this helps us to be aware of the potential pitfalls of thinking our experiences are normative for the universal church let alone the rest of the mankind. Knowing this will help keep us humble.

In addition, there are aspects of Evangelicalism that I can’t unsee after reading this book. Specifically, Empire. As a nation, we rebelled against one empire only to form another, and “empires expand by dominating – rather than loving – their neighbors.” The church is not exempt. Words of empire show up frequently in our metaphors. We have “crusades.” We “fight” culture “wars.” The bigger, flashier, and lucrative the better. And a sign that we are “winning” is proximity to political power. But is this triumphalism like Christ? Are ministry leaders servants of all or empire builders? This particular chapter is very direct, no pulling punches. But it needs to be said. After all, how can American Evangelicalism change for the better without honest evaluation?

This book has also been a springboard for more questions and exploration, which in my opinion is a mark of the best kind of book. During my reading, I would share excerpts with my daughter and ask her, “Doesn’t this relate to ….? Doesn’t it remind you of …?” There are so many thoughts swirling in my head and dots that want connecting.

Finally, I greatly appreciate the author’s faith that Jesus is still building his church despite its faults and failings. Her critiques are fair and firm but not without hope because our hope isn’t in ourselves but in Jesus Christ.

I highly recommend “The Evangelical Imagination.” It’s definitely going on my “best of 2023” list.

(I received an advance reader copy from the publisher.)

Favorite Books of 2021

By the time I publish this post, it will be 10 days into the New Year, but better late than never. It was hard picking my favorites books of 2021. I avoid books that I don’t think I will like, and many of my 2021 reads were contenders. So here’s the list in order read with mini reviews to make up for the longer reviews I had intended to write last year.

Fiction

Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu – This book deserves the 2020 National Book Award. At face value, the novel is a script about Willis Wu, an actor whose ambition is to rise from Generic Asian Man to Kung Fu Guy, who lands a bit role in the cop drama, “Black and White.” But it’s more than just poking fun at the stereotypes and narrow spheres assigned to Asian Americans. It’s a multi-layered story that messes with your mind and makes you wonder what is real and what is metaphor. This was also a very personal read. Interior Chinatown is about me and my people, about immigration and assimilation, and making one’s place in a society where you have been only assigned a bit part.

Piranesi by Susannah Clarke – Piranesi is disorienting, slightly dark, and completely enchanting all at once. As soon as I finished, I wanted to begin rereading it again to see what I missed the first time around. I appreciated the little touches of C.S. Lewis here and there along with nods to ancient myths. The House that Susannah Clarke has created is indeed beautiful.

The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep by H.G. Parry – Charlie Sutherland is a professor of English literature who has the awkward ability to pull characters out of their books at extremely inconvenient times. As you can guess, this leads to adventure, mayhem, and potential disaster. This is a novel for book lovers and fans of Victorian fiction and is now one of my go-to books when I want a comfort read. The audio version is delightful as the reader does all the accents.

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams – A mysterious reading list shows up “just in case you need it” at different times and in different places, and the books on the list are exactly what the characters need. It allows them to step outside their problems for a moment, see the world through a different perspective, and find friends. The Reading List is funny and moving. The characters are very real and experience real suffering. But the common thread is the power of books to enrich lives even in tragedy. I recommend the audio version too.

Nonfiction

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk – A must-read overview of trauma and treatment. I had read it previously in an, “Oh this is interesting” in an objective sort of way. I re-read it last year with firsthand awareness of a close friend with C-PTSD, and it helped me recognize my own trauma and seek therapy.

The Beautiful Community by Irwyn Ince – This was an encouraging and challenging book written by a pastor with a love for the widely diverse and beautifully varied body of Christ. I appreciated the hopefulness of the book even as it recognized that we are still on the journey of actively working toward diversity in the church.

Winsome Conviction by Tim Muehlhoff and Richard Langer – This is an incredibly timely book as the church is polarizing as much as the wider culture. It challenges the reader to think through what they believe, how strongly they hold to it, what happens when it differs from others, and the consideration and love we owe one another as members of the body of Christ. It also provides practical ways forward when there is inevitable disagreement other than avoidance.

Glorious Weakness by Alia Joy – This book is both a testimony and a challenge. In her testimony, the author has endured so much suffering in her relatively young life. Yet she did not become bitter because she realized that her weakness was the way she found that God was with her in and through her trials. The challenge for us is to resist the culture’s and Christian subculture’s prosperity gospel that life is about strength and success. It’s a beautifully transparent book and exactly what I needed.

Prayer in the Night by Tish Harrison Warren – Based on the Anglican evening prayer of compline, the author walks the reader through this prayer phrase by phrase as a guide for our prayers. It’s moving, beautifully written, scripturally grounded, and reminds us again of how dependent we are on Christ and his work.

Ragged by Gretchen Ronnevik – What a refreshing and freeing book! If you are weary of books that hold the labor of your hands to fill the law’s demands over your head instead of pointing you to Christ and the gospel, this book is for you. It’s not a how-to but a Who-do-you-look-to as the source and motivator for Christian disciplines. This book isn’t only for women either.

Simply Trinity by Matthew Barrett – This book is a timely, must-read to help recover the church from Trinity drift. It systematically walks the reader through historic doctrines of the Trinity with clear explanations and how these doctrines connect to our understanding of God and salvation. I don’t know how ESS/ERAS can stand up after this.

After Doubt by A.J. Swoboda – Deconstruction is the buzzword of the hour. Some embrace it. Some vilify it. But if we’re honest, no one becomes a fully formed, doctrinally pure Christian from the get-go. Our beliefs are refined over time, often with struggle. Some would call it being a Berean. After Doubt addresses this struggle in a healthy way. The author categorizes the process of believing in three stages – construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction. Construction is when we first come to faith, often taking what is presented at face value, no questions asked. Deconstruction occurs when questions and doubt arise, and faith is tested. This does not automatically mean discarding faith. Reconstruction then follows where what has stood the test has been made stronger because of that trial. This process also doesn’t happen in a vacuum but involves the Word and community under the hand of the Holy Spirit.

You Are Not Your Own by Alan Noble – Like it or not, we live in a society that tells us we are our own and belong to ourselves. Sounds great? But with it come the Responsibilities of Self Belonging – justification, identity, meaning, value, and belonging. We are either crushed by attempting to provide these for ourselves or by despair because it is impossible. If you doubt this is true, Noble exposes many of the ways we’re stuck in this dehumanizing cycle, and you will not be able to unsee them. You’ll even begin to see even more of them in society, in yourself, and what you’ve saddled on your kids. It’s devastating. But this book offers a better way – “I am not my own but belong body and soul to my faithful savior, Jesus Christ.” There are no how-tos, no easy fixes but rather a way to be in relation to God and others that reorients us in this world.

My reading list, just in case you need it

In “The Reading List,” by Sara Nisha Adams, different characters at different times happen upon the same handwritten list of fiction titles. At the top of the list are the words, “Just in case you need it.” The list contains classics and new books from different genres, but they have one thing in common. These books offer a glimpse into someone else’s world, a chance to be in another person’s skin, and a respite from present troubles. The various characters are changed as a result, giving them a new perspective on life and, in some cases, new friendships and community.

A friend on Facebook was curious what my top 10 books were and why, so I thought I would type them up “just in case you need it.” My list is all nonfiction, which is the majority of my reading. It was hard to pare the list down to 10, but all of these books have this in common: they helped me gain new perspectives and changed me as a result of reading them. These are also books that I’ve given away and recommend repeatedly. There is no rhyme or reason to the order, just the order in which I jotted the titles down.

How to Think by Alan Jacobs – This book doesn’t teach the reader “how to think,” but encourages us to reexamine our thinking process. Who do we think with? We don’t think alone. How do we see people especially those with whom we disagree? This affects our ability to learn. Is thinking mere rationality or does it have a component of the heart? This will shape character. How To Think was so timely after the ugliness of the 2016 election and especially now as the vitriol and tribalism have only increased.

American Exceptionalism and Civil Religion: Reassessing the History of an Idea by John Wilsey – This book examines the root and propagation of the myth of American exceptionalism and its connection to a nationalistic civil religion. To say this was eye-opening is an understatement. To put it bluntly, after reading this, my first thought was, “My teachers and textbooks lied to me.” My only exposure were stories (a few true but many disproven) with the intent to cast America in a particular light. I credit this book as the beginning of my re-education in American history.

You Are Not Your Own/Desiring the Kingdom by James K.A. Smith – I’ve grouped these two books together because the first is a less academic and shorter treatment of the second. In a nutshell, we aren’t just brains on sticks, only discipled by explicit instruction. We are formed by what we love, and those loves often fly under the radar. Another game-changer in personal awareness of how I see my humanity and how I am influenced.

The Whole Christ by Sinclair Ferguson – I don’t think there is a better or clearer book on the gospel and the necessary distinction between law and gospel. That distinction can get blurry, and the result can be crushing to one’s assurance. This book is a good antidote to that confusion.

Unashamed by Heather Nelson – When you’ve been raised in a shame-based way, it’s hard not to parent likewise. Yet how many generations have parented using shame because there was no awareness of any alternative? Thus, this book was deeply convicting and yet encouraging because the author brings the gospel to bear. Unashamed covers multiple areas of application, not just parenting.

Are Women Human? by Dorothy L. Sayers – This is a witty and very astute set of essays that accurately diagnose the ways women are treated as less than fully human. There’s been some change since Sayers wrote this but still more work to be done.

Embodied Hope by Kelly Kapic – Physical suffering is real to the believer, and it’s compounded when it’s chronic. This book does not address this problem with platitudes but answers the questions with the incarnation of Jesus. I think this is the first book that raised my awareness of the importance of the body and how we are body and soul. This book also raised my awareness of how ableist Western society (and often the Western church) is in its attitude toward the disabled.

The Making of Asian America by Erika Lee – History professor Erika Lee uncovers an aspect of American history that is often missing – the history of Asians in America. There was so much I learned, and I grew in my respect for the men and women who paved the way for my family. I read this after my Asian American awakening in late 2016 which was long overdue.

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk – Our bodies and brains and their interconnections are fearfully and wonderfully made. But if they are traumatized, our brains remember. This was proven in research studies of Vietnam War veterans, and it is true for survivors of abuse. Thus you shouldn’t tell an abuse survivor to get over it anymore than you would tell a person with a badly healed broken leg to just get over it without therapy. If you want to read one book on trauma, this is it.

You Are Not Your Own by Alan Noble – This book answers so many of the discussions I’ve had with my daughter on how inhuman the world is and how inhumanely we treat ourselves and one another. We find ways to cope because we’ve bought into the idea that, “I am my own, and I belong to myself,” but rather than give relief, the burden only gets heavier. However, the answer is to be found in the first Q&A of the Heidelberg Catechism, “I am not my own but belong body and soul, in life and in death to my faithful savior Jesus Christ.” The implications of our belonging to God change how we live, move, and have our being in a broken world.

(A list of my favorite books for 2021 is still to come. There are still 3 reading days left in the year.)

Fellowship Groups or Echo Chambers?

Differing interpretive communities play a significant role in how disagreements between Christians get played out. With all of our claims of individualism, our interpretations of controversies will be greatly swayed by the group we have invested in – their collective opinion will deeply impact our own. In healthy groups, the interpretive lens we receive will be robust and full of diverse perspectives.
Alarmingly, some join groups precisely not to be exposed to differing viewpoints. MIT scholar Sherry Turkle coined the term “communal narcissism” to describe how we are often compelled to join groups that allow us to avoid people we disagree with or find annoying. Rather than being challenged or having mental horizons expanded, cognitive misers conserve mental and emotional energy be surrounding themselves with people who think like they do!
Winsome Conviction, Chapter 8 – Fellowship Groups or Echo Chambers, pgs. 107-108

I am on my second listening of the audio version of Winsome Convictions and reading the print version as well. (I can’t read a book while commuting. Neither can I make notes in an audiobook.) This book is extremely pertinent as civility has continued to wane and polarization has continued to increase, even though the contentious election is over and COVID is gradually coming under control. I know one should not base observations solely on social media, but I am concerned for the church in this regard. I am concerned that we aren’t defending the faith once delivered to the saints but arguing and dividing over secondary matters.

One main point of this book is that convictions in themselves do not cause incivility. Poorly formed convictions cause incivility. Secondly not all convictions are absolutes, but neither are they mere preferences. There is a middle ground of disputable matters that does not get enough investigation because we never stop to consider if there might be a flaw in our conviction. (pg. 5) Thinking and reading in an echo chamber does not exercise discernment muscles. It also leaves less robust ideas unchallenged. But are we content with the status quo and curate our interactions so we never have to consider the possibility that we may be wrong? And is that reluctance fueled by pride?

As I was thinking of the above passage, I could not help but remember, with much regret, my cage-stage Calvinist phase. While I still believe the doctrines of grace, I was proud about being “right.” I had little time for other believers who loved Jesus and believed differently in some of the details. It was all in fun, or so I told myself, to mock dead theologians like Charles Finney. It was for “truth’s” sake that I argued disrespectfully with a brother and sister on the “other” side, for which I later needed to ask forgiveness. But however much I tried to justify myself, my words didn’t stack up to the 9th commandment. In gravitating to like-minded and perhaps equally immature believers, there wasn’t any dissenting or correcting voice. Maybe not for doctrinal tenets, but for behavior that did not model the fruit of the Spirit.

Now substitute another tribe for “Calvinist.” Substitute another position where pride might refuse to consider that it might be wrong. Even if the position is “right,” a haughty attitude is certainly not. This is why we need to hear different, dissenting, and correcting voices. Though our natural inclination may be to tune them out, we need to resist that temptation because echo chambers aren’t healthy.

None of us is immune to the sin of pride.

Winsome Conviction: Disagreeing Without Dividing the Church, Tim Muehloff and Richard Langer, InterVarsity Press, 2020.

Staring at a blinking cursor

I have 30 drafts in this blog’s folder. Pieces that I have started and left undone. Some are just a title. Some contain text that I copied from an older blog in an attempt to rewrite them. But those drafts remain unfinished. So I am starting a new draft now and staring at the blinking cursor, trying to psych myself up to begin writing again.

But the prospect of writing is tinged with fear. Fear of what will come out, if I am honest, and fear of how it will be received.

For most of my writing life, I’ve written to please others as part of fitting in with the majority culture. I’ve written with a certain “voice” in my head. A voice with an acceptable tone about acceptable subject matter that follows unspoken guidelines of what is acceptable for an evangelical woman. I started to push against those tacit rules several years ago when I wrote posts about domestic abuse and the church’s weak response. My reward was being labeled a feminist.

Writing is vulnerable because it should reflect who I really am, not who I think people want me to be. That’s scary. Writing is also a spiritual exercise because its goal should be God’s honor and the good of others. That’s scary, too, because there is alway the possibility that honoring God may lead to uncomfortable subjects.

I often talk late into the night with my daughter over the issues that weigh on my heart. The words spill out higgledy piggledy rather than being carefully crafted, but we don’t mind. We repeat ourselves and rephrase things differently to get to the heart of the problem. I try to remember as much as I can by writing snippets and sentences to capture those ideas before my middle-aged mind loses them when I wake up the next morning. Yet when I sit in front of my computer to get those thoughts out, I freeze.

It’s more than writer’s block, though. When I talk with my daughter, she has my trust, and I have hers. But with others? It depends.

One of poisonous fruits of emotional abuse is the feeling that you won’t be believed. Your opinions don’t matter. No one wants to listen. This type of gaslighting is hard to overcome. But perhaps naming that affliction will give me the courage to move forward, begin to type, and get past staring at a blinking cursor.

Far East, Deep South

The College of William and Mary is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the enrollment of their first Asian student. As part of this Asian Centennial, the university is hosting an Asian and Middle East film festival. Last week, the first film was Far East Deep South, a documentary by Larissa Lam and Baldwin Chiu.

The main story of the film centers on Baldwin’s father, Charles Chiu. His father K.C., grandfather also named Charles, and grandmother had previously immigrated to Mississippi where they opened a small but successful small town grocery store. Due to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, laws forbidding the immigration of Asian women, and anti-miscegenation laws, the only option for marriage and family was to return to China and find a wife back home. Then the husband would return to the US for work, supporting his family long distance. This is what K.C. did, so for most of Charles’ life, his father was absent from the family. Tragically K.C. died in the US when Charles was a small boy. He eventually immigrated to the US with his grandmother in his late teens, but due to the tragedy, he never spoke of his father to his own sons.

When this part of Charles’ past is uncovered, the entire family, three generations’ worth, makes a trip to Mississippi to try to find K.C.’s grave and maybe find the location of the store, but they discovered much more. They met former customers and friends who knew K.C. and his grandparents. They learned of how the Chinese and Black communities helped one another during the Jim Crow era. In a museum devoted to the Mississippi Delta Chinese, they find K.C.’s Bible. And new found friend shares a letter from K.C. to her father containing a few sentences that show how much he missed his family and longed for them to be with him

Far East Deep South is a moving film but it is more than just a warm, feel-good family story. This is also a story of a family that was separated by racist laws intended to keep the Chinese either out of the country or ineligible for citizenship. Chinese residents, some of whom were born in the US, had to keep identity papers on them 24/7. If they were caught without these papers, they could be deported. They could not testify on their own behalf. Only the testimony of a white person was admissible in court.

Charles speaks of going to the chapel on a Sunday morning when he was in the Air Force reserves and hearing the minister pray, “Dear Heavenly Father…” He said he could not keep his tears back because he had no father when he was growing up. I cried as well. How many other families were torn apart because of this?

If you have a chance to view this documentary, I strongly recommend it. We need to hear and see these stories that are just as much a part of American history as the ones that already fill the pages of text books. Those offer one side of the story. We need this side too, because history is incomplete without them.

100 words 100 days: Day 20, shock and mourning

I think I am still in shock over the domestic terrorist incident at the Capitol.

Part of me is secretly dreading that I have friends who supported it or minimize it. I am wondering how I will respond? I really hope and pray that I am wrong.

According to my understanding of Scripture, 8 of the 10 commandments were violated. If I am correct, how can we not condemn this? Does God’s moral law have no bearing on how we live and what we support?

10. Coveting power that was not theirs to take.
9. Propagating lies.
8. The destruction and theft of property.
6. Seeking to harm and kill. Political opponents are still made in the image of God.
5. Flagrant disrespect for authority.
3. Taking God’s name in vain. The “Jesus Saves” banners make me sick.
2. Making a false representation of God.
1. Looking to a human being to be the savior instead of the one true God who saves us from our sins.

My heart is heavy.

100 Words 100 Days: Day Nineteen

I had no idea when I woke up this morning that a sitting president would incite a mob to attack the Capitol because he refused to accept his defeat. This blatant disrespect of the Constitution that he took vows to uphold is not a surprise. What I find more distressing are the professing believers who looked to him to save this country because they are so afraid.

I know what it’s like to be afraid. I remember being terrified to turn on the news or even look at a newspaper headline after 911.

But the answer isn’t a strong man who will save you. The answer is a bigger view of God. Until he is the one we turn to, it’s only trading one idol for another every 4 years. Every single idol is going to demand your allegiance and give nothing back.

God have mercy. This isn’t just a political problem. It’s a first commandment one.

100 Words 100 days: Day Eighteen

I planned to write 100 words for 100 days last year. Then life happened – the pandemic, new job, new schedule, etc. I want to pick this back up, though. Not writing regularly keeps too many thoughts in my head. Once they are out, I can deal with them on virtual paper. It will help me sleep better as well. So I will try to set aside 10 minutes a day to jot things down.

A few themes that I want to explore this year – disability/aging and human worth, the body’s impact on emotions, and lament. I am listening to/reading these two books to help me learn more:

Creative Care: Revolutionary Approach to Dementia and Elder Care by Anne Basting
The Logic of the Body: Retrieving Theological Psychology by Matthew LaPine