Letter #2

July 2022

Notes from Me

+Reading: I loved Andy Crouch’s latest book, The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World. It reads like a synthesis of many of the ideas he has explored for a while (I’m thinking of his previous books, Culture Making, Strong and Weak, and Tech-Wise Family)—He asks questions like what is our role in shaping culture? How do we leverage our positions for the sake of others? How do we keep technology in its proper place? He covers all of this material and offers simple arguments for how Christians can help to shape our culture for good (spoiler: live humbly, take time to pursue and recognize people, and keep going even when growth is slow). 

Here are some of the problems he highlights. He writes,

The defining mental activity of our time is scrolling. Our capacities of attention, memory, and concentration are diminishing; to compensate, we toggle backhand forth between infinite feeds of news, posts, images, episodes—taking shallow hits of trivia, humor, and outrage to makeup forte depths of learning, joy, and genuine lament that now feel beyond our reach (58).

The soul is the plane of human existence that our technological age neglects most of all. Jesus asked whether it was worth gaining the whole world at the cost of losing one’s soul. But in the era of superpowers, we have not only lost a great deal of our souls—we have lost much of the world as well. We are rarely overwhelmed by wind or rain or snow. We rarely see—let alone name—the stars. We have lost the sense that we are both at home and one a pilgrimage in the vast, mysterious cosmos, anchored in a rich reality beyond ourselves. We have lost our souls without even gaining the world (59).

He offers some solutions. He encourages Christians to commit themselves to the “work that is patient, humble, and slow” and embody attributes of the kingdom of God in our everyday lives. Living in light of eternity, we do not give in to the demands of the empire of our day (be it a culture increasingly hostile to biblical Christianity or a culture of rampant consumerism) (125).

He ends by imagining,

How many generations can be shaped by one household who gather around a table, recognize one another, and send one another out into the world (213)?

I resonate with Andy’s writing. He consistently unpacks compelling ideas with humility and candor.

+Reading: A short, insightful post by Oliver Burkeman (a newsletter worth subscribing to) titled “It’s Worse Than You Think.” You should read the whole thing, but here’s a start.

You feel overwhelmed by an extremely long to-do list. But it's worse than you think! You think the problem is that you have a huge number of tasks to complete, and insufficient time, and that your only hope is to summon unprecedented reserves of self-discipline, manage your time incredibly well, and somehow power through. Whereas in fact the incoming supply of possible tasks is effectively infinite (and, indeed, your efforts to get through them actually generate more things to do). Getting on top of it all seems like it would be really hard. But it isn't. It's impossible.

+Listening: to this new podcast by Dr. Anika Prather called Reclaiming Our Canon. I am enjoying hearing her life story and perspective on studying the classical Western canon. She also performs her own jazz music in the first couple of episodes. Each episode is about 25-30 minutes. I am looking forward to hearing her dialogue with all the guests she has lined up!

With The Kids

+Reading: Here are six summery picture books we have been reading together: We Are Brothers, Big Mama’s House, The Raft, Roxaboxen, The Relatives Came, and Lucy’s Summer. 

+Listening: To Hurricane Season by Trombone Shorty.

In The Kitchen

+Best Pulled Pork Recipe: I have made this recipe by Kevin and Amanda many times over the last few years. It takes some planning, but it is a consistent winner. I usually shred it and serve it with King’s Hawaiian rolls. The meat takes center stage, but a side of potato salad makes a cool complement to the sweet/spicy/fatty meat.

Small Joy

+Sensory Play: a good friend sent a packet of these little water beads to us over a year ago, and we’ve just now used them all up. They are reusable (they shrink back down if you leave them out to dry) and don’t leave a big mess behind (win, win).

Until next month,

-Susie

P.S. This watercolor!

*the image at the top of the post shows my (almost) 3-year-old son playing with water beads on our back deck.