Hey y'all, I turned 54 on the 5th of June. I know, I find it hard to believe myself. In my head I'm still 18, but a few months ago, I got a leg cramp while eating a taco. We went to the oldest restaurant in MS for lunch, and then hit up used bookstores and thrift stores before checking into the Threefoot Hotel, which is the nicest place in Meridian, and probably in this part of Mississippi. Marble and brass everywhere, and large hotel room with big views, all courtesy of The June Bugs. It was lovely. Then, we went to the annual convening of The June Bugs for supper at The Maxx, which is Meridian's art and entertainment center. On Saturday I did my first ever reading (which is not really true—I preach from a manuscript every Sunday, but reading from your book is different than that, somehow) and it was a blast. And when I had sold and signed all the books I had brought with me, we went to a local Mexican restaurant and ate our fill of enchiladas before the hour and a half drive home. It was a lovely 24 hours away, and as close to a vacation as we have taken in almost a year, since my losing that job last year that had health insurance attached to it. Since then it has been a series of gigs and contract positions, which has paid our bills, more or less, but which hasn't left either the income or the bandwidth for vacation. But the time away was generative, and the joy of hanging out with my wife/friend and doing nothing very urgent and laughing and coming home with a stack of books is crucial to my mental health. Long ago, I had a mentor tell me, when I said I could not do something, that the best way to reframe that was to ask myself "How can I do it?" And so, on the way home, Renee and I talked about how we can get away more, even though we cannot afford long trips to the beach or jaunts to Europe. We can explore Mississippi, for example, where nothing is more than 3 hours away. A day trip to the coast to the south or the Appalachian foothills to the north would just cost us gas money if we didn't stay overnight. If it was a flush week, throw in a night at the Hampton inn and we would even get breakfast as part of the deal. I like the idea of being a tourist in my own state. Right now, I know a lot of us are struggling. Not all of us can do the things we used to do. If that's you, maybe try what we did: Instead of being angry you cannot do a thing, ask yourself how you can do it. You might surprise yourself. |
Five Beautiful Things
Friends, the way I hollered when I learned that Mister Roger's Neighborhood now has an official YouTube channel. With full episodes, compilations, and shorts! You have no idea how happy this made me. Holly Farrell is a Canadian painter whose work focuses on the ordinary things that you don't really notice, such as a row of books on a shelf. I feel so nostalgic with these book paintings – they look like the bookshelves in the home I grew up in. Watch master printmaker LaToya Hobbs make a giant woodcut, step by step, from sketch to print as they compress two months of work into 6 minutes. This is fascinating. The Royal Horticulture Society held their annual Chelsea Flower Show, and the winner was this imagined rural landscape, which contains this hidden sculpture intended to represent Gaia or Mother Earth. This looks so inviting and lovely to me. Chelsea is on my wish list of events to attend. You can see all the other gardens here. |
In Case You Missed It
The most clicked link in the last issue was to this satelite image that showed the staggeringly true size of Africa. I dropped another podcast episode. This is a short story I wrote for the membership team, and I liked it so much I decided to share it with everyone. This is, in my opinion, the best thing I have written this year. If you like this sort of thing, you might want to investigate being part of the membership team.
Back in the spring I was interviewed by the Campolo Center for Ministry at Eastern University. Tony and Bart Campolo were mentors of mine early in my career, and the Center asked if they could talk to me about their influence. What followed was a wide-ranging discussion about The Christian Industrial Complex, the curation of social media, boundaries, homelessness, and much more. It is admittedly a very Christian-focused interview because of the context, so caveats apply if that isn't your tradition |
Members Only
If you were a paying member, you would have gotten an email from me on Saturday, telling you about the wonderful day I had on my birthday, with pictures. But the week before that you would have gotten a story about magnolias, and an offer for some cutting boards I sold off at a huge discount.
Membership starts at just $5 a month, and makes it possible for this email to be ad-free and AI-free for everyone. Members also get access to bonus essays, first dibs on things I decide to sell, and generous discounts, among other perks.
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Food Is Love is a collection of essays about how memory, food, and love are all intertwined. I believe that food is an expression of love, and sometimes the only way people who loved us were capable of showing it. Learn more here. |
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