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“You are going to feel like hell if you never write the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves of your heart — your stories, visions, memories, visions and songs. Your truth, your version of things, your own voice. That is really all you have to offer us. And that’s also why you were born.”
Anne Lamott

“You are going to feel like hell if you never write the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves of your heart — your stories, visions, memories, visions and songs. Your truth, your version of things, your own voice. That is really all you have to offer us. And that’s also why you were born.”
Anne Lamott

Church and the Battle for Attention

George 0 Comments

…the Church is not on the right path so long as it adapts itself to the present; nor is it on the right path as long as it holds fast to the past. 
How do we know the Church is on the right path? — … the Church is headed in the right direction when, whatever the age in which it lives, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is its criterion..

Hans Kung – The Church

For years I’ve been concerned church is headed in the wrong direction. Church is an easy target, so it is not difficult find others willing to get on the bandwagon. We identify many problem but with no clear consensus on THE problem or WHY. I recently came across an essay entitled The Great Malformation: A personal skirmish in the battle for attention. Riffing on the article, I believe it connects some dots that help, in part, to explain why church is on not on the right path. Not THE problem, but a problem and perhaps insight to why.
In the article The Battle for Attention caught my attention (pun intended) and is the subject of this post. I encourage you to read the entire essay, however “The Battle for Attention” section is available below

The-Battle-for-AttentionDownload

Introduction
Western civilization, experienced a transformation in which economy, the pursuit of profits, engulfed and disfigured the culture. The church was also engulfed and disfigured. The engine for that cultural transformation has been: human attention.
Pursuit of profits has made attention exceedingly valuable and hotly contested. It is hard to think of any other “commodity”— that is as crucial to success in contemporary culture.
It is, then, a matter of no small consequence that human attention is now so heavily exploited.
Churches no longer enjoying “market” domination and compelled by FOMO; recognizing the power of attention and its crucial role in their “success”, joined the battle for attention.

The Battle for Attention – Marketplace examples of the battle for attention:

As marketers, we face a difficult task. It is up to us to ensure that the company’s brand awareness increases, that leads are generated and turned into sales and customers understand the products and services that the company provides.
At the same time, we have less opportunity to gain the customers’ attention as the amount of information increases.
Twenty years ago, Microsoft conducted a study that showed a person’s attention span, on average, was about 12 seconds before becoming distracted. 5 years ago, this time span was down to 8 seconds.
A  study from DTU  concluded in 2019 that people’s attention span will continue to decrease as we are bombarded with more and more information.
We have become accustomed to the fact that there are always new things, stories, and updates that we need to keep an eye on. It goes beyond our ability to concentrate and our ability to stay focused on what is right in front of us.
And that does not make our task as marketers any easier.

https://marketingplatform.com/resources/the-battle-for-attention/

How to win the battle for attention – despite distractions that bring instant gratification
Kirsten Back (MBA, MA)
Last week, I heard it again: “your audience has an attention span that only lasts a few seconds!”
Let me put that into context for you with regards to the content that you create and want your audience to read, remember, and act upon.
Your ideal scenario is that your ideal clients, notice your post, read it with focus and intention, remember the points you are making, and then reflect and act upon your content.
For that, you need to draw their attention, keep them engaged, understand your message, process your message, remember your message, take an action or get a positive outcome from your content that carries into their future.
That’s a lot that you expect from your audience (and that your audience expects from your content).
In this post, I am going to look into what your content is competing with and how you can win that competition with better content that your audience finds valuable and desirable enough to consume with their full attention.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-win-battle-attention-despite-distractions-bring-back-mba-ma-

Church and the Battle for Attention .

Churches’ decision to engage in the battle for attention carries significant risks and consequences:

Loss of capacity for sustained attention
Paradoxically, subjects of intense competition for their attention may suffer a loss of capacity for sustained attention. Because of increased screen time, it appears competition for attention contributes to increased diagnosis of ADHD. Eventually, people subjected to perpetual assault for their attention will disengage and zone out.

Risk of distraction / redirection/ backlash
Rather than addressing spiritual needs, leaders in a battle for attention assume responsibility for creating desire.
Commitment to a battle for attention inherently redirects priority for worthy goals to the task of creating better ad content to capture people’s attention. Creating desire, at a minimum, is a distraction, at worst, can become a substitute for the core mission— means become the ends.
Battle for attention influences every facet of church life
Some want mitigate the risk of engaging in the battle for attention by arguing if we can get people’s attention the gospel can be shared. Assuming “click bait” that grabs attention of post -modern people will make them open to the gospel is not wise. When “click bait” churches employ is in tune with secular desires, it can produce a ” bait and switch” backlash when the gospel is presented.

Unplanned enculturation of children and re-enculturation of adults
Churches engaging in the battle for attention should recognize the power of winning attention to shape the culture, children and adults. They need look no further than the effects of social media, smartphones, virtual experiences including video games on our psyches . There is potential to penetrate every passing moment of people’s lives. It is a bad bet for churches to place their money on winning the battle for attention; particularly when winning results in sated consumers not converts.
Subjects of the battle for attention face “a hydraulic insistence on conformity to majoritarian standards”. Campaigns to sustain unreflective allegiance of people to the prevailing form of religious life; interfere with parents efforts to pass along their convictions and way of life to their children; essentially limiting their free exercise of religion.

Consumerist proslelytism (i.e. battle for attention)
The nature of consumerist proselytism does not require true believers. It does require attention brokers willing to convey a message that consumption is a centrally important pathway to the happy life. Their task is to provide a picture of the good life and an ideological justification for seeking it. They can make their messages maximally effective, even if they do not believe what they are peddling to be good or on spite of any distaste they might have for the process. Increasingly, criteria for hiring church staff’ include qualifications of attention brokers.

There is a lot to think about and certainly debatable, bringing attention to the “the battle of attention” will hopefully generate thought and productive conversation. Future posts will address the implications of abandoning “the battle for attention” and what church might look like as a “loser”.
Feedback is appreciated.

STILL ON THE JOURNEY

This post is a continuation of posts on THE CHURCH from 2021 and 2022. Some earlier posts were added to the category. All sixteen posts can be read HERE.

So Much To Think About

George 1 Comment

Do twins ever realize that one of them is unplanned?

Cognitive Overload

“Studies of cognitive overload suggest that the real problem is that people who are thinking about rules actually have diminished capacity to think about solving problems.”

Phillip K Smith

Gifts

From the viewpoint of a private property economy the “gift” is deemed to be “free” because we obtain it free of charge, at no cost. But in the gift economy, gifts are not free. The essence of the gift is  that it creates a set of relationships.  The currency of a gift economy is at its root, reciprocity. In Western thinking, private land is understood to be a of  “bundle of rights,” whereas in a gift economy property has a “bundle of responsibilities” attached.

Braiding Sweetgrass

the kind of pastor every church needs

…the new pastor will need to be an excellent communicator, love senior adults and spend all their time with students. They’ll have to be able to manage the complex organization of the local church and raise money to accomplish all the church wants to do. They’ll need to spend 24 hours a day in prayer while going on visitation seven days a week. The new pastor will have to be able to lead a staff, perform funerals and weddings, handle social media, preach, counsel and teach. They will have to handle the intricacies  of local politics and be an expert on the moral and ethical issues of the day.

Mike Glenn

Dealing with sin

I think it’s noteworthy how, in the Old Testament, there isn’t a whole lot of metaphysical mechanics involved in God’s forgiveness. No great theory of atonement is floated about how God needs to jump through some hoops to remit our sin. All that seems necessary is honesty and confession. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Ps. 51.17). Admitting our guilt. I think of David’s response to Nathan’s confrontation: “You are the man!” Once David owns his sin his relationship with God is restored. Yes, there are consequences, but honesty mends the relationship.

Perhaps it is that simple. The sin is easily dealt with, but it’s the hiding, lying, avoidance, denial, silence and obfuscation that is killing us. 

Maybe all God wants from us is the truth.

Richard Beck

Difficulty of aging

If you depend on doctrine and dogma creating certainty more than the person of Jesus Christ, aging is going to be excruciatingly difficult for you…

Phoenix Preacher

Wise men

The wise men are not as wise in the wilderness as they are in the safety of their sanctuaries. 

Michael Spencer

Contemplation 

contemplation, the deliberate seeking of God through a willingness to detach from the passing self, the tyranny of emotions, the addiction to self-image, and the false promises of the world.

Richard Rohr

ONE THING FOR YOU TO THINK ABOUT

“I just want to be a normal person.”

Statistically speaking, a “normal person” is physically unhealthy, emotionally anxious/depressed, socially lonely, and financially in debt. ? 

Mark Manson

Autobiography

“everybody wants an autobiography at the end of their life, a bestseller and [My Story] is a way to do it now.” So so so true. If we could but wait we’d learn our story is, like the rest of the billions of earth’s inhabitants, quite ordinary even if we are special to some and to God.

Being Real – Phillip Plyming

Social Media

..social media platforms are now a culture of presenting a “positive impression” of ourselves. Here’s a real helpful set of categories of how those impressions are framed:

  • First, ingratiation: “the art of getting others to like us, to hold a favorable impression of us as we appear on our front stage.”
  • Second, intimidation: “the art of getting others … to fear us” by way of comparison. “My kids all got straight A’s” leads to “That mother is impressive. I don’t stack up.”
  • Third, self-promotion. This one hits the bone for us who are authors because our publishers want us to market and promote our own books. And there is only a fine line between saying what we need to say and saying more than what we need to say. I just had a new book arrive at my doorstep this weekend — do I keep it to myself or do I post it on social media?
  • Fourth, exemplification: the art of being “seen as worthy and having integrity.” In other words, virtue signaling and grandstanding.
  • Fifth, supplication: the art of framing “one ‘s dependence in order to get others to offer help” and resources.

The big ones that Plyming sees most on social media are self-promotion and ingratiation.

Scot McKnight – https://amzn.to/3QWYZIp

Church

It is easier to live in the world without being of the world than to live in the church without being of the church.

Henri Nowen – Where the night fell 

View from the Lanai
A quote from a recent sermon haunts me. I replayed the sermon and transcribed the quote attributed to Sophia Tolstoy.
Sophia Tolstoy was married to Leo for 32 years, had 16 pregnancies, bore 13 children, eight who lived to be adults.
She had this to say about the renowned Leo Tolstoy:

“There’s so little genuine warmth about him. His kindness does not come from his heart, but merely from his principles, his biography will tell how he helped laborers to carry buckets of water, but no one will ever know that he never gave his wife a rest, and never in all these 32 years gave his child a drink of water, or spent five minutes by his bedside to give me a chance to rest a little from all my labors.”

It is the phrase: “His kindness does not come from his heart, but merely from his principles.” that haunts me.
As one who considers himself a man of principles, where does my kindness come from?

STILL ON THE JOURNEY

The Presence of God (2)

George 4 Comments

Be careful what you wish for..

In 2006 I reflected on my ambition to become a mystic:
Mystic…one who recognizes the presence of God in the mundane. A person who can sense the power and presence of God at work; who has the ability to see the real hand and power and presence of God. Someone who is so connected to the spiritual world that it changes how they live in the physical world. (Josh Graves)
Running in the background of my spiritual journey in the intervening years that ambition has been mostly unfulfilled.
Last fall there was an opportunity to participate in a men’s discipleship group studying The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence1https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Presence-God-Brother-Lawrence/dp/0883681056. Having read the book years earlier I recognized an opportunity to renew my ambition to become a mystic, or more realistically, become mystical. Responsible for leading the discussions, in my usual “grab hold and get it done” mode, I immediately set about planning and organizing. Below is the syllabus for our study:

Goal: Become better disciples of Jesus.
Expectation for participants:
Read “The Practice of the Presence of God” before first meeting.
Participate weekly in 1-1.5 hour conversations, prayer and study of discipleship, using “The Practice of the Presence of God” as a discussion starter.
Outline (Preliminary to be revised as necessary as dictated by study and discussions)

Sept 14• Personal introductions
• Introduction to “The Practice of the Presence of God”
Sept 21• Questions and thoughts on “The Practice of the Presence of God”
Sept 28• What comes into our mind when you think about God?
Oct 5The presence of God
Oct 12• The presence of God in a secular age
Oct 19• The presence of God and discipleship
Oct 26• Spiritual Formation and practice of the presence of God
Nov 2• Practicing the presence of God in a post Christian world.
Nov 9• 1st mistake of practicing the presence of God
Nov 16• Summary and conclusions

My experience studying the presence of God with the men’s group was akin to discovering the back of an old wardrobe is a door into another world. I was gripped with surprise and unexpected encounters.  As an example, the following citations from the book produced some early consternation:

“The practice of the Presence of God is the most holy, the most all-encompassing, and the most necessary practice of the spiritual life. It trains the soul to find its joy in His Divine Companionship. He told me that it all consists in one hearty renunciation of everything that does not lead to God. In this manner we develop the practice of continual communion with Him in freedom and simplicity.“

“He surrendered himself to an attitude of faithful devotion and insight rather than reasoning and thinking.“

“There is no sweeter and delightful life than that of continual communion with God. Only those who experience this and practice it can comprehend it. Yet I do not advise you to undertake this practice from that motive. We should not seek pleasure in this exercise. Instead let us do it out of love and because God desires it.”

The Practice of the Presence of God

Presumptions of my syllabus were immediately challenged, requiring me to rethink my whole approach to a study of the presence of God. It also dawned on me that I was facing the possibility of an unfamiliar and frightening reality,—personally experiencing the real presence of God. I was acutely aware, as one author noted: “Secularism does not deny that God exists, but rather states that He has His place and does not necessarily affect other areas of our lives.” 2Everywhere Present -Fr Stephen Freeman applied to me.

Further engagement with scripture and writings about the presence of God only heightened my dismay.

You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. 
You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 
You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 
Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. 
You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 

Psalm 139:1-5

The spiritual life begins when one wakes up to the presence of God and experiences this reality for oneself. The omnipresence of God is more than a theological doctrine; it is experiential reality. The spiritual life begins in earnest when one wakes up.
This type of awakening is the heart of Christianity. It moves us from the realm of beliefs and ideas, emotions and rituals, into the Presence of God.
Awakening is always experienced as a gift. It is not something we can work at and achieve by our religious efforts or moral living.
We all have sinned when it comes to believing that we can define God. No one understands God.
But we can experience God. By this I mean that we can be aware of the presence of God. As
soon as we try to describe this awareness in ideas and words, then we fall short.

Marshall Davis

 “Holy, holy , holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Isaiah 6

…mystery isn’t something that you cannot understand—it is something that you can endlessly understand! There is no point at which you can say, “I’ve got it.” Always and forever, mystery gets you!

Richard Rohr

Suspended between— the greatest need of my life 3 “The greatest need in our life is the presence of God.”–Paul Smith — and —the prospect of being naked in the presence of my Creator, from whom nothing is hidden— describes the paradox of the presence of God.

Succeeding posts will address various aspects of practicing the presence of God.

STILL ON THE JOURNEY

  • 1
    https://www.amazon.com/Practice-Presence-God-Brother-Lawrence/dp/0883681056
  • 2
    Everywhere Present -Fr Stephen Freeman
  • 3
    “The greatest need in our life is the presence of God.”–Paul Smith

The Presence of God

George 1 Comment

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast. If I say,
“Surely the darkness will hide me and
the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

Psalm 139:7-12

This the first in a series of posts on “The Presence of God”. Spawned by a men’s discipleship group study of Brother Lawrence’s – The Practice of the Presence of God, their purpose is to share insights from that study and open a window to exciting and challenging possibilities for spiritual transformation.

Disclaimer: In no way are these posts a definitive understanding of the Presence of God or their implications to our spiritual life. They are intended to inform and and arouse curiosity that will stimulate further examination.

If, as Marshall Davis asserts; “The doctrine of the Fall is about the loss of the Presence of God.” , it follows our redemption is centered in the restoration of the presence of God. Therefore the presence of God is the most accurate barometer of our spiritual well-being.1 “Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
John 14:23 NIV

As we begin consider these quotes:

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. 
First, God.
God is the subject of life. God is foundational for living, if we don’t have a sense of the primacy of God, we will never get it right, get life right, get our lives right. Not God at the margins; not God as an option; not God on the weekends.
God at center and circumference;
God first and last;
God, God, God.

A W Tozer

In the midst of life, we “practice the presence of God” by listening and speaking to him in every circumstance. Spiritual formation happens through a life of contemplation. In the midst of our daily activities, we ponder and meditate on God’s words and works. We talk to him in prayer. We listen, we question, we complain. We give thanks, make requests, and express our doubts. We study, analyze, and consider how to apply his teachings. We walk or sit silently with him and enjoy his presence. For a believer the veil between this world and the “heavenly places” is thin and there is constant interaction between the two realms. 

iMonk  https://imonk.blog/2013/05/26/another-look-spiritual-formation-what-is-it/

Those with an incomplete or tainted vision of God either want to use him or dismiss him. But when a full, clear, and rapturous vision of God is presented, we will not settle for anything less than being with him. This complete vision of God and his character comes not from within us, but is gifted to us in Jesus who “is the image of the invisible God.”

Skye Jethanti “With”  https://www.amazon.com/Reimagining-Way-You-Relate-God/dp/1595553797

One of the most fundamental principles of the Christian vision of reality is that God is present everywhere, filling all things. This underlies the essential Christian task of becoming consciously aware of that Presence and bringing that awareness into every aspect of our life.
…to have communion with God means to have a share in His Divine Life. He lives in me and I in Him. I come to know God even as I know myself. I come to love even as God loves, because it is His love that dwells in me. I come to forgive as God forgives, because it His mercy that dwells within me.

Everywhere Present – Fr Stephen Freeman https://www.amazon.com/Everywhere-Present-Christianity-One-Storey-Universe/dp/1936270102

“One of the most fundamental principles of the Christian vision of reality is that God is present everywhere, filling all things. This underlies the essential Christian task of becoming consciously aware of that Presence and bringing that awareness into every aspect of our life.” 

Tim Keller

Hopefully those statements are helpful in understanding the essentiality of the presence of God in our spiritual life.

The goal of this series is captured by Keller:”…becoming consciously aware of that Presence and bringing that awareness into every aspect of our life.“

STILL ON THE JOURNEY

  • 1
    “Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
    John 14:23 NIV

So Much To Think About -2024

George 0 Comments

Serendipity was scarce in 2023 . Prognostications for 2024 are not promising.

In 2003, a NASA Investigation Board blamed the disintegration of the space shuttle Columbia in part on PowerPoint.

Useless

Oscar Wilde:

A work of art is useless as a flower is useless. A flower blossoms for its own joy. We gain a moment of joy by looking at it. That is all that is to be said about our relations to flowers. Of course man may sell the flower, and so make it useful to him, but this has nothing to do with the flower. It is not part of its essence. It is accidental. It is a misuse. All this is I fear very obscure. But the subject is a long one.

Sacramental Life

The sacramental life of the Church is not an aspect of the Church’s life – it is a manifestation of the whole life of the Church. It is, indeed, the very character and nature of the Church’s life. The Church does not have sacraments – the Church is a sacrament. We do not eat sacraments or just participate in the sacraments – we are sacraments. The sacraments reveal the true character of our life in Christ. 

Fr Stephen Freeman

God is at work here

How many times have you thought or said this. I’ve said it too. “God must be at work here.” And what you and I are observing is something successful, something cool, something remarkable, something miraculous, something astounding. Which trains our eyes, ears, and senses to see God in the extraordinary and successful. More importantly, which trains us not to see God at work elsewhere.

What is so remarkable about Paul is that he states over and over, especially in 2 Corinthians, that he sees God most at work in his life when he is vulnerable and suffering and in pain and weak. This is the real Paul being real about the real Christian life. For him the Christian life is not about glory and success and money and prestige and honor. He does not look for the work of God in the forum of Rome or at the bema in Corinth or at the Acropolis in Athens or in well-known celebrities turning to Jesus (which is good, so too is the conversion of someone few know). He looks for the work of God in the ordinary person following the way of Jesus.

The Corinthians “Expected to see God at work in places of physical strength, material success, social achievement, human flourishing, lasting smiles and rhetorical brilliance.” But not Paul. Not the way of. Not cruciformity or Christoformitiy. In… “physical weakness, emotional brokenness and social humility” the apostle Paul “proudly witnesses to God at work in enduring and hopeful ways.
https://scotmcknight.substack.com/p/look-elsewhere

Bull-headedness

If people refuse to change, what my mother used to call “bull-headedness,” the world will only get worse. We have to learn how to dialogue, how to forgive, and how to trust, and how to give people the benefit of the doubt. In the United States, our country has become very cynical about truth and love. We hear politicians take oaths to be fair and just leaders and we all know it doesn’t mean anything. We expect everybody to be for the truth of their group and their “kingdoms.” But Jesus tells us to change our minds and accept the kingdom of God, which is what’s good for the whole.

Richard Rohr

Grief, Lament and Spiritual Bypassing

“Spiritual bypassing is a tool used to sidestep complicated emotions, psychological issues, and unfinished developmental tasks.”

“Many HCR’s (High Control Religions) instill in their followers of fear that if they grieve for too long, even after a loved one has died, their emotions will take over. Instead, HCR’s offer platitudes to get people to look on the bright side so that others around them can avoid feeling their own discomfort with grief and loss. Focus is instead placed on seeing what people can learn through the experience or what God might be teaching them. Rather than dealing with difficult emotions or painful experiences, many are taught to instead look for how God can use the situation to bring glory to his name.”

Spiritual bypassing also explains the inability, or perhaps even the unwillingness, genuinely to enter into a period of lament and sitting in it, rather than finding release points, positive possibilities, and hope. The Book of Lamentations Simply does not take us to where many in the spiritual bypassing mode want to go.

 The Book of Lamentations, then, “is both survivors’ literature and survival literature.” The story we tell about the past and the story that gives meaning to the present and hope for the future. “Trauma makes one mute and numb, and recovery is not feasible without the victim finding his/her/their voice and naming his/her/their suffering.” Lament in the book of lamentations avoids mentioning God while inveighing against God. “They do not wait for Yhwh to speak; rather, they expect him to listen.”

It is a fundamental mistake then to minimize lament and grief. Healing does not occur by spinning a narrative of victory, of triumph, and of hope. Healing occurs by facing reality and in the reality learning the language of healing and hope. It is too easy to call it lament, and then abort the lament by turning to stages of progress and development.

https://www.amazon.com/When-Religion-Hurts-You-High-Control/dp/1587435888

The Roman Catholic Blessing of Same-Sex Couples

The reality is that the statement is far more limited.  A few points will make this clear:

  1. The document clearly retains the church’s position that Christian marriage is between a man and a woman.
  2. Any blessing given to a same-sex couple cannot be given in a formal “liturgical” setting, which would mirror the kind of ceremony we associate with Christian marriage.
  3. Any blessing given to a same-sex couple is not intended to extend moral legitimacy to same-sex unions.

The blessing the document envisions is what is known as a “spontaneous” blessing.  It may not be fully appreciated by many Protestants, but it is very common for Roman Catholic priests (identifiable by their clerical collar) who may be found in malls, airports, places of pilgrimage etc. to be approached by someone asking for their blessing.  The document now allows priests to bless same-sex couples in these “spontaneous” non-liturgical situations.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/04/vatican-says-blessing-of-same-sex-couples-is-not-blasphemous

Advent

It is a season of wonder. Wonder is an interesting thing. Scot Erickson says that wonder is “the moment when all of our narratives and stories about life disappear in the rapturous experience of actually being here.” He says that wonder is “being present with the glorious now.”

A moment of Wonder is the moment when you are speechless, overwhelmed, and caught up in a mystery. In a moment of wonder, you momentarily develop a singular focus, and everything else stops.

I want you to bring to mind the last time you experienced wonder. Don’t you long for a life of wonder and mystery and surprise and joy?

Kelly Edmiston

Taxes

The poorest quintile of Americans pays more than twice the rate of state taxes as the top 1 percent does, and about half again what the top 10 percent pays.

Single Parenting

According to the Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, 60 years ago just 20 percent of children born to parents with a high-school education or less lived in a single-parent household; now that figure is nearly 70 percent. Among college-educated households, by contrast, the single-parent rate remains less than 10 percent. Since the 1970s, the divorce rate has declined significantly among college-educated couples, while it has risen dramatically among couples with only a high-school education—even as marriage itself has become less common. The rate of single parenting is in turn the single most significant predictor of social immobility across counties, according to a study led by the Stanford economist Raj Chetty.

Digital Books

Three in ten Americans read digital books. Whether they’re accessing online textbooks or checking out the latest bestselling e-book from the public library, the majority of these readers are subject to both the greed of Big Publishing and the priorities of Big Tech. In fact, Amazon’s Kindle held 72% of the e-reader market in 2022. And if there’s one thing we know about Big Tech companies like Amazon, their real product isn’t the book. It’s the user data.

Major publishers are giving Big Tech free rein to watch what you read and where, including books on sensitive topics, like if you check out a book on self care after an abortion. Worse, tech and publishing corporations are gobbling up data beyond your reading habits—today, there are no federal laws to stop them from surveilling people who read digital books across the entire internet.

Reader surveillance is a deeply intersectional threat, according to a congressional letter issued last week from a coalition of groups whose interests span civil rights, anti-surveillance, anti-book ban, racial justice, reproductive justice, LGBTQ+, immigrant, and antimonopoly. Our letter calls on federal lawmakers to investigate the harms of tech and publishing corporations’ powerful hold over digital book access. 

This investigation is an essential first step to revive the right to read without fear of having your interests used against you. Because unfortunately, that right is on life support when it comes to digital books. 

Ironically, I keep hoping someone will read what I am reading.

View from the Lanai

Our stay in Florida has been very good. The weather has been unusual but I’m confident no one wants to hear complaints.

A special part of our experience is the community, neighbors and friends we’ve grown to know and love. Even the anonymous person who left a Christmas treat on our door.

STILL ON THE JOURNEY