Gone Fishing
As you may have noticed, my output has taken a dip in recent weeks. All is well, but a new, potentially very exciting project has quite abruptly taken over all my writing time. In my two years of Substacking, I’ve been proud to keep up a steady output without hitting “pause,” as I’ve seen some writers do. However, the time has come when I must imitate their example, at least until I am over this next alarmingly large hump. It’s still possible that I will write something new in the next couple of weeks, and I hope you will all enjoy it if I do. But in the meanwhile, I’ve frozen everyone’s billing cycles. Whenever your current subscription was going to expire, it will now expire two weeks later. So if you were on the verge of giving up, please don’t go just yet! The pause also has the effect of blocking new paid subscribers, but if you’re a new reader and you simply can’t wait to give me your money, by all means leave a comment or reply to this post.
Meanwhile, if you’re new to my work, here’s a list of some of my favorite essays in the archives. If curious, do enjoy! An asterisk means it is only for paid subscribers. If you aren't subscribed please let me know if there was something you especially wanted to read and I'll see what I can do. Thank you all, and see you soon.
America
“The Rainbow in the Basement”* On my neighborhood
“The Universe in the Dealership”* On getting my oil changed
Personal
“Gram” For my grandmother
“The Mother’s Mother’s Tale” For my other grandmother
“Coming Out as Me” For myself
“The Softly Spoken Magic”* On time and death and Pink Floyd
“Say Not the Day is Done”* On suicide
Christianity
“The Garden at the End of the Universe” On Easter
“Life’s Little Day”* On the loss of a child
“Healing Streams”* On miracles and faith healers
“And Is it True?” On Christmas
“God’s Firebrand: An Interview With Hatun Tash” Meeting a modern saint
“What Will Become of Atheism?” On the state of the religion wars
“The Memory of What is Missing” On the death of Queen Elizabeth
“What We Can’t Not Know” On ethics and the natural light
“Objective Morality: A Tom Holland Tweebate” A micro-debate on faith and ethics
“Jesus Loves You” On Matthew Parris and the awkward street evangelist
“The Hustler, the Cop, and the Sparrow”* A Chicago story
“Something to Really Believe”* On visiting the Church of St. Thomas
“The Bitter Hour”* On Maundy Thursday
“A Sword Shall Pierce” On Good Friday
“The Sum of All Fears”* On demons
Politics
“Morning in America” On the fall of Roe
“American Tragedy” On police shootings
“There Are No Solutions” On school shootings
“Death of a Conservative” For a friend
“The Parable of the Two Pandemics” On COVID and AIDS
“Trans Formation”* On free speech and my adventures in Twitter suspension
Social Criticism
“Chatbot Didn’t Write This Essay” On a student, and ChatGPT
“Dopesick” On Twitter
“It’s a Sin (Part III)” On sin and AIDS
“Found In the Nude” On Marilyn Monroe
“For Sale: One Body”* On prostitution
“No Continuing City”* On the homeless crisis
History
“Poem: Chalice” On Pearl Harbor
“The Veteran Who Made Me a Journalist” For my old neighbor
“War of Truths, Truth of War”* On war and war writing
“Sophie Scholl and the Gift of Attention”* On the diary of Sophie Scholl
“The Queen’s Steed” On the young Queen Elizabeth and a white stallion of Lipizza
“But Ye Are Justified (Part I)”* On Whittaker Chambers—yes, I never got around to Part II, but I will, I promise!
“Bloody Witness” On Bloody Sunday
“The Way the Lights Went Out” On 9/11
“Postcards From Scotland: Laurie of Old St. Paul’s” On my current research project
The Arts
“Of Boys and Men”* On Master and Commander
“Wounded by Music”* On music and genius
“Frail as Summer’s Flower” On stories about death and losing oneself
“The Song of the Saints” On Shusaku Endo’s Silence
“Take Me Home”* On To Kill a Mockingbird
“The Miracle Under the Mountain”* On prayer and the Thai cave rescue in movies
“Christmas, For the Time Being”* On Auden
“Stronger Than Fear”* On a neglected war novel
“God-Haunted in Grand Rapids”* On Marc Cohn
Other
I just love these. I’m not sure where to put them. They all cluster around the theme of heroism.
“We Were Soldiers” On the fall of Afghanistan
“The Life You Save” A trial by fire
“The World Entire”* A trial by water
“Only the Trying”* On heroism and the problem of evil
Whatever you're doing, do it well and come back soon 🙏
Best wishes for your project (?). I’m looking forward to whatever you create.