What makes you feel safe?
Security blankets, chores, and memoirs
To the new friends who have joined this little newsletter—thank you! I do not take for granted your attention and support <3
Please enjoy this week’s roundup of goodies.
an album
Dolly Parton dropped a rock album this past weekend and it was the dose of extra-ness I needed as the soundtrack to my Saturday Morning Chores. Especially the Prince and Miley covers, and her original.
a podcast
I love friendship. It tends to be the relationship most underrated and misunderstood, especially in the church. Jess Connolly’s 3-part series on friendship covers so much of what I’ve personally experienced, yet also wish I learned sooner to be a better friend. I agree with her assessment: “messy, but worth it.”
a doodle
I prefer to pace as I listen. But since that’s not socially acceptable in most contexts (unless I’m putzing around my own house doing aforementioned chores), I sit like a good kid and chicken-scratch notes instead. During our staff meeting last week, Simon weaved together Isaiah 30 and the Peanuts comic. Like Linus who is always clinging to his security blanket, ancient Israel was running to the powerhouse Egypt (30:2) for help and protection instead of their King. The Israelites were fearful, like Linus. We are fearful, like Linus. However, Linus throws us a curveball. The only time he isn’t holding his blanket, the only time he no longer needs to be afraid, the only time he truly feels safe is when he is announcing the presence of Jesus. Right as he recites ‘Fear not!’, he drops his security blanket. It’s subtle, but brilliant animation.
top 3 books: memoirs
As the year winds down, I’ll share some of my favorite books of 2023 within a genre. Let’s start with memoirs. Here are the ones that moved me deeply, and even more so as I listened to their story from their own voices (yay audiobooks! Viola even won herself a grammy with her narration):
Viola Davis’ Finding Me: A Memoir. I hadn’t seen much of her work, but was impressed with the movies I had seen. Perhaps that is why I impulse-borrowed her book as it popped up on the NLB recommendations. I’m so glad I did. There were some sittings I could listen for hours, her prose riveting. And some only for minutes for the sheer weight of her story. It gave me undertones of Maya Angelou. Brutal, poignant, and stunning.
Beth Moore’s All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir. The church environments I grew up in did not encourage women to teach. I had subconsciously inherited a posture that was distrustful of women in leadership, including Beth Moore. Whew. I’m so grateful that postures can be corrected (all you need is a good chiro, amiright?) It’s taken years of unlearning, but here I am. Not only growing in my own journey, but ever so grateful for mothers in the faith like Beth who, with the greatest humility, have faithfully served many to be lovers of the Word. The week this dropped, I listened to the entire book in two sittings. Beautiful, palpable, and healing.
Harrison Scott Key’s How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told. All of my fears of marriage are perfectly summed up in this book. Yet also, all the wonder I uphold for this mysterious idea of a union that only God could have come up with. Hilarious, heartbreaking, and hopeful.
Honorable mention: Constance Wu’s Making a Scene mainly for her powerful essay of a chapter called “Welcome to Jurassic Park”. Here’s the TLDR:
There are real people who genuinely embody stereotypical attributes—they’re our mothers and fathers, our uncles and aunts, our brainy cousins—I don’t want to hide their voices or their stories. They are human too. … What’s so embarrassing about an accent? Our parents have accents because they know two languages. Let’s be proud of that. … When a great actor refuses to play previously stereotyped roles [so we can humanize and celebrate them], I worry that their proud proclamation of that choice actually reduces our humanity. When our reactivity to old wounds renders us ashamed…it reinforces the mainstream’s ignorant theory that the people who embody those stereotypes are inherently shameful. Or at the very least, uncool. Unassimilated. … We aren’t letting ourselves be seen.
a nubbin
Guess who is sprouting a new leaf after months of being dormant:
Thank you for reading 💛 I had so much fun chatting with some of you re: last week’s list of things. Holler if you enjoyed this week’s. Or want to share your own version of a Linus doodle.
love,
reb
& i <3 reb
I <3 jess