I love wrangling words and ideas, and have been doing so online in some form or fashion (MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Typepad, WordPress, now Substack) since 2002. I kept the first Second Drafts blog from 2005-2015. Throw in 20-plus handwritten journal volumes and a book or two, and that’s a lot of content - edited or otherwise - floating around the ether.
After 13 years of putting fingers to keys, I stepped away from my personal blog in 2015, writing instead for other online outlets (school, church, a couple random blogs asking for content, etc.) and focused on the tasks at hand. On my own, I continued “micro-blogging” via Facebook and Twitter, but neither platform was as satisfying as the more essay-enabling weblog. So, for 2021, I’ve decided to consolidate my online writing in one archive for posterity and grandkids.
Why Second Drafts? The title is a carryover from my previous blog and how I write and live: the first draft is usually always in my head - fluid but nebulous - whereas “second drafts” require actually grasping thoughts to bring them to life. As Flannery O’Connor wrote, “I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say.” That is my experience as well.
In addition, I’ve created via Substack this weekly newsletter to push out and add to 15 years’ of posts. My hope is that this will be a medium for my maven tendencies to share perspectives, stories, opportunities, resources, and links helpful to my readers’ lives.
Though comments are turned off, you’re welcome and encouraged to email me directly with feedback or ideas at cmdunham [at] gmail.com. Just know that, unless you specifically tell me not to, I may quote you here (though it will always be anonymously). Thanks for reading.
Craig
New Year’s Day Hot Takes
A few quick thoughts on some topics to get you started:
As of this writing, Mitch McConnell continues to play politics with increasing COVID relief from $600 to $2,000. According to CBSNews, McConnell…
“…blocked an attempt to vote on the $2,000 stimulus checks approved by the House, but resurrected the higher payments in a new bill that includes other items on President Trump's wish list: The creation of a commission to study election fraud and the repeal of Section 230, which shields social media companies from lawsuits.”
The thing that both Republicans and Democrats are missing in all this is, regardless of what Americans think about another stimulus bill (i.e. for or against), most want it considered without pork and only for what it is supposed to be - relief - preferably with a stand-alone vote so we know who does and doesn’t vote for it. Word to the wise: whether $600 or $2,000, don’t spend it yet.
This article in the Wall Street Journal describes how cancel culture, using the slogan of #DisruptTexts, is now coming after the likes of Homer, Shakespeare, and the Great Books. Regarding the culprits,
“Their ethos holds that children shouldn’t have to read stories written in anything other than the present-day vernacular—especially those ‘in which racism, sexism, ableism, anti-Semitism, and other forms of hate are the norm,’ as young-adult novelist Padma Venkatraman writes in School Library Journal. No author is valuable enough to spare, Ms. Venkatraman instructs: ‘Absolving Shakespeare of responsibility by mentioning that he lived at a time when hate-ridden sentiments prevailed, risks sending a subliminal message that academic excellence outweighs hateful rhetoric.’”
I’m not sure the blind assumption that our own time is one rid of “hate-ridden sentiments” is the best argument here, any more than the appeal to modernity’s “academic excellence” holds up. Same planet, different world, I suppose.
Remember when we were all low on hand sanitizer and some folks who owned distilleries thought they could help? Well, here’s what they got for trying:
For many American craft distillers, 2020 was already one of their worst years ever…Then this week, just as it seemed they'd made it through the worst of a terrible year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had one more surprise in store: The agency delivered notice to distilleries that had produced hand sanitizer in the early days of the pandemic that they now owe an unexpected fee to the government of more than $14,000.
According to the article, “More than 800 distilleries pivoted from spirits to sanitizer, offering it for sale or in many cases donating it to their communities free of charge. Their prompt action helped ensure supplies of sanitizer when it was otherwise unobtainable.” All those folks have got to be shaking their collective heads at this, and I hope they fight it, with plenty of support to do so.
One Way Not to Go Mental in 2021
If you’re reading this, congratulations! We made it to 2021! True, some may still be huddled in the corner in fear not yet convinced the year is over, while others may be in the same said corner for reasons of excessive celebration that it is.
Regardless, for the remainder of us who went to bed at a decent hour, slept well, woke early, and feel ready for what the new day and year ahead hold, we may be hopeful and rested, but still also slightly cautious about what’s next, kind of like these guys:
If they were Stormtroopers, I’d have given up all hope already.
Or maybe not, at least not if you’re a regular weekly church attender. This past Sunday, Trinity Church pastor Bryan Clark quoted findings assessing Americans’ mental health in a recent (December 7) Gallup Poll. According to Gallup,
“Americans' latest assessment of their mental health is worse than it has been at any point in the last two decades. Seventy-six percent of U.S. adults rate their mental health positively, representing a nine-point decline from 2019.”
Statistically, it’s not difficult to make the argument that our nation has been negatively affected by COVID-19; a nine-point drop is significant. In addition, there are more and more sad stories like this one from my home state of Illinois (hat tip to my sister Jill) that puts a face on the numbers and illustrates the challenges folks are facing.
The bad news is consistent across the board - with the exception of one particular demographic: people who attend religious services on a regular weekly basis. Members of this group registered the only positive change (+4 points) from 2019 to 2020 compared to members of all other groups, all of which are in the negative, with some of those groups reporting as much as a -10 to -15 percentage point difference.
Call it a greater sense of belonging, security, or whatever you want, but something rings sociologically true that can be theologically explained: as Bryan put it, “Personal presence matters.” This mattering proximity seems to be not just between Christians, but between Christians and the God they worship together on Sunday mornings.
So, as you think about the new year and the continuing coronavirus pandemic we’re still dealing with, now may be the time to reconsider or reaffirm the weekly habit of going to church. I’m not merely saying (as this article in The Atlantic surmises) that “community is where you keep showing up,” as there’s so much more to koinoia - “Christian fellowship or communion, with God or, more commonly, with fellow Christians” - than that, but it definitely seems a healthy prerequisite of some kind.
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:24-25
See you Sunday?
Post(erity) Talking
Each week, I’ll choose a post from the past that seems apropos of something (of course, you’re always welcome to crawl the archive yourself whenever you like).
Since today is the first day of 2021, this week’s past post - New Year’s Revolution - is from 2008 and offers four practical steps to make the most of a new year. An excerpt:
“On the dawn of a New Year, real change often goes beyond just making resolutions; it requires revolution - ‘a sudden, complete, or radical change in something; a procedure or course back to a starting point.’ The difference between resolution and revolution is one letter - ‘v’ - which in my own life I think of as standing for ‘violence,’ as we must take hold of our lives - sometimes violently if necessary - to see change happen.”
Hope it’s helpful.
Still Time to Sign Up for “Logic & Revelation”
Beginning January 18 and running through May 3, I’ll be teaching a once-a-week Monday night course from 6-7:50 p.m. for Montana Bible College. The course is called “Logic & Revelation” and will meet in the MBC library or E-Free Church, depending on numbers. Here’s the description:
“Logic is the art and science of reasoning well. Our study will focus on defining and relating terms, determining relationships between statements, and recognizing and evaluating the validity of arguments. With these in mind, we will engage in formal logic, concentrating on categorical propositions and syllogisms, and eventually be able to recognize and carefully engage with more informal logical fallacies in our and others’ reasoning. We seek to honor and follow the God who personally invites us to engage Him as His reasonable people: ‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord.” (Isaiah 1:18a)
Two options for the Bozeman community (sorry, non-Bozemanites, but I don’t believe it’s being Zoomed or recorded):
“Whenever I lose my way in life, there are two maps on the wall that can help me navigate my way back home. That happens more often than I would like to admit, but whenever it does, the maps are always there. One of those maps is of the state of Mississippi, with a dot hovering over the coastline there where I grew up. The other map is of a land called Narnia. Those maps help remind who I am, but most important they remind me what I’m not, what I almost was.
And what I almost was is a teenage suicide.
That last sentence there I have written, and unwritten, at least a dozen times. I’m scared to disclose it, because I’ve never discussed it before, even with close friends. But that’s what this book is about: finding a way in the midst of fear, to somehow, having done all else, to stand.”
I appreciate his candor. He continues with it in chapter three, “Courage and Shame”:
A term - “imposter syndrome” - was coined to describe this sense that one is really a fraud, that everything one has accomplished was a result of chance and luck, and that if people could really see into one’s mind they would know that the person is not qualified to be doing what he or she is doing. That is not limited to one’s sense of vocational qualification either. Most parents internally compare themselves to their own parents - who seemed so confident and sure of what they do - while they are, by contrast, second-guessing every decision they make in guiding their children. One woman told me that after she gave birth and was being wheeled out of the hospital with her baby she wondered if she had grounds to sue the hospital since they were sending a live infant off with someone as incompetent as she thought herself to be.”
And that manifests itself in the spiritual arena too. Most Christians, at some point or other, fear that they are hypocrites, just like the religious leaders Jesus condemned. After all, if people could see into our hearts, and see the sorts of thoughts we have, the kind of distractions that come over us when we try to pray, they would see that we hardly measure up to the image we project. We know that other people have doubts, but we imagine they are not as paralyzing as ours. We know that everyone sins, but we assume that other people’s sins are not quite as grotesque as our own. That is shame, and the path toward courage goes right through it.”
Currently, Peaches and I are about a fourth of the way into the book, but we wanted to go ahead and make folks aware of it, as it seems to be what one reviewer wrote, “like an arm around the shoulder for believers enduring a season of fearful darkness.”
Recommended.
Friends Doing Cool Stuff
I'm a sucker for small business success stories (probably because I don't really have any of my own), and this is a good one.
Randy and Carol McMillan live in Las Cruces, NM, and sent their three daughters (Jodi Redfearn, Jayme Wallis, and Jenna) to Eagle Lake Camps of The Navigators year after year when Megan and I were there. It was always great to see the McMillans pull into the parking lot for their week of camp, and I always enjoyed talking to Randy year-to-year about his business enterprises.
I probably haven't seen the family in 20+ years, but I happened to come across the McMillans' new business endeavor, The Fresh Chile Company, and was so thrilled for them as I watched the three-part video series telling their story. In addition to the chile company, they've branched out with Josephina's Café and Rio Grande Vineyard and Winery, and give glory to God for all of it.
If you have an entrepreneurial spirit, the McMillans' story will bless you (be sure to watch the other video episodes to get the full tale). And, if you have a taste for all things chile, I'm sure they'd be glad to hook you up.
The Five - Friend and former fellow Pike Countian Seth Hurd writes this current events newsletter twice a week. I enjoy it and encourage you to subscribe.
Why not? Second Drafts is a once-a-week newsletter delivered to your inbox (you can also read it online or through your RSS reader) and it’s totally free. (Note: If you’d rather not subscribe, that’s fine. However, a la The Peanut Butter Falcon, I won’t invite you to my birthday party.)
Keep Connected
Comments are turned off, but you’re welcome and encouraged to email me directly with feedback or ideas at cmdunham [at] gmail.com. Just know that, unless you specifically tell me not to, I may quote you (though it will always be anonymously).
