On Relevancy (and a Lack Thereof)
Revisiting a Moment that Mattered
This Week
Intro Letter - 26 in a row, a reader email, and a new writing project
Hot Takes - On abortion, communion, public office; anti-CRT legislation
Feature - “On Relevancy (and a Lack Thereof)
Post(erity) - “The Irrelevance of Relevance”
Fresh & Random Linkage - Boy bands; R-rated Lord of the Rings; MT patriotism
Dear Reader,
This is my 26th consecutive Second Drafts weekly newsletter. My goal when I started in January was to write 52 straight weeks and evaluate next steps. Emails like this are motivating:
“I really appreciate your emails. They are filled with facts, humor, and thoughtfulness. I love how you put little excerpts from different sources in your writing to validate your point. I am lucky to be on your list.”
Luck, of course, has nothing to do with it when you subscribe (if you don’t, now’s your chance).
In case you hadn’t heard, I have a new, less-public (at least for now) writing project that I’m beginning. Last weekend, I finalized an agreement to author a memoir (not mine), with a completed manuscript due January 1, 2022. The “deal” includes a trip to California for research and interviews, as well as a byline, advance, and publishing royalties.
It’s interesting being trusted with someone else’s stories, especially when they’re so much crazier than my own (this guy has five lifetimes’ worth of seemingly implausible tales to tell and I only hope I capture and write them in a way that readers will believe them). I’m grateful for the chance, but nervous about it as well, which is a good place to be. Up next: the Pulitzer.
As always, thanks for reading.
Craig
P.S.: Comments are open below if you’d like to leave yours. You’re also welcome to email me directly with feedback, ideas, links, etc. at cmdunham [at] gmail [dot] com.
P.P.S.: For those in Bozeman (and Montana in general - check the schedule), make plans now to attend Montana Shakespeare in the Parks’ production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. We took Peaches on opening night on Wednesday and she loved it. Good and free live theater!
Hot Takes
“After Debate On Biden's Abortion Views, Bishops Vote to Rethink Communion Rules” - There’s been much discussion of late as to whether bishops of the Catholic Church should withhold the Eucharist from President Biden in light of his very public commitment to abortion. New York Times columnist Ross Douthat (a Catholic) had a good opinion piece this week on the topic, writing,
“There are many good reasons to avoid a political confrontation over communion and abortion right now, many reasons to expect that any effort will backfire or just fail. But if, over the next few generations, we move into a world where the liberalism of Catholic politicians requires them to support not just abortion rights but a brave new world of human life manufactured, commodified, vivisected and casually snuffed out—well, then the bishops of tomorrow may look back on today and wish they’d found a way to say ‘enough.’”
The slippery slope argument can be a logical fallacy…until it’s not, and I think Douthat nails it from a canary in the coalmine perspective. Both historically and presently, there’s little evidence Biden and the Democrats have any qualms with the killing of unborn children. Crisis Magazine had a good write-up on Catholic Democrat Tim Kaine trying to grease similar skids in his role in the Senate:
“No reading of the life of Jesus would suggest these issues as his primary, or even secondary, concern. His towering message is about love of neighbor as oneself with a special focus on the poor, sick, hungry, marginalized.”
Poor, sick, hungry, marginalized - none has a chance if murdered in the womb.
For those who cry foul that bishops withholding the Eucharist from a self-proclaimed Catholic who is so blatantly against what the Church and the Bible teaches with regard to the sanctity of life, keep in mind that such an action should be (but won’t be portrayed in the media as) a protection rather than a punishment. As is true for any of us who might be so blasé and unrepentant about our sin in partaking of the elements, the Scriptures are clear:
“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.” 1 Corinthians 11:27-29
Do the right thing, Joe, for your sake, as well as for those yet-to-be-born citizens.
President Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, attend Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle during Inauguration Day ceremonies in Washington.
“State University Faculty, Students to Be Surveyed on Beliefs” - Interesting doings in Florida, as well as Montana and other Republican-run states, with regard to public education and critical race theory:
“In his continued push against the ‘indoctrination’ of students, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed legislation that will require public universities and colleges to survey students, faculty and staff about their beliefs and viewpoints to support ‘intellectual diversity.’
The survey will discern ‘the extent to which competing ideas and perspectives are presented’ in public universities and colleges, and seeks to find whether students, faculty and staff ‘feel free to express beliefs and viewpoints on campus and in the classroom,’ according to the bill.”
Keep in mind that these are surveys and nothing more (though DeSantis did not hesitate talking about possible budget cuts if schools are “indoctrinating” students, but there wasn’t much discussion as to the measure of that).
I have mixed feelings on this one (not that feelings - mine or anyone else’s - count for anything in the discussion). As a former educator, I’m not a big fan of politicians (regardless of party or government level) getting involved at any level of education. These people do not spend time day-in and day-out with students, nor do the majority have any idea what curriculum or pedagogy - good or bad - really is. The only metrics most of them use to measure success pertain to test scores (W.’s No Child Left Behind or Obama’s Race to the Top ring any bells?) and job readiness because those are the metrics of the same screwed up system used to measure them when they were in school.
All that said, I understand the desire to push back (even pre-emptively - let’s not pretend this isn’t going on especially on college campuses across the country) against CRT propaganda and censorship, particularly in response to stuff like this at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. But I’ve always believed that the way to combat bad and facetious ideas is with good and true ones. Does this require legislation? Maybe it’s gotten so bad that, indeed, it does, which is a sad commentary on the state of the exchange of ideas and the quality of rhetoric concerning them as provided by conservatives.
As conservatives try to stem the tide of CRT by way of high-level legislation, watch progressives pivot to repackage the propaganda as actual history itself. I mentioned this in a Hot Take in last week’s newsletter, in which this article reported that “Republican legislation to limit teaching a historically accurate picture of U.S. history in public institutions has advanced in some half a dozen states,” and our hometown Bozeman Daily Chronicle ran an article earlier this week stating that, “Bozeman Schools Officials Say Curriculum Unaffected by AG’s Opinion on Critical Race Theory.” This, however, is not what I hear from parents whose kids attend local public schools.
In this Jan. 4, 2021 photo Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen is sworn into office inside the Montana State Capitol in Helena. Knudsen issued an opinion Thursday, May 27, 2021, labeling critical race theory and some antiracism programs taught in schools as "discriminatory" and said they violate federal and state law. The Republican Attorney General's decision bans the activities which are also used for employee training in the state.
On Relevancy (and My Lack Thereof)
“The Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. That is the way Jesus came to reveal God’s love.” Henri Nouwen
Back in the day (April, 2004), I spoke at a TwentySomeone conference made up of a group of 40 conferees in their early twenties in San Diego. At the time, I was in my early thirties (33, to be exact), and for the first time that I could remember in any public situation up until then, my age tangibly seemed to be an issue. I was not accused of being too young to present what I was presenting, but too old.
I say “tangibly” for several reasons: for starters, one evaluation said as much, suggesting that the twenties were a good topic this conferee was interested in, but with “someone who can speak relevantly to our (twenty-somethings’) issues.”
Ouch. That was pretty tangible.
Secondly (and again for the first time I could really recall), I meta-noticed that many (not just a few) cultural references and illustrations I employed in my talks seemed to slightly miss their mark, as my target audience seemed to have little personal association, interest, or understanding of them. A short list I can recall included:
The music of John Mellencamp - If there was a soundtrack to my teens/twenties growing up in the Midwest in the mid-to-late 80s, Cougar was on it. Those Millennials, however, had no interest in a little ditty ‘bout Jack and Diane…
That warm, fuzzy feeling from watching A Charlie Brown Christmas Special - I remember playing a clip featuring the Peanuts crew to illustrate a point in my talk, but my younger audience giggled at and made fun of the 1965 animation.
An affection for (not just an association with) Star Wars - To be fair, the Millennial disconnect might have had something to do with that generation’s preliminary Star Wars experience being the prequels, which came out in 1999, 2002, and 2005. Three words: Jar Jar Binks.
I didn’t want to be irrelevant. Was I? If so, why? If not, why did I feel that I was? Was I unwilling to face the fact that I was 33? I didn’t think so (if anything, I probably brought it out more than I should have, which may have exaggerated the difference in the attendees’ minds between what I thought and wrestled with in mine). And yet, was I willing to embrace the fact/reality that I indeed was transitioning to a point in life when I wasn’t going to connect with the younger generation like I used to or thought I should be able to?
Was it happening? Was I going to be okay with that? Did I have a choice not to be? I’d felt old before, but I’d never felt out of touch; that was a new one for me, and it was a feeling that took some getting used to. Dealing with that for the first time begged the asking of multiple questions: Was I out of touch in all areas or just certain ones? To what degree was I out of touch in any of them? Did it matter, or was this just normal for non-twenty-somethings my age and I was just going to have to get used to it?
There was a part of me that knew I was completely overreacting on all this and that I needed to let go of the three negative (out of 37 overwhelmingly positive) conference evaluations. Maybe those three were just having a bad day; maybe we wouldn’t have connected regardless of how much time we had together; maybe we just wouldn’t like each other at all. Whatever, I had a hard time on a multitude of levels.
On the heels of that conference (and Megan can attest to this, as she accompanied me on the trip), I recall being shaken by the idea that, gulp, I was getting older and, by virtue of that fact, was probably becoming a little outdated (if only slightly) according to the youth of the world (or at least San Diego). While I still believed the ideas in the book were relevant and important for a twenty-something audience, perhaps my presentation of them apart from the book wasn’t. (For the record, I still stand by the book and think you should buy and read it, regardless of how old you are.)
Mid-Life Crisis, Take Two
In a recent magazine interview, Douglas Coupland, author of the now 30-year-old book Generation X (among many others that I find strangely enjoyable), wrote,
“I was born in the 20th century at a specific moment in human history where my brain was exposed to TV and film and then, starting in the late 80s, digital technologies. Marketers love to carbon date generations…I see one of my jobs is to explain the old era to the new era, but there’s nothing quite so micro-humiliating as making a Brady Bunch reference and the room going silent. Generations are united and divided over sentimental markers much more than when they were born.”
Call me obtuse (I’ve been called worse), but that last sentence would have been so helpful to have read twenty years ago. Indeed, though I thought of myself as a fairly astute and accurate observer of culture, the challenge had become keeping up with everything all the time (i.e. the most recent movies, songs, and stories), which took more work and time than I’d been able to give.
Maybe I should have just written current event magazine and web articles. Maybe I should have just blogged myself into oblivion, disappearing altogether when I became completely irrelevant to whomever I was targeting with my writing. I could still write to amuse myself (after all, I felt relevant to what I was going through).
Thankfully, in the midst of all this (and only three years after my first mid-life crisis), I began to recognize how important a more theological (and not just cultural) approach to truth was and had to be. A bit convicting in retrospect, this stirring of the nest eventually led to the decision to get more theological training and begin seminary studies in 2005.
Again, looking back, it all makes sense (and I’m grateful to have had the chance to respond to a felt need - keeping up with pragmatic cultural trivia - and having it lead to meeting a real need - getting more grounded in principled theological truth).
Of course, God was and is sovereign, and we are all works in progress (life wouldn’t be nearly as interesting if we never felt like we were growing), but the lesson learned is one I’m still learning today: the more relevant we seek to become, the more irrelevant we may actually become, at least concerning the things that matter.
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” John 3:30
I’d still be glad to play you a John Mellencamp song, though.
Post(erity): “The Irrelevance of Relevance”
Each week, I choose a post from the past that seems apropos of something (of course, you’re always welcome to search the archives yourself whenever you like).
This week’s posterity post - “The Irrelevance of Relevance” - is very much a bookend of sorts to the above feature reflection, having been written July 14, 2006 - one year after our family’s move to St. Louis and my first year at Covenant Seminary - on the “irrelevant” life of priest, professor, and mystic, Henri Nouwen. An excerpt:
“For me, the challenge of relevance has everything to do with the fact that I think I can and should be relevant to the world. This, I suppose, drives my quest to read, to think, to write, to learn. These are all good things in and of themselves, but they become drudgery when I feel I don’t do them enough – read enough, think enough, write enough, learn enough. This ‘enough’ factor should be a diagnostic for me that I’m moving from a healthy to an unhealthy perspective of myself and who God has created and redeemed me to be, namely his child.”
Peaches’ Picks
I can’t say I ever thought Peaches and I would read a book about surfing, but here it is.
And it’s good, in a bohemian kind of way - plenty of stories of traveling the world to seek out the perfect wave, sprinkled with a fair amount of substance abuse (very much part of that culture then), relational drama (the dysfunction isn’t pretty), and technical jargon for the more hardcore surfer (the details are myriad).
William Finnegan writes a good memoir, and Peaches and I learned a lot about surfing as sport and lifestyle (not that either of us are too interested in picking it up - sharks and all, you know). This, of course, is the glory of reading books, so if your summer plans involve sand and surf of any kind, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life might be a good one to take along with you.
Fresh & Random Linkage
“Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC Dish on Future of ‘Back-Sync’ Collab Following Debut Show — and Invite Justin Timberlake to Join the Fun” - Funny. I always thought the two bands were made up of the same personnel anyway.
“New Line Reportedly Wants To Do R-Rated Lord Of The Rings Movies” - I know it’s not official yet, but I’ve heard this news from multiple sources over the past few years. Not sure we need more violence from what was in the originals, and would definitely hate to see Lord of the Rings turn into Game of Thrones.
“Montana Named The Most Patriotic State In America” - I almost wrote on this for the feature this week, but it wouldn’t have won any friends or influenced people, so I’ll just post it here. Yay, go us.
Until next time.
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"It’s interesting being trusted with someone else’s stories, especially when they’re so much crazier than my own..."
Should you need any fodder to help fill in a few gaps, I'll gladly sell you some anecdotes. Like that time I almost got beat up by the Van Buren Boys at a pie shop. I got more.. what're you looking for? Romance? Comedy? Adventure? Erotica? (clicks tongue)