Dear Readers,
Just last night, I got to see several friends I hadn’t seen for months at a school parents meeting. Almost every one I was able to talk to mentioned this newsletter - thanking me for including them; asking what feedback I was getting; wondering what I was going to write about next, etc. It was wonderful to hear their suggestions for future topics, as well as hear their enthusiasm for the effort, which echoed that in this email from a fellow dad reader:
“I have enjoyed reading your Second Drafts emails almost as much as I enjoyed in-person conversation with you at the school. However, you can imagine my disappointment when I realized ‘draft’ wasn’t referring to beer in a glass as opposed to a bottle or can. I just assumed you were writing about the one you drank after the first. Just one more disappointment to add to the list of the last 12 months…God bless you and the family and keep up the good work.”
As I have always felt obsessively compelled to thank anyone and everyone who would take time to read what I write, I found myself thinking about why I write at all. Perhaps more interestingly, I started thinking about who got me started and how their example, encouragement, and inspiration still shape the way and the why of the what that I write today.
So, with that in mind, in this edition of Second Drafts, I’d like to introduce you to three of my high school muses. I invite you to let their lives and their writing impact you as they have mine.
As always, thanks for reading.
Craig
PS: Though comments are turned off, you’re welcome and encouraged to email me directly with feedback, ideas, links, etc. at cmdunham [at] gmail [dot] com. Just know that, unless you specifically tell me not to, I may quote you here (though it will always be anonymously).
Hot Takes
First, to get our thinking caps warmed up, here are a couple hot takes from the week:
Much has (rightfully) been made about newly-elected President Joe Biden’s use of executive orders in his first ten days of office. If you haven’t seen one of several memes going around the Interwebs, this one and its ironic quote from his October interview in an ABC Town Hall sums them up pretty well (though to be fair, the video context is economic policy, not a treatise on executive orders):
![Image may contain: 5 people, text that says 'NUMBER OF EXECUTIVE ORDERS SIGNED FIRST WEEK IN OFFICE 0 5 4 CLINTON BUSH OBAMA TRUMP "You can't [legislate] by executive order unless you're a dictator." -Joe Biden 32 BIDEN'](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2d81de94-f6aa-429c-b0e6-af9991f56a49_2048x1917.jpeg "Image may contain: 5 people, text that says 'NUMBER OF EXECUTIVE ORDERS SIGNED FIRST WEEK IN OFFICE 0 5 4 CLINTON BUSH OBAMA TRUMP \"You can't [legislate] by executive order unless you're a dictator.\" -Joe Biden 32 BIDEN'")
Regardless of President or party, I’ve never been a big fan of governing by executive order because governance by populist democracy instead of representative republic sure feels monarch-like. Avoiding this kind of thing, of course, was one of the goals of the Founders, which is why the use of the executive order (which can be reversed by the stroke of the next President’s pen, as we’re seeing) has been historically frowned upon in favor of more Congressional law-making.
Or has it? Certainly, no President has made more initial use of executive orders than Biden (and I hope to God his pen(s) run out of ink soon), but a review of executive orders over Presidential terms since 1994 is eye-opening (if not also discouraging). Let’s not make this a partisan issue when it’s clearly a Presidential one. We need a return to a legislative process that is, as President Abraham Lincoln called for, “of the people, by the people, for the people” - plural rather than singular - and Congress is where that kind of governance is to begin.
![Image may contain: 5 people, text that says 'NUMBER OF EXECUTIVE ORDERS SIGNED FIRST WEEK IN OFFICE 0 5 4 CLINTON BUSH OBAMA TRUMP "You can't [legislate] by executive order unless you're a dictator." -Joe Biden 32 BIDEN'](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2d81de94-f6aa-429c-b0e6-af9991f56a49_2048x1917.jpeg "Image may contain: 5 people, text that says 'NUMBER OF EXECUTIVE ORDERS SIGNED FIRST WEEK IN OFFICE 0 5 4 CLINTON BUSH OBAMA TRUMP \"You can't [legislate] by executive order unless you're a dictator.\" -Joe Biden 32 BIDEN'")
Megan forwarded me this story from her hometown of Owasso, OK, in which an 8-year-old second grade girl was expelled from a Christian school for telling another girl she had a crush on her. Some may jump to the conclusion that Rejoice Christian School overreacted (and they may have in light of their documentation not being updated - see the screen capture of the school handbook in the video). What’s fascinating, though, is the blatant biased news reporting, obvious child brainwashing, and painful Scripture twisting captured in the news video. These are Wokelahomans! Some excerpts:
“I feel so loved and supported, thank you so much to everyone who helped me feel better for being who I am,” Chloe said.
The girl is 8 years old; she has no idea who she is, sexually or otherwise.
“Morgan Allen with Oklahomans for Equality told FOX23 that no school - Christian school or not - should make a child feel that way. ‘The hardest thing about this is we’re telling children that it’s wrong to love that it is bad to feel,’ Allen said. ‘And the worst part is coming from a Christian school we are saying God doesn’t love you for who you are and that is not true.’”
God doesn’t love us for who we are; He loves us because of Who He is. “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you” (Jeremiah 31:3, ESV). This faithfulness means He is always at work to call and redeem us from our sin to live a life of trust in and obedience to Him.
“Chloe, now I know you’re watching. Allen wanted me to share the message that you are loved, you are cared about, and you are welcome here in Oklahoma.” Reporter Tanya Modersitzki
Nice sentiments - all of which I hope are true - but objective news reporting?
Look for more such cases - and coverage - to play out in days and years to come.
Writing That Matters
Toward the end of my senior year in high school - long ago, back when the Dead Sea was merely sick - I began getting asked the question, “So, what are you doing after graduation?” Maybe because I had no idea, I hated the inquiry. This wasn’t anyone’s fault; I was just insecure about my options because it had been such a rollercoaster trying to figure them out.
Thankfully, in God’s providence, three men - one I never knew, one I knew of, and one I knew well - were part of a sovereign conspiracy that shaped my thinking and gave me courage to believe that, regardless of where I ended up in life, one thing I could do and do well (and the only thing you’ll ever hear me speak about in such terms) was to write.
What follows is a bit of their stories…and how each of theirs played a big part in mine.
Curry Kirkpatrick: The First Writer Whose Writing I Ever Loved
The only thing I remember reading religiously during my teenage years was everything Sports Illustrated writer Curry Kirkpatrick wrote.
Kirkpatrick’s “beat” was tennis and professional and college basketball, and while I didn’t mind following the likes of Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, and Ivan Lendl through Kirkpatrick’s pen, his coverage of the NCAA - in particular the ACC and Big East teams of Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing lore - read as gloriously as John Steinbeck writing about California to this kid coming of age (literarily and otherwise) in the mid-80s.
Reading Kirkpatrick, I began to notice the tricks of lead quotes and alliteration (“Ding Dong Duel in Dean’s Dome”), learned there could be a place for a personal (but not biased) voice in reporting (“No One Can Cap the Pistol”), and came to respect the rules of writing, even when sometimes bending (but not breaking) them was required to tell a good story.
You see, for reasons of attention span (or the lack thereof), to attract and retain the attention of its (mostly) male audience, sports writing has to employ better-than-you-might-imagine writers. Thus, Kirkpatrick’s writing was the first I ever loved.
This is why, when I was 14, I wrote him a letter; more than fan mail (though it certainly qualified), it was a simple letter asking for advice. I told him I liked to write. I mentioned my dilemma of having to graduate in a few years without a clue of what was next. I asked what all that was like for him, how he decided he wanted to be a writer, what led to his decision to attend the University of North Carolina, and what advice he had for making a college decision involving my own writing aspirations.
Kirkpatrick wrote me back a two-page handwritten letter. In it he detailed his story - born in St. Louis; family moved east when he was a kid; North Carolina was the best regional school he could get into; probably would have gone to the University of Missouri if he had stayed in the Midwest - and wished me luck for my own future.
More than luck, however, he also offered this advice:
“The best courses to take for a writing career are English courses - all kinds - especially those involving reading. Read as much as you can. Read, read, read. Books especially. Also, practice writing. Write about your day, a special event, a game, short stories, interviews (interview your parents and write a story about them), anything you can think of. All writing - letters too - is good exercise.”
A few years later, I made a phone call (no Internet back then) and got on the mailing list for the University of Missouri. I also started reading more than Sports Illustrated.
Tom Coulson: Small Town Journalist Who Took Seriously His Craft
I first knew of Tom Coulson primarily because I was sandwiched in school between his two sons: Warren was a few years ahead of me; Tyler was a few years behind me.
Tom served in the Army during the Korean War, farmed with his family in Versailles (pronounced “Ver-sales” to properly delineate between the Pike County and French versions), and earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Illinois. From a distance, he always struck me as both a little brilliant and a little eccentric, but the fact that my father respected him for his hard work is mostly what I remember.
I do recall he was always busy - working as a journalist and community leader in Pike County for over 50 years; founding the nationally distributed Nature Society News at J.L. Wade’s Nature House in Griggsville; and starting Coulson Publications, whose newspapers included the Pike County Express and the Brown County Democrat-Message. He also assisted in the creation of many of Pike County’s historical sites and community institutions, but again, that was about all I knew of Tom.
This is why it was so out-of-the-blue when I received a personal letter from him following a letter-to-the-editor I wrote to another paper, the Quincy Herald-Whig. The occasion of my missive was to address an over-generalized editorial about violence in high school sports written after a fight broke out in the third quarter of the now-infamous (at least in Griggsville) Pike County conference basketball game against rival Payson.
As a player on the team (and on the court at the time), I felt it my duty to point out that video taken of the game, which included full coverage of the fight, was more than conclusive in exonerating Griggsville’s players and fans from any wrongdoing in starting the fisticuffs. My solution for the editorial board was that they should “Get a VCR!” (it was, after all, February 1989) before doling out equal blame for the row.*
Mercifully, the editorial and my letter are both too old for the Herald-Whig online archives, but I still have the one Tom wrote me the week after the paper printed them. An excerpt:
“I recently read your letter about the Griggsville-Payson game and want to comment on it. I didn’t see the game nor the videotape, and don’t have an opinion on the accuracy of your conclusions, but because of its organization, clarity of expression, emphases, and support for your argument, your letter is certainly the most convincing thing I have read about that event. It’s excellent.”
He went on:
“I mention all this only because it’s obvious you have real talent and I suspect you will make use of this information. I’d say you have many career options already opening up for you - at least journalism and law are among them.”
For a just-turned 18-year-old kid unsure of what a next step might be, this was hope that there might actually be one. More than that, I found myself starting to believe that being able to write might be an important and legitimate skill for whatever it was.
*For the record, upon review of said video, as well as in meetings with both schools, the Illinois High School Association came to the same conclusion. We also won the game. Suck it, Payson.
Ken Bradbury: Author, Columnist, Playwright, Songwriter, Friend
A fellow Pike Countian, Ken Bradbury was a 1967 graduate of Perry High School and a 1971 graduate of Illinois College. He taught at Triopia Jr./Sr. High School for 35 years and was the founding director of the Green Pastures Camp for the Performing Arts, which hosted over 400 students each summer for over 30 years. It was at this camp that Christ drew me to Himself in the summer of 1985, and where Ken and I began a 33-year friendship filled with words and stories, songs and musicals, prayers and petitions, a two-week trip to Europe, and countless weeks of camps and lay witness mission road trips all over the state of Illinois.
For a kid from Perry, Ken’s accomplishments (as listed in his obituary) are staggering:
“Throughout his life, Ken was a prolific playwright. He wrote and directed dozens of plays to sold out crowds at Triopia and elsewhere throughout the region. His works included biographical plays about people like Abraham Lincoln, Robert Earl Hughes, and Vachel Lindsey as well as area histories, which he brought to life by working with local casts intimately acquainted with the area. In addition, Ken wrote two newspaper columns that ran in 14 papers, as well as authored seven books. He was the most published author of speech and forensic material for school speech competitions in the United States.
Besides his writing accomplishments, Ken earned several awards throughout his lifetime. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters Degree from MacMurray College and a Doctor of Arts from Illinois College. He received the Friend of the Arts Award from Western Illinois University, the best humor column by the Associated Press, the McGaw Citation for Excellence from Illinois College, the Studs Turkel Humanities Award by the Illinois Arts Council, and the WSEC Golden Apple Award. He was named the Outstanding Teacher of the Year by Eastern Illinois University and was inducted into the Jacksonville Hall of Fame.”
Regardless of these accomplishments and accolades - and despite the fact that he was 22 years my senior and a teacher at a different town and school from my own - Ken and I were the closest of friends. Here’s an excerpt from a letter he wrote to me in May of 1989:
“I wanted to tell you on your graduation what a joy it has been for me to watch you become more and more a servant of God. I feel like sometimes I’ve grown through it with you. I know that you’ve changed me as you have so many with whom you’ve come in contact. I know you don’t think you’re worth all that much, and that’s exactly the attitude that God has blessed you with. The more people compliment us, the more we realize of God’s greatness. Only we know how small we are.”
As a friend and former Pike Countian recently tweeted, “When you come from a small place, sometimes you just need to see somebody else make it.” Ken was that somebody for me. The vision and virtues of God’s Kingdom implicitly and explicitly filled his writings, and his professional success meant nothing to him compared to his love for Jesus, for people (the younger set especially), and for me.
Ken helped me identify how and for Whom I wanted to live and write, and while I’ll never be the astounding mix of prolific and profound that he was, I like to think he’d be proud of me for still striving to nail one or the other every now and then.
Writing That Matters
Curry, Tom, and Ken were the writers who ultimately meant the most to me in high school - not just because of how they wrote, but because they wrote - to me, personally. Yes, they were serious scribes, but they were sincere ones as well, and the fact that I still have and cherish their letters 30-plus years since is a testimony to the power of the pen and the peck. I cannot understate this impact upon my early years.
Whether I know you well or not at all, I hope to not only encourage you with my writing, but to inspire you to take up your own. Perhaps like me, you’ve given up the goal - or never actually had one - of getting rich, famous, or both from publishing. Still, I’m willing to bet there’s someone - a friend, an enemy, a family member, a stranger, a 14-year-old kid growing up confused in a very confusing world - who would be honored to read your words to them and consider what you have to say.
Do it for them. Do it for you. See what God does in both your lives.
“And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” 1 John 1:4
Post(erity): “Rhetoric Speed Argument: Comic Books as Literature?”
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).
In keeping with the writing theme, this week’s Post(erity) post - “Rhetoric Speed Argument: Comic Books as Literature?” - is from February 9, 2017, and features an essay my oldest daughter, Maddie (then 18; now 22 and married) wrote on the fly for her Rhetoric final exam during her senior year of high school. Here was the prompt:
“Are comic books literature? On what level should we interact with them? Should we engage them as we do work of literature by authors like Steinbeck, Shakespeare, and Wordsworth?”
Maddie is studying English Literature at Montana State University and plans to graduate in December of 2021.
Fresh Linkage
“A Chick-fil-A Manager Stepped in to Save a South Carolina Drive-thru COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic” - Sometimes it’s just time to bring in the professionals.
“Man Uses Flamethrower To Melt Snow In The Driveway While Wearing Only A Bathrobe” - Thinking of getting this flamethrower/bathrobe set for Megan for Valentine’s Day.
I recently cleaned up my personal Twitter follow list (@CraigMDunham) and moved all quantum computing-related accounts to the new @MTInstruments account I'm curating for MI. Interested in all things quantum? Follow here.
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