Introducing deeper things

why a newsletter, why now

Newsletter writing is not my thing, which is a great way to start a newsletter. So why now? What exactly is all this about?

Like many of you, I struggle with my relationship to social media. Every year I hear of more reasons why it’s bad for us and how it is damaging our society. I also hear of writers I admire quitting platforms for six months or a year, and it sounds good. I struggle with creating and creating without receiving clear career advancement for it.

But social media is also how I honed my listening skills. It is how I found like-minded (and not) friends. It opened doors for podcasting and writing. When I hear of writers quitting social media, I have to remind myself that they do it because they built social networks that will continue to support and promote their work, networks they built through…social media.

Here at the beginning of 2022, I want to retrain my writing muscle to write longer, deeper, with greater substance than can be held in an Instagram caption. I’ve got deeper questions I want to explore, questions about faith and culture, the intersection of sexuality and race, politics and faith, and so many more. There will be essays coming about Passion Conference 2022 and Covid. I’m probably going to write about Ted Lasso at some point. And for those of you who listen to Where Do We Go From Here?, you can expect some essays on purity culture and sexuality.

So here I am, beginning again. For those of you subscribed a long time ago, I’m hoping to write a longer essay once a week, and a shorter post with link roundups and the like. Let’s see if this is fun, shall we?

Either way - welcome. I’m so glad you’re here. Please say hi in the comment section. Can’t wait to get to know you better.