Y’all... pandemics suck!
Sorry. Just wanted to say something that should be pretty easy to agree with. I don’t really want to have to deal with something like another coronavirus again in my lifetime.
That’s why it was pretty concerning to learn all the ways climate change makes outbreaks more likely. Exposed permafrost. Altered migration of different species. Thinned out rainforests. It’s not good.
But this also means that fighting climate change can help us avoid another pandemic.
🌿🌿🌿
This post notes a few ways that can happen, but for a deeper dive, check out the latest episode of the #GrassrootsPodcast I just released! I talk to:
🌱 Shannon Osaka from Grist about some of the scientific links between climate and virus risk.
🌱 Laura Vargas from the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative in Peru about how we can learn from indigenous communities how to integrate safeguarding our forests with protecting our health.
🌱 Rev. Anna Woofenden who explains how churches can truly fulfill their purpose during a pandemic by serving their most vulnerable neighbors (a refreshing conversation after seeing a lot of American churches do the exact opposite)
I’m especially proud of the caliber of interviewees I had on this episode. Go give them a listen on Spotify/Apple Podcasts/etc.
Indigenous People's Day
Happy #IndigenousPeoplesDay - from the Kumeyaay, Chumash, and Umpqua whose lands I’ve lived on, to the Karen, Maasai, Tzotzil, and Lahu whose leaders I’ve worked with... Indigenous communities have helped me better see the beauty of life, creation, and community.
Next week, I have a podcast coming out that featured an interview with Carol Bremer Bennett, a leader from Navajo Nation. (Don’t miss it, subscribe to the #GrassrootsPodcast) She shared a few ways to better honor our Native neighbors:
✊🏾 Names matter. They’re written on the palm of God. Learn the names that each community want to be called by and use them.
✊🏾 Consider the holidays you celebrate. Celebrating Christopher Columbus is quite painful for indigenous people. Turning traditional clothing into a Halloween costume runs parallel to blackface. Thanksgiving is also a time that brings out a lot of racist stereotypes.
✊🏾 Challenge the use of tribal identities as mascots.
✊🏾 Remember that indigenous communities aren’t frozen in time. History is important, but pay attention to present day issues too.
✊🏾 Be an upstander whenever you encounter microaggressions.
(A part of this print’s sales will go towards Cultural Survival)
Deanna's 31!
Today is Deanna’s birthday and... what a year.
This time a year ago, we were trying to figure out how to celebrate whilst very, very pregnant. Since then... SO MUCH has happened. And I’m not just talking about the obvious 2020 doomy type stuff. We became parents! You got your social work license! We had a health related breakthrough!
Of course, hard stuff has happened too. Family. Boundaries. Pandemics. What have you. But between navigating all of it, I couldn’t be more thankful to get to go through it all WITH Deanna. It means the world to take all of these things head on with such a strong, steady, kindhearted partner. Somehow these challenges just keep bringing us closer. I’m so thankful for the values we share, the fun we always manage to have, and the way we’ve got each other’s back above all else.
HBD!
Planting Hope Where We Are
One of my favorite parts of my work is telling human stories- there are hopeful stories to be found in some of the hardest places to live. And I love helping people get their stories out there!
🇩🇴🇩🇴🇩🇴
Usually this means once or twice a year, I’d travel to a remote part of Africa, Latin America, or Asia with cameras, notepads, and maybe even a photo/video team. Unfortunately, that couldn’t happen this year.
🚫🎥😩
But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still stories to tell. When Gladys and Esteban had a medical emergency, they had to do what so many rural Dominicans are forced to do. Visit a predatory moneylender. “Bloodsuckers,” as Gladys calls them. But thanks to her neighbors banding together, starting community led banking, and investing in her coffee business- things are different these days!
Even though I couldn’t travel, I was able to team up with some amazing partners to tell their story via video. Our DR-based Plant With Purpose partners helped coordinate the logistics of getting to their village. Hepburn Creative helped connect us with Prime Agencia Fotografica - who gathered stunning footage and visuals like you see here. We then worked together to script, edit, and release Hondo Valle.
🌱🌱🌱
We’ll be debuting this short at Plant With Purpose’s virtual event- Planting Hope: Where We Are this week. Registration is totally free and open at the link in my bio. Plus I’ll be sharing a presentation on ethical storytelling, participating in a climate change panel, and going behind the scenes on why communities like Glady’s have been fiercely resilient in spite of this year’s challenges.
11 Months of Rhys
October means this guy is on the last leg of his first lap around the sun!
So much personality shining through these days. He’s got this combination of being curious, adventurous and determined that I absolutely love. It’s like a happy blend of something I like about myself and an incredible quality of Deanna
I always knew I’d enjoy being a dad, but I think I underestimated how much I would love the very first year. I thought it would mostly be a bunch of spinning plates to keep the kid alive... and that’s for sure a big deal. But I’ve loved our near daily outings to parks, bath time, story time, music time and all that.
We may have had so many of our plans for these past 11 months derailed, but we still found our way to adventure!
#worldofrhys
October 2020
#275 Mangled Sweet Potato
01 October 2020 // San Diego, California
This year has forced us to do two things we’re not especially comfortable with:💠 Learn how to lament and grieve
💠 Recognize our own vulnerability
American culture doesn’t leave much space for these things. I share that struggle. My knee jerk reaction to sadness or vulnerability is to look for a chaser of good news or silver linings. But my biggest lessons lately have been in these areas. Nothing heals until it is grieved. And grief is an inherently vulnerable act that binds us to each other.
These topics might not seem like the stuff of an *explosive season opener* but I knew they were the ones we had to lead off with for season two of the #GrassrootsPodcast. Here are two of my favorite moments from the episode:
❇️ Kayla Craig graced us with a Liturgy for Big Feelings - Next year, she’ll be releasing a whole book of Liturgies for Parents that I can’t wait for! I have a very special admiration for anyone who takes a world that’s hard enough for adults to process and then asks… well what about the kids?
❇️ Peter Harris is the co-founder of A Rocha - a Christian conservation organization and lament helps him powerfully integrate his faith with his environmental concern. “There are half the number of swifts in the sky today over my village and nesting in my village as there were 20 years ago,” he told me. “What we see in Scripture is God's broken heart about his own creation, in all its dimension. The groaning of creation that Romans talks about.”
He also demonstrated lament and vulnerability by sharing a deeply personal tragedy he’s faced recently.
You can stream our first episode of season two on Apple Podcasts or Spotify now! Link in profile!
#276 Grassroots Season 2
02 October 2020 // San Diego, California
Here are some of the things I learned about lament from my conversation with Peter Harris on my latest episode of the #GrassrootsPodcast
1) Not only does the Christian faith make room for lament… it actually invites an incredible amount of it. Around 70% of the Psalms are songs of Lament.“What we see in Scripture is God's broken heart about his own creation, in all its dimension.”
2) Culturally, the Western world does not leave much room for lament. That includes its faith communities. Think of the ratio of “happy songs” to songs of grief during at the last worship service you attended…. Does it resemble the Psalms?
BUT- lament can be learned.
And it takes a conscious exercise in listening.
3) Lament ≠ Depression.What’s the key difference? Depression is a condition that tends to keep you trapped. On the other hand, lament is a path forward. Once you name the things you’ve lost, the things you grieve, you start to reimagine a world in a new light.
Also, depression is by nature isolating and lament is by nature relational.
#277 Runaround Piece
03 October 2020 // San Diego, California
Sharing our stories is an act that is both inherently powerful and vulnerable.
As we share some of our difficult moments, in ways that are totally true to ourselves and honest, other people who are facing similar struggles or fears are reminded that we aren’t alone.
Vulnerability reminds us of our responsibility to each other.
In adulthood, it’s a little easier to lose sight of our vulnerability. We have a moment of independence. But the bookends of life are our ultimate reminders that at some point or other, we always need other people.
#278 Shelter Island Sister Bell
04 October 2020 // San Diego, California
I’m working on better language around mental health. Refraining from saying “that’s crazy” or “that’s insane.” Avoiding describing anyone as “psycho” or “deranged,” phrases like “normal behavior.” Not using terms like OCD/bipolar out of context.
Some of these things are so habitual, it’s actually tough to break. But it’s worth every effort.
#279 The Kia Niro
05 October 2020 // San Diego, California
We bought a new car. I guess that makes this a big week, since I try to make cars last as long as possible, therefore buying new ones as infrequently as possible. Hopefully that means our signing day was just as monumental as an eclipse… though less cool of course.
#280 Ballots arrived
06 October 2020 // San Diego, California
I vote for my son in the hopes that the world he grows up in is leaps and bounds better than the one he was born into. For my neighbors on the cusp of eviction. For friends in need of healthcare. For a few hundred kids wondering where their parents are. For the hundreds of thousands of kids forced to do active shooter drills. For species facing extinction. And even for the folks I’ve met in African and Caribbean villages… because DC decisions are felt everywhere.
#281 Empty noodle Shop
07 October 2020 // San Diego, California
"The future is dark, with a darkness as much of the womb as of the grave."
–Rebecca Solint, Hope in the Dark
I love this take on hope.
"Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency."
Also:
"To hope is to give yourself to the future - and that commitment to the future is what makes the present inhabitable."
#282 Gladys and Esteban
08 October 2020 // Vista, California
One of my favorite parts of my work is telling human stories- there are hopeful stories to be found in some of the hardest places to live. And I love helping people get their stories out there!
Usually this means once or twice a year, I’d travel to a remote part of Africa, Latin America, or Asia with cameras, notepads, and maybe even a photo/video team. Unfortunately, that couldn’t happen this year.
🚫🎥😩
But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t still stories to tell. When Gladys and Esteban had a medical emergency, they had to do what so many rural Dominicans are forced to do. Visit a predatory moneylender. “Bloodsuckers,” as Gladys calls them. But thanks to her neighbors banding together, starting community led banking, and investing in her coffee business- things are different these days!
🇩🇴🇩🇴🇩🇴
Even though I couldn’t travel, I was able to team up with some amazing partners to tell their story via video. Our DR-based @plantwpurpose partners helped coordinate the logistics of getting to their village. @hepburncreative & @hlhepburn helped connect us with @primeagenciafotografica - who gathered stunning footage and visuals like you see here. We then worked together to script, edit, and release Hondo Valle.
🌱🌱🌱
We’ll be debuting this short at @plantwpurpose’s virtual event- Planting Hope: Where We Are this week. Registration is totally free and open at the link in my bio. Plus I’ll be sharing a presentation on ethical storytelling, participating in a climate change panel, and going behind the scenes on why communities like Glady’s have been fiercely resilient in spite of this year’s challenges.
#283 Deanna’s 31
09 October 2020 // San Diego, California
Today is @deanna.suzanna’s birthday and... what a year.
This time a year ago, we were trying to figure out how to celebrate whilst very, very pregnant. Since then... SO MUCH has happened. And I’m not just talking about the obvious 2020 doomy type stuff. We became parents! You got your social work license! We had a health related breakthrough!
Of course, hard stuff has happened too. Family. Boundaries. Pandemics. What have you. But between navigating all of it, I couldn’t be more thankful to get to go through it all WITH Deanna. It means the world to take all of these things head on with such a strong, steady, kindhearted partner. Somehow these challenges just keep bringing us closer. I’m so thankful for the values we share, the fun we always manage to have, and the way we’ve got each other’s back above all else.
HBD!
#284 Planting Hope Where We Are
10 October 2020 // Vista, California
Feels weird for me to feel good about a Lakers win, tbh, but...
...it makes things feel more normal...
...Kobe and everything...
...basketball figured out how to do the bubble thing best.
#285 First Stop is Carson
11 October 2020 // Carson, California
With Indigenous People’s Day tomorrow, I keep thinking back to my interview with Carol Bremer Bennet earlier this year:
“I get a question oftentimes, "What should I call you? Should I call you an Indian? Should I call you a Native American? Should I call you indigenous? How do I name you?" I think that in the naming, that is important because that's our identity. The Bible talks about how our names are written in the palm of God. You don't want your ethnic identity to be your name. You want your actual name. So I really try to call people, to see people as individuals because there's such diversity within the Navajo population. I used to be an educator and people would ask me, "Well, what are Navajos students like?" It's like, "Well, they're exactly like any other classroom. You've got the whole spectrum of everybody." God created beautiful diversity throughout every population.”
#286 Rhys’ First Night Camping
12 October 2020 // Morro Bay, California
Happy #IndigenousPeoplesDay - from the Kumeyaay, Chumash, and Umpqua whose lands I’ve lived on, to the Karen, Maasai, Tzotzil, and Lahu whose leaders I’ve worked with... Indigenous communities have helped me better see the beauty of life, creation, and community.
Next week, I have a podcast coming out that featured an interview with Carol Bremer Bennett, a leader from Navajo Nation. (Don’t miss it, subscribe to the #GrassrootsPodcast) She shared a few ways to better honor our Native neighbors:
✊🏾 Names matter. They’re written on the palm of God. Learn the names that each community want to be called by and use them.
✊🏾 Consider the holidays you celebrate. Celebrating Christopher Columbus is quite painful for indigenous people. Turning traditional clothing into a Halloween costume runs parallel to blackface. Thanksgiving is also a time that brings out a lot of racist stereotypes.
✊🏾 Challenge the use of tribal identities as mascots.
✊🏾 Remember that indigenous communities aren’t frozen in time. History is important, but pay attention to present day issues too.
✊🏾 Be an upstander whenever you encounter microaggressions.
#287 Morro Bay Morning
13 October 2020 // Morro Bay, California
Been a bit off the grid the past few days and I’ve been loving it.
I know things are wild and weird right now, but adventure is still important!
#288 Bixby Bridge
14 October 2020 // Big Sur, California
We’ve been out and around our home state of California.
This was Rhys’ first camping trip, and I’m thrilled he did great. We started by visiting the aunts, though, let’s be real, staying with them is the opposite of “roughing it.”
We went on to have lots of picnics from the trunk, watching elephant seals and waves crash.
Night one in Morro Bay was a bit rough. He slept, but after waking up at 1 am he was so stimulated he couldn’t go back to sleep. Nights 2 & 3 were wayyyy better. Eleven hours of sleep in Big Sur and he didn’t mind the cold one bit.
Hard to believe it’s been so long since our last camping trip, but pregnancy + infancy + a pandemic will do that.
#289 Campsite 77
15 October 2020 // Big Sur, California
Y’all... pandemics suck!
Sorry. Just wanted to say something that should be pretty easy to agree with. I don’t really want to have to deal with something like another coronavirus again in my lifetime.
That’s why it was pretty concerning to learn all the ways climate change makes outbreaks more likely. Exposed permafrost. Altered migration of different species. Thinned out rainforests. It’s not good.
But this also means that fighting climate change can help us avoid another pandemic.
🌿🌿🌿
On the latest episode of the #GrassrootsPodcast I just released I talk to:
🌱 Shannon Osaka from Grist about some of the scientific links between climate and virus risk.
🌱 Laura Vargas from the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative in Peru about how we can learn from indigenous communities how to integrate safeguarding our forests with protecting our health.
🌱 Rev. Anna Woofenden who explains how churches can truly fulfill their purpose during a pandemic by serving their most vulnerable neighbors (a refreshing conversation after seeing a lot of American churches do the exact opposite)
I’m especially proud of the caliber of interviewees I had on this episode. Go give them a listen on Spotify/Apple Podcasts/etc.
#290 Goku Conference
16 October 2020 // San Jose, California
Finally met our uncle @dannyyumyum.
We had a Goku conference in our matching Dragonball swag, hit up a pumpkin patch, and played with a lemon. Bom processo!
#291 Tioga Pass
17 October 2020 // Yosemite National Park, California
Acting for therapists in training, and portraying a gay sous chef who picked up a painkiller addiction after a terrible motorcycle accident wasn’t on my 2020 bingo card.
But here we are.
#292 Silver Lake
18 October 2020 // June Lake, California
Looking for us? We’ve been on an adventure!
After having our whole slate of 2020 trips cancelled, we managed to get in a road trip around our home state of California. Between monitoring COVID cases and wildfire containment, park and road closures, getting a new car that could handle the trip, and work stuff, it felt like we really had to fight for this one! But adventure is always worth fighting for.
🏕
California is massive and has so much diverse terrain. Even though I’ve lived here on and off for most of my life, there are still so many corners I haven’t seen, and I enjoyed getting to discover a few of them.
🐿
I typically place a premium on places hard to get to. Often, distance, remoteness, and challenge add to the appeal of a destination. It puts places like Madagascar, Namibia, and Tierra del Fuego on my bucket list. But right now, learning to love what’s local is important for the sake of keeping others healthy, and holding climate change at bay.
Thankfully, there’s a lot around nearby to marvel at.
#293 Alabama Hills
19 October 2020 // Alabama Hills, California
The more I learn about human issues in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the more I realize how deeply connected smartphones are to violence in the region, due to fighting over mining and labor exploitation.
It’s tough, because I really can’t do what I do to help people without a smartphone.
But I can minimize the damage by:
• Getting my current phone to last as long as humanly possible
• Buying a refurbished model when it comes time to replace it
• Trying a factory reset when things stop working properly, rather than rushing to replace
#294 Hiking Malibu
20 October 2020 // Malibu, California
I think I’ve found the definitive best beer. It’s whichever one you happen to be enjoying while your feet are in a river.
#295 Baldy Hills
21 October 2020 // Angeles National Forest, California
Somehow these days everything feels like a series finale except for the fact that it all also feels endless. Large parts of California are still on fire. Virus cases are spiking again. Injustice is suffocating.
🌲🌲🌲
My biggest lifeline these days has been to just focus on the day ahead. I love the phrase “the next right thing.” Seems like such a simple concept but maybe it’s simplicity makes it a bit too easy to overlook its importance.
The thing about the “next right thing?” It can be a completely different thing from one day to the next.
⛺️⛺️⛺️
For me, one day it’s putting pen to paper, figuring out the words to write that can help people process a very difficult thing that just happened.
Another day it’s bringing up a challenging conversation with a loved one that would be easier to avoid.
Some other day it’s spending hours playing MLB The Show- the only way I get to see the Phillies in the playoffs. Never thought I’d be into video games like I’ve been this year, but it’s part of learning how to rest.
Another day it’s putting work and creative projects on the backburner, having fun with Rhys and listening to Tagalog children’s songs together.
And the past few days it’s been pitching our tent in state parks and public lands, cooking gumbo over a pocket stove, and splashing in a cold creek.
It’s not over yet! You can say those words with an exhausted voice or a determined voice, but you’re still here. What’s your next right thing?
#296 Praying Mantis
22 October 2020 // Cerritos, California
I keep seeing trailers for Yellow Rose, and even though it’s in theatres right now, that’s where I can’t be.
The trailer for Raya and the Last Dragon just dropped.
Between that and Shang-Chi, I'm really hoping I get to enjoy a movie theatre in 2021.
#297 Babarao
23 October 2020 // Carson, California
“Listen, your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground.”
This week, a whole flurry of movements and uprisings in Africa caught my attention. There is a LOT happening, and in the midst of injustice, I want to be the kind of person who leans in, listens, and responds.
🇳🇬🇳🇦🇨🇩🇨🇲
I made this as a mini guide to a few of the things going on right now, but of course there’s only so much you can fit into one of these posts. Please take the time to follow the hashtags and listen to the folks on the ground directly engaged.
And also, don’t forget that speaking up about these things in whatever way matters:
Just today, Nigeria’s police force announced plans to disband SARS. There is more to be done against police brutality, but international pressure works, and the lack of it is the reason why issues like violence in the Congo can continue for so long.
Amplify:
🇳🇬 #endsarsnow
🇳🇦 #shutitalldown
🇨🇩 #congoisbleeding
🇨🇲 #anglophonecrisis
#298 In California
24 October 2020 // San Diego, California
It’s still mindblowing that Rhys has been here for a year already, and at the same time, it’s weird thinking that he’s only been here for a year.
Parenthood messes with your perception of time. So does a pandemic. And it doesn’t mess up with my perception of time in a simple way like, wow, time is really flying! or Things are moving at a standstill!
It’s very much a large helping of both.
#299 Piecy’s First Haricut
25 October 2020 // San Diego, California
The largest political demographic in the United States is the totally disengaged.
Storytelling, clear communication, and stepping into conversations are so important for reaching some of the untapped potential for change.
#300 Voted: 2020
26 October 2020 // San Diego, California
And there goes the ballot. Bumoto ako.
I remember the first time I ever voted, sharing every single pick pretty publically on MySpace! These days I may be a little more selective and strategic around speaking on different issues, but I still know when I can’t stay silent in good conscience and simply gotta speak from the heart.
🗳🗳🗳
I don’t like how our two party system reduces our creativity towards problem solving. I hope one day we move to something that doesn’t breed division so effectively. But I do like the popular analogy of how voting is more like public transportation than marriage. You don’t need to find your match of destiny. Just the vehicle to get you to the next stop, a little closer to your destination. And hopefully not one charging in the total opposite direction.
I hope we get the change of direction we really need. Between climate and the pandemic, there is real urgency. I don’t have everything figured out, but I do know I’m really tired of how stoked white supremacists and hate groups have been over the past few years. I’m tired of leaders who constantly say inexcusable things and rig systems to zero consequence. I’m tired of how simple, low-hanging opportunities to protect the most vulnerable, like admitting refugees and wearing masks unnecessarily become the sourest sources of debate.
It’s tough to pick the thing that’s made me maddest but right now the answer seems to be the whole batch of kids who’ve seen a whole generation of adults not only fail to reject bullying, bravado, and dishonesty, but actually praise and celebrate it.
Today, hope takes the form of a vote. And while there’s plenty more change needed beyond voting, it’s a very important step that makes much more change possible.
#301 Piecy in a Park
27 October 2020 // San Diego, California
“We don’t really want to get political around here…”
I get the appeal of wanting to stay out of politics. You walk past a TV with a bunch of angry talking heads and think “I really don’t want to sound like that.” You hear your cranky uncle go off on another dinner table and think... yeah, not for me.
But the problem isn’t so much politics, it’s the culture around politics. Striving to be apolitical often seems like a way to be “above the fray” but often enough… it can be just as bad.
The French have this saying that basically translates to: If you don’t want to ‘do’ politics, you’ll be done in by politics.
It makes me think of how in 2012, I campaigned for refugee support in the Midwest- both in rural conservative towns and on progressive campuses. Helping people escaping conflict seemed so widely agreeable. After 2015, something changed. It got “political.” For the refugees themselves? They had no choice. “Political” things determined their survival.
Meanwhile, I hear the phrase “we don’t want to get political” used all the time.
I’ve heard churches use it to explain why they said noting after Charlottesville.
I’ve heard institutions use it to explain why they won’t enforce mask wearing in a pandemic.
When we put being “apolitical” on a pedestal, we really shrink our willingness to love other people.
I’m not saying you need to have a hot take on everything. Or that you need to be rigidly partisan. Or that you need to be an insufferable dinner table guest. Please don’t do that. But challenge the assumption that “staying above politics” is the default course for the pure at heart.
#302 Baby Mango
28 October 2020 // San Diego, California
Election seasons aren't always the most inspiring thing, but I have been moved by seeing people make votes in spite of tremendous odds. This is the third centetarian I've seen wow me with their determination to be heard. (Also, youngins, please vote too!)
#303 On The Phone
29 October 2020 // San Diego, California
Alright. So it’s no big secret that so many of us are kind of tired with how divisive politics are, and I get it.
Like, politics are all about helping each other building systems and solving problems. That takes creativity and one good way to stifle creativity like boiling everything down into two packages and making us pick one or the other.
That said, one really common way I see people handle this is by assuming a position of default centrism. It assumes that the correct position is always a moderate one.
When you do this, you can say things like “yeah, I understand both sides” and seem super wise.
Or you can easily critique the more extreme positions, and seem like the calm, voice of reason.
I want to challenge the idea that defaulting to a moderate position is the right one.
There are two main problems with making the moderate approach our default.
1) It's a moving target. If a moderate position is simply the halfway point between our two political poles, then shifts towards the extreme end up moving the middle as well. Being moderate is based more on popularity of opinions rather than a moral stance.
2) It's not always right. From the abolition of slavery to women's suffrage to Civil Rights. There are many moments in history where the moderate take was the wrong take.
Being able to see both sides is typically a good thing. It’s just no substitute for doing the work and doing the right thing.
#304 Suspicious Bubs
30 October 2020 // San Diego, California
There are two main problems with making the moderate approach our default.
1) It's a moving target. If a moderate position is simply the halfway point between our two political poles, then shifts towards the extreme end up moving the middle as well. Being moderate is based more on popularity of opinions rather than a moral stance.
2) It's not always right. From the abolition of slavery to women's suffrage to Civil Rights. There are many moments in history where the moderate take was the wrong take.
Being able to see both sides is typically a good thing. It’s just no substitute for doing the work and doing the right thing.
#305 A Year of Rhys
31 October 2020 // San Diego, California
Rhys, I tell you this every day and I still can’t tell you enough how much I love being your dad.
I love your combo of curiosity and determination. I love how much you love playing outside. I love seeing you explore the world and seeing you and your mom love each other.
Lament & Vulnerability
This year has forced us to do two things we’re not especially comfortable with:
💠 Learn how to lament and grieve
💠 Recognize our own vulnerability
American culture doesn’t leave much space for these things. I share that struggle. My knee jerk reaction to sadness or vulnerability is to look for a chaser of good news or silver linings. But my biggest lessons lately have been in these areas. Nothing heals until it is grieved. And grief is an inherently vulnerable act that binds us to each other.
🛡🛡🛡
These topics might not seem like the stuff of an *explosive season opener* but I knew they were the ones we had to lead off with for season two of the #GrassrootsPodcast. Here are two of my favorite moments from the episode:
❇️ Kayla Craig graced us with a Liturgy for Big Feelings - Next year, she’ll be releasing a whole book of Liturgies for Parents that I can’t wait for! I have a very special admiration for anyone who takes a world that’s hard enough for adults to process and then asks… well what about the kids?
❇️ Peter Harris is the co-founder of A Rocha - a Christian conservation organization and lament helps him powerfully integrate his faith with his environmental concern. “There are half the number of swifts in the sky today over my village and nesting in my village as there were 20 years ago,” he told me. “What we see in Scripture is God's broken heart about his own creation, in all its dimension. The groaning of creation that Romans talks about.”
He also demonstrated lament and vulnerability by sharing a deeply personal tragedy he’s faced recently.
📻📻📻
You can stream our first episode of season two now!
Grassroots is Back!
Great news and let me get right to it! Season Two of the #GrassrootsPodcast is out now!
Check out our first episode on vulnerability and lament featuring Kayla Craig and Peter Harris of A Rocha on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And please... rate, review, and tell a friend!
🌳✊🏽🌳
Last year, I launched the podcast for Plant With Purpose as a way to steer conversations about climate back towards the front lines. So much dialogue is set in academic or corporate circles that sometimes lose sight of the communities most threatened by climate change around the world. In our first season, I got to feature guests representing DR Congo, Mozambique, Thailand, rural Appalachia, inner city Philly, Hong Kong, and many other places. We looked at the issues through a spiritual lens, and I heard from many listeners that it brought a perspective they’d been looking for for a long time.
I had some exciting plans for Season Two, but right around March had to scrap them all. I doubt I need to explain why. But my team put our heads together virtually and decided to use our show to create a mini-season, responding to some of the urgent things going on around us:
🎙 Lament and vulnerability
🎙 The pandemic, of course
🎙 Environmental racism
🎙 An extremely divided culture
Lessons from the environment and our faith absolutely apply to the moment. So these are the themes of our second season!
With this show, I tried to make something I believe the world really needs. But for it to reach people, I do need some help:
🌿 Algorithms, man. When you subscribe, rate, and review the show on Apple’s podcast app... it really helps us get noticed. Last year, your help helped us hit the top 100 of the Government category! Why that category, idk, but let’s do it again!
🌿 Word of mouth- Share a screenshot of the show. Tag me and Plant With Purpose, and I’ll pick a couple of you to win some books written by podcast guests.
🌿 Interviews - In more normal times, I’d throw launch parties for the show. Maybe even a tour. I can’t do that in 2020, but what I can do are OPP- other people’s podcasts. Know of a show where I would be a good interview fit? Let me know in the comments!
Breonna Taylor
“When we are filled with love for other people, injustice becomes intolerable.”
–Austin Channing Brown
Breonna deserved better. Black women deserve better.
Keep showing up. Keep being a loud persistent voice against racism and injustice. Be strategic. Be bold.
And feel it all.
Sometimes it feels like the world is descending into deeper division, other times I remember that it’s actually a division that’s been here for ages becoming more visible. And walking through that world calls for thick skin and a soft heart.
That takes grief. We grieve things because they have value. And when systems act like Black lives don’t matter, grief says the opposite.
Injustice and indifference go hand in hand. Don’t let them crush your convictions.
Former Nonvoters
This is one of the best threads I’ve read in a long time.
On Twitter, Brittany Packnett Cunninghamm asked people who didn’t vote in 2016 but plan to vote this year what changed. Answers varied but they all told a similar story. People overcoming!
In between then and now, people overcame:
🗳 Homelessness
🗳 Organ failure
🗳 Incarceration
🗳 Apathy
🗳 Mental health struggles
🗳 Their own ignorance
🗳 Feeling powerless
🗳 Obstacles to citizenship
🗳 Relationship problems
It’s quite a tapestry of things to celebrate and a good reminder that voting isn’t something to take for granted and that woven into each ballot are a lot of human histories- before and after the votes are cast.
Those that benefit from the injustice of the status quo may often try to take power away from others. But another strategy is trying to convince those with less power that they have none. Good stewardship is when you recognize what you’ve been given, and you engage it to make life better for others.
If you haven’t checked your registration or started researching the down-ballot, local stuff... now’s the time. When We All Vote, Vote.org, Votesaveamerica and @iamavoter have tools that make it easy!
Eco-Anxiety
“Ultimately, eco-anxiety is about love. Our anxiety is a signal to us that reminds us that we are alive and part of a larger world.”
–Renée Lertzman
It’s been a brutal week for the West Coast. Of all the major cities up and down the coast, San Diego seems to be the safest right now, and that’s really not saying much. We have at least two major fires in the eastern part of our county and hazy orange skies. We’ve had to balance just how much outside time to give Rhys for the sake of him getting a change of scenery versus the awful air quality.
Right now, I’m finding Oregon’s struggle especially heartbreaking. My former home. I’m hearing about so many small towns in Southern Oregon, or up the Mackenzie River that may be gone. Places like Vida or Blue River, where I used to sneak off for hikes or longer bike rides. Not to mention all the wildlife that find a home in the Willamette Forest.
Throwing in some of my favorite snapshots from Oregon.
I get to learn from a lot people who really integrate their concern for the environment with their faith, and one thing that really sticks out to me is that they really make room for the grief of it all. The narrative around climate change has also often called for guilt, hope, fear, panic, or anger- all of which have a rightful place. The thing that ties them together for me, though, is love. And that makes the climate crisis- difficult as it might be- a lot less isolating and a lot more unifying.
10 Months of Rhys
My baby Baymax just updated to version 10.0 months old.
I am spending a TON of time with this kid these days. We had some snags with our childcare situation and have had to get pretty creative with taking care of Rhys while working from home. And while it’s hopefully temporary and not the most ideal situation, getting all this time with him has also been a pretty big gift.
Someday, I’ll be older. He’ll be older. And I’d give so much to live one day back in these bodies in this year- 2020- the one we rightfully love to collectively dunk on.
This month’s highlights:
🛸 He figured out how to hitch a ride on the vacuum cleaner all on his own.
👟 New PR for steps taken: 1️⃣5️⃣!
🌳 Parks every day! Lovin’ the outdoors as always.
🐷 Piggyback rides are kinda the best now.
🦀 The tide pools are one of our favorite spots in town. So much to discover.
🔥 There’s no place we’d rather be than trying to climb up into the fireplace
💇🏾♂️ He’s bout ta need his first haircut real soon.
Break Bad Ideas
Why are so many bad, harmful, and false ideas so persistent?
Maybe it’s because they get repeated so many times.
Think of it this way, there’s a direct relationship between the amount of times an idea has been repeated in the past year and the amount of people who believe it. No matter how false or ridiculous it is.
Like, you know all those people who believe that Shaq and Andre the Giant are actually the same person in two disguises? No? Well, that’s probably cause I just made that up and it hasn’t been repeated. But if enough people pass it on, it’s sure to pick up some believers. It’s not that harmful of an idea, unless maybe you’re Shaq, but imagine how this works for worse ideas.
James Clear says that silence is death for any idea. “An idea that is never spoken or written down dies with the person who conceived it. Ideas can only be remembered when they are repeated. They can only be believed when they are repeated.” I think there are a lot of harmful thinkers who have gained a large platform because their opponents kept ruminating on terrible things they said.
There’s a time and place for addressing false and harmful ideas, but this concept has informed the way I do.
I try to avoid attacking an idea in a way that gives it more attention. Instead, I try to do so in a way that communicates what my boundaries are and that I’m sticking up for people who may be harmed by such an idea. And I’ll try to do that in a personal, rather than public way, whenever possible.
I also try to focus more on feeding good ideas. The more an idea is repeated, the more it is believed. This applies to good ideas, empathetic storytelling, creative problem solving, and prophetic imagination as well. I forget who said the quote: the goal of the artist is to make a revolution irresistible, but it’s kinda like that. (Edit: it’s Toni Cade Bambara!)
Creatives, storytellers, and artists have a special role to play during a time of widespread misinformation. It’s to share the truth. To share good ideas. And to share them beautifully. Again and again.
We're a Team
No more BS.
That’s kinda been a running theme in our lives this year, both at a very global, societal level, down to our everyday family lives. Whether it’s racism, injustice, manipulation, or unhealthy patterns, we’ve seen that the most loving thing for us to do is to stop accepting things that aren’t okay and to do so with a sense of urgency.
And there’s been such a strong connection between creating the change the world needs and doing the work at home.
That’s led to some harder conversations and bolder decisions, within our families and in other spaces. We’ve had to put into practice all the things we say we believe about setting healthy boundaries in multiple ways. It’s uncomfortable and tough, but honestly it’s also been freeing and empowering. It feels like legit growth.
Based on a lot of recent conversations with friends, we KNOW we’re not the only ones trying to navigate these waters. Like these lockdowns, it feels like a shared experience that we all gotta face individually. Boundaries are healthy, but they aren’t the easiest thing to assert. Especially when it changes a pattern that’s been going on for years.
One of the biggest things I’ve learned when having to confront somebody over a boundary-related issue is this: even when the conversation gets tough, the clarity I can offer the other person is a gift. Not leaving room for ambiguity around which actions prompted which responses from you makes it clear what changes need to happen.
The other big thing I’ve learned throughout the process has been this: having a solid partner through it all has been everything. Deanna has been so consistent with speaking up where she needs to, getting my back during some of the harder conversations, and paving that path so Rhys can grow up in a healthy, whole, compassionate environment. We’re a team and we stick together.
September 2020
#245 Jammin’ With Rhys
01 September 2020 // San Diego, California
Being a Phillies fan is mighty frustrating sometimes (though not this week!), but having Andrew McCutchen and Didi Gregorius on the team as two of the most fun people in baseball is irreplaceable.
#246 USPS Swag
02 September 2020 // San Diego, California
Buying stamps isn't the only way to save the USPS. They’ve also got a pretty sweet swag shop. I especially love the Forever Earth Day tee.
--
One of the lessons this year has been driving home has been the importance of the work being done by everyday people, everywhere. In a culture that spends a lot more energy glorifying executives, influencers, and positions of power, we’ve got to realize that it’s the people who supply our food, deliver our goods, and restock our shelves that we really can’t live without. And that definitely applies to mail carriers.
As federal corruption disrupts postal services, the timing and the locations where this is taking place don’t leave much room for ambiguity about why. And people- especially elderly and rural people- have been impacted by delayed medical deliveries, lost livestock, or mishandled small business orders. A pastor in St. Louis I spoke to the other week pointed out to me that it’s hard to get more symbolic about co-opting people’s voices than literally removing a mailbox.
---
Although the postmaster general has promised no more major changes until the election, it’s reasonable to feel suspicious. Buying stamps or swag to save the USPS is kind of an emergency measure. But a more long-lasting way to protect its services is to vote.
If you want to feel safer about voting this year, :
1) Request your mail in ballot.
2) Don’t mail it.
3) Instead, look up your supervisor of elections to see when and where you can drop it off. Many states open up their drop boxes up to a month early, so you can avoid the pandemic crowds.
4) If you’re in California, Oregon, Washington, or Colorado, you can track your ballot like a package.
5) Also, don’t procrastinate. Now is the time to make sure your registration is up to date and to be researching the more obscure down-ballot stuff.
#247 Romping With Rhys
03 September 2020 // San Diego, California
Silence is an underrated tool in fighting misinformation.
So is drowining it out with true and helpful information.
Or overwhelming beauty.
#248 Park Play
04 September 2020 // San Diego, California
No more BS.
That’s kinda been a running theme in our lives this year, both at a very global, societal level, down to our everyday family lives. Whether it’s racism, injustice, manipulation, or unhealthy patterns, we’ve seen that the most loving thing for us to do is to stop accepting things that aren’t okay and to do so with a sense of urgency.
And there’s been such a strong connection between creating the change the world needs and doing the work at home.
That’s led to some harder conversations and bolder decisions, within our families and in other spaces. We’ve had to put into practice all the things we say we believe about setting healthy boundaries in multiple ways. It’s uncomfortable and tough, but honestly it’s also been freeing and empowering. It feels like legit growth.
Based on a lot of recent conversations with friends, we KNOW we’re not the only ones trying to navigate these waters. Like these lockdowns, it feels like a shared experience that we all gotta face individually. Boundaries are healthy, but they aren’t the easiest thing to assert. Especially when it changes a pattern that’s been going on for years.
One of the biggest things I’ve learned when having to confront somebody over a boundary-related issue is this: even when the conversation gets tough, the clarity I can offer the other person is a gift. Not leaving room for ambiguity around which actions prompted which responses from you makes it clear what changes need to happen.
The other big thing I’ve learned throughout the process has been this: having a solid partner through it all has been everything. Deanna has been so consistent with speaking up where she needs to, getting my back during some of the harder conversations, and paving that path so Rhys can grow up in a healthy, whole, compassionate environment. We’re a team and we stick together.
#249 Waiting for Babu
05 September 2020 // San Diego, California
In spite of a pandemic, a tropical storm, political uncertainty, and economic challenges the work continues.
We’re still planting trees. In some countries, our partners planted even more trees than they targeted at the beginning of the year.
Our participants continue to save, continue to meet together with safety precautions in place, and continue to plant trees and heal their land.
I’ve really been moved by the image of somebody planting a tree, meant to last generations, during a pandemic, in spite of it all.
#250 Rescue the Hostages
06 September 2020 // San Diego, California
Why are so many bad, harmful, and false ideas so persistent?
One idea is that it’s because they get repeated so many times.
Think of it this way, there’s a direct relationship between the amount of times an idea has been repeated in the past year and the amount of people who believe it. No matter how false or ridiculous it is.
Like, you know all those people who believe that Shaq and Andre the Giant are actually the same person in two disguises? No? Well, that’s probably cause I just made that up and it hasn’t been repeated too many times. But if enough people pass it on, it’s sure to pick up some believers. It’s not that harmful of an idea, unless maybe you’re Shaq, but imagine how this works for worse ideas.
James Clear says that silence is death for any idea. “An idea that is never spoken or written down dies with the person who conceived it. Ideas can only be remembered when they are repeated. They can only be believed when they are repeated.” I think there are a lot of harmful thinkers who have gained a large platform because their opponents kept ruminating on terrible things they said.
There’s a time and place for addressing false and harmful ideas, but this concept has informed the way I do.
I try to avoid attacking an idea in a way that gives it more attention. Instead, I try to do so in a way that communicates what my boundaries are and that I’m sticking up for people who may be harmed by such an idea. And I’ll try to do that in a personal, rather than public way, whenever possible.
I also try to focus more on feeding good ideas. The more an idea is repeated, the more it is believed. This applies to good ideas, empathetic storytelling, creative problem solving, and prophetic imagination as well. I forget who said the quote: the goal of the artist is to make a revolution irresistible, but it’s kinda like that.
Creatives, storytellers, and artists have a special role to play during a time of widespread misinformation. It’s to share the truth. To share good ideas. And to share them beautifully. Again and again.
#251 Beach the Heat
07 September 2020 // Coronado, California
Shoutout to everyone going through a stretch of wildly uncomfortable but undeniably necessary growth right now. Real growth is almost never comfortable. It’s tiring. It tests almost every relationship you have, even with yourself. But the results are SO WORTH THE PROCESS.
#252 Rhys Learns to Walk
08 September 2020 // San Diego, California
To change a narrative, shift the narrator.
One theme I’m observing more and more, is that with every story that captures headlines, there is almost always a group of people deeply ingrained in the story who get very little attention relative to how heavily they’re impacted by the events.
Want some examples? Parents of special needs children while classrooms are remote during COVID-19. Rural Ethiopian pastoralists during a climate crisis. Chefs preserving traditional Syrian recipes while the country that used to host these traditional meals collapses.
Just to name a few.
I happen to think the very best podcasts are really good at framing their stories this way. NPR’s Code Switch, the old show Undone by Gimlet, NPR’s Rough Translation, Radiolab to name a few… the latter did a pretty good exploration recently into how the Spanish Flu impacted places like India- often overlooked when we think back to the last worldwide pandemic.
#253 hAZY
09 September 2020 // San Diego, California
A few reminders that help me stay hopeful and curious:
Change is constant. As terrible as some challenges can be, they don’t last forever.
People are incredibly resilient. Survivors of war, disease, injustice, and poverty who have generously shared their stories help us find our own resilience.
I can’t deny the pattern in my life where my biggest breakthroughs follow long, dry, difficult stretches
Beauty exists all over the place. There are sunsets and national parks, but soft light can penetrate a gritty slum or a hospital room with a gentle warmth that seems to make no sense.
So many of the people who’ve made my life more beautiful have no idea. You never know who you impact.
Literal discoveries in nature and science remind me that life finds a way, and everything serves an interconnected purpose
#254 Uhaul Tags
10 September 2020 // San Diego, California
As long as you are alive, you contain possibilities.
The story isn’t over. There are more chapters ahead. Keep saying yes to seeing what’s next.
Hope doesn’t always mean that you feel optimistic about the future. Hope means that you choose to see it through.
I want to tell you to stay hopeful. I believe in hope. But I also know that there are times when hope seems like a tall order. So some days, just try to stay curious. Wonder what happens next.
#255 Eco-Anxiety
11 September 2020 // San Diego, California
“Ultimately, eco-anxiety is about love. Our anxiety is a signal to us that reminds us that we are alive and part of a larger world.”
–Renée Lertzman
It’s been a brutal week for the West Coast. Of all the major cities up and down the coast, San Diego seems to be the safest right now, and that’s really not saying much. We have at least two major fires in the eastern part of our county and hazy orange skies. We’ve had to balance just how much outside time to give Rhys for the sake of him getting a change of scenery versus the awful air quality.
Right now, I’m finding Oregon’s struggle especially heartbreaking. My former home. I’m hearing about so many small towns in Southern Oregon, or up the Mackenzie River that may be gone. Places like Vida or Blue River, where I used to sneak off for hikes or longer bike rides. Not to mention all the wildlife that find a home in the Willamette Forest.
The narrative around climate change has often called for guilt, grief, hope, fear, panic, or anger- all of which have a rightful place. The thing that ties them together for me, though, is love. And that makes the climate crisis- difficult as it might be- a lot less isolating and a lot more unifying.
#256 City Heights Nights
12 September 2020 // San Diego, California
The impact of climate change is a particularly cruel one because of how many other problems it exacerbates. Climate change might not cause every global problem, but examine most of them and you’ll start to see how it can be connected, often exacerbating existing challenges.
Unhealthy ecosystems mean that women have to walk longer to get clean water. Infertile farms mean that children- usually daughters- are taken out of school to work. Poor ecological health drives parents in Central America or Southeast Asia to seek other opportunities, often in informal labor, resulting in dangerous migrant journeys or a vulnerability to trafficking and exploitation. Ecology has also been a vehicle for systemic racism, with the most polluted ZIP codes housing majority Black and Hispanic populations.
The Sermon on the Mount promises good news to the poor, hungry, mourning, and the excluded. Visit a rural community in Ethiopia, Myanmar, or the Dominican Republic, and you’ll find lots of poverty, hunger, mourning, and exclusion. Much of it stems from our climate crises.
#257 Mental Health Reads
13 September 2020 // San Diego, California
The topic of mental health has really been pulling me in lately. I mean... I’m married to a therapist so it’s always gonna be right by me, but I recently dove into these reads from three very different flavors within the world of counseling. Here’s #somebooknotes
📘 Try Softer by Aundi Kolber | Many people try to find their way in life by just trying harder and burning out, so this book advocates for an opposite approach– embracing your emotions, being aware of your own physical sensations, and accepting compassion. This book also offers a great intro to concepts like attachment styles or fight/flight responses.
📙 Mating In Captivity by Esther Perel | I’ve appreciated Esther Perel’s TED Talk and other work, so I’m glad I finally got the chance to do a deeper dive into her book. This one is all about intimacy and erotic intelligence- which includes sex, but also so much more. Some of the things that deepen desire can run counterintuitive to our programming about what works.
📘 Maybe You Should Talk To Someone by Lori Gottlieb | Man, this book was beautiful, and by the end I really felt like it helped me appreciate and feel more grateful for life... which is about the highest praise I can give a book. The writing is honest, smooth, and very much human. I picked this one up after hearing it referenced in a few favorite podcasts and it far exceeded expectations.
#258 City Heights Businesses
14 September 2020 // San Diego, California
I recently discovered the term white knuckling. Even if you haven't heard the term, you might recognize the practice. White knuckling happens when we ignore those internal warning signs our minds and bodies send us during situations that overwhelm or disturb us.
It's a survival tactic. It allows us to numb things to a level where we can carry on essential functions. This works for making it to the end of a difficult day, but as a long-term way of life, the consequences are pretty bad.
We ignore pain, hunger, exhaustion.
We minimize our emotional experience... sometimes resulting in sudden outbursts.
We become prone to addictions- whether that's alcohol or Netflix, because they help us numb things
Our motivation frequently swings between adrenaline rushes and getting stuck
Radical kindness includes a radical kindness to self.
#259 Piecy Walks
15 September 2020 // San Diego, California
Ethical storytelling isn’t easy. A tension sits in telling the whole story.
Emphasizing our partners’ skill, courage, and virtue WHILE educating people on the complex, systemic issues that contribute to poverty.
Telling stories that effectively raise money that helps WHILE avoiding sensationalism or stories that exploit experiences
Portraying hope WHILE invoking a sense of urgency
Showing why “this can’t wait” WHILE acknowledging that sustainable change is long-term
Demonstrating our team’s competence and how effective our approach is WHILE not centering ourselves in the story or framing ourselves as the saviors
#260 Piece Man March
16 September 2020 // San Diego, California
Power isn’t a zero-sum game.
Those that benefit from the status quo may often try to take power away from others. But another strategy is trying to convince those with less power that they have none. Good stewardship is when you recognize what you’ve been given, and you engage it to make life better for others.
#261 Bright Colored Books
17 September 2020 // San Diego, California
This is one of the best threads I’ve read in a long time.
On Twitter, Brittany Packnett Cunningham asked people who didn’t vote in 2016 but plan to vote this year what changed. Answers varied but they all told a similar story. People overcoming!
In between then and now, people overcame:
🗳 Homelessness
🗳 Organ failure
🗳 Incarceration
🗳 Apathy
🗳 Mental health struggles
🗳 Their own ignorance
🗳 Feeling powerless
🗳 Obstacles to citizenship
🗳 Relationship problems
It’s quite a tapestry of things to celebrate and a good reminder that voting isn’t something to take for granted and that woven into each ballot are a lot of human histories- before and after the votes are cast.
#262 Rock Drummer
18 September 2020 // San Diego, California
One of the best things about the pursuit of justice, is that it’s never a solo act. Everyone gets their role to play, but it’s a collective effort. And that allows us to rest but not quit. To imagine but not pretend. And since we’ve picked up this baton from others, it reminds us that there’s no giving up.
With so much uncertainty in the air and so much concern for the vulnerable, it can be tough to find the right words. So I decided to copy what Girl Talk does with pop music and make a mashup of pep-talks:
“Fight for the things you care about but do it in a way that leads others to join you.”
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg
“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Do not become bitter or hostile. Be hopeful. Be optimistic.”
– John Lewis
“You do not need to ignore your fears, nor should you… but we have possibilities before us. We can win. We can succeed. But we cannot do it alone.”
– Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
“Divest your energy from imagining the worst. Invest your energy in committing to and working for better.”
– Bernice King
“I would like to thank my ancestors because everytime I remember that their blood runs through my veins, I am reminded that I cannot lose.”
– Naomi Osaka
#263 A Screamin’ Kid
19 September 2020 // San Diego, California
One of the connections that Dr. Ben Sanders makes is that, as human beings we are a part of creation. We are a part of nature, a part of the environment. So, violence against human beings is a category of environmental degradation, and racism is a major catalyst of human violence.
If you'll remember back to our last season, we've explored how certain movements in church history went so far to the extreme of trying to separate the material world from the spiritual world, that it created this false idea, a heresy, that the physical world was evil and the nonmaterial world was pure. Because humans were imbued with a soul, they could be exempt from the corruption of the physical world. However, this conflicts with the arrival of Jesus as the Word made flesh. God incarnate redeems the physical world as well.
A lens that sees humans as part of the environment, as part of nature, can still be compatible with a theology that recognizes our unique role within nature to steward it, transform it, and participate in its process of redemption. One of the ways we can best regain this perspective is through discipleship from Black, Brown, and Indigenous perspectives where this goes without saying.
#264 Chi & Greg’s Wedding
20 September 2020 // San Diego, California
A not-so-recent quote I’m recently loving, courtesy of The Brothers Karamazov:
“Love all God’s creation, both the whole and every grain of sand. Love every leaf, every ray of light. Love the animals, love the plants, love each separate thing. If thou love each thing thou wilt perceive the mystery of God in all; and when once thou perceive this, thou wilt thenceforward grow every day to a fuller understanding of it: until thou come at last to love the whole world with a love that will then be all-embracing and universal.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky
#265 Maple Leaf Cookies
21 September 2020 // San Diego, California
You can’t serve two masters. You’ll just end up loving one and hating the other. You’ve got to pick between loving God and loving money.
💰💰💰
Honestly I always thought the need to preach against financial greed seemed a bit... I dunno... elementary? After all... nothing seems to scream cartoon villain like somebody who loves money way too much. Your BEST case scenario is either Mr. Krabs or Scrooge McDuck.
Then I saw somebody who created a browser plug-in that automatically replaced the words “the economy” with “Lord Mammon.” Biblically, Mammon is how Jesus referred to wealth- personifying it with the image of an Assyrian demon or false idol. It made headlines look like:
📰“Stop COVID or save Lord Mammon?”
or
📰 “Experts discuss whether opening schools will help Lord Mammon.”
Okay, the plugin is meant for dramatic effect and starting a discussion that has room for more nuance. Economic health tends to help people, and it’s not a bad thing to pursue. It’s just a terrible thing to have as a master.
How do you know it’s become a master?
🗞 When the lives of others seem expendable for its sake.
🗞 When we shrug at mass extinctions because the habitat destruction is profitable.
🗞 When we get more angry over property loss more than the loss of human life.
All stuff we see all the time! This is a macro-level reality we live in. And it’s a tough one to escape from, because money’s a struggle for most of us! But I’ve found the following reminders constantly helpful:
Buying the more ethical item is a privilege so many people are priced out of. But if you’ve got this privilege, use it.
Treat nobody’s net worth as a token of their worth. Including your own. Don’t mistake your productivity for your value. Rest well. Play!
Remember, sudden surprises happen and money comes and goes. Safety nets are a good idea, but remember that financial loss can be recovered. Time, health, and opportunity can’t.
Know what your level of enough is. Actually identify a number. Research shows no correlation between money and happiness past $75K. Give or take based on your location and circumstances. But recognizing when you’ve hit enough saves you from excess. It tells you when you fully detach money’s influence on your decision making.
#266 Are you registered to vote?
22 September 2020 // San Diego, California
There’s a lot to be waiting on these days.
Change. Healing. Even just a better opportunity to go seek those things.
And I know that there are good things worth waiting for. But also, there’s more to do than to just passively wait. It seems crazy right now to admit, but there will be a time in the future where I’d wholeheartedly accept a one day guest pass back into right now.
I’m trying to remember that at the start of each of these days. There are things to look ahead to, but there are also things to look at. Right now.
#267 Ethical storytelling presentation
23 September 2020 // San Diego, California
It’ll be a great day when we can explore places again.
Explore beyond borders. Explore new regions.
That time will come back and there will be so much good that comes with it.
I suppose if anything, I’m thankful that I’m not missing out on exploring during a year Rhys would remember. During a year where we could be on an adventure together. And I hope all our appetites will be ready at that point.
I know mine will be.
#268 Justice for Breonna Taylor
24 September 2020 // San Diego, California
“When we are filled with love for other people, injustice becomes intolerable.”
–Austin Channing Brown
Breonna deserved better. Black women deserve better.
Keep showing up. Keep being a loud persistent voice against racism and injustice. Be strategic. Be bold.
And feel it all.
Sometimes it feels like the world is descending into deeper division, other times I remember that it’s actually a division that’s been here for ages becoming more visible. And walking through that world calls for thick skin and a soft heart.
That takes grief. We grieve things because they have value. And when systems act like Black lives don’t matter, grief says the opposite.
Injustice and indifference go hand in hand. Don’t let them crush your convictions.
#269 ward canyon park
25 September 2020 // San Diego, California
What if you could do something that took less than five minutes, cost no money, but that gave your neighborhood:
$46 to help solve housing problems
$244 to help address hunger
$37 to make sure kids can get school lunches
$91 for education
$47 to improve roads and
$4,352 on medical care for the sick and elderly?
There is. Fill out a census form.
These are the federal dollars that go to communities per person. Every single person that responds does their community a huge service. (Based on NYC data in 2017)
#270 Lovevery
26 September 2020 // San Diego, California
I can’t remember who introduced me to the term eco-discipleship, but it stuck. The idea is that creation contains valuable spiritual lessons from its Creator. When you hear phrases like “consider the wildflowers,” or “look at the sparrow,” it means we can actually learn from these species.
One lesson I’m always getting from spending time outside is that we’ve been given everything we need for life to thrive. It’s one of the most amazing things about creation, actually. How optimized it is to sustain networks of life.
🌿🌿🌿
How often do you hear of someone wanting to “run things like a business” touted as a virtue?
You hear this phrase in governance a lot. It’s one of the justifications given for the disruptions to the post office lately. More often, I also see this mentality at play in how churches operate, how a lot of school systems think of learning, and the way rest and community are undervalued in the United States.
Businesses aren't geared to serve the needs of all. You identify a “target market.” In the classes I’ve taken, this is almost always determined by which market is the most profitable and it’s not hard to see who that would exclude in the US.
Business tends to aim for more and more, not recognizing the value of “enough.” It always leaves you wanting something more. It becomes so easy to harm others in that quest.
Business does have valuable lessons to teach. But in our culture, I think we’ve idolized it by making it our template for everything.
🌿🌿🌿
I think we need a better metaphor to aspire towards. Good stewardship isn’t so much running things like a business, but cultivating it like an ecosystem. This reminds us:
🌱 …that we’re all interconnected. And we’ve got to care for the vulnerable. Even the most seemingly small element of life. In an ecosystem, a disruption to a single insect species or invasive weed can throw the entire food chain out of whack. This year makes it easier to see that humans aren’t exempt.
🌱 ...that real, lasting changes take time. They don’t happen overnight, and yet these are the changes we need to aim towards.
🌱 …the way we’re only on this earth for a moment, and that one of our biggest responsibilities is to future generations that come after us.
#271 love wholly
27 September 2020 // Carlsbad, California
The San Diego Loyal were winning their match and forefeitted their playoff chances in taking this stand.
They did a similar thing after racial slurs from an LA player last week.
I was excited at the start of this year that SD would have a USL team. But man. They’ve gained a huge fan here.
#272 Houses on El Cajon
28 September 2020 // San Diego, California
I’m trying to replace my desire to be productive with a desire to be regenerative.
Here’s what I mean.
I get upset when I see how our world values some lives over others because of how profitable or productive they are. AND YET, there have been a lot of days when I base my feeling on whether or not I had a good day off of how productive I was.
👨🏾💻👨🏾💻👨🏾💻
When a culture lets the love of money become its master, one of the first things it does is lead people to confuse their sense of worth for their productivity.
We identify ourselves through jobs and titles rather than relationships and loves. We feel guilty about the very natural need to rest. We become a society that loses respect for the elderly, disabled, or those unable to work. And we give ourselves unreasonable expectations. I didn’t even realize how unsustainable of a pace I was going at until the lockdown brought so many of my projects to a dramatic pause.
The complex part, though, is that so many elements of being productive are good. In its pure form, work is a gift and a privilege and an opportunity. Life is more fulfilling when you have some kind of meaningful work to pour yourself into. It is a human need to be able to make and create things.
🌲🌲🌲
A biologist friend of mine likes to point out that the goal isn’t to maximize, but to optimize. The highest level of productivity isn’t always the most ideal. You see this much more clearly in nature. And that makes me think that my goal isn’t so much to be productive, as it is to be regenerative.
👩🏾🌾 Regenerative work is life-giving. Both to the person doing the work, and all those who come into contact with it.
👩🏾🌾 Regenerative work helps you live out your purpose, rather than getting in the way of you and your purpose.
👩🏾🌾 Regenerative work often doesn’t even look like our mental image of work. It includes rest. It’s often indistinguishable from play.
#273 Golden Hour Baby
29 September 2020 // San Diego, California
This week brings National Podcast Day… here are some of my favorites from this year:
+ Ologies
+ Truth’s Table
+ How To Save a Planet
+ Working it Out
+ Creative Pep Talk
+ Staying In With Emily and Kumail
+ Dissect
+ California Love
+ No Place Like Home
#274 11 Months of Rhys
30 September 2020 // San Diego, California
Great news and let me get right to it! Season Two of the #GrassrootsPodcast is out now!
Check out our first episode on vulnerability and lament featuring Kayla Craig and Peter Harris of A Rocha on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And please... rate, review, and tell a friend
🌳✊🏽🌳
Last year, I launched the podcast for Plant With Purpose as a way to steer conversations about climate back towards the front lines. So much dialogue is set in academic or corporate circles that sometimes lose sight of the communities most threatened by climate change around the world. In our first season, I got to feature guests representing DR Congo, Mozambique, Thailand, rural Appalachia, inner city Philly, Hong Kong, and many other places. We looked at the issues through a spiritual lens, and I heard from many listeners that it brought a perspective they’d been looking for for a long time.
I had some exciting plans for Season Two, but right around March had to scrap them all. I doubt I need to explain why. But my team put our heads together virtually and decided to use our show to create a mini-season, responding to some of the urgent things going on around us:
🎙 Lament and vulnerability
🎙 The pandemic, of course
🎙 Environmental racism
🎙 An extremely divided culture
Lessons from the environment and our faith absolutely apply to the moment. So these are the themes of our second season!
Save the USPS
Buying stamps isn't the only way to save the USPS. They’ve also got a pretty sweet swag shop. I especially love the Forever Earth Day tee.
✉️
One of the lessons this year has been driving home has been the importance of the work being done by everyday people, everywhere. In a culture that spends a lot more energy glorifying executives, influencers, and positions of power, we’ve got to realize that it’s the people who supply our food, deliver our goods, and restock our shelves that we really can’t live without. And that definitely applies to mail carriers.
As federal corruption disrupts postal services, the timing and the locations where this is taking place don’t leave much room for ambiguity about why. And people- especially elderly and rural people- have been impacted by delayed medical deliveries, lost livestock, or mishandled small business orders. A pastor in St. Louis I spoke to the other week pointed out to me that it’s hard to get more symbolic about co-opting people’s voices than literally removing a mailbox.
📬📬📬
Although the postmaster general has promised no more major changes until the election, it’s reasonable to feel suspicious. Buying stamps or swag to save the USPS is kind of an emergency measure. But a more long-lasting way to protect its services is to vote.
If you want to feel safer about voting this year, :
1) Request your mail in ballot.
2) Don’t mail it.
3) Instead, look up your supervisor of elections to see when and where you can drop it off. Many states open up their drop boxes up to a month early, so you can avoid the pandemic crowds.
4) If you’re in California, Oregon, Washington, or Colorado, you can track your ballot like a package.
5) Also, don’t procrastinate. Now is the time to make sure your registration is up to date and to be researching the more obscure down-ballot stuff.
Chadwick Boseman
Man this one is a tough blow.
An artist is at his best when he inspires. And when you keep being given roles like Thurgood Marshall, James Brown, Jackie Robinson, and T’Challa... you know you’ve got hero material.
He knew he had something to give the world, just like the heroes he portrayed. And I’ll never forget the February night he gave us the sight of dashikis and Maasai shawls flooding the AMC lobby. He gave us three rows in the front standing and swaying to Kendrick & SZA during the credits. He gave us an obligatory X-ing of the wrists that went on for weeks after. He gave me the playlist to train for my second half marathon, but more importantly, he gave countless Black kiddos their first big screen superhero that looked like them.
Somewhere in my imagination, we discover all the bad things in 2020 come to an end when portals open up in the sky, and this is the first face that greets us.
Kid of Color
This summer, I’ve had more conversations about racial injustice than ever. I’ve had so many people tell me that they thought things had gotten better, and that the world would be much better by the time my kid of color grows up. Especially for the kids of darker colors.
I have hope. And hope tells us that things CAN be better. But will they? Nothing changes if nothing changes.
This week, Jacob Blake tried to break up a fight unarmed. After seven shots to the back from police officers, he now fights for his life. His kids of color watched. His dad got on the news to share that his kid of color was now paralyzed from the waist down.
Our hope can only be as deep as our lament.
I believe that the hunger for change is real. And that hope is real. But it’s going to take more than a short spurt of self-education and symbolic gestures to stop this from happening.
We need to learn how to have a big enough imagination to dream up new systems.
We need to learn to rise to every opportunity to confront harmful ideas and beliefs.
We need to learn to accept the blessing of anger towards injustice and oppression.
We need to learn the difference between calling for peace versus calling for passivity.
It’s not a one time call to action. It’s a lifelong commitment.
Praying for Jacob Blake to pull through and to tell his story. Praying that the story moves us from comfort to change.
Belarus, California, Iowa
How was the weekend for y’all? I got to spend a pretty good amount of time drawing, which is always a win in my book. While protests and natural disasters continue to occupy headlines, I thought I’d use some of these drawings to call attention to the people behind the stories who often go overlooked: women in Belarus, refugees in Iowa, and incarcerated firefighters in California.
🇧🇾
In Belarus, protests are continuing against the government nearly three weeks after the president declared victory in a suspect election. While the protests are against his authoritarianism and heavy-handed response, women have taken the lead in the protests to also decry his chauvinistic behavior. Paying attention to these events anywhere should help us better recognize it when it appears at our front door.
👩🏾🚒
In my own home state, wildfires strike regularly around this time of year, but they can still be pretty devastating, and it gets way more complicated because of COVID. One thing I hope gets more attention is how California calls on prison inmates to help fight fires. This year, fewer are available due to how COVID has hit prison populations. The use of prisoners in this role highlights important parts of conversations around prison abolition, justice, and the links to slavery. There are many ways we can do better.
🛣
Iowa is still recovering from a derecho- a swift, inland hurricane that took out many homes and structures. While the entire story doesn’t seem to be commanding as much attention as it should, one storyline that has gotten even less attention is the strong presence of resettled refugees in Cedar Rapids, and how they are among those who’ve been hit hardest.
Honoring Every Emotion
Some stuff Rhys and I are practicing :
🇵🇭 Tagalog
♥️ Emotional Intelligence
One of my biggest lessons has been to focus less on pursuing happiness and to focus more on wholeness.
A really big part of that has meant getting more in touch with sadness, fear, anger, and all those other emotions I’m often averse to. I’ve learned quite a bit from cultures that are a lot more accustomed to processing these emotions rather than seeking distractions.
Many of us come from cultural backgrounds, spiritual communities, or other circles that tend to make us feel bad for feeling bad. It’s been helpful to think about why we were made with these emotions in the first place.
We experience fear in order to keep us safe. In primate studies where more fearful personalities were removed, survival rates were significantly lower. Sure, sometimes it can overreact to false or minor threats and can get in the way, but we’ve been given the gift of fear for a very important reason.
We experience anger when our sense of justice has been violated.
We experience sadness during a loss or an absence. It reminds us that the thing we’re mourning has value.
This doesn’t mean that things like justice, the reality of a threat, or what has value are determined by our feelings, and there are people whose growth path moves in the opposite direction of mine- not letting their feelings control them.
But understanding feelings as gifts that communicate to us can be a really helpful thing. I honestly think that if God didn’t want us to experience these feelings, then they wouldn’t have given them to us in the first place.
