Seth Haines's Blog, page 10
February 6, 2020
A Hedge Against Despair: Liturgy, Ritual, and the Need for Embodied Hope
This week, I’ve shared about the rash of “Deaths of Despair” plaguing the country. It’s an American epidemic, one which grows from a myriad of factors, so the experts say. Economic woes, chronic isolation, religious disillusionment—each of these contribute, but what is the solution? How can we hedge against the pervasive sense of chaos that marks the age, and stem the increase in American mortality?
Hold that question.
There was a lightness in her voice, a tone I hadn’t heard in weeks....
February 5, 2020
Correlation is Not Causation, But Something is Driving American Despair
“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”
Henry David Thoreau
I received a quiet letter, a multi-page outline of one man’s quiet desperation. Isolation, lonely, pressure, failure—these were the words used to describe his interior pain. I pored over the pages of mid-life existential angst, and so much of the language was familiar. The letter was a simple piece of the American gestalt, evidence of the crushing weight of the American experience.
February 4, 2020
Are You Living a Life of Quiet Despair? The American "Deaths of Despair" Epidemic and Your Hedge Against it.
In the months leading up to my Dry January news fast, I began researching the American phenomenon known as “deaths of despair.” It’s a new category of mortality, one which encompasses death by suicide or overdose, and according to experts, deaths of despair are on the rise. The rise has been so statistically significant, that the American mortality rate has fallen each of the last three years. In fact, according to a Newsweek article,
In 2017, the overall death rate from deaths of despair...
February 3, 2020
How it Feels to Give Up the News: A Dry January Update.
The second month of the year is upon us, which means my Dry January has come to an end. As you might recall, my participation in the month of sobriety was a little different. Instead of giving up booze—an attachment I kicked in 2013—I abstained from a sneakier attachment. The American attachment du jour: Breaking News.
This, perhaps, begs a series of questions.
Why did you give up the news?In the closing months of 2019, I felt the draw to my phone during any moment of silence or solitude. I...
January 28, 2020
A Life Examined: The Death of Stories
“The average Instagram user spends 28 minutes each day reading content on the platform,” the speaker said before pausing to let the statistic sink into the collective conference conciousness. “By contrast, that same user spends only 11 minutes reading in other mediums, including#books.” He, of course, did not hyperlink the comment, but my brain supplied the missing hashtag. This is what brains do in our increasing digital age, in our exile from an embodied experience.
He was a researcher,...
January 27, 2020
Stories are our Teachers
The church baptistery was locked, but the gate slats were just wide enough for me to slip my hand through and shoot a blind photo of the ceiling with my cellphone.
"Go ahead, she said."
I took the photo, pulled my hand back through, and saw the story of Christ painted on the ceiling in burnt desert colors.
The mural is painted just above the baptistery, the place where the child is held, head heavenward as the priest pours water over her hair.
"The first thing the baby sees during her baptism...
January 24, 2020
Friday Poem: Silence #1
Today, I’m sharing a new poem in my Friday poetry series. This one is still a work in progress. I’m sharing the bones (pun intended) with you. Have thoughts? Send feedback.
Silence #1
Our bones sing songs
heard only in silent cells,
the rooms where the times
cannot reach.
I have heard these songs
in the morning fog,
the mists drowning
the cloying praise of men.
I have heard these songs
in the midnight hours,
mine harmonizing with hers.
Collected, we are a symphony
muted by our louder...
January 22, 2020
Feeling the Pleasures, Swimming in Joy
Yesterday, St. Johnny (of the Cross) reminded me (and consequently you) how to find (or “swim in”) true joy—bend the entirety of your life around service to the Divine Love of God. Yes, that’s a mountain of a task, and I often fall a few rises short of the peak. It is true: There are times I don’t suppose I’m “serving God,” as St. Johnny would say, and so, I find myself wading in the toe-waters of joy instead of swimming in its ocean.
It is true; I’m no different than any other human....
January 21, 2020
The Secret to Joy
Yesterday, I wrote how abstaining from the news throughout the month of January has made my soul lighter, maybe even full of joy. Joy—don’t we need more of it these days? But in the days that feel so divided and dark, how do we find it?
Today’s thought is simple, and it’s wrapped up in a quote by Saint John of the Cross, a sixteenth-century Spanish friar. He writes, "The soul of the one who serves God always swims in joy, always keeps holiday, and is always in the mood for singing."
If you...
January 20, 2020
Waking Leads to Waking
It is unwise to walk with an eye always to the sky, always looking for that holy escape hatch that pulls us to the immortal plane. Still, to keep the ears tuned to the things of earth—the breaking news and the commodification of anxiety—sets the human brain on fire. At least, it does mine.
Throughout this Dry January, I’ve cut out the news (please don’t pull me into the impeachment spin cycle until February). I’ve avoided the opinion snipers on Twitter. I’ve turned off my Medium...
