Seth Haines's Blog, page 26
February 22, 2017
Pray Yourself Sober
What is sobriety? Doesn’t it mean more than keeping free of the bottle, the needle, the prescription pill, the credit card bill? This has been the drum I’ve banged for nearly three years, now. Sobriety, it seems to me, is that quality of connection that keeps us clear-headed. And in this modern world of noise, and news, and endless screaming over each other, don’t we need that kind of connection more than ever?
I’ve tried my best over the last few months to cultivate personal practices of sob...
February 20, 2017
The Marriage We Learned in the Apocalypse
“These are the things we had before the apocalypse: a country home, middle-class appointments, 2.5 jobs, four children, a couple of dogs, a cat, and a marriage swimming in the blithe love of American ease.”
This is the sentence I spoke two nights ago in a dream. It was a dream of a scorched-earth America, an ash-gray version of our Land Of The Free whose capitulation to a strong man had worked a great ruin. I don’t count this dream as something prophetic (at least not as some count prophecy...
February 16, 2017
The Process of Quitting a Job You do Not Hate
The process of quitting a job you do not hate is complicated, though not accidental. There is no bum’s rush to the big-boss-man’s office, no storm of regrettable words. There’s no discussion of severance, or lawsuits, or even cleaning out the office. It is a gradual thing, like the drifting apart of two unmoored ships, or maybe more like waking into a lazy Saturday morning. And if it’s not quite this way for everyone, that’s how it was for me.
This process of resigning from a job you do not h...
February 14, 2017
Choking Creativity (Part 4)
This is Part 3 of my series, Choking Creativity. To read Parts 1, 2, and 3, follow this link.
1. The Fog
“Sleep will enhance your ability to explore, make connections, and do less but better throughout your waking hours.” Greg Mckeown, Essentialism.
Too many mornings begin in a fog. The obligations of the day suck me dry, then the obligations of the evening land me in bed well past any reasonable hour. In bed, I don’t give up on the day. There’s the day’s news to catch up on, my social media...
February 12, 2017
Choking Creativity (Part 3)
This is Part 3 of my series, Choking Creativity. To read Parts 1 and 2, follow this link.
1. The Politics (But this is not about politics, per se).
The first few weeks of the Trump presidency have stoked the fires of outrage in this country (the fires of both left and right) and if the fires of outrage are good for anything, it’s powering the engine of opinion. The news (and #FakeNews) has an endless stream of topics to cover–the Muslim travel ban (“your words; not mine”); the Department of E...
February 10, 2017
Choking Creativity (Part 2)
1. The Pace
Drag to the kitchen. Pour the coffee. Wake the kids.
Stop that jabbering and eat your breakfast! Make your lunch! Brush your hair, for Pete’s sake!
The carpool, the drop, the hustle to beat the clock. Push the papers. Please the boss. Check the list. Microwave supper and scarf it down.
Stop that jabbering and eat your dinner! Gymnastics, basketball, karate, whatever is in thirty minutes!
Peddle down. Sit in the bleachers. Make pleasantries with the other parents. Slog through the ...
February 9, 2017
Choking Creativity
Man was the envy of the animals, first known for his opposable thumbs, then his creativity. We are an ingenious species, aren’t we? Innovation, ingenuity, genius, creativity–it’s all baked into our DNA, made in the image of God as we are. And throughout the millennia, we’ve applied imagination in every facet of life. We’ve become poets painters, sculptors, storytellers. We’ve created new means of value, have bartered and bargained our ways into new ways of doing business. We roll, rail, fly,...
February 6, 2017
Make America Great (Again)
The lectionary and daily office readings have been on point over the last few weeks. “How is such a thing possible since these readings were scheduled years ago?” you might ask. Call me absurd; call me a religious nut; call me whatever you like. But know this is my opinion: God is trying to speak to us, if only we’ll listen.
Today, I’m simply sharing yesterday’s Old Testament lectionary reading (which is also today’s daily office reading) in several different versions. Let the words sink in.
...January 29, 2017
A Letter From My Grandson
I don’t normally post on Sundays, but the events of the weekend this poem out of me. Thanks for reading.
***
January 29, 2067
Dear Grandpa,
The historians remind us, now, how you and yours leveraged your last gasp to make us and ours great–definitions being what they are, fracturable things.
Yours were the days of the news outlets, the reporters, the cameramen and college-educated journalists chasing the facts by the tail, and what are facts but wild dogs, tamed now by the great government th...
January 24, 2017
The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb
To my faithful readers and dear friends:
I’ve been in large churches, small churches, tweeny-sized churches. I’ve done a stint in Baptist churches, non-denominational churches, and now, the Anglican church. In my elementary-school days, I even attended weekly mass at the ornate Catholic church on the corner of Rogers and Garrison. I’ve worshiped next to old ladies chewing gum and old nuns wearing habits. I’ve knelt, stood, even prostrated myself once out of some odd holy compunction. I’ve run...
