On Earnestness in the Modern World

I really loved this on earnestness.

The bright lives of a few, though, pierce through this spiritual fog, and sparkle with a reality that has grown dim for many. Their words, their priorities, their responses repeatedly reveal that Christ has captured their fuller devotion. They delight to sacrifice and serve when others would groan and make excuses. They seem stronger in the face of adversity, kinder in the midst of conflict, more joyful than others, even in suffering. They have a focus that eludes the stressed and distracted. We’re drawn to them (and perhaps sometimes intimidated by them), because their lives remind us of what really matters, of the world that exists below the surface of our senses, of the spiritual war for our souls. Time with them stimulates us to pray more, love more, and grow more.

These saints have many qualities in common, but one is that, in the words of 2 Corinthians 8:7, they excel in earnestness.

DG

Hypnosis in Writing

I have thought about different parts of this on David McCullough over the last few days.

“People often ask me if I’m working on a book,” he said in an interview with The New York Times in 1992. “That’s not how I feel. I feel like I work in a book. It’s like putting myself under a spell. And this spell, if you will, is so real to me that if I have to leave my work for a few days, I have to work myself back into the spell when I come back. It’s almost like hypnosis.”

NYT

David McCullough on writing

“I think of writing history as an art form,” Mr. McCullough said in an interview for “Painting With Words,” a short 2008 documentary about him on HBO. “And I’m striving to write a book that might — might — qualify as literature. I don’t want it just to be readable. I don’t want it just to be interesting. I want it to be something that moves the reader. Moves me.”

NYT

The Atmosphere Produced by a Man

While I think the true answer is that both are important, this quote hit me pretty hard today. How rarely do I make atmosphere — over activities — my focus.

An Insatiable Curiousity

I recently stumbled upon the Foolish Baseball YT page, which has held my fascination for the last few days. So of course I had to go read an interview with its creator, a 20-something named Bailey who recently did this AMA. There was one quote from it that stood out that is one of the primary keys to good content creation that so many people miss. Here it is.

Q: I love your show!! Seriously! After I burned through Sunday baseball with Indy Neidell I was so happy to find baseball bits. I’m curious, how do you find your topics?

A: That’s a tough question to answer. I like to look at players who are huge outliers, for starters. That’s kind of how I ended up doing videos on Locastro and Radbourn, for example. Often, a passing reference I hear in a podcast or read in an article can lead be down the rabbit hole. I think the best way to come up with topics is just to have an insatiable curiosity about the game.

It’s the last part — the best way to come up with topics is just to have an insatiable curiosity about the game — that got me nodding my head and that is also such a massive piece of the content creation formula that gets missed. You can have clarity, imagination, good ideas and the best equipment in the world, but if you don’t have an insatiable curiosity with what you’re doing, then it’s going to fall flat at some point.

I don’t know if this is what separates good creators from great ones, but I’m fairly convinced that it divides those who make it for a bit from those who truly endure and also that an insatiable curiosity is what helps your favorite artists, writers or creatives coat their work with an almost childlike wonder that we’re all naturally drawn to.

Reading Aloud as a Dad

One of my very favorite parts of being a dad is that I get to read books I would be reading anyway, and I get to read them aloud and experience them as my kids are experiencing them. What a gift! And how glad I am that I saved Harry Potter until now, until I could read it with my eight-year-old daughter. Until she would love it just as much as (or even more than) I would.

There are many parts of being a dad I have struggled with. This is one of the few I haven’t. I love reading to our kids. Love it. Which is why this recent post by David Mathis was both encouraging to me but also instructive for how I should read aloud to our kids. This was the best part of it.

Perhaps my main piece of counsel would be to read with energy. When Dad and Mom put more into it, the whole family gets more out of it. Even after a long day, it’s worth pushing yourself to not just go through the motions and read monotone. Put energy into it. Pour in more enthusiasm than you first think is needed. Read with color and warmth. Do voices, if you’re that type. Pursue contagious joy, not infectious boredom. You are the teacher, not the book. The book is your prop, your medium, your context for relationship with your children, and your opportunity to invest in them, their maturity, and their personality.

Desiring God

Praise God for Johannes Gutenberg and that we get to live in a world where books are so easily accessible and so easy to share with our children.