I was listening to a podcast on my way to work today in which everyone was ranting about summer and how much they hate it.
Ah, I thought to myself. August has arrived.
Everyone seems to hate August. The heat we all longed for back in February (or even in May, here in Chicago), has gone from novel and warming to brutal and oppressive. In the upper Midwest, summer is like a friend that is always late to the party, is fun for a little while, but then you want them to go because they get drunk fast and turn into a really annoying party guest.
The month of August is full of days that call for lying around lazily like overheated dogs. My opinion is that everyone hates August (I don’t, for the record) because most of us don’t get to lie around, soaking up the last weeks of summer sunshine before the first chill of autumn announces the arrival of the next season some early September morning. Most of us don’t get to set our days by the changing light and heat. Most of us have to still grind on, showing up to do the same thing in the same amount of time (or less) day after day. And when the temperatures stay consistently above 80, that is miserable.
With apologies, I can’t offer much other than this observation. I love to solve a problem, but the economic system in which we are fully immersed, most of us fully dependent upon, is a problem that needs not so much solving but outright upheaval. But I do think there are ways to reject the grind, especially for people of color who are and have been subject to the grind in a particularly grueling way. The Nap Ministry, which I’ve been following for years, is a good place to start finding those ways to free yourself from the system.
I’m saying nothing new. In the creation myths of Genesis, we tell a story that even God rests. Rabbis, priests, pastors, spiritual leaders of all stripes and denominations have been speaking to the need to rest for all of human history. And yet, it is a reminder that I need all the time that my value as a person is not dependent on the number of books I sell, the number of retreats I lead, the number of loaves I pull from my oven (when the mercury has dropped that is). And so, here I am, reminding you, too, to go on hating August if you do, but consider sitting with the discomfort of this month a little. Maybe wonder if it can be a gift of transition and change. Observe the way the light is shifting and illuminating new things while creating long shadows over what you’ve been looking at this season. Buy an extravagantly ripe tomato and salt and eat it between two slices of bread. Real mayonnaise not optional but required. Take a dip in the lake, the pool, the ocean, a cool bath.
One night this week, my kid and I watered plants and sat on our back porch talking about blossom end rot. I had a tinto de verano. I made my yearly declaration that I’m done growing tomatoes. I explained how potassium in soil helps a plant to bloom and pondered whether the morning glories aren’t flowering because of low potassium and too high nitrogen levels in the soil. We deadheaded flowers from a hanging planter. July was so busy at my parish job. I baptized a baby, buried a long time parishioner, coordinated my most successful retreat, shepherded the approval of a new partnership between my parish and a nearby one, all in addition to just the regular parts of being a parish priest: masses, pastoral visits, preaching, administrative stuff.
I’ve also been running in the early-ish mornings this week while it’s still in the 70s and thinking about how if I keep it up, I’ll be running this same route when the first snowflakes fall at the end of the year. I’m taking a vacation in a week and a half. I hope to swim in the lake every day. New things are on the way. I want to be rested and ready for them when they arrive.
Book News
Since my last newsletter, the book has launched and I’ve done a few podcasts, been featured in a few publications, and made a few appearances to talk about it! I’ve got a few things being planned for the fall. I usually keep Instagram updated with those dates and appearances. If you’d like to stay in the loop, please follow me over there.
If you’ve read the book, the best way you can support me right now is by leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads. Remember what I was saying about systems upon which we are fully immersed and totally dependent even if we wish we weren’t? That is the case here with algorithms and book sales. More reviews means the book is more likely to end up recommended to interested readers who’d otherwise not know about it.
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What I’ve been listening to, reading, watching, cooking and eating
Unexpected Abundance by Elizabeth Felicetti
Elizabeth and I write together every week. She and I were both proposing and writing our books at the same time and I’m thrilled hers is finally in my hands. Elizabeth writes with such heart about the incredible gifts women who haven’t had children have offered to the church and the world.
Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong
I’ve been listening to this one. Heartbreaking, fascinating, enraging, beautiful. It should be required for all white people
A Death in Door County by Annelise Ryan
Just a fun and sorta silly romp around Washington Island, where my family stayed for a night in July. I picked up the book at the delightful Fair Isle Books on our way off the Island and read it straight through as soon as I got home. It’s a beach read for the Great Lakes region.
Search: A Novel by Michelle Hunevan
I started this last year, but serving a church involved in its own search process, I decided to put it down. I was not on the search committee, but this book was cutting pretty close in ways that revealed that the author knew the topic well. I picked it up again this week and have been enjoying it, post search process.
I also recently listened to The Dutch House by Anne Patchett (as read by Tom Hanks; I loved it) and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (it was really engaging, but I didn’t love it like others have). I’m still slowly making my way through Wolf Hall on audio and think I’ll make more headway in this trilogy when I’m spending more time making big meals in the kitchen, say around Thanksgiving.
Justine Snacks
I’m late to this, but a few months ago, I started following this delightful woman who does all the things with food that I wanted to do when I first started writing about food in 2006 but never quite had the confidence (or ability) to figure out. I’m so glad someone else out there is doing it. She’s thoughtful, imaginative, creative, ambitious, and real. She cooks from a tiny space by a window. If you love beans, she’s your girl. I really love this recipe for Baked Cauliflower Salad with Feta and Dates.
Brit Box
They don’t pay me or give me a free subscription but I am a devoted evangelizer. I just finished Season 26 of Silent Witness and recently started Season 2 of The Tower. And I’m contemplating a re-watch of all three seasons of Mum, which is by far one of the best things I’ve seen all year. Leslie Manville is a goddess.
Barbie
I mean, obviously. Do I even have to say it? All hail Greta Gerwig.
God Talk is an occasional newsletter about seeking and making meaning in the modern world. God is in the name but belief is not required for reading. Please support my writing by subscribing and sharing.
I am glad you are learning to take some rest in the midst of all that you are doing as a priest and all your other callings. Looking back over my years as a pastor I failed to get the rest I needed- it has been called the Messiah complex. Enjoy that vacation and all the little resting places along your way.