Dear Cottage Readers,
Thanks for all the the comments on the Cottage Reader #1. I really appreciate it. It was great to meet so many of you at Southern Lights. Thanks again for the affirmation (and your many suggestions).
Southern Lights was so good this year. I’ve been to A LOT of conferences in my time, and Southern Lights is my very favorite. I find the “we’re all in this together” spirit of the weekend so inspiring. The audiences are attentive, and respectful, and so eager to engage. I hope you’ll be able to join us next year.
Coming Soon to The Cottage
We received advance reader’s copies of three intriguing new books this month, and Diana and I are making our way through them. We hope their authors will join us soon for Cottage Zooms with paid subscribers.
First up, Jim Wallis will be with us for a Cottage Zoom this Thursday at 4:00 p.m.! His new book is The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy. I hope you know Jim Wallis. The long-time leader and editor of Sojourners is now the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Chair in Faith and Justice at Georgetown University. He is a theologian, activist for peace and justice, and the author of many books on the interplay between religion and politics. His new book may be his most urgent yet, because he sees the threat of Christian nationalism as existential to our faith communities. “This is a time of testing—both for the future of our democracy and for the integrity of our faith communities.” Paid subscribers will receive an invitation on Thursday to what will surely be a stimulating conversation.
We also hope to host conversations with the authors of these books during Lent:
God's Ghostwriters: Enslaved Christians and the Making of the Bible, by Candida Moss. Did you know that people held in slavery wrote much of the New Testament? In this fine history, Moss argues that “enslaved people created, gave meaning to, and spread the message of the New Testament, shaping the very foundations of Christianity in ways both subtle and profound.” Diana is currently reading it and says it is just the kind of history she loves.
The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church, by Sarah McCammon. You know the story: After growing up in the confines of a rigid evangelical religion, a young woman questions the faith she had been taught. What makes this one different is that Sarah McCammon is a skilled journalist, a National Political Correspondent for NPR and cohost of The NPR Politics Podcast. She was the lead NPR reporter on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, where she witnessed the interplay of evangelicalism and the political right. Along the way, she also found she was not alone on her journey of deconstruction. And guess what? She quotes extensively from The Cottage in her final chapter!
Many Boomers are retiring. Some are trying to do it well.
I’ll be 69 years old in June. I’ve worked most days for almost 50 years, even when I was on vacation, if I took a vacation (I’ve gotten much better at that in recent years). I still work part-time at a job, and helping the readers at The Cottage is becoming a new vocation. I’ve found that part-time work may take less clock time, but it still occupies a lot of mind time. There comes a time when one wants one’s mind to go where it will, not where it must.
As I mentioned in the first Cottage reader, I spent nearly fifteen years of my working life at the Alban Institute. When Alban closed about a decade ago, its consultants—a wise, experienced group of practitioners skilled at helping congregation—formed their own practice called the Congregational Consulting Group. Well, time marches on and some of those consultants are retiring from at least their day jobs, and writing well about it. Here are three posts those of you in a similar position may find helpful. I did.
Knowing When to Let Go, by David Brubaker. “All of us need to recognize when it’s time to step aside and let younger leaders step up.”
Six Rules for Letting Go when You Retire, by Sarai Rice. “I’ve acted as if this day would never come. Now that it is finally happening, I’m forced to make up the rules as I go.”
Will They Never Retire?, by John Wimberly. “Working because we can’t think of anything better to do is not a positive, pro-active approach to life.”
I added one book on retirement/aging to my bookshelf this month, and I hope to get to it soon. It was recommended in a comment on Reader #1, and again at Southern Lights: The Inner Work of Age: Shifting from Role to Soul, by Connie Zweig.
A Recommended Substack Newsletter
Those of you who were at Southern Lights or who participated in last year’s Cottage Zoom with Simran Jeet Singh know about his calm, wise approach to life. In addition to his wonderful book, The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life, he has a Substack newsletter, more of this, please. I like it a lot. Here’s a recent entry, A Regret?, that demonstrates his thoughtful nature.
Reading in a Multi-Platform Age
I spent most of my “reading time” this month with two books: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett and World Within a Song by Jeff Tweedy. They both led to uncommon reading experiences that involved reading, audio, and video.
I won’t summarize the plot of Tom Lake—I don't have space and you should read it yourself—but a central “character” in the book is Our Town by Thornton Wilder. I had seen Our Town performed once, many years ago, and I didn’t want to rely on my memory to help me understand why it played the role it did in the book.
So first I read it. Then I watched the 1940 movie, and tried to follow along with the play, but there were so many changes it was hopeless (not to mention how it changed the ending). Then I watched the 2003 Broadway production starring Paul Newman, and it was much better. Then I sought out the 1988 Broadway/PBS version starring Spalding Gray as the Stage Manager. This is the one for which Tom Lake’s Lara auditions; when she doesn’t get the part, she goes to Tom Lake to play Emily in a production there, really setting the plot in motion. Let’s just say there’s a lot of resonance between Tom Lake and Our Town.
But my multi-platform engagement with Tom Lake didn’t end there. I thought I’d try it as an audiobook; after all, it was read by Meryl Streep. But she read too slowly for my taste. Adjusting the speed to 1.2x helped, but there were times when I took a break from the audiobook and just read. But her voice remained, and likely influenced my reading. The experience was interesting, and I’ll probably try it again with another book.
Jeff Tweedy is the frontman/songwriter/leader of Wilco, a band from Chicago that’s been one of my favorites for nearly 30 years. World within a Song is his third book. In it he writes about 50 songs that influenced him, or played a significant role in his life or his music-making. Or that he just wanted to write about. And there’s a Spotify playlist with (most of) the songs so you can listen as you read—or read then listen, or listen then read. He writes at one point, “This book is about how much we all can bring to a song as listeners,” and that’s what I like most about it. I already knew most (not all) of the songs, and had my own experiences of them. So the book is somewhat dialogical—his experiences of songs mixed with mine, creating new appreciation.
Both of the authors did a lot of interviews when their books came out last year. I listened to several with each, extending the multi-platform experience with these books. And some of the things they said convinced me that the books have more in common than you might think.
Recommended interview with Ann Patchett:
Recommended interview with Jeff Tweedy:
In one interview, Ann Patchett says, “Literary fiction is like being in love and I bring half and you bring half and it exists in a space between us.” In another, Jeff Tweedy says, “Songs are really, really good at absorbing our memories, and our personalities, and reflecting back to us a deeper understanding of who we are. Everybody has their own relationship with a song, Nobody’s version of a song is the same.”
Isn't that what makes reading (and listening) great?
Next Month
I know that one book I’ll be reading for next month’s Cottage Reader is The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. Ann Patchett, who is also a bookseller, recommended it highly on a podcast, and it’s a big bestseller so maybe others of you have read it. If you want, we can discuss it in the comments next month.
Thanks for reading. Keep the recommendations coming.
Richard
Mr. Bass. I copied the list....only one book on it that I've read....but several that I've thought about reading. MUCH THANKS for sharing this info!
Waiting for the next with bated breath, the first two wonderful, I love it that you and Diana work so closely,
supportive and with little competition. Inspiring!! Rarely delightful!!’