Tuesday Tidings: September 14, 2021

Sorry for the lack of posts lately! A combination of a migraine attack and a glut of work knocked me out of my rhythm, but I’m more or less back to normal now.

What I’m Reading: A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by W. Phillip Keller. I’ve been working through this little book on everyone’s favorite psalm from the perspective of a real-life shepherd. It’s a pretty light read, but it’s interesting. I appreciate his insight into how David might have been alluding to specific elements of sheep keeping in the psalm, and what that means about our relationship with God.

What I’m Watching: “Education in the Age of Science: A Critique” by Lawrence F. Kohl, PhD. I went back and rewatched a lecture given by one of my favorite undergraduate professors, Dr. Larry Kohl. The lecture is all about ways that education has been affected by our infatuation with technology and mathematical efficiency. His main argument is that we have been applying methods and metrics from STEM fields that are unsuitable to liberal arts education. It’s a favorite of mine, and there’s a lot of good books he alludes to that are worth checking out, too.

What I’m Listening To: Max Richter’s The Blue Notebooks. I don’t listen to a whole lot of “contemporary classical” (that’s such a silly name for a genre…), but I do like Max Richter. My favorite track off this album is probably “Vladimir’s Blues,” which is a piece inspired by butterflies. I find his work really calming and contemplative; it’s good “thinking music.”

What I’m Thinking About: Deep Work. I’m listening to the audiobook of Cal Newport’s Deep Work, which is all about people who do “information work” (like me, as a writer, editor, and social media assistant) and not multitasking and instead taking time to focus on cognitively engaging work for sustained periods of time (“monotask”?). I really struggle with over-checking email and not “clocking out” of work (made even more difficult when you work from home!), which makes for a lot of anxiety. I’m trying to approach things from a “deep work” perspective in order to approach work more calmly. Right now, that looks like spending my morning with an extended devotion, then a couple hours of concentrated writing and research for larger projects, then switching gears to editing and stuff in the early afternoon, “signing off” for the day, and then doing fun stuff (like this!) in the evening. So far, it’s been a really good change!

What I’m Working On: Starting a “Big Project.” I can’t really get into it, but I’ve started on a big project that I’m really excited about. I hope to be able to share some more information with you soon, though! I am also trying to get back into doing more art, though, which I can (and will!) share with you in the future.

That’s all for now, but I’ll be back later in the week.

Have you started any cool new projects lately?