One of my favorite political commentators recently wrote about his dislike for New Year’s as a holiday and, granted, if we boil the holiday down to standing in crowded bars at night or in Times Square then I’d feel inclined to agree. Conceptually though, I love the idea of celebrating fresh starts and new beginnings with others. Years of schooling and self-discipline has built a reflective process into me and I think the idea of an entire culture taking a moment to actually pause and evaluate their lives (between drinks of alcohol and revelry of course) is on the whole a positive thing.
This year, I’m beginning to sense something new in the water, a slight emphasis and direction shift I haven’t sensed for some time. I’m not trying to hint at job changes or a big city movie - just that I’m sensing a need to adjust my free time focus. We’re not quite talking the level of change I wrote about in a blog almost 13 years ago, but enough for me to share it here. So what am I sensing? Three things in particular…
1. Moving Away From Film: The last few months I have increasingly found myself disinterested in watching and writing about films: new movies just aren’t exciting me, watching films for my Leaman Awards feel like an obligation more than a hobby, and I’d rather just pop on something familiar and loved than seek out something fresh. Perhaps this is just a season and those loves will come back or perhaps I’m just burnt out as for the last decade or so I’ve watched well over a hundred new movies every year and created guides on Western films, World War II films, a myriad of action sequences guides, and completed several past and present year entries into my Leaman Awards. I enjoyed all that stuff and I still have some film projects working in the background, but the interest is clearly waning. I’m not sure I’ll have a 2023 Leaman Awards to complete (I’ve only seen 27 films from the year when I normally average 80-100) anytime soon and worse, I don’t really care right now. You can still expect some short film reviews to pop up here and there, but the larger scale projects are just not in the future cards.
2. Moving Towards Books & Education: As my interest in film has decreased, I’ve felt an increasing call to spend more time reading and thinking. I told this recently to my mom who suggested I try to get through a book every three months…I’m thinking more like a book a week. Read, think, and write about what? Well largely about faith and education - but also culture, philosophy, politics, and history through the lens of my faith and role as a Christian educator. I’d like to spend much more of my free time reading through significant texts (including the Bible), reflecting, and developing my thoughts on these topics more than I currently am. I am sensing a genuine need for this development for my growth in my own faith, but also in potential opportunities in the Christian education space. I know that’s vague, but that’s why I’ve been using the term “sense” and “feel”!
3. Substack: The first two shifts intersect with this new venture on substack. No, I’m not giving up on my personal website - you’ll still find random lists and movie reviews there. That website has a long history and I enjoy randomly posting to it: one day might be a review of a history book, the next a guide to country music, and the next a movie review! However, I’ve long thought it would be nice to have a space dedicated to sharing my more serious thoughts on faith and culture - whether in short or long form. That’s what I think this substack can be. It thankfully offers a cleaner and simpler interface. I don’t plan to monetize anything, but it’s nice to have all those features available if I wanted. As I turn my focus more to reading and reflecting over 2024, I’m going to try and make this place a sounding board for those thoughts.
4. Community: I’d love to begin connecting with like-minded individuals who are interested in thoughtfully thinking through these same issues as well. I like that substack offers a lot of features outside of its newsletters/email system to help me make those connections. That’s just something my website doesn’t allow me to do. without a lot of work on my end.
I have no idea what this substack is going to look like going forward or how often I will be posting. I think anything from shutting it down by the end of the year to migrating my entire website over is possible. If you’d like to join with me and see where it all goes, then go ahead and subscribe and share with anyone you think would like to be part of it.