Coming Home

Hi Reader, About ten years ago I was tutoring SAT and ACT. (Oh, interesting; this newsletter marks the first time I've combined all three things I do: tutoring, writing, and tech support.) Anyway, I was done with my tutoring for the day when I was asked to stay late to help a student who came in for an unscheduled session. She was very determined to get a high score. I had worked with her on the English, reading, and science sections, but she wanted help with math. Now, I'm no expert in math,...

Hi Reader, I mentioned that tech support project last week, but I changed my mind today because there's something else I want to write about. I know I want to write about it because I'm afraid to write about it. So I grew up with faith. Maybe you know that about me. And then in college I did some thinking and discovered that all the stuff my faith was based on didn't make sense. I see now that this was only true for me. That it only made no sense for me and me alone. Because, you know, there...

Hi Reader, I've taken on a little project to write a whitepaper, Bringing Humanity to Tech Support. But when am I going to write this thing? The only real time I have to write is when I sit down to write to you every week. So... I'm going to do it here. I realize tech support doesn't seem like what I usually write about. The reason for that is because it totally isn't what I usually write about. Well, sort of. As with so many things I write about, there's some nuance here. If you take a peek...

Hi Reader, When I set out to write my book, I had lots of different motivations. Some were positive, let's say, while others we might call negative. This seems very ordinary. We all do things for good and bad reasons (or at least what we judge as such). I was examining my reasons and saw something new I wanted to share with you. I didn't realize it at the time, but a big motivation for writing my book was that I was uncomfortable with people who saw the world as black and white. We might...

Hi Reader, My calling is: people experience the deep peace of coming home to themselves right this moment, whatever the circumstances. Back when I was workshopping that language (actually that work is ongoing) one of the things I started with before landing on "coming home" was "belonging." I don't remember why that got dropped, but it visited me again this morning and I want to look at it from a few perspectives that increase in ridiculousness as we go. First, the one I couldn't do on my...

Hi Reader, This week's newsletter has a sponsor! Check out the PS for details. Thanks to Shortform—and thanks to you. I read two things this week that really struck me. The first was a quote from the beginning of one of the chapters of one of Frank Herbert's Dune Novels: Religion [is the] emulation of adults by the child. I read that and had this feeling of recognition, of conviction. That's exactly what I've done for most of my life! Just emulated people I perceive to be adults, never really...

Hi Reader, This week's newsletter has a sponsor! Check out the PS for details. Thanks to Shortform. Earlier today I dropped my parents off at the airport after a visit. My daughter was sad to see Oma and Papa leave. I told her I was sad, too. It can be hard to gauge how upset a toddler actually is. She seemed mostly recovered 30 minutes later while I'm still feeling pensive. For as long as I can remember, goodbyes have gotten to me like this. As we were driving home I noticed myself...

Hi Reader, It occurred to me this week that a whole bunch of the work I'm trying to do with writing and thinking and practicing is dedicated to getting clear on my perspective. On what things look like to me. Maybe if I can get clear on where I'm standing I can catch a glimpse of myself. That's like the other side of coming home, by the way. Or, depending on how you look at it, exactly the same thing. My challenge is that, as an intelligent, interested, openminded, emotionally sensitive human...

Hi Reader, So last week I said I felt weird about sharing with you how what I want and what I'm afraid of are the same thing. I planned to elaborate on that this week. Why did I feel weird? Well.... honestly, I don't remember. Maybe that's a testament to how feelings change. Maybe it's evidence of sleep deprivation due to the kids not sleeping well the last few weeks (it's seriously the worst it's ever been right now). Maybe I should have taken better notes. Maybe it's the universe telling me...

Hi Reader, I've heard there are two questions that seem eternally valuable to ask yourself. What do I want? ...and... What am I afraid of? I've been inquiring into that first one for a little more than a year now. I started seriously asking myself the second one a month or two ago. So I'm far from a longtime firsthand knower of the value of these questions. I have them in Level 2 knowing, probably not much progress toward Level 3. Still, I can say that, so far, the inquiry seems to have been...