If writing a book about writing a movie about a book you once wrote about yourself isn’t the ultimate act of narcissism then doing a 65-city book tour promoting said book must be. I’ve never been more tired of any human being than I am of myself these last few weeks. It’s endless talk about why I wrote a book and why it’s important. Each night I give a presentation and two days each week are filled with radio interviews in which I explain why this book matters and why people should part with twenty bucks to read it. It’s a sad existence, but the truth is, with blogs and twitter and facebook, it’s just a commodified life that most of us are already living, that is to process our lives to be openly praised and criticized by neutral onlookers. So why do it? Here are a few confessions and observations and justifications regarding the act of writing about yourself: 1. Confession: There is something in me that wants to be known by others. I share my life to have other people read about it, put down the book, look me in the eye and say “you exist.” 2. Confession: Half [...]
We’ve been on the road for more than a month now, and have more than a month to go. Already we’ve accumulated some epic memories, including boating on Lake Washington with author Barb Pine, and enjoying a trombone serenade in the lovely and hospitable home of the infamous Rob Bell. And, night after night, the fact that anybody, much less hundreds of people, would pay $15 to come out and hear an author speak amazes both Susan and me. My favorite part of each night is guiding the audience into the tension involved in the idea that Jesus is not the climax to your human story, and that God intends and even lends very difficult conflict to your life. Both of these are Biblical ideas, largely indisputable, that are not taught in churches in America, and are downright opposed in most Christian books. You can cut the tension in the air with a knife, each time I get to that part of the talk. Hopefully the tension is relieved by the end of the talk, but sometimes it isn’t. I’ve actually had people come up to me and say they thought I was about to renounce my faith, which, in [...]
Without some form of morality, it is difficult to tell a good story. In any meaningful story, and therefore in any meaningful life, a character must have a sense of right and wrong, and that sense of right and wrong has to be universal. If his sense of right and wrong isn’t universal, he is a psychopath, and if he has no morality, his story is not going to be meaningful. Many people are moral for religious reasons, stating their morality comes from the Bible or a sacred text (which, while these books can influence morality, are not written with the intention of defining a moral code. If they are, they are terribly written and the authors couldn’t land their point.) Natural Law, then, becomes a kind of catch all conglomerate of sacred texts, an attempt to arrive at a universal code for meaningful morality in a civilized society. As a culture, America subscribes to natural law even more than Constitutional law. The foundation for constitutional law is natural law and without it, the constitution makes no sense. In some ways, I think, the constitution is a defense of natural law. But each time a debate takes place regarding a [...]
