Writer
My friend John shared with me an article that compared the creative processes of Pablo Picasso to Paul Cezanne. Before Cezanne created a painting he undertook countless studies, working and reworking them methodically until he was satisfied with the composition. Only then did he begin to paint. In contrast, Picasso when inspired would grab a canvas and a brush and paint furiously, with the urgency of one trying to relieve some great internal pressure. The article posited that these two different ways of creating can be seen in those who write, as well. If that is so, then like Picasso I write because of a creative force that builds up inside and calls out to be released.
Phrases, sentences, lines of poems, and entire sections of text come to me while hiking. They come when I’m driving. During one memorable period, musical melodies and lyrics came almost daily as I drove to work and demanded I pull over to the roadside to capture them on scraps of paper. One summer while painting woodwork at my cottage in Maine I was continually pestered with stories, bits of dialogue, descriptive matter, and interesting turns of phrase. I’d put down the paintbrush, scribble thoughts with a carpenter’s pencil, take up the paint brush, paint a section, put down the paintbrush, scribble thoughts with a carpenter’s pencil, and take up the paint brush again. Back and forth it went in a not terribly efficient counterpoint. “The creative process is a process of surrender, not control,” said artist and writer Julia Cameron. I agree, and it occurs to me that so likewise is the Christian life.
When I compose a sermon, I’ve learned to sit down and just begin. Having read the texts and meditated on them, I simply place my hands on the keyboard and begin. The neural pathways between my brain and my fingers sometimes feel like interstate highways, and the act of writing brings the kind of exhilaration you get from driving a car really fast. As many preachers will tell you, inviting the Holy Spirit into a writing partnership is a great adventure.
Each week for nearly six years I’ve written a theological reflection to my parish. Those essays expound on everything from a conversation with a stranger to the journey a lost iPhone takes to current events in the life of the world and the church. Writing is how I make sense of things. Theological writing is how I make sense of things and God together.
Theological reflections
For the last six years I’ve written to my congregation at the beginning of every week. This column, which goes out to about 450 households, offers stories, theological reflections, teaching, and an inside look at what’s happening in our common life. It is a way for busy, geographically dispersed parishioners to stay connected to our church, and to develop their own theological ways of looking at the world. It is also a very dear spiritual practice for me, and a way of pastoring people I may not get to see nor speak with often. You can read some past issues of The Rector's Pen here.
Books, articles, and essays
The Misadventures of Seldovia Sam series:
Seldovia, Alaska: An Historical Portrait of Life in Zaliv Seldevoe-Herring Bay
Alaska .... Pure Poetry; A Natural History Coloring Book for children & their parents
Getting Ready for Winter — Written in the midst of August chores at my cottage in Union, Maine, this essay was published in the October 2015 issue of DownEast Magazine.
Climate Change and Tidepool Inhabitants — This (unpublished) 2016 article was purchased by DownEast Magazine, and was commissioned to study the effects of climate change on the inhabitants of Maine coast tide pools. Interviews with a marine scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay explored how warming water temperature and ocean acidification impact some keystone species.
Poetry
In Praise of the Soft Time of Night —2018
Meditation on Psalm 19 —2018
A Saturday poem — 2018
Resurrection in the neighborhood — 2017
Walk along the Rough-and-Ready Ditch — 2016
Five gifts of a birthday hike — 2016
The Last Season — Written during a walk with the dogs at Boulder Valley Farm, 2015
Afternoon ride — This poem wrote itself as I rode, 2014
Walking into the wind — 2014
From a mountain meadow in the sun — Written during a late winter hike in the Roosevelt National Forest, 2014