Books, essays, podcasts episodes, and more that I think are worth your time, plus recent cultural news that I’m paying attention to…
BOOKS
NOVEL: How to Read a Book: A Novel by Monica Wood
One of you recommended this to me, and I loved it, so thank you! It tells the story of a women’s book club—in prison. You can probably imagine the humanity that comes forth in this setting, so I won’t say anything more except to commend this book as a sweet, thoughtful story about reckoning with our mistakes and bad choices and living with hope and forgiveness.
NOVEL: Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
This story spans decades in the life of a family of four girls in Chicago. It deals with topics of love and loss and misunderstanding and the need for hope and forgiveness and the unrelenting desire of the human ego to run away from who we really are and the unrelenting desire of the human soul to show up as we really are. The writing is beautiful, the characters are infuriating and delightful all at once, and I did not want this book to end.
Memoir: Life, Animated by Ron Suskind
Journalist Ron Suskind’s son Owen was diagnosed with autism at age three. Over the course of the previous year, Owen had stopped talking and seemed more and more withdrawn from the world. It felt to his parents like they were losing him. Owen remained interested in Disney movies. He watched them over and over. He recited lines from the movies. He learned to draw his favorite characters. Eventually, his parents wondered whether Owen might be using the films to communicate. He wasn’t simply mimicking lines. He was using lines that applied to how he was feeling, even if he didn’t have the words to say it. He was connecting, and communicating, and engaging purposefully with the world around him, albeit in an unusual way.
Suskind tells the story of their family in his 2016 book Life, Animated. Their journey to connect to Owen and provide the support Owen needs to learn and have friends and work all springs from this love of Disney. Instead of focusing on Owen’s deficits and all the ways he deviates from typical kids, they leaned into and celebrated what he loved most. Disney became the language through which they could understand and support Owen, and through which Owen could express his love in return.
The Suskinds started with delight on their autism journey. There was hardship along the way. They experienced grief in all the ways so many parents do—both the grief we don’t want to feel about kids who don’t meet our expectations and the grief of watching our kids endure rejection and misunderstanding and bullying. But love and celebration of who Owen is became a container that held the grief and hardship. Starting with delight gave them a place to return that honored their son and gave them a vision for a good future.
Suskind is a Pulitzer-prize winner, and he connects his tremendous writing skill and his deep love of his family together to tell a story of honesty and hope.”
In our own family, we’ve also learned to start with delight. Penny is 19 years old now. We still have a lot to navigate, but we’ve also learned some general principles about how to be parents of a child with a disability. We’ve learned to start with delight, connect to community, and take the next step towards a good future.
FILMS/MOVIES/DOCUMENTARIES
TV SERIES: Andor
We just finished season 1 of Andor, and it lived up to the hype. I am not a big Star Wars fan, but this prequel to the Star Wars franchise offers a thought-provoking meditation on human freedom. There’s complexity in the characters—the bureaucrats working for the Empire sometimes think they are doing everything in the name of what is good and true, and the rebels run the gamut from quiet resistance from inside the system and those seeking to overthrow it from the outside looking in. I started watching Andor on Jemar Tisby, PhD’s recommendation, so read his Substack here for more on why this show matters in our time.
TEDx | I’m not your inspiration, thank you very much | Stella Young
As I work on this next book, I’m returning to some resources from a while ago, including this Tedx talk by Stella Young. Young explains the idea of “inspiration porn,” images that objectify disabled people for the benefit of nondisabled people. As she says, “Disability is not a bad thing. And it doesn’t make you exceptional.” She says she envisions a world in which disability is not the exception, but the norm.
RESOURCES
RESOURCE: How to Slow Down and Be a Peaceful Presence When Tensions Are High
This short, thoughtful guide is all about how to slow down and stay grounded when tensions run high.
RESOURCE: DIGNITY TRAILER
I love seeing organizations use their imaginations to create a world of welcome and belonging. Watch this short video from Certain Hope Community in Michigan about the dignity trailer. “Designed exclusively for special needs families, this fully accessible mobile restroom is equipped with features built upon the beacon of inclusivity and compassion.”
ESSAYS
ATLANTIC ESSAY: “Why Evangelicals Turned Their Back on PEPFAR”
I am still saddened by the Trump administration’s decision to effectively end PEPFAR, the program that saved tens of millions of lives in this century. And after reading Peter Wehner’s account of why evangelical Christians have failed to protest its demise, I’m not only saddened but angered. We don’t want to be the ones who walk to the other side of the road when we see our brothers and sisters in need.
NYT ESSAY: “Autism Rates Have Increased 60-Fold. I Played a Role in That.”
I appreciated this succinct history of the way clinicians diagnose autism spectrum disorder and how these changes have led to the increase in both helpful and false diagnoses.
ESSAY: “Inclusive Worship Shouts, Shushes, and Sings to the Lord”
I hope more and more churches consider what it looks like to create welcoming spaces for all sorts of people. This essay offers some suggestions on how and why we can
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