Over lunch today a friend described a loss of trust. That is, it was once taken for granted that neighbors would look out for each other. For this friend the recent/current pandemic ruptured that sense of trust. Before vaccines were widely available friends seemed more interested in their freedoms than in the well-being of their neighbors. No distancing. No masks.

Once vaccines became available the shift away from neighbor care widened with anti-vaccine messages that the jab was a means to insert computer chips. Worse the fact that the virus is the first of its kind, not using live or dead viruses, some spread the rumor that the vaccine was actually giving the recipient Covid-19.

I shared with my friend a similar experience.

That is, the last five years or so have left me thinking it safer not to write. Rather than post as a means to process what I have been reading, interviewing an author or practitioner, or thinking out loud about how thinking Christian might intersect current cultural or political trends, I just would not.

Recently I picked up Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism by Anne Applebaum on the recommendation of a friend. After I finished the first chapter I asked myself, “Why has it been so hard to read lately?” Sure, I read for my vocation. But, I have read widely since my college days. I really need to spend more time with fiction. But I can’t help but feeling that we have been living in fictions times.

We all have felt the stress of the last almost two years. It has affected friendships and pastors and churches.

Today I am taking up writing again. Call it gimmicky. But, I have created a substack account. The novelty may simply be a means to get started. But, if you are interested, here is a link to my first post at Can We Talk? – Deja vu.