31 days of tough things

THIS IS TERRIFYING

Hello. Commitmentphobe here. Ever heard of NaNoWriMo? That thing I’ve never done? There’s one for bloggers invented by the Nester. Still not entirely what she’s about, but I dig her since hearing about her through Emily Freeman/The Lazy Genius. Apparently you pick a thing to write about (broad) and post about it every day in October (obvi, I always come to parties late..). This intimidates me.

But I knew right away what I wanted it to be. 

The school shooting this week sat heavy on my heart. I was filled with anger toward my government, toward the shooter, toward the NRA. I realized after listening to the president’s address calling Americans to action that I knew very little about what I could do. So I began researching gun violence stats post-9/11, began tweeting at my senators and congressmen, looking up their voting history (which shocked me), hunting down forgotten bills and proposals, reading arguments from both sides of the gun regulation conversation.

Gun control is just one of many tough things I plan on covering. Why the 31 days challenge for this? I’ve been holding back out of the desire to eventually craft great, thorough thought pieces on each subject…but I think taking little bite-sized chunks may be a wiser route for now.

What to expect here in October

I really can’t tell you what will happen. Most of these will be social justice/political of nature, and that scares me, because most people close to me do not share my views, due to the culture in which I was raised and the college I chose to attend. (People pleaser’s worst nightmare…craving approval and completely disagreeing with the people you seek approval from. Lulz) Other tough things will be personal in nature and touch on mental health, calling, and my own fears and failures. I anticipate unwanted humility, and I am uneasy about it.

I expect that this will be a refining process as well. I am a very enthusiastic and intense person and tend to be impatient with slow things (the American church, for instance) and very adamant and prideful when other people call me out on things that I view as the Only Right Way at the time. There is no reason to communicate my inner processing of these tough things unless I invite dialogue — without others interacting, I’ll learn nothing and share nothing of value with you. In a country that continues to polarize red and blue (oh, THAT will be a post), I would like this blog to stay away from that. So I invite your intensity to clash with mine, as long as you are not degrading or offensive.

I’ll try to keep my posts short. If it’s a true national debate, I’ll probably present the extremes of each side and someone else in the middle. Some will just be stream-of-consciousness thoughts. Some will be a series of links, like my post on gay marriage.

Topics

Off the top of my head, in no order, I’ve known I’ve wanted to write on/research these topics:

• The history of gentrification to today, looking forward
• Women pastors
• Media coverage cycle and global events — chicken and the egg. Were we always this horrible, and nobody was there with a camera? Or are people being more horrible because they know more people are watching?
• Overpopulation
• Gun control policies
• Political polarization in America — when did it begin?
• Physical healing through spiritual means
• Abortion
• Purity/homeschooling culture and narrow femininity
• Fast fashion, slave labor in clothing industry
• Gender in the context of the Kingdom (esp. touching on roles and sexuality spectrum)
• Socially responsible business. The good and not-so-good. Slash critique of startup culture.
• Do we need more nonprofits? (Spoiler, my answer is probably no)
• Can we all seriously stop with the Christian America thing already? (Also a spoiler of what my opinion is)

Open to suggestions as well. Not all of these will be as heavy as they sound.

So buckle up, subscribe via email, or avoid me like the plague if this sounds overwhelming. If this ends up being horrible for my heart and unhealthy and causes me anxiety of course I’ll pull the plug. But I think this could make October interesting.

So. See you tomorrow, we’ll be talking about gun control! JK! No, I’m actually not kidding. That’s what we’re doing. I was serious about the buckling up.

xoxo Jo