Dear Reader,
Summer is rolling away, and although I love fall weather, I’m not sure I’m ready for it just yet. This summer has been a lovely one for Wayfare, and maybe we can linger in the sun for a little longer. Here’s a roundup of what I’ve been reading in Wayfare this month and beyond.
August at Wayfare
Meaningful prayer has sometimes felt elusive to me in recent years, and I’ve often felt flummoxed as I’ve tried to refine my practice. Kim Matheson’s lovely essay on the Psalms (part of an ongoing collaboration with the Maxwell Institute’s weekly essays following the Come, Follow Me curriculum) gave me a new way to think about how to make prayer into true praise.
By the way, if you missed Matheson’s essay on the story of Jacob wrestling the angel from earlier this year, you should check it out. You might just walk away, like Jacob, a changed man.
I also loved a repost of Lance Larsen’s poem “To the New Earth,” from Issue 6. If you have a moment to meditate on the loveliness of our everyday - or perhaps especially if you feel that you don’t! - take some time to chew on this one. And if you’re in the mood for dessert, may I suggest a favorite Michael Lavers poem that I think has a nice resonance with Larsen’s.
(And if you aren’t yet a print subscriber, just think about how beautiful Larsen’s poem would be in print!)
Finally, Greer Cordner’s review of Natalie Brown’s new book After Happiness was an intervention I needed. The gospel is often presented as a formula for happiness, but what happens when the formulas inevitably fail us? There is good news: “After Happiness is a declaration that faith—and faith communities—can withstand heat and hurt and turmoil, and that reducing the gospel to a formula for success does believers a disservice.”
Maybe it won’t be so bad to leave summer behind.
What Else I’ve Been Reading
Lately I’ve been revisiting “The Cat in the Tree: Why AI Content Leaves Us Cold,” a post by the writer L.M. Sacasas (and Wayfare contributor) that I read last year. He talks about a surprise encounter with a piece of artwork that taught him something profound. My paraphrase: there’s something about art that is human-made that invites us in because it is made by someone trying to imagine us. I would not say that is something that large language models seem to be doing.
And Now For Something Completely Different
Speaking of surprise, art, and art that invites, how about an invitation to dance? Prolific Australian rockers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard released their 1,000th album last week (this is only a slight exaggeration) and it turns out to be a ripping ride through a dozen flavors or more of ridiculously fun techno dancebeats. Is the average Wayfare reader the type to jam out to a DJ-set-in-a-box? Well, I know this Wayfare reader usually isn’t - but I’ve had it on repeat in the car. Check it out on Youtube or Bandcamp.
With these beats to keep me going, I’m ready for September.
Jeremiah Scanlan, Associate Editor at Wayfare, is a fiction writer and birdwatcher, currently studying law.
Artwork taken from 19th century illustrations of paper lantern designs.