Alissa Wilkinson's Christmas Playlist
When inquiring of my favorite writers and artists about the Christmas music that means the most to them, I turned habitually to someone I tend to ask about "the best" in almost everything.
I run into Alissa Wilkinson everywhere I go, it seems — so it's hard to remember how we first met. I think I first noticed her work when she and I were both writing film reviews for Paste Magazine. I didn't know many women who were writing film reviews at the time (still don't), much less women who were writing about film with an interest in the faith-related questions at the heart of them.
In time, she would join me and other reviewers on the team at Christianity Today, and now she is the chief film and TV critic there, writing, managing, and editing coverage of art and entertainment, and running a blog called "Watch This Way." She is also an assistant professor of English and humanities at The King's College in New York City, and during my first visit there she introduced my at an International Arts Movement event, IAM Encounter 10... which felt funny, because it seemed like I should be introducing her. (So I'm finally paying back some of what I owe her.)
I should also note that she preceded me into Seattle Pacific University's MFA in Creative Writing program, and earned that degree a little over a year ago, so now I'm also grateful for her good counsel as I chart my own path through those waters.
Alissa and her husband Tom, an art photographer and filmmaker, have become two of my dearest friends, and I've learned that it's good to pay attention to their discoveries and preferences in everything from books to bakeries, from apps to appetizers, from movies to microbrews. This summer, Alissa will lead a seminar on faith and food at Glen West, the Glen Workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and I am jealous of anyone who has the privilege of attending that.
Check in at Christianity Today to see just how Alissa continues to cause great civil unrest by telling the truth and standing up for the redemptive power of excellence and integrity in a time when Christians need that challenge. She's one of my heroes.
And now here she is with her own recommendations of music that has become significant for her and for Tom during the Christmas season. Feel free to update your own playlists accordingly.
(And if you've missed them, don't miss last week's contributions to this series from Joe Henry, Ashley Cleveland, and Sara Zarr.)
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ALISSA WILKINSON:
Of course Christmas music is all about the nostalgia for me, and like many people, I think, I don't like most Christmas music all that much. There are a few songs I can't seem to like no matter who covers them: “Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree,” “Blue Christmas,” “Santa Baby.” (“Jingle Bell Rock” would make the list as well, if Mean Girls hadn't saved it for me.)
So then, I've ordered my list roughly chronologically, to coincide with Christmases I've known and people I've loved.
1.
Amy Grant — “Emmanuel”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_e_AwEPgXA
My parents played Amy Grant's 1983 record A Christmas Album during the season when I was a child; I don't know how exactly it escaped the period of the Evangelical Purge of All Things Amy Grant after her divorce, but I'm glad it did. The album's release coincides with my first Christmas; this song (written, I'm pretty sure, by Michael W. Smith) is lodged firmly in my brain, in all its '80s production glory. But the lyrics are so simple, pulled straight from Isaiah 9:6, and even though I'm musically more familiar with Handel's setting of that passage in The Messiah, whenever that verse is read in church on Christmas Eve, this is still the earworm that results.
2.
Michael Card — “Shepherd's Watch”
https://youtu.be/LR7xpfBiEAg
When I was a teenager, maybe 14, my father and I were asked to sing a song at one of our church's two Christmas Eve services. I was determined to sing this one, from Card's 1991 album The Promise. I was by then a fairly accomplished pianist, but I was classically trained, and playing contemporary music plus singing at the same time was difficult. I practiced, and practiced, and practiced and it finally worked, and we did it. I was so proud. The song is still in my fingers.
3.
Jars of Clay — “Little Drummer Boy”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lasUhPa07w
I first heard this song back in the days of Napster, when I was 16 and trying to expand my musical vocabulary so as to catch up with my peers who had not spent their entire teenage musical life listening to classical music. This 1995 recording was the first Jars of Clay track I found, and though it wasn't Christmas yet, I listened, mesmerized by Dan Haseltine's voice and the understated style. Years later, I would meet the guys from Jars and discover they were far cooler and more thoughtful about faith and art than I'd ever suspected. And at a gathering one night a few years ago, standing around with Dan, drinking single malt scotch and discussing our Enneagram types, well: I knew my 16 year old self was very impressed.
4.
Vince Guaraldi — “Christmas Time is Here”
https://youtu.be/YvI_FNrczzQ
Somehow the Charlie Brown Christmas tradition had entirely skipped my family and I never consciously heard this track till, sometime in college, I bought a Starbucks Christmas compilation CD. I know, right? The entire soundtrack is still one of my favorite anytime albums, and I love this one especially for its mournfulness and its unresolved ending. The older I get, the more I understand how Christmas can sometimes feel like that: lovely and warm, but also a bit mournful and unresolved.
5.
Jill Phillips — “Labor of Love”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_CUqzOf9LQ
6.
Andrew Peterson — “Gather Round Ye Children Come”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E00zl9To8fI
Nine Novembers ago, my husband and I started dating, and by December we were already pretty sure we were going to get married (we did, the following September). Tom is the reason I know most of the people, organizations, books, music, and movies that I know today, and Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb of God was one of the first albums he made me listen to. It is a remarkable album, especially among Christmas albums, in that it starts at the very beginning of time and traces the remarkable mystery through to the great hope we look toward in this season. On that album is possibly the loveliest I know about Mary (“It was not a silent night / There was blood on the ground”), and also the song that bookends the album, which bids us to “sing out with joy for the brave little boy who was God, but he made himself nothing / He gave up his pride and he came here to die like a man.”
7.
Sufjan Stevens — “Oh Come, Oh Come Emanuel”
https://youtu.be/Cppww7NoOYM
Sufjan Stevens has made a lot of really wonderfully whimsical Christmas albums—five, in fact—that include everything from properly mournful renderings of Advent songs and ancient hymns to weird Sufjanesque ditties (“Get Behind Me, Santa” is one of my favorites). This, though: this is the one to listen to. Those flutes. It makes me think I'm around a campfire with shepherds through the silent years, waiting, and waiting.
8.
Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson — “Winter Song”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkOKCWDJ4iA
Tom found this on a Christmas compilation that, yes, he'd also picked up at Starbucks (we're not in the habit of this, I swear) and sent it to me—”You'll like it,” he said. Over the years it's held different meanings for me, depending on who I was missing most that December, but lately it makes me think of my father, who died eight years ago, and whose presence is always palpably missing from our family celebrations even though my brother and I have both gotten married since then: “This is my winter song / December never felt so wrong / 'Cause you're not where you belong / Inside my arms.”
9.
Rosie Thomas — “River”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFoSSG6RCsE
Mostly, of course, because of that line from You've Got Mail, in which Meg Ryan tells her mysterious Internet friend in an email that Joni Mitchell's “River” isn't properly a Christmas song, but she thinks of it that way, and it always makes her miss her mother, who died years earlier. I love Joni Mitchell's version, but Rosie's voice is a perfect match for a soulful cover. As a kid, I could never fathom how Christmas could be melancholy. I still am happy at Christmas, but now I get how sometimes, you just aren't ready to be merry on cue: “It's coming on Christmas / They're cutting down trees / They're putting up reindeer / And singing songs of joy and peace / Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on.”
10.
John Legend and Stephen Colbert — “Nutmeg”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYf2yFD-iIk
One fateful Thanksgiving in 2008, Tom and I found ourselves back at our hotel room, flipping channels (they have cable, a rare luxury for us) to find something to watch before bed. And behold, an angel appeared in the form of Stephen Colbert, whose A Colbert Christmas! special was airing. We chuckled our way through all of its twee and irreverence, but the standout was certainly John Legend singing about nutmeg, except totally not about nutmeg. Now we sing it whenever I put nutmeg in something. Or sometimes just because it's awesome.
11.
Bob Dylan — “Must Be Santa”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8qE6WQmNus
Okay, world: I have no idea what to make of this song. Do you? I have gone back and forth on it since I first heard it, when Tom popped it on during one of our annual post-Thanksgiving road trips from Virginia back to our home in Brooklyn. I sat gaping in the back seat, and without the music video to shed a little light. But just a little. Has Bob Dylan finally gone nuts? Is he just trolling us all? You decide.
12.
The Killers - "Joseph, Better You Than Me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW8oEWfuEIg
The Killers have written a few excellent, overly catchy Christmas spoof songs (including the immortal "Don't Shoot Me, Santa"), but this one includes a guest appearance from, of all people, Elton John (!). It's a little irreverent, but actually, once you get to the soaring chorus bits, it starts getting real orthodox, real fast, and actually winds up singing to Jesus himself. Joseph sometimes gets short shrift in the Christmas story. This song gets it.
13.
Over the Rhine — “New Redemption Song”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh9IFqy8-dg
I cheated a little and saved this for the end, because this year feels like one where we definitely—all of us—need a new redemption song, and Karin Bergquist's voice is the one that can sing the prayer best: “Lord, we need a new redemption song / Lord, we've tried, it just seems to come out wrong / Won't You help us please, help us just to sing along / A new redemption song, a new redemption song.” I think we ought to make this the Christmas song we all sing this year. Don't you?
Something, Anything in New York
A few lucky moviegoers in New York City will be among the very few who get to see one of my favorite films of the year on the big screen.
Here are details from the IFP screening site:
Opening January 9th, Paul Harrill’s Something, Anything is a meditative study of a life-altering tragedy that forces a newlywed woman to embark on a journey towards recovery. An alumnus of IFP’s Narrative Labs and No Borders Co-Production Market, as well as a Filmmaker Magazine “25 New Faces of Independent Film,” Something, Anything premiered at the Sarasota Film Festival and Wisconsin Film Festival, and has gone on to screen at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and BAMCinemaFest. (Official website: http://somethinganythingfilm.com/#about)
Tickets will go on sale in October at www.nymediacenter.com, where filmmakers will also be able to submit their projects for consideration for the spring slate. Films will be programmed based on artistic merit and perceived marketplace and audience engagement potential.
Sara Zarr's Christmas Playlist
2014 marked the tenth anniversary of my friendship with YA novelist Sara Zarr.
In the decade since we happened to sit down at the same table for a fiction workshop led by author Erin McGraw, Sara has written five of the best-reviewed new YA novels. (She became a National Book Award finalist for her first. Not too shabby.) She's also collaborated on, or contributed to, a variety of multi-author books (Jesus Girls, edited by poet and writer Hannah Faith Notess) and journals (including Image and Response). She hosts an enlightening podcast called "This Creative Life," and she's a member of the faculty of Lesley University’s Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program.
In other words, she's had a pretty good decade.
And for all of her achievements, here's the best part: She's still one of the most compassionate, self-effacing, approachable, hard-working people I know. For all of the things I've written and published in the last ten years, the book with my name on it that has sold the most is How to Save a Life — because Sara wrote it; I'm only credited in the fine print as her photographer. And that doesn't bother me at all. It was an honor.
As you can tell, I have become a rather evangelistic fan.
If you're thinking of giving Christmas presents to any young adults — or adults, for that matter — I recommend that you start here.
Her latest novel, The Lucy Variations, demonstrates that she's just getting better. It's about a young piano prodigy who having all of the outward signs of a successful ascent to the spotlight, decides that she still hasn't found what she's looking for, and sets off to find it... much to the alarm of her supporters, especially over vindictive and controlling grandfather. It's a novel of deep wisdom about the search for a meaningful life, and the confusion that comes when the path leads in away from what the rest of the world thinks is best. Anne and I read the whole thing aloud to each other, enthralled.
(Filmmakers: This book is crying out to be adapted into a feature film — and an excellent opportunity for a young actress.)
But if you're thinking of listening to some Christmas music this weekend, consider adding Sara's recommendations to your playlist.
(In case you missed it, this is the third in my Christmas Party Playlist series, following contributions from two Grammy-winning musicians: Joe Henry and Ashley Cleveland.)
It's my pleasure to welcome Sara Zarr as our latest Christmas party playlist DJ.
•
SARA ZARR:
If my contribution to this blog series had a theme, I guess it would be “semi-obscure original Christmas-ish songs.” I can’t narrow down to a favorite recording of Handel’s Messiah, a favorite recording of The Nutcracker, or favorite version of my favorite carol — "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" (or is my favorite "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence"? or another of a dozen?). So, I’m going to focus on introducing a few quiet little newer gems plus one bigger, older one that is not obscure but not as well known as I feel it should be.
Here we go:
Fictionist — "This Christmas"
Fictionist is a band out of Provo, which is close to the Salt Lake area where I live. They’ve gone national now but I still think of them as belonging to us here in Utah. A few years ago they put out this very simple song featuring about one-fourth of the band, and I was going through some stuff and this was my official Crying Song of that year. It helped me get the tears out while also bringing me comfort. ("let no one confound you / his loving arms surround you / this Christmas"). It has remained one of my favorites.
https://youtu.be/DJwi9Y1Xxtg
•
Steve Earle — "Nothing But a Child"
Not everyone finds Steve Earle’s voice sacred and lovely. Well, I feel sorry for those people. This is a great song in the “telling the Christmas story” tradition, but completely in Earle’s unique style. In the journey of the wise men to find the Christ, we hear the weariness of the journey of life itself and the promise of a new beginning represented by a fresh new baby. Because Steve Earle is Steve Earle, what might be sentimental in another’s hands gets down in the grit of the adult longing for a clean slate.
Nothing but a child could wash those tears away
Or guide a weary world into the light of day
Nothing but a child could help erase those miles
So once again we all can be children for awhileThe video I chose is not an amazing quality recording, but poignant to me because Earle is so young and this was recorded close to when he wrote the song.
http://youtu.be/2IpckS2ZiXw
•
Over the Rhine — "Let It Fall"
This one is brand new, from OTR’s Blood Oranges in the Snow album. It’s really more a winter song than a Christmas song, but definitely my Official Crying Song of Advent 2014. I heard them do it live this past summer and wept, and I basically weep whenever I hear it. When they ask in the opening verse, "Have you been trying too hard / have you been holding too tight?", my soul always answers YES! YES I HAVE. Then OTR gives me permission to cry, and I do. If I listen to this one enough I will be all cried out by Epiphany and ready for 2015.
https://youtu.be/uKrxePwY67c
•
Gian Carlo Minotti — Amahl and the Night Visitors — Original (Tele) Cast Recording
I hope everyone knows about Amahl. But anyone who doesn’t should definitely look it up on Wikipedia because it’s got a cool and unique history. It’s a one-hour Christmas opera commissioned by NBC in the fifties — the first of its kind (and maybe last? I don’t know — how many operas have been commissioned for American television?). Not a Christmas of my childhood went by without listening repeatedly to this record, and my sister and I knew the whole libretto and could do all the parts.
Amahl is a little boy with a bad leg and a big imagination who notices an unusually bright star one night, and encounters three wise men following it. His mother thinks it’s just another one of his fantastical stories until she meets the men herself. In the end (spoiler alert), Amahl parts with his mother and gets to travel with the wise men to meet the Christ child. I think what makes this little opera so special is it was written specifically for children with a child hero, and there is whimsy and delight along with the poignancy of Amahl and his relationship with his mother.
This is about ten minutes into it, when the wise men show up. I love how the pizzicato strings represent how Amahl excitedly walks on his crutch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BAFKSAqdt8
Looking Elsewhere: Dec. 4, 2014
The last couple of weeks have been full of terrible news and similarly terrible shows of hard-heartedness and prejudice, with the headlines dominated by violence, racism, injustice, riots, and worse. Thus, I've been especially drawn to rare flashes of goodness, humor, and grace.
Some of those have come in the form of the Christmas party playlists that I've published here at the blog, thanks to Joe Henry, Ashley Cleveland, and several more that I'll post in the coming days.
And here are a few more highlights: recent distractions and discoveries from elsewhere on the web that gave me fleeting moments of relief from the storms.Read more
Ashley Cleveland's Christmas Playlist
Our Christmas Playlist Party continues!
Did you miss our first guest? Producer and songwriter Joe Henry joined us earlier and offered a bunch of tracks for us to enjoy with him.
Now, here's one of the most soulful musicians I've ever had the pleasure of seeing live: Grammy award-winning gospel singer Ashley Cleveland.
I took this picture (left) of Ashley playing a show with her husband, the legendary bassist Kenny Greenberg, at Laity Lodge in front of an extraordinary triptych by artist Bruce Herman. Few musicians I know could play a show worthy of that backdrop, but Cleveland and Greenberg performed with such passion that everything and everybody onstage seemed to raise each other up.
Get ready to take some notes: Here are some Christmas favorites from Ashley and Kenny.
•
ASHLEY CLEVELAND:
I confess, this is not my favorite question — primarily because I have trouble finding Christmas recordings that I really love. And when I do find something wonderful, I eventually lose it or it drops into discontinued obscurity.
I had a combined symphony/chorale recording on a cassette — a bootleg someone had passed on to me that was absolutely magnificent. It wasn’t just the song selection or the musical and vocal arrangements; it was the overall soulfulness of the entire album. I never once listened to it without losing myself — the mark of a truly classic album.
So, of course, I lost it. I never knew which symphony it was, and I have purchased at least 50 discs trying to find it again. No luck.
Another favorite of mine is an album of original compositions telling the Christmas story called Precious Child.
It was conceived and produced by two wonderful Nashville songwriters: Thom Schuyler and Craig Bickhardt.
It was recorded on Warner Brothers in 1993 and featured some of Nashville’s best vocalists: Vince Gill, Maura O’Connell, Dave Loggins and Janis Ian to name a few. I sang on it too as: ‘The Lord’s Messenger" — an undeserved title, but one that I promote tirelessly anyway.
It is out of print now but can still be found on iTunes, and at Amazon.
ReverbNation has a nice marketing layout of it for more information. I keep it on repeat play between Thanksgiving and January — it is the good stuff and Craig Bickhardt’s guitar playing is just ridiculous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2rVsQiiEx0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMcMDpkOUz0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxcKikYdxjA
Finally, over the years I have increasingly tended more to Advent than Christmas itself. That, for me is the place of genuine spiritual renewal and preparation for the coming year.
To that end I have found a fantastic disc: Advent at Ephesus by the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles.
It can be found on Amazon as well.
https://youtu.be/4P-_ukPy1UU
https://youtu.be/ypYMrodA--g
Kenny says that "Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin'" by Albert King and "Christmas In The Ghetto" by James Brown are his faves.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjc2KwhlrtA
https://youtu.be/Aur9gLzsXQU
•
Ashley Cleveland’s latest CD, Beauty in the Curve, was on my list of favorite 2014 albums. If you haven't heard it, well... buckle up. It's a blast.
Also, Ashley's memoir, Little Black Sheep, is now available. I've read it. It's an overwhelming story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7EVK2b9O2c#t=36
And if you ever get a chance to see Ashley and Kenny play live, you'd better prepare yourself. You're gonna move...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx1R5N4TRec
Joe Henry's Christmas Playlist
I've wanted to do this for a long time now. Oh, how I love it when a plan comes together.
As I was growing up, my family watched holiday television specials that featured a variety of beloved artists performing favorite Christmas songs. I may not have the stuff to host a TV show, but I have website, and I've been blessed by some generous musicians who have agreed to participate in a Playlist party.
So grab your headphones.
This post is the first of several playlists I've requested from some of the musicians and writers I admire and enjoy most.
You'll probably cheer for some of your familiar recordings, you'll probably discover some new tracks. Feel free to take notes, listen to performances, and build your own holiday playlist to share with us in the Comments.
Our first Christmas Playlist Party host? Please welcome Grammy award-winning producer, poet, and musician Joe Henry, whose new album Invisible Hour is, at this writing, my favorite record of 2014 and the one I have played most often. In February, he'll join the patron saint of this blog, Sam Phillips, for two shows at Largo at the Coronet — a concert dream I've longed to see fulfilled, and it's happening too far away for me to get there. Argh!
[UPDATE: What's more — I've just learned that today is Joe's birthday. So raise a mug of morning joe to Joe!]
Okay, Joe — what Christmas recordings would you include in a playlist of your favorites?Read more
Cinematic States Contest Winner
Whose name did I draw from the hat?
Last week, I invited readers of Looking Closer to tell us which movie best captures the character of their home territory. This was inspired by Cinematic States, Gareth Higgins' thought-provoking tour of the U.S.A., exploring each state's history and character by considering the films that, in his view as an inquisitive North Irishman, show us that state's heart.
People wrote in and... well... I confess that I'm not actually using a hat. I'm wearing a hat, but it's tricky in a coffee shop to come up with equal-sized ballots, fill a hat with them, and draw one, without making a scene.
So, here I am working on a laptop. How can I have a fair "drawing"?
Here's what I'll do. I'll number the entries in the contest. Then I'll find an album in my iTunes that has the right number of tracks. I'll set iTunes to shuffle the tracks from that album, and hit "Play." The track number that pops up first will be the number of the contest entry that wins.
Sound fair? Let's give it a whirl...Read more
Justin Chang on Exodus
Film critic Justin Chang, a consummate professional over at Variety, is among the first out of the gate with a detailed review of Ridley Scott's major Biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings.
I'm seeing the film in a few days, and this review has surprised me by making me much more eager to see the film....Read more
The New World (2007): Looking Closer's Thanksgiving Movie
As we observe Thanksgiving once again, my attention is on, yes, giving thanks. That means prayers of thanksgiving to the giver of all good things through times of harvest and hardship. That means giving attention to Anne, to my family, to friends and loved ones who enrich my life. And that means celebration.
In my house, celebration is marked with candlelight, incense, a bounty of beverages (coffee, tea, pumpkin ales and winter ales, wine), a feast that's more about quality than quantity, music ... and movies.
So, putting on my film critic hat, I will do as I usually do at Thanksgiving — I will recommend that we remember the origins of this nation, that we reflect on the early days of European culture converging and clashing with Native American culture, through the lenses, the imagination, the eyes, and the conscience of Terrence Malick.
My Thanksgiving movie is the "Extended Cut" of The New World. Read more
Rough Neighborhood
It's been a rough week in America — and that means it's been a rough week on social media as well.
Yesterday, I posted something on Facebook that I wanted to offer as food for thought: Mostly, the consolation of Scriptures — messages assuring us that our longing for justice will be completely fulfilled by a just and loving God.
But, knowing that emotions on the subject of justice were running high, and finding angry exchanges on almost every page I visited, I decided to ask readers to refrain from commenting on that particular post. Even though I offered it with the best intentions, I knew that somebody somewhere would take offense. I knew that I would be misunderstood — and that misunderstanding might be the reader's fault, or it might be mine. Whatever the case, it was meant as a provocation to reflection, not as an invitation to an argument — so I asked people not to post comments there.
That upset some people, who argued that I had no right to shut down comments in a "social media" realm. (I learned this, of course, from comments.)
Frankly, I think the existence of the "Delete" and "Block" functions on Facebook suggest that there is a reasonable purpose for such functions. I believe that I have every right to shut down comments if they are counter-productive or damaging. Further, I use social media for conversations, most of the time; but sometimes, I just want to pass something along for readers to think about without immediate reactions. I want to share something that gives everyone a pause for reflection, without the instantaneous buzz. I'd rather not use punishing tactics to create that pause — I would prefer to ask, respectfully, for restraint.
But when that request inspired others to say I was being tyrannical and merely shutting down alternate views, I had to answer.
I've thought about it further since then, and what I think on that issue is too long for a Facebook post.
So here it is...
For the record, I have happily and civilly and profitably engaged in disagreements on Facebook today...
... which I point out only for those who claim that my occasional (rare, actually) "No Comments" Facebook posts are "trolling" or a refusal to engage opinions other than my own.
In 99% of my posts, I only use DELETE in cases of uncivil behavior, and I only use BLOCK in cases of persistent belligerence, slander, obscenity, or otherwsie hateful expressions. Still — even peace marches attract anarchists, troublemakers who don't care much about the issues at hand, but are just looking for a way to unleash violence? That often happens on social media. And it does damage to all sides of the argument. If I get a sense that a comment thread is going to take that turn — if I sense sharks in the territory who will rush in at the faintest trace of vulnerability — I request, or even insist on, a "no comments" post. That, I hope, will prevent the damage that would otherwise be almost inevitable, the lashing-out from those who probably weren't really listening in the first place.
Aside from "anarchists," there are also "nuclear reactors" — people who rage against the posts that offend them without any capacity for hearing that their reaction is far more hostile and reckless and destructive than whatever set them off. Many of us, myself included, have been "nuclear reactors" before. Fires like those are hard to put out; they tend to spread.
Does my occasional "No Comments, Please" request shut down people who have good things to say? Yes. Unfortunately. And I'm sad about that.
But if I'm in a neighborhood full of vandals, I'm not going to hang an original piece of artwork in my front yard... not unless I also surround it with an electrified fence. Sure, there are some kind and civil people on my block; all the more reason to seek safe, productive ways to engage with them. The security measures are not a refusal to engage; they're just common sense.
While I wouldn't go so far as to claim that my posts are "pearls" — in the post in question, I was sharing "pearls" from Scripture — the phrase "pearls before swine" is not irrelevant here. It's a meaningful cliché.
Think about it: How many times in your life have your opinions been changed by somebody who confronted you harshly in public (on social media)?
For me, never. Not once.
My sensibilities are in a constant state of growth and change, and they are "taught" incrementally, usually by attraction to truth (expressed with grace), reason (modeled, not shouted), and beauty (the how of what we say is just as important as the what of what we say). If I disagree with somebody, I usually keep it to myself — or I take it to them in private messages because it takes away the "People Are Watching" factor. The "People Are Watching" factor can ruin anything by heightening tensions and hypersensitizing ego. Exchanges in public tend to be more combustible.
If you've read much of my writing, you know I love this Madeleine L'Engle quote:
I have plenty of experience failing at this.
And I'll fail again.
But I share this with gratitude for those who have understood those "No Comment, Please" posts in the past, and in hopes people will understand it in the future.
And, as usual, I hope Facebook eventually offers us a "Post Without Comments" option the way that Google Plus does — it's the one thing that I think Google Plus does better than Facebook.
Anyway... feel free to comment freely on this blog post.
[Just remember my blog's comment policy.]