The Story I Wish I’d Told

*Drumroll*  I’ve returned to the world of blogging!  What prompted this grand re-emergence, you may ask?  Well, a few things:  I’m married (i.e. no longer caught up in the swirling bridal vortex of wedding planning), mom’s cancer free and newly knee-ed, AND I’m reading the greatest book.  Wait…I don’t want to build your hopes up so you’re expecting too much and get disappointed¹. Soooo anyway…it’s this book…that’s not bad, not bad at all.

It all started a month or so ago.  Adam received a copy of Sects, Love, and Rock and Roll by Joel Heng Hartse to review for Englewood Review of Books.

Adam told me about the book before he read it, and I was instantly jealous that I didn’t think to write this book first. Actually, we both were.  It’s about growing up in the ’90s; being an evangelical, conservative Christian who grew up to be a postmodern Christian; and being a Christian music lover and a Christian music lover², and if the blurbs on the back prove true, then he managed to write about his teenage self and evangelical Christianity and the CCM machine and how his faith perspective evolved with affection, compassion, and a great sense of humor.  I consoled myself with the hope that Adam would read it, and it would suck, and I could still write my own version⁵. But he read it, and loved it, and you can read his review here.

Adam told me that I had to read it.  I read the introduction, and I got annoyed that it was so funny and true.  I put the book down and swore never to read it⁶.  But it sat there.  On the coffee table.  Staring at me.  Calling to me with its siren’s song references to Sixpence None the Richer, Hoi Polloi, Smashing Pumpkins, DC Talk, Sufjan Stevens, and Death Cab for Cutie.  He even mentioned Morella’s Forest.  Unable to resist, I started reading the book yesterday, and I love it.  I’m amazed at how he can feel so much affection for his teenage self, for Jesus Freak, for Michael W. Smith’s “Place in This World.”  He writes about True Love Waits cards and 7Ball magazine and James Dobson, and it’s funny without being mocking⁷.

It makes me feel simultaneously inspired, envious, and intimidated.  But mostly, I feel inspired.  Thus, this blog post about a book when I’ve only read 3 chapters of it.  I’m looking forward to reading about the rest of his journey.

And it makes me think that, with a little more perspective, I can write about my journey, because that’s what I wanted to do with this blog in the first place.  So, we’ll see where it goes.  I already have ideas for another couple of posts⁸.  So maybe by the end of 2011, the post count for this blog will be up to 5!  #aspirations

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1. Thanks, everyone who saw Scott Pilgrim vs. the World before me.
2. The italics are his way of making the distinction, and it’s so apt that I am copying it shamelessly here³.
3. The incessant footnoting, I’m shamelessly copying from postmodern writers everywhere. Although I have a feeling that scrolling back and forth on this blog post is a little more annoying than looking at the bottom of a page…but less annoying than end notes⁴.
4. Infinite Jest, I’m looking at you.
5. I definitely earned some bad writer-ly karma there.
6. Essentially telling the book, “Screw you guys; I’m going home,” like the mature 30-year-old that I am.
7. Well, not too mocking.
8. “Mom Lies”! And Viper Petting Zoos!

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