One of the inspirational learnings from our present lockdown is how endlessly inventive we humans can be. From a zillion variations of YouTube's Family Lockdown Boogie to "bamping," "lamping," and "pamping"--camping out in your backyard, living room, or patio, respectively--we are proving that we are, indeed, made in the image of our Creator. We like making stuff, too.
Here are some things that, looking back, amaze me about my own creative output during the last few months. I'm sure you can do the same. In fact, you should. Read this, but only as a way of asking yourself what your own list would look like.
1. I finished my memoir, Lost Rites: Leaving Church Land, so I've been shopping it around to literary agents. That's almost a full-time lockdown activity right there. And not actually that much fun. My last submission, to a large agency in Toronto, required seventeen pages of promotional copy, including a hundred-word synopsis of each of the memoir's fifteen chapters. I'm tackling one submission a week.
2. I've completed the first draft of a new novel, a murder mystery and character study set--where else?--in the church. Father Rod Claiborne, a white-knuckling recovering alcoholic has vested, drunk a bottle of rye whiskey, and taken his own life before of the altar of his church. Or has he? William Dory, new to the job of diocesan executive archdeacon, proves an intrepid investigator. He's also a midlife man in reboot mode. So much fun!
3. Then there's the Man Cave, the unfinished room at the lowest level of our house. For nine years its exposed rafters and insulated wall frames have housed my guitars and keyboards, my recording equipment, and everything we didn't know where else to store. Now, at last, it's becoming the Man Cave Recording Studio. Designated wiring, sound insulation behind the new drywall, a drop ceiling of acoustic tiles, cork flooring, and a border of weathered barn wood--it will soon be ready for both audio and video recording as I prepare to launch my new video podcast.
4. So, a word about that. I plan to offer (by the fall, maybe?) a monthly video podcast called Into the Mystic. It will feature commentary and interviews on the emerging post-Christian spirituality of the age. Some of my lockdown time is being spent getting clear about the purpose of the program, and figuring out the logistics of launching a YouTube channel.
So much to do, so little time. Actually, right now, there's lots of time. So ... what have you been working on?