community – Page 8 – 300 words a day

You.

I write these essays five nights a week. You read them occasionally. Sometimes I’m not thinking about you as I write. I’m thinking about me. I’m looking into a mirror and describing what I see. The mirror is glass, sometimes, or the Bible. But I’m not even thinking about you. But often, I am thinking […]

by Jon Swanson

A tweet left unsent.

I was going to tweet this yesterday: “Page views are less important to me than relationships.” It would have been a great tweet. It came to me when I was with a bunch of people at Sharehouse ( where Nancy works). I had been shooting some video of the people working. I said “I won’t […]

by Jon Swanson

There is no pie in thanks.

When I was growing up, we went to church on Thanksgiving Eve. It was a small church. Everyone knew everyone else’s story. So when people stood up and talked about what they were thankful for, we knew that they meant it. We knew what had happened. Afterwards, we had pie. It was great. I looked […]

by Jon Swanson

From the middle of the congregation.

There was a man in front of me at church on Sunday. The long blond hair on his shoulder wasn’t his wife’s. But I wasn’t worried. It was her wig’s. They have spent the year learning about chemo and radiation. The woman with her hands in the air, singing isn’t with her husband. It’s because […]

by Jon Swanson

Provoked.

You know how to push buttons, right? I don’t mean elevator buttons, though these can make things move. I don’t mean starter buttons, though sometimes things can get pretty explosive. No, I mean the metaphoric buttons located on the hearts of people you know. Often, those buttons are the people you most care about, the […]