Thoughts as I end my vacation

And links to great SOLA articles

I’ve been on vacation from my job at the SOLA Network since last Wednesday, and it has been wonderful.

I’ve pretty much had SOLA on my mind all day ever since Covid-19 hit. We immediately had to pivot a lot of our stories to address the virus, and start filling in gaps in our scheduling once the SOLA Conference was canceled. We ran some great stuff.

• “Are We in Awe of Covid-19 or in Awe with Christ.”

• “An Open Letter to College Students Affected by Covid-19”

• “COVID-19 Stress Disorder and How Jesus Loved Martha”

Just when I felt like we could take a breath, the video of the brutal death of George Floyd swept through our national consciousness, and once again, SOLA began to publish articles focusing on race and justice.

• “George Floyd, Tou Thao and the Parable of Our Times”

• “How Can I Pray for my Oppressed Neighbor?”

• “Top Antiracist Resources for Asian American Christians”

I did interviews, transcribed tons of videos, edited essays, found photographs, etc. etc. It was a wild ride to say the least. I only thought in one-week chunks, trying to push out (mostly) polished content every day (sometimes twice a day!) to help educate our audience.

Eventually, I realized I was running on fumes a little bit. It’s like when you’re slightly delirious with a fever, feeling perfectly well but it’s clear that you’re not well. So when Facebook reminded me that 1 year ago that I had had an amazing summer trip to Taiwan & South Korea for a 2 weeks, I said, “Okay. I need a break.”

So I queued up some video content that I could stock up on (which is why you’ve been seeing a lot of SOLA Council member sermon clips), and today is my last full day of vacation.

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So what I have I learned from my vacation?

• Vacations are good. I’ve been much more relaxed lately. I’ve been less obsessive about checking our website numbers.

• Vacations are imperfect. They don’t solve the problem of busyness. As soon as I go “back to work” tomorrow, I’ll have the same temptation to push myself to the point of burnout. I need to find a way to be sustainable in my workflow.

• Quarantine life is difficult and different. We all know this. How it specifically manifested for me is that it made me less creative. As you’ve noticed, my newsletter has been basically abandoned. I haven’t been writing as much. Part of it is how busy I was, but it’s also because I was in “survival” mode — conserving my energy for things I had to do with little energy to expend for things I want to do. I’m glad the vacation has given me a little bit of a spark to at least write this.

• I love reading books. The vacation has helped me to finish two books. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (highly recommend) and The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel (meh. Read her Station Eleven instead. That one is SUPER good). I need to read more.

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Okay. I don’t have the energy to do a lot of tweets (especially since I’m so behind), so here is a tweet thread with people answering this question:

Daniel Howat @howatdk

Tell me your favorite moment you ever experienced in a movie theater. GO.

(LOTS OF MOVIE SPOILERS TO FOLLOW)

Dave Weigel @daveweigel

@howatdk Watching “Snakes on a Plane” with an opening night crowd that made fun of everything. At a quiet moment when two characters reconcile and shake hands, somebody screams “HANDSHAKES ON A PLANE!”

Samuel Snoek-Brown @SnoekBrown

@howatdk Watching Wonder Woman: during the establishing scene of Diana as a little girl watching the Amazonians train & mimicking their fight moves; in that moment, a little girl in our row leapt out of her seat & minicked young Diana mimicking the women, & my wife & I burst into tears.

Theresa Basile @theresa_basile

@howatdk Wonder Woman opening night. Hippolyta: "They do not deserve you, Diana." Woman in audience: "THEY SURE DON'T!"

MZS @mattzollerseitz

@howatdk When Spock died in Star Trek II, there was horrified silence and some crying in the audience, and then somebody in the back said, "He's dead, Jim."

A.K @LePhilozophe

@howatdk LISTEN. When I tell y’all drinks and popcorn FLEW.

Danny Baram @DannyBaram

@howatdk "I am no man" from Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. Saw it in Boston. Was the first time I ever heard the entire theater burst into cheers and applause like that. Chills.

The Handsome Hangman's Son @smallseal17

@howatdk Babysitting two young black boys while taking them to see "Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse", and seeing their faces during the Leap of Faith scene.

Tom Mandel @tmandel11

@howatdk Was watching THE LIGHTHOUSE and around the climax the sound cut off but it was such a weird movie the whole Brooklyn audience assumed it was a "choice" and we all sat and watched in silence for five minutes

a.d. stevens @k_bubbs

@howatdk the collective groan and then screams of glee when its revealed to be Rod in the TSA car in Get Out.

MooseKnuckleMovies @MoviesMoose

@howatdk Rogue One’s Darth Vader scene at a packed midnight screening! People we’re screaming, popcorn went flying, the guy infront of me accidentally threw his phone at me and when all went quiet, a black man shouted “my n***a!” and everyone clapped

Jefferson Grubbs @MrScreenAddict

@howatdk In terms of the sheer visceral reaction shared by the entire audience, there's no question:

I miss going to the movies. I miss you all desperately. Stay safe, and see you soon.