Irony is pining for an audience that grows receptive in the moments when you least want to write.
America’s racial fault lines are opening spaces for new voices. And at times being asked to fill the prescient void with my reflections seems like a compliment, but more than a few times, I think it a burden.
By no means do I believe my own scribal labor to mirror those forbears who toiled in the field nor more recent kindred working at the grassroots. Though, I would be lying if I said I don’t tire of finding interesting ways to say the same thing again and again in hopes that the message might take.
I have things to say, and I count myself fortunate for getting the chance to express those thoughts with a number of audiences in these coming months.
But right now, I think the best thing I can do is share what I’ve been reading because there’s some really good stuff out there.
So as the school year approaches, you’ll probably be seeing me featuring other people’s writing. If Sowing the Seed is really going to bring fruitful conversation, than it means using my voice to amplify others at least as much as I’m speaking my piece.
Get excited!
Richard Newton, PhD is curator of Sowing the Seed and Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Elizabethtown College. His scholarship focuses on the anthropology of scriptures.
Sowing the Seed 