Issue 022: Foundational Ethos. As we continue the fundraising campaign to reach $2,000 in monthly commitments, this twenty-second journal series will cover quotations from historical figures that create the foundational ethos of the mission to inspire American unity.
Issue 021: The Beginning, Again. In 2015 we took up the creative pursuit of truth and beauty through an online journal, and invited readers into the pursuit. Now, nine years later, with 19 writers with firsthand professional experience published across 140 digital journal entries and Volume One, we begin again. In the weeks that follow, this journal series will cover the cultural norms of ideology, division, and burnout, which make up the cycle of dysfunction.
Issue 020: Which Way Forward? As we think about the next 40 years, it’s critical that we take up the challenge of our time—in the words of President Kennedy, not because it is easy but because it is hard. We believe that the American idea is this: we make our country more just and free when we collaborate, build trust, and build endurance.
Issue 019: The Trailhead—Leadership for American Unity One of America’s first political cartoons is a message of unity. Published in 1754 by Benjamin Franklin, it depicts the now familiar image of a snake severed into pieces, each representing the colonies. With the image, a declaration is written: “Join, or Die.”
Unity is a choice, and we all know the effects of disunity. President Washington warned us about them in his Farewell Address. But how do we choose unity? How do we offer leadership for American unity as the purpose of any professional work in American politics and government?
Issue 022: Foundational Ethos. As we continue the fundraising campaign to reach $2,000 in monthly commitments, this twenty-second journal series will cover quotations from historical figures that create the foundational ethos of the mission to inspire American unity.
Issue 021: The Beginning, Again. In 2015 we took up the creative pursuit of truth and beauty through an online journal, and invited readers into the pursuit. Now, nine years later, with 19 writers with firsthand professional experience published across 140 digital journal entries and Volume One, we begin again. In the weeks that follow, this journal series will cover the cultural norms of ideology, division, and burnout, which make up the cycle of dysfunction.
Issue 020: Which Way Forward? As we think about the next 40 years, it’s critical that we take up the challenge of our time—in the words of President Kennedy, not because it is easy but because it is hard. We believe that the American idea is this: we make our country more just and free when we collaborate, build trust, and build endurance.
Issue 019: The Trailhead—Leadership for American Unity One of America’s first political cartoons is a message of unity. Published in 1754 by Benjamin Franklin, it depicts the now familiar image of a snake severed into pieces, each representing the colonies. With the image, a declaration is written: “Join, or Die.”
Unity is a choice, and we all know the effects of disunity. President Washington warned us about them in his Farewell Address. But how do we choose unity? How do we offer leadership for American unity as the purpose of any professional work in American politics and government?
Issue 017: Visioneering As we compile a print journal on wholeness in politics, in this Visioneering journal series we will explore the problem in politics, the solution, and our creative challenge; how we can create a new category for political engagement; and how you can give peace a voice in Washington.
Issue 016: Re-Creation When we take part in recreation, how can we focus that time on pursuits that help us re-create in politics? At a deeper level, what activities help us experience the life of Jesus more fully? How does his life move us towards wholeness, towards the relief of being set free from political dysfunction? These were the questions we posed to our community of writers for our sixteenth journal series.
Issue 015: A New Era Now it begins. But hope is cold, as cold as stone, as cold as night. We are frozen but we’re searching for power. The stage is packed but the script is empty. The curtain rises but it’s the audience acting. A new era begins but we’re building ruins. Greek columns can’t hold the weight of right now. Healing is now, beneath these snow-chilled stones.
Issue 014: Remember Your Fairy Tales We see through a glass darkly. But the light shining through stirs our emotions. What is that we feel? An ache: we ache inside. No, not an ache: we are filled with longing, a faint sense of feeling what we do not yet feel, of knowing what we do not yet know, of seeing what we do not yet see. All of the earth is not what it seems.
Issue 013: Olympic Gold An athlete races down the track, forward. The confines of her single lane are conquered by her relentless speed. The human body, in full motion, beautifully alive—she hits her stride. The finish line, once towering high above her, now slips beneath her feet, slips away behind her.
Congress could be as inspiring as the Olympic Games.
Issue 012: The Great Outdoors Maybe what our city needs—to discover a deeper knowledge of freedom—is a little more wind on our faces, a little sunburn, a scent from a memory that should never be forgotten. Maybe coming to our senses in politics is literally as simple as coming to our senses. What if, while we explore, we take notes of all we’ve learned?
Issue 011: Energy What if the energy of abundant life can fill our work for all of our days? And what if its rhythm becomes the natural flow of any human endeavor? Creating beauty calls us to live true to the rhythms of human energy. How do we capture it, use it, restore it—and create, again and again?
Issue 010: Beauty From Ashes Beauty rises from the ashes. Can it be possible? At the end of a desert journey, when our political categories are shattered and the dream of saving America has run its futile course, we are empty. The truth is we’ve all had a part in the horror of political dysfunction. The incredible news that cannot be contained is we all get to write the story of restoration.
Issue 009: A Desert Journey A new hope begins to stir. Stipped to the bare essence of existence, we find as we wander through the desert that old and worn ideas connect to form new ideas, a fresh perspective. The uncanny paradox is that in a place seemingly empty of life, out of the ashes life begins anew. We journey through the desert not to die, but to be reborn.
