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writing the journey

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  • Events
  • Comment Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Me
  • Books and Other Works

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  • book cover. An upraised fist of rebellion. Title "Fieldnotes on Allyship" is typeset underneath the fist.
    education,  faith,  history,  justice,  racism

    Fieldnotes on Allyship is Launched!

    October 2, 2020 /

    Fieldnotes on Allyship is launched—an anthology of eighteen writers from three continents writing about allyship for the Black community.

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    StephenJ Matlock 0 Comments

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    Several Haitian schoolchildren line up for a picture.

    Sometimes our brains tell the truth while our emotions lie

    May 3, 2023
    A book cover. A young boy holding his bicycle is kissed by a young girl.

    Mwen damou pou Vava – a story

    March 17, 2023

    One thing more

    November 20, 2022
  • essays,  faith,  justice,  Life Recovery Skills

    When Church Becomes the State

    September 27, 2020 /

    Sometimes we think that by making our country an explicitly religious one, we will solve our problems. But the results are always worse.

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    Man sitting on bench by church

    A Place We Cannot Enter

    October 14, 2019
    Red pipe going up and over an obstacle

    When We Don’t Want to Know

    September 28, 2019
    Snowboarder

    Surfing the Avalanche

    February 15, 2010
  • Four sheep facing the viewer. They are standing in a field.
    American Exceptionalism,  faith,  history,  justice,  racism

    To My Evangelical Faith Family

    August 29, 2020 /

    To my white Evangelical family: You birthed me and raised me and gave me principles and sent me out into the world. I owe my character development to you. But now you’ve gone insane. I’ll just say this: a man, woman, or child does not need to be perfect in order to be treated as a human being who, according to our theology, bears the Imago Dei — the image of God. We were taught as Evangelicals to believe that all human beings are gloriously unique and valuable. This is embedded into our very theology of the Incarnation: we believe that Jesus was — and is! — not only God…

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    Moral Switzerlands

    July 15, 2019

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 12: Icebergs

    March 2, 2019
    protest march with a sign that says "No Justice No Peace."

    When we resist, we resist completely

    April 8, 2023
  • Mug of coffee on a square of burlap. A journal and pencil lay next to it. There are coffee beans scattered around the cup and on top of the journal.
    #WakingUpWhite,  faith,  justice,  racism

    The Confidence of Ignorance

    July 25, 2020 /

    It’s really sad when white guys don’t get it. There’s a sui generis difference between the experience of Black Americans and everyone else. I was in a discussion with some people, including some white guys, one who demanded to include his own viewpoint into any discussion about the value of Black lives, often expressed by the phrase “Black Lives Matter.” It was . . . an interesting discussion that went nowhere, because the discussion started from ignorance by this gentleman and never went any further than what he already was convinced was the whole truth.  The sad thing isn’t so much that he didn’t listen. (Reader: he didn’t listen.) The sad thing is…

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    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 16: Logos and Stereotypes

    March 19, 2019
    Cannon facing the harbor ready to fire

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 29: Intent and Impact

    July 24, 2019

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 3: Race Versus Class

    January 30, 2019
  • musings

    REVIEW: Just Mercy

    July 5, 2020 /

    I got this book for Christmas, and it sat on my pile of “To Read” books because there were a dozen or so books waiting for me before I could get to this one. But I picked it up, and started reading. This is an extraordinary book, not only for the masterful construction of a story (I’m always looking for that) but also for the deeply personal and intimate way of telling us this story that brings us into the lives of these men and women and children who have been pushed onto a conveyor belt that leads to the extraordinary cruelty of the death penalty in the United States.…

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    White cat stretching on a brown wooden plank

    Two Things

    June 29, 2024
    Man sitting on subway

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 30: Feelings and the Culture of Niceness

    September 10, 2019
    Potter making a clay dish

    Pride and Prejudice, Staged

    October 26, 2019
  • Celebrate Recovery,  faith,  history,  justice,  Life Recovery Skills,  racism,  reviews

    REVIEW: So You Want to Talk about Race

    June 27, 2020 /

    So you want to write a review . . . I was initially reluctant to read this book by Ijeoma Uluo. I had heard it was “hard” to read. But I had purchased it, and had it sitting on my desk for a few months. “I’ll get to it.” One day. Just not today. So then I was challenged by a friend to read it. I did—and found out that my fears were unfounded. This is a deep, rich, emotionally transparent book about race and even . . . how to talk about race. I need to be absolutely clear here, as absolutely clear as Oluo is in her own…

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    Two women, one white, one Black, are having a conversation with each other. They're seated facing each other at a table next to a large window overlooking an urban setting.

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 45: Normalizing Race Talk

    May 9, 2020
    A white coffee mug with coffee in it. It has the word "BEGIN" on it, and sits on a wooden table.

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 46: Whole Again

    May 25, 2020

    In the Fields of the Lord

    February 12, 2019
  • A suburb showing about 100 houses on winding streets.
    American Exceptionalism,  history,  justice,  racism

    From Levittown to Black Lives Matter

    June 26, 2020 /

    We built the ground for protests when we broke ground for Levittown

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    A Black man speaks in front of an orchestra.

    On the Existence of Black Folk

    July 26, 2025
    Two women, one white, one Black, are having a conversation with each other. They're seated facing each other at a table next to a large window overlooking an urban setting.

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 45: Normalizing Race Talk

    May 9, 2020
    banknotes

    Juneteenth, Reparations, and What Do I Do About It?

    June 19, 2019
  • Close up of Joe Barnes singing. Behind him is a choir of young adults singing with him.
    10 Days of Music,  Music

    My Life in Music: Day 10

    June 24, 2020 /

    Music is the color of life I was given the task by a friend of choosing 10 songs that greatly influenced me. I will post one song per day, for 10 consecutive days. Each song draws the picture more clearly, showing what has inspired me or just given me solace. TODAY the cycle is complete. Ten things I know about me. I selected the songs to develop a story, and now we come to the part where the sun is rising on a new day. I started with music as pure color — as sound and rhythm and feeling, of seeing through my mind the world of beauty around me.…

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    A statue of Garcilaso de la Vega against a clear blue sky

    My Life in Music: Day 8

    June 22, 2020
    Close up of James Taylor singing.

    My Life in Music: Day 4

    June 18, 2020
    Black and white picture of Sam Cooke singing

    My Life in Music: Day 5

    June 19, 2020
  • Dee Wilson sings. He's holding a microphone. A stone wall is behind him.
    10 Days of Music,  Music

    My Life in Music: Day 9

    June 23, 2020 /

    To uncover the pain I was given the task by a friend of choosing 10 songs that greatly influenced me. I will post one song per day, for 10 consecutive days. Each song draws the picture more clearly, showing what has inspired me or just given me solace. Today’s song seems unusually prescient, but perhaps it is simply a song that is relevant every day in our America. I built out this list much earlier to explain the songs that are important to me, and here we are and the songs are contextualized by the events of this month, this week, this day, this hour, this minute. This life. “Rose…

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    Da Vinci's drawing of a man circumscribed by planets

    My Life in Music: Day 2

    June 16, 2020
    Close up of James Taylor singing.

    My Life in Music: Day 4

    June 18, 2020
    Black and white picture of Sam Cooke singing

    My Life in Music: Day 5

    June 19, 2020
  • A statue of Garcilaso de la Vega against a clear blue sky
    10 Days of Music,  Music

    My Life in Music: Day 8

    June 22, 2020 /

    To cover the soul I was given the task by a friend of choosing 10 songs that greatly influenced me. I will post one song per day, for 10 consecutive days. Each song draws the picture more clearly, showing what has inspired me or just given me solace. Today is a song whose words were written by a 16th century Spanish soldier-poet — one of the more famous of them, Garcilaso de la Vega. His poem was set to music several years ago by Z. Randall Stroop, and the resulting song is sometimes performed in concerts. The music is gentle, sometimes soaring, sometimes plaintive, but it wraps the words of…

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    Black and white picture of Sam Cooke singing

    My Life in Music: Day 5

    June 19, 2020
    Close up of Joe Barnes singing. Behind him is a choir of young adults singing with him.

    My Life in Music: Day 10

    June 24, 2020
    Hand-drawn music of the song "Love Song"

    My Life in Music: Day 6

    June 20, 2020
  • Close up of Kirk Franklin, pensive. He's wearing sunglasses and he's looking down
    10 Days of Music,  Music

    My Life in Music: Day 7

    June 21, 2020 /

    Awake, lyre and harp I was given the task by a friend of choosing 10 songs that greatly influenced me. I will post one song per day, for 10 consecutive days. Each song draws the picture more clearly, showing what has inspired me or just given me solace. Today is a week of music. And this is a turning point. Stay with me. I’ve come along through 50 years of living and the kids are heading off to college. Soon the house will be empty, and then the next part of life will start. I guess. We’re at the February choir concert in the community college where our youngest son…

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    Black and white picture of Sam Cooke singing

    My Life in Music: Day 5

    June 19, 2020
    Close up of Joe Barnes singing. Behind him is a choir of young adults singing with him.

    My Life in Music: Day 10

    June 24, 2020
    Dee Wilson sings. He's holding a microphone. A stone wall is behind him.

    My Life in Music: Day 9

    June 23, 2020
  • Hand-drawn music of the song "Love Song"
    10 Days of Music,  Music

    My Life in Music: Day 6

    June 20, 2020 /

    The spinning world stops I was given the task by a friend of choosing 10 songs that greatly influenced me. I will post one song per day, for 10 consecutive days. Each song draws the picture more clearly, showing what has inspired me or just given me solace. Today is “A Love Song,” from the group Love Song. I was a teenager in Southern California. Like teenagers everywhere, I knew everything and knew nothing. (Please. I’ve grown a little since then. I still know nothing but I’ve stopped believing I know everything — on my good days.) But I was in the moment living during what later became called the…

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    Da Vinci's drawing of a man circumscribed by planets

    My Life in Music: Day 2

    June 16, 2020
    Black and white picture of Sam Cooke singing

    My Life in Music: Day 5

    June 19, 2020
    Close up of Kirk Franklin, pensive. He's wearing sunglasses and he's looking down

    My Life in Music: Day 7

    June 21, 2020
  • Black and white picture of Sam Cooke singing
    10 Days of Music,  Music

    My Life in Music: Day 5

    June 19, 2020 /

    The unawakened heart I was given the task by a friend of choosing 10 songs that greatly influenced me. I will post one song per day, for 10 consecutive days. Each song draws the picture more clearly, showing what has inspired me or just given me solace. Today is Sam Cooke. I heard him sing, in brief snatches, on the radio. I didn’t — and still don’t — listen to radio much. When I’m doing something, I tune out almost all noise, including music. It was the way to survive in a hectic family of six very active mischief-seeking children and parents who are doing their best simply to keep…

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    children's choir, seated. In the front are three white guys in suits, playing a banjo and guitar.

    My Life in Music: Day 3

    June 17, 2020
    Dee Wilson sings. He's holding a microphone. A stone wall is behind him.

    My Life in Music: Day 9

    June 23, 2020
    Close up of Joe Barnes singing. Behind him is a choir of young adults singing with him.

    My Life in Music: Day 10

    June 24, 2020
  • Close up of James Taylor singing.
    10 Days of Music,  Music

    My Life in Music: Day 4

    June 18, 2020 /

    Music is human connection I was given the task by a friend of choosing 10 songs that greatly influenced me. I will post one song per day, for 10 consecutive days. Each song draws the picture more clearly, showing what has inspired me or just given me solace. Today is getting into first gear. What with instrumental pieces like Bach and Holst there was the enjoyment of being in the music. But then with these songs the words also begin to become more important. Without the music and the rhythm, perhaps the creation would have been powerful still. Put them together and it becomes a new thing. This is James…

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    children's choir, seated. In the front are three white guys in suits, playing a banjo and guitar.

    My Life in Music: Day 3

    June 17, 2020
    Dee Wilson sings. He's holding a microphone. A stone wall is behind him.

    My Life in Music: Day 9

    June 23, 2020
    J. S. Bach in front of a Moog synthesizer

    My Life in Music: Day 1

    June 15, 2020
  • children's choir, seated. In the front are three white guys in suits, playing a banjo and guitar.
    10 Days of Music,  Music

    My Life in Music: Day 3

    June 17, 2020 /

    Music can move us I was given the task by a friend of choosing 10 songs that greatly influenced me. I will post one song per day, for 10 consecutive days. Each song draws the picture more clearly, showing what has inspired me or just given me solace. “Move Over” (from “Through Children’s Eyes,” The Limelighters). I grew up in the 50s and early 60s. Before there was rock and roll, before there was an explosion of tightly produced music that you listened to, there was folk music. You sang along with folk music. The entire album was led by the Limelighters, a popular folk music trio, but behind them…

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    Close up of Kirk Franklin, pensive. He's wearing sunglasses and he's looking down

    My Life in Music: Day 7

    June 21, 2020
    A statue of Garcilaso de la Vega against a clear blue sky

    My Life in Music: Day 8

    June 22, 2020
    Da Vinci's drawing of a man circumscribed by planets

    My Life in Music: Day 2

    June 16, 2020
  • Da Vinci's drawing of a man circumscribed by planets
    10 Days of Music,  Music

    My Life in Music: Day 2

    June 16, 2020 /

    The envelop of emotion I was given the task by a friend of choosing 10 songs that greatly influenced me. I will post one song per day, for 10 consecutive days. Each song draws the picture more clearly, showing what has inspired me or just given me solace. “Jupiter — The Planets” (Holst). Before there was Star Wars and John Williams there was Holst who wrote the themes lifted for the film. This suite of songs was about something but I could not put it into words. Listening was simply an experience. Here was music and here was emotion and it was ineffable. I don’t have the vinyl anymore, and…

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    Hand-drawn music of the song "Love Song"

    My Life in Music: Day 6

    June 20, 2020
    Black and white picture of Sam Cooke singing

    My Life in Music: Day 5

    June 19, 2020
    Close up of James Taylor singing.

    My Life in Music: Day 4

    June 18, 2020
  • J. S. Bach in front of a Moog synthesizer
    10 Days of Music,  Music

    My Life in Music: Day 1

    June 15, 2020 /

    Order and Beauty, Mixed I was given the task by a friend of choosing 10 songs that greatly influenced me. I will post one song per day, for 10 consecutive days. Each song draws the picture more clearly, showing what has inspired me or just given me solace. The first day’s offering is “Bach: Brandenburg Concerto №3 in G Major (Parts 1, 2, and 3)” Wendy Carlos 1968. This is the second album of electronic music that I collected. (The first is lost in the mists of time, an album I picked up at discount store back in the 60s as well.) Classic rhythms, harmonies, structure with impossible instruments. Sorry.…

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    StephenJ Matlock 0 Comments

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    Close up of Joe Barnes singing. Behind him is a choir of young adults singing with him.

    My Life in Music: Day 10

    June 24, 2020
    Da Vinci's drawing of a man circumscribed by planets

    My Life in Music: Day 2

    June 16, 2020
    Close up of Kirk Franklin, pensive. He's wearing sunglasses and he's looking down

    My Life in Music: Day 7

    June 21, 2020
  • graffito silhouette of girl reaching for red heart on a string
    Celebrate Recovery,  faith,  justice,  Life Recovery Skills,  musings

    Words of Apology

    May 9, 2020 /

    One of the most critical things I’m learning is that a conditional apology is worthless. An apology leading with an “if” is nothing at all. It is words that afford us no responsibility to understand or change, and we can offer such an “apology” with no sense of insight about the person who we are. Instead, this “apology” pushes the offense to the victim of the offense. “I wasn’t clear. You didn’t understand. You’re too sensitive. I didn’t mean that.” Love is at stake here. The meaning, the purpose, the expression. We might think we “love” people, and we might think we really mean it. (“I feel so sincere!”) But…

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    Two orange butterflies alight several thistle blossoms

    Bullhorns and Butterflies

    June 19, 2022

    If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see

    January 26, 2019

    Feats of Clay

    December 31, 2018
  • Mural of man expressing anger. Blue hair and shirt.
    American Exceptionalism,  essays,  history,  justice,  racism

    With Malice Aforethought

    May 9, 2020 /

    “The McMichaels did not intend to kill Mr. Arbery that day. All they intended to do was to stop him, question him, and hold him and wait for the police to arrive.” You’ll start hearing this defense, if you haven’t already. It seems so understandable, so smooth, so compassionate. But. No. Imagine you’re going to “get out of the house.” Just go for a drive. It’s May, and it’s a beautiful day. “I’m not going bowling,” you say. “I know that bowling is bad for me. I get mad when I can’t get 300 and I mess up the place.” But you take your bowling bag with your bowling ball…

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    StephenJ Matlock 2 Comments

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    Maybe the Tree Is Bad

    April 16, 2021
    Domino tiles laid out on a wooden table

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 40: Bull in a China Shop

    January 26, 2020

    News and Updates

    April 13, 2019
  • Two pencils on a yellow background
    history,  justice,  racism,  writing

    Getting an Upgrade

    March 26, 2020 /

    Well, it’s official. I’m now an editor for the online magazine Our Human Family, which has the motto “Conversations on achieving equality.” Clay Rivers is the publisher, dreamer, and doer behind all this, and he’s produced some awesome work, not only with an online magazine but also printed full-color magazines. We’ve been chatting together for a while now, and I’ve been handing him some of my own work to publish. So it just seemed like the right time to start working with him officially. It’s a labor of love*, and the goals we are are simple and direct and honest: that we would all love one another. Take a look,…

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    A suburb showing about 100 houses on winding streets.

    From Levittown to Black Lives Matter

    June 26, 2020

    Not Your Place, Not Your Time

    April 15, 2022
    American flag, backlighted so that a white cross appears on the blue canton with white stars

    The Devil Is a Christian Nationalist

    May 23, 2021
  • abstract painting of crystal and sky and earth
    short story,  writing

    There Are No Dreams in Space

    February 14, 2020 /

    My latest work, “There Are No Dreams in Space,” is now available on Ripples in Space.

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    Short stories and lengthy processes

    January 16, 2023
  • A black and white photo. A young man stands in the middle of a grove of slender trees, all with white trunks.
    essays,  faith,  justice

    When Words Fail

    December 12, 2019 /

    I was in a conversation recently where this question came up: “How do we influence people to change their minds and do things differently?” This question is dear to me because it speaks to my own conversion experience—no, not a religious conversion. My conversion was the realignment of my behaviors, connections, and beliefs with the values I already held. I’ve told my story elsewhere, but will summarize it here: I used to be solidly white-centered, and now, not so much— but given the context of living in the Pacific Northwest ten years ago, this was a radical, life-altering change. I know—as does anyone who has lived in the spaces that are…

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    white man with gray hair faces away from camera, sitting in empty stone church.

    Making the Past the Past

    August 1, 2020

    When Church Becomes the State

    September 27, 2020

    #WakingUpWhite Chapter 1: What Wasn’t Said

    January 27, 2019
  • humor

    Jean-Paul Sartre’s Cooking Diary

    October 10, 2006 /

    In which the ennui of existence translates to a series of uninspired yet necessary meals.

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    A street scene in Jakmèl, Ayiti. (also known as Jacmel, Haiti) A colonnade with several open bays.

    Maurice Sixto and His Stories

    March 27, 2023

    Entertainment Matters

    February 23, 2019

    Trying Every Doorknob

    February 15, 2019
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