Best of 2021, Part One: Readers’ Picks
You offered up some of the essays that cheered, comforted, and challenged you.
An End, A Continuation
If I retire to my room early, it’s hard not to feel a twinge of guilt.
The Last Car in the Parking Lot
A part of me always knew the place wasn’t the right fit.
Unrecommendation: Music Festivals
Distant bass jars you from Adrianne Lenker’s sweet crooning.
Unmoored
If we’re doing footprints in the sand, I’m wandering into the ocean.
(Not) The Romance I Was Looking For
I chalked it up to my self-control, which crumbles under the doldrums of summer—I could no longer resist the siren call of romance novels.
I Miss Summer Camp
The first time I drove into the parking lot of my high school as a summer employee rather than a student, I almost threw up.
Moses and Me
I could leave my identity within the grayness; I could be neither/nor.
Call for Audition Submissions
Are you interested in joining the post calvin community? We have a few openings for new writers beginning this August, and we’d love for you to audition!
Will the Real Social Justice Blogger Please Stand Up?
I feel like I just keep taking up space on this blog.
Selfish Nights
On a deeper level, though, I sense that I don’t need to construct another obligation for myself.
The Monster We Know
In eighth grade, I believed that a bolt of true pain would give me a new understanding.
Mark as Read
I’ve always wanted to know what other people are reading and discovering and mulling over and delighting in.
Beyond a Vessel
Doesn’t it seem odd that a story of a woman challenging Jesus is told as an example of her humbleness rather than her courage?
Best of 2020, Part Three: Editors’ Picks
2020 is somehow more bearable and more striking through the eyes of the post calvin.
Layered
These rhythms meld, harmonize, bring forth anew.
Bringer of Light
Honestly, I have a plethora of metaphors to explore already: Satan can seem to bring light to the world but that isn’t the true light! Exposing things to the daylight makes them less dangerous! Capitalism makes people operate in a scarcity model which hinders progress!
Unbalanced Scales
Life has not been kind to you, but you are so unfailingly kind to it.
Incomplete Lists of Subjects I Tend to Avoid
73. Taxes.
Economics and Hatsune Miku
Oftentimes, when I think about the amount of my life that I’ve spent playing video games, I cringe.
Nizhoni
The house is, by nature, transient.
Ten Masks I’ve Worn
“I guess I’m starting to believe that I may have something to say too.”
A Cross Section of My Twitter Likes
Oftentimes when I go looking for spiritual poetry outside of Mary Oliver, I can’t find anything beyond super sanitized Christian verses.
Looking For Networks…
I related best to my siblings when we were shoulder to shoulder, yelling or cheering about pixels on a screen.
Peacocks in the Neighborhood
“There are peacocks in Creston?!??”
#212732: The Color of Anti-Scrolling
What you see is what you get—the time is the color; the color is the time.
Little Women, Bieber, and Thou
As Smith, Buber, and Gerwig remind me, we cannot be fully actualized people to everyone we meet
The Trials and Tribulations of the Holds Shelf
11. Check your library account again and realize that your book is in transit, which means it is one step away from being in your grubby hands.
The Eye of the Whale
I began to cry at my kitchen table because despite all the bad calls I have made in the heat of the moment and the angry kids and my disappointment in myself and my frustration at the brokenness of an education system that underserves the students who need the support the most, I saw again that there was someone out there who was rooting for me.
A Good Google is Hard to Find
I’ve been trying to reframe my perspective by picturing the internet as an attic—one that is full to the brim with all the stuff you couldn’t bear to throw away.
