Par for the Comfort
I had totally conflated “my best” and “the best.”
Emily Stroble is a writer of bits and pieces and is distractedly pursuing lots of novel ideas and nonfiction projects as inspiration strikes. As an editorial assistant at Zondervan, she helps put the pieces of children’s books and Bibles together. A lover of the ridiculous, inexplicable, and wondrous as well as stories of all kinds, Emily enjoys getting lost in museums, movies old and new, making art, the mountains of Colorado, and the unsalted oceans near Grand Rapids. Her movie reviews also appear in the Mixed Media section of The Banner and her strange little stories of the fantastic are on the Calvin alumni fiction blog Presticogitation. Her big dream is to dig her hands deep into the soil of making children’s books as an editor…and to finally finish her children’s novel.
by Emily Joy Stroble | Jan 21, 2025 | 0 comments
I had totally conflated “my best” and “the best.”
by Emily Joy Stroble | Dec 21, 2024 | 0 comments
Every event feels necessary, but most of it is nonsense.
by Emily Joy Stroble | Nov 21, 2024 | 1 comment
The “salads” of the mid-twentieth century should probably be left off the Thanksgiving table. I’ve seen recipes for abominations that mixed lime jello, shredded carrot, cheese, and Cool Whip. I’ve heard stories involving tuna!
by Emily Joy Stroble | Oct 21, 2024 | 1 comment
You can judge a true Irish pub by its seating situation—the sparser the chairs, the better the craic (music and merrymaking).
by Emily Joy Stroble | Sep 21, 2024 | 1 comment
“You can leave our boy, GENERAL LEW WALLACE, famous author of Ben-Hur and fishing enthusiast, entirely OUT OF IT! Thank you very much.”
by Emily Joy Stroble | Aug 21, 2024 | 0 comments
Do you get that heady rush after finishing a book? Like drinking a fruity cocktail too fast?
by Emily Joy Stroble | Jul 21, 2024 | 1 comment
I can’t help but think that we do people a disservice when we view their gifts only or mostly through the lens of their pain.
by Emily Joy Stroble | Jun 21, 2024 | 0 comments
Writing is a lot like your first eyeglass prescription. Suddenly, it is very intense to be alive.
by Emily Joy Stroble | May 21, 2024 | 0 comments
Have we considered that the Tree of Knowledge could have been a prickly pear?
by Emily Joy Stroble | Apr 21, 2024 | 0 comments
Overall, the album works, especially as an examination of what it means to outgrow a person, a place, a dream—bittersweet.
by Emily Joy Stroble | Mar 21, 2024 | 1 comment
I got a new car, but I don’t really get my new car.
by Emily Joy Stroble | Feb 21, 2024 | 1 comment
By asking silly or fantastical questions, you make space for another person to be a larger, truer version of themselves.
by Emily Joy Stroble | Jan 21, 2024 | 0 comments
Imagine if we cloned ourselves as a normal part of middle school and each of our clones, identical to us in every way, went off to live independent lives.
by Emily Joy Stroble | Dec 21, 2023 | 3 comments
“O Little Town of Bethlehem” is consistently (ironically) slept on in favor of the worn, saccharine “Silent Night.”
by Emily Joy Stroble | Nov 21, 2023 | 0 comments
Numbers have a surprising tyranny over me, a word person.
by Emily Joy Stroble | Oct 21, 2023 | 0 comments
It’s a matter of honor, not passion.
by Emily Joy Stroble | Sep 21, 2023 | 0 comments
The more I think about it, the more memories I recall.
by Emily Joy Stroble | Aug 21, 2023 | 0 comments
Even twaddle contains some truth.
by Emily Joy Stroble | Jul 21, 2023 | 0 comments
We have this unfortunate habit of dieting joy and worshiping scarcity.
by Emily Joy Stroble | Jun 21, 2023 | 0 comments
Every wondrous realization of truth begins with making your imagination big enough to hold it.
by Emily Joy Stroble | May 21, 2023 | 3 comments
Maybe it’s the patriarchy, maybe it’s Maybelline.
by Emily Joy Stroble | Apr 21, 2023 | 0 comments
“We live side-by-side with death.” And we are allowed to be afraid of it.
by Emily Joy Stroble | Mar 21, 2023 | 0 comments
Ruins should horrify us—grim testaments to our permanent impermanence
by Emily Joy Stroble | Feb 21, 2023 | 0 comments
“You’ve got it the wrong way around,” I imagine Tolkien saying.
by Emily Joy Stroble | Jan 21, 2023 | 2 comments
Discipline is cool. A fascination with violence is not.
by Emily Joy Stroble | Dec 21, 2022 | 1 comment
Are our true selves buried under all our stuff?
by Emily Joy Stroble | Nov 21, 2022 | 0 comments
This is a stock-image city. Sharp. Neutral. Orderly.
by Emily Joy Stroble | Oct 21, 2022 | 0 comments
I decide that I do believe that King Arthur sat here. It will make the climb worth it.
by Emily Joy Stroble | Sep 21, 2022 | 2 comments
The prejudices of this world are irrationally essential to your make-believe one.
by Emily Joy Stroble | Aug 21, 2022 | 1 comment
It’s not a tomb in a solid or permanent way, not a grave. This is the gilded foyer to another world.