All right, y’all, this will be a quick one. We’ve made it once around the spiral. Yay!

Time for a check-in; let’s structure it a middle-school science lab report.

The question: How can I live into the justice, wholeness, abundance, joy, communality, fearlessness, and peace of THE TABLE, while also being an American in 2023?

Hypotheses, based on preliminary research:

1. LEADERSHIP: Seek the teaching & leadership of people/communities who’ve traditionally been marginalized;

2. CONTEMPLATION: Care for and integrate all parts of myself (incl new learnings) through contemplative practice;

3. MONEY: Repair my relationship with wealth & divert more to the front lines of justice work;

4. ROLE MODELS: Find and emulate ordinary, non-superhero justice role models;

5. HOPE + HABITS: Enact Big Hope through mundane habits;

6. SHARED MEALS: Eat with not-my-usual people, and structure my life to do this more often;

7. JOY: Seek and savor beauty, joy, fun & rest.

(Initially, my hypothesis list also included:

  • Address deep “habits of mind and heart” that were built in me by evangelicalism;
  • Know my religious family history.

I still think these are really important! But they’re more general and less actionable than the others; I think they’ll pervade the other seven.)

For the next go-round

This time around the spiral was introductory, without a lot of specific action ideas; on our next pass, I’d like to start getting my/our hands dirty. Here’s the plan:

  • Summer is a tough time to take on lots of new action, but it’s a great time to build one new Table habit. Let’s do it! (See below for specifics.)
  • During the summer, I’ll post shorter essays—a few on some underlying principles, a few experimental interviews—AND we’ll support and troubleshoot that habit formation.
  • At the end of the summer, we’ll start our second time around the spiral, this time with more depth and more specific, actionable suggestions. Hopefully, that one new habit will have stuck and will feed the work.

Homework

  1. I would love love love it if you’d complete this survey about how this site could be most helpful to you.
  2. You are cordially invited to identify a new habit associated with one or more of the seven areas above to work on this summer. Build a daily contemplation practice? “Break the seal” financially by giving small amounts of money to anyone who asks you? Get daily teaching from someone closer to “the margins” than you? This week, think about which (specific, actionable) habit you’d like to build this summer.
  3. Come back next week for tips on habit formation, courtesy of Michelle Does Research So You Don’t Have To!

Here’s the survey! Thank you millions, and love you tons!