Learning to Read, Write, and Other First Date Ruiners

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Author: Zach Goodrow

Dear Pookie,

For some reason, between the seconds of 11:59 and 12:00 last night, people are particularly attuned to the prompting of the Holy Spirit on what needs work in their lives. New Year’s seems to be the only time our culture wakes up from its You-Be-You coma, and realizes that we are capable of so much more.

That more is some of what I want to encourage you towards, my dear Charlotte.

“To focus your ideas so brilliantly that, at least for a moment, the whole world is illuminated by the lighting strike of your pen touching the paper.”

Pookie, I want to encourage you to learn how to read and write. To be clear, I don’t mean read in the sense that you could see the letters c-a-t on a paper and know that those letters say cuh-ah-t. What I mean by read, is I want you to be able to glean from everyone from Piper to Patterson. To sit at the table with Owen and Orwell. And to sift through the works of Dante and DiAngelo (maybe you’ll be able to find something good out of the latter because I didn’t)

And by write, I don’t merely mean put pencil to paper and fill in the lines. Though, I do mean that by necessity. Jordan Peterson said that “writing is thinking”, and that’s the kind of writing I want you to do. To take the building static of ideas and focus it into one bolt that electrifies and grabs its readers. To focus your ideas so brilliantly that, at least for a moment, the whole world is illuminated by the lighting strike of your pen touching the paper.

“And even the men that aren’t worthlessly self-absorbed may be slightly intimidated by your intellect, especially if it rivals or surpasses theirs.”

This kind of reading and writing will make you a force to be reckoned with. Which will mean, sadly, that many of your first dates will be awful, but not because of you. You see, many of the men who will think they are suitable for you, will see your mind and be annoyed that you’re not interested in just talking about them. And even the men that aren’t worthlessly self-absorbed may be slightly intimidated by your intellect, especially if it rivals or surpasses theirs.

However, there will be a few remarkable, godly men that will be attracted by a keen mind. Those first dates will be incredible because you won’t be bogged down by stroking a man-child’s ego, and he won’t be bogged down by trying to reassure another woman who just can’t seem to live without a man. I hope you find one of those men early, or if you don’t, I hope you are choosy with who you give first dates too, if only to save yourself time.

My ultimate desire though, Charlotte, is that you would see the goodness and greatness of the God who formed you in your mother’s womb and bend the knee to him. He is the God who gives us a mind, but he’s also the God who makes our brightest ideas amount to nothing but a lightbulb next to the sun. He is a remarkable God and he alone is worthy of any praise. But that’s for a later letter.

Love,

Uncle Dookie

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