In-between family traditions, festivities, and holiday cheer, I bring you a few minutes of thoughtful consideration. It is Christmas Eve as I prepare to publish tomorrow's newsletter.

I'm grateful as the year comes to a close, filled with joy and excitement and the anticipation of a better year in 2023. All the best!

- Johnny Christian

Today is Christmas, and I have been working on an idea for several weeks. The benefit of doing a short daily newsletter is releasing partial thoughts while continuing to build them out. The original idea is about faith, all faith meaning nondenominational, and what happens when we lose some of it. As a practicing Catholic, I have learned, lived, and felt my faith in many ways. After years and years of being asked about it, I can break it down in simple terms. I believe in something bigger than myself and in helping people.

when you stop believing, practicing, or working on your faith? My inner discussions come back to this answer, "I expect nothing to happen or to change, and that is why I've lost faith." That's an honest answer. Another answer I get is more reactive based on consistent events that weigh a person down to the point at which they seek to change. This may not mean a complete loss of faith; it may mean a temporary loss or a change in the practice of one faith over the other. My challenge is the expectation of getting something out of faith, and when you feel you haven't reached that something, move on.

My faith is something closer to meditation or soul searching. Many a "Guru" have said faith could be a way of helping us cope with the enormity of things unknown. Or a simple conditioning and meaning to daily life. "Do this, and you will get that." I agree with this; I practice faith, and I get an appreciation of the practice of faith. I have the same appreciation for the practice as I do for my practice of sleep. Every night I go to bed, I practice sleeping for 6 to 8 hours every night and wake back up. My only appreciation for sleep practice is that one day, I won't wake up.

I practice my faith because it makes me feel better; I practice it because when I do, I show a sense of sacrifice, a sense of humility, and a service to something bigger than myself. I practice my faith, and it provides me with the opportunity to help other people. The people who ask me and want to know why I practice my faith usually resonate with my response.

Regular highlighted artist Nick Cave who writes The Red Hand Files addressed something similar this month, issue 215, and I wrote about it in an earlier newsletter. I'm linking to it again today, and I plan to send him my piece above to get his thoughts on how you practice faith. I wish you this holiday season for peace and friendship in your life; you can never have too much of either. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Barry Markovsky wrote a piece for The Conversation this year on big number days. “Twosday” was the highlight of this piece, which hit us this year on February 22nd, 2022. Or 2/22/22 for all the numerologists out there. It was a fascinating piece, and despite searching for relevance, nothing but myth surrounding this number day came up.

Our brains love numbers and associations; when they can make the two meet, it’s thought erotica! Similar to how a horoscope is written to make everything seem connected and optimistic, we can turn unique numbers into whatever message we want. I choose to go with Markovsky’s concluding paragraph in the article for one reason.

It matches the number on my birth certificate, minus the 2022 part!

One of my favorite Indie bands, The Samples, has a song called Close to the Fires (Apple) or (Spotify) off their self-titled album (or Blue Album for fans). The song is about the earth and those who understand and cooperate with it. Along the same discussion lines, I have heard many stories over the years about the confusion many Native Americans had when trying to understand early English Settlers who were trying to section off the land and "own" different parts of it. Native Americans did not own the ground; they lived on it. This is an oversimplification, but the "bones are good."

Another story from The Conversation talks about living volcanoes, and as Mauna Loa in Hawaii began erupting again this year, it brings up many of the same topics of conversation. Several hundreds of years after the first settlers arrived and started to divide the land, nature and Native Americans watched while Mother Nature poured hot lava all over those lines.

New York Magazine has released its second annual best Podcast list this week. In addition to putting together a good list of pods to check out, they also pulled data from the list on categories and segmentation. The biggest surprise was that out of the 15 podcasts selected as 2022 best by creators, most of them were produced by Independent Podcasters. The Genres was the other surprise when looking back at the 2021 list of podcasts. 2021 had more Music podcasts, and 2022 had more Society and Culture podcasts.

Of the list, we have listened to Anderson Cooper's I-All There Is, and we recommend the episode he did with Stephen Colbert. We also listened to I-Will Be Wild and recommended it to anyone interested in the "reality show politics" of the last few years.

On the list and now in the queue:

Words | Music | Art | Unknown

Let the bells.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

Thank you for spending a few minutes with us!

With A Shout newsletter is written by Johnny Christian with the support of a thousand idea bits and the help of many people.