Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Culture

What’s going on, who we are, and what the big deal is.

  • The book had the most evocative title. It really seemed like it was written for me. Parenting Without Regret. Such a powerful statement in three words. And I felt the subtitle in my gut: “Raising Kids With Purpose, Not Perfection”. Deep and poignant. But when I picked up the book, I thought: This is like…

  • Bill Clinton Was Right About the Nature of Being Twenty years ago, in the midst of an impeachment, the sitting president made perhaps the most weasely defense ever. He infamously tried to parse the word ‘is’. In his questioning about an ongoing relationship with an intern, Former President Clinton said: “It depends upon what the…

  • If I had looked at the news Sunday morning, I would have rewritten my sermon. I’ve done that before, but I was being patient. I liked it already. I take the time in the morning, to review and reflect. I don’t look at email or listen to messages. I don’t read the news and I…

  •   Violence doesn’t teach them to respect you. It teaches them the lengths you will go to have your way.   We expect violence to communicate the complex thoughts, the most sophisticated of desires, the very contents of our minds, but it doesn’t make them mind readers. It doesn’t communicate what we want to communicate.…

  • Failing is good. Every day I remind myself. We call ourselves perfectionists because we’re in pain. We use perfectionism as a kind of diagnosis which makes us feel better about playing it safe or feeling hurt. The kind of imperfection that can become a badge of honor – the strength we pass off as a weakness…

  • The Exodus is the seminal story of Torah and the Hebrew Scriptures. However, it isn’t the only story. If we stopped at the end of Deuteronomy, we’d be likely to see the never-failing support of GOD for the chosen people, the Children of Israel (Jacob) in the twelve tribes as complete and eternal. It is…