When we are young, our relationship to the world can aptly be described as a kind of infatuation. Like a kid with a crush, we’re carried away by the thrill of discovery, convinced that the object of our love can do no wrong. Yet as we grow older, we all experience a “loss of innocence”Continue reading “Encountering Opposition: A Literary Analysis of Contra“
Author Archives: jeshuahayden
Wide-Eyed Wonderment: A Literary Analysis of Vampire Weekend
Take a moment and think back to your childhood, adolescence, and/or young adulthood. How did life look from those perspectives? Everyone’s upbringing is unique, and some people are forced to grow up much too fast. However, for many of us, these years were characterized by the thrill of discovery. There was eagerness to map theContinue reading “Wide-Eyed Wonderment: A Literary Analysis of Vampire Weekend“
To Love the World Again: Introducing My Vampire Weekend Series
Nine months ago, when my wife and I packed our belongings and moved from West Michigan to Chicagoland, I did something I’d never done before: Alone in the U-Haul, I listened to four albums in a row by the same band, start to finish. Typically, when I’m on the road, I like to mix thingsContinue reading “To Love the World Again: Introducing My Vampire Weekend Series”
Deconstructing Cinema: The Top 10 Movies for People Leaving Religion
The acclaimed film critic Roger Ebert, whose reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times influenced generations of moviegoers, once described his appreciation for movies in this way: We are all born with a certain package. We are who we are. Where we were born, who we were born as, how we were raised. We are kind ofContinue reading “Deconstructing Cinema: The Top 10 Movies for People Leaving Religion”
Into the Wild: An Invitation to My 2024 Artistic Journey
Two days ago, I braved icy winds and traveled by train and foot to the Music Box Theater in north Chicago, eager to watch Andrew Haigh’s new film, All of Us Strangers. It’s a bizarre, lyrical, and devastating story, impossible to categorize and easily one of my favorite films of the year. I expect I’llContinue reading “Into the Wild: An Invitation to My 2024 Artistic Journey”
Here Be Dragons: My Favorite Stories and Songs of 2023
Well, it’s that time of year again! Everywhere you turn, art nerds are shouting their lists of favorite books, music, and movies discovered in 2023 from the proverbial rooftops. Why, you may ask, would we bother doing this? I can’t speak for every list-maker out there, but I’ve got two motives. First, the act ofContinue reading “Here Be Dragons: My Favorite Stories and Songs of 2023”
“The Guy in the Green Hat”: Life Lessons from The Legend of Zelda
During college, I spent four years living with a guy who loved The Legend of Zelda. Not only did he own the classic Zelda video games, but he enjoyed playing through them all in release order. He would start with Ocarina of Time, follow that up with Majora’s Mask, Wind Waker, and Twilight Princess, andContinue reading ““The Guy in the Green Hat”: Life Lessons from The Legend of Zelda”
Light, Love, and Lyricism: A Review of Josh Ritter’s “Spectral Lines”
On Spectral Lines, a cartographer of the strange and fantastical traverses more familiar territory, patiently seeking glimmers of magic in the mundane. There are few people who could use the words “brindled” and “bergamot” in a song and get away with it. Josh Ritter is one of them. The Idaho native has always been aContinue reading “Light, Love, and Lyricism: A Review of Josh Ritter’s “Spectral Lines””
Ten Books that Changed My Life
Recently, my wife and I sat at our kitchen table, trying to recall the books which had most influenced us. The exercise was a tricky one. We weren’t listing our favorite books; we were trying to identify books which had altered our thinking, shaped our ambitions, and redirected the course of our lives. We hadContinue reading “Ten Books that Changed My Life”
Rethinking the Rainbow: What I Learned About Queer Pride by Leaving Christianity
“Wow, that sounds a lot like coming out!” Recently, while sharing the story of my deconversion from Christianity, I received this same response from two friends – one straight, the other queer. Both of them recognized similarities between the struggles I faced as an apostate and the hardships encountered by queer people embracing their sexuality.Continue reading “Rethinking the Rainbow: What I Learned About Queer Pride by Leaving Christianity”
Words for Wayfarers 