Dear Good Guy with a Gun, Don’t expect me to thank you. Don’t expect me to thank you for being the person in the Panera making me and my wife uneasy during our lunch date because you’ve got a piece strapped to your belt. Don’t expect me to feel grateful that your bravado has manifestedContinue reading “Dear Good Guy with a Gun”
Author Archives: Brian Bayer
Putting God in a Box on the Shelf
I’m putting God in a box for a while. I hope some time in the future I will take God out again, but for now I need to put that box on a shelf. The catechism that I know so well, that I’ve studied and evangelized with in the past tells me that even ifContinue reading “Putting God in a Box on the Shelf”
High School Students: DO NOT READ
Hey, high school teachers: I know how fun it is bending your curriculum to the whims of your school board. Because lesson planning and grading and controlling hormonal little monsters (who are actually angels, but seriously, Jackson & Tegan, do you have to make out with each other in the hallway?!) all day isn’t exhaustingContinue reading “High School Students: DO NOT READ”
Better than cocaine
On November 4, 2020, I was one of the 82 million Americans who was very excited to – as quickly as possible – forget the name that had come to so perfectly symbolize political putrefaction: Trump. Before 2015, to me and most Americans, Trump was just the wacky “You’re Fired!” guy from a somewhat popularContinue reading “Better than cocaine”
The King’s Gambit
Inspired by the cool-minded, quick-moving Beth Harmon, I decided that at 30-years-old, it’s about time I learned to play chess. So I did. Turns out, I’m no Beth Harmon. Actually, I’m quite bad at chess. I know which direction the pieces are allowed to move, but the most basic adversaries tend to check me inContinue reading “The King’s Gambit”
Wicked Problems: A Deeply Personal Monograph
This has been the hardest year of my life. But I survived. Many did not. Should I feel grateful? I do, I guess, if only to not scorn those who have been lost. But what toll has it exacted? On us? On me? What has this year revealed about us as a civilization and about our future? What’s next?
We are paying attention
Have you ever noticed how in stories set in ultra-conservative authoritarian post-revolutionary dystopias, there is always a moment when the gravel-voiced narrator says something to the effect of, “I guess we never noticed it was even happening – a little here, a little there – small pieces of our liberty stripped away and we didn’tContinue reading “We are paying attention”
A sin for a sin
On the night before he was nailed to a tree, Jesus joined his closest friends for one last supper. In his final miracle, he lifted bread and wine and transformed it into his body and blood for his disciples – those in the room with him that night and those for thousands of years to come – to join him in the most holy communion. The next day, he was beaten and dragged across town and crucified.
Accountability
Perhaps in previous decades, accountability could comfortably mean less than it does today – demand less than it does today. Perhaps the world is ready and pining for a new standard of accountability. If our conception of accountability must evolve (which I believe it must!), then I want to evolve with it. Help me understand how.
Convince me
There’s a reason career public servants are the ones we choose to serve the public. A defining feature of public administration is that it is not, in fact, private – it is quite mutually exclusive, and necessarily so. And while the gears of bureaucracy often turn painfully slowly, the remedy must come from within.
The Progress Pages 