Shards of Light in 2016

In the popular imagination, 2016 has gained sentience and transformed into some sort of raging beast. I don't think this year is out to get us, but it has been a difficult one for many people. Yet there has been good and I think it is important for us to share the bright spots in our lives with others. The arts are one of those areas in which the light most often gets through to me. The following is not any sort of "Best of" list. It is just some of the television, film, music, comics, and literature that have been bright spots for me in these last 12 months.

Television
I don't watch as much television as I used to and my tastes do not veer towards prestige TV. I found myself binging the entirety of Parks and Recreation during the election to maintain sanity and the rewatch solidified that it is my favorite show of all time. Though Barry Allen can make some questionable choices in regards to time travel, The Flash can still do television super heroics like no other show. Week in and week out, no show makes me laugh more than Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Finally, The Good Place is my Rookie of the Year. The Kristen Bell/Ted Danson-starring show about a woman navigating ethical quandaries in an afterlife is whipsmart, funny, and incredibly acted. Plus its ongoing mysteries and cliffhangers make it like the sitcom version of Lost (a compliment in my book).

Film
I still haven't seen Rogue One or year end Oscar contenders like La La Land or Silence. In fact, my movie going has been relatively sparse. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was not everything that I hoped for, but I didn't think it was an absolute dumpster fire. Back in the summer, I wrote about my love for Finding Dory. As a sequel to one of my all-time favorite movies, it did not disappoint and it deeply resonated with me as a meditation of a parent's love for a child and God's love for us. Doctor Strange was a fun and visually stunning riff on the Marvel formula. 

And I think that Arrival, in addition to being a great film, is perhaps an important movie that should be seen by as many people as possible. It is science fiction in the best way and has something vital to say about the way in which we communicate in this increasingly contentious world. I wrote more about Arrival here.

Music
Before I get to the albums that I carried with me this year, four songs and two musical moments. As I began to seriously follow the calling of being ordained into the ministry, the songs "Helplessness Blues" by Fleet Foxes, "Beautiful Things" by Gungor, and "This Road" by Jars of Clay became of resurrected importance in my life. The fact that my sister and a few friends sang these songs at my ordination service in the church where our family has spent the last half decade was incredibly meaningful to me. The other musical moment, which I wrote about here, was hearing Coldplay give an unexpected performance of one of my favorite songs of all time: "Till Kingdom Come."

I was really late to the party concerning the Hamilton soundtrack (my sister was the one who finally got me to listen to it), but once I started listening to it I understood what the hype was about. I'm not a theater person, but Lin-Manuel Miranda does a brilliant job of capturing the energy and excitement of this nation's founding, siphoning that in a well-told story of one man, and then crafting a staggering number of incredible songs that span numerous genres. This history nerd loves it. Act I is also a nearly perfect soundtrack for a run.

Throughout the tragedies of this year, the young men shot by police, the mass shooting in Orlando, and a brutal political cycle that didn't stop being brutal after Election Day, I continually found myself returning to the album Brother by The Brilliance. Michael Gungor's brother, David and John Arndt composed a collection of songs that meditates on the beautiful, difficult way of Jesus in a world full of discord. More churches should be playing the songs on this beautiful, challenging album.

There have been albums that have become synonymous with certain parts of my life. These are the albums I love and, for whatever reason, become incredibly important to me. For some reason, that album was a mixtape: Chance the Rapper's Coloring Book. I can't exactly explain why, but the fusion of hip-hop and gospel funneled through Chance's exuberant joy grabbed ahold of my heart and wouldn't let go. The mixtape is a perfect collision of the sacred and secular. Though I skip a couple, there hasn't been a collection of songs that has meant more to me in some time.

Graphic Novels and Comics
Graphic Novels I read in 2016:
-Superman: Doomed
-DC: The New Frontier Vol. 1
-DC: The New Frontier Vol. 2
-Superman: Reign of the Supermen
-Superman: The Return of Superman
-Superman: Red Son
-Batman Vol. 7: Endgame
-Batgirl Vol. 1: Batgirl of Burnside
-Boxers & Saints (which I wrote about here and here)
-March Book One - This is the first of a three-part series capturing the story of civil rights leader John Lewis. If the second two are as good as the first (and reviews/awards indicate they are), this should be required reading for anyone wanting to know about the history of this country and the continuing work that needs to be made to assure equality.

You probably figured out from the list above (and if you've read my blog at all), that I like Superman. This past year has gifted me one of my favorite ever runs of comics featuring the Man of Steel. Back in May, the DC Rebirth initiative brought back the Superman that I grew up with (I won't go into the comic book continuity of it): the one who is married to Lois Lane. Lois and Clark had a son named Jonathan who has inherited some of his father's powers. Since summer, the pages of Superman have been filled with stories of Clark and Lois trying to teach Jonathan to use his powers, battling the Eradicator, discovering an island of dinosaurs, going to the county fair, and Batman and Superman running an oil-and-water Superboy and Robin through ridiculous team-building exercises. As a lifelong Superman fan and a dad, I love it so much. A tip of the hat to Peter Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, et al.

Books
I've gone a bit long, so we'll just go with another list without commentary. Books I read and finished in 2016:
-Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
-Wearing God by Lauren Winner (which I wrote some about here)
-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling (yes, I just finished HP in 2016)
-Out of Sorts by Sarah Bessey
-It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War by Lynsey Addario
-Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
-Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
-Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
-How to Be Here by Rob Bell
-Falling Upward by Richard Rohr
-Life's too short to pretend you're not religious by David Dark
-Finding God in the Waves by Mike McHargue
-Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller
-Preaching Politics by Clay Stauffer
-Short Stories by Jesus by Amy-Jill Levine
-The Sin of Certainty by Pete Enns
-Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance