I do this every summer

Every summer I read two authors who help me regain my sanity. It's a cleansing process, really. It helps me to realize that there is more to life than word walls and academic vocabulary and lesson plans inside of boxes.

I read Donald Miller, because he seems to speak what I am thinking. I read his work, because it is unpretentious and honest and authentic. When I read Blue Like Jazz or Searching for God Knows What, I feel that I am not alone in questioning this crazy system of standardized education. Every year, at the end, I feel as if my convictions are slowly being eroded and, in order to make people happy, I say things that make it sound as if I believe in the whole system. If nothing else, Donald Miller gives me the sense that I don't belong in a straight jacket.

Then I read Frederick Buechner. He's unpretentious in an entirely different way. He doesn't dumb down his vocabulary. He doesn't attempt to make it accessible to all. In many ways, Buechner's like the teacher who is hard to understand, but treats the students as if they are all intelligent enough to comprehend. I can't imagine Buechner at a conference. I can't see him (I think he's dead, anyway) reading from a PowerPoint while students furiously sketch notes into the free binder they recieved at the door.

Miller and Buechner work as a compass for me. By the end of the year, I feel a little lost. They remind me of who I am and what I believe.