While we are currently at our maximum number of regular contributors, Mockingbird is happy to publish quality writing from guests. To submit something for consideration, simply email it to info@mbird.com. We can’t promise anything, but we will take a look. Naturally, the best way to get a sense of what we are looking for is to read the site.
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El Huracán: Facing our Fragility
This reflection comes to us from Kyle Holton. A few months ago in a suburban movie theater, I wept uncontrollably. I was watching Incredibles 2 with my family. The tears came on me like gale force winds. My body silently shook while a storm surge of emotion flooded my senses. It was a category-4-Hurricane type […]
Stan Lee, Generational Alienation, and Spider-man: An Aspiring Novelist Becomes a Comics Legend
Grateful to share this reflection by Wenatchee the Hatchet: Just as the world (in Marvel comics) may know Spider-man yet not know Peter Parker, the world may likewise know that Stanley Lieber was Stan Lee, whether or not the world ever knew who Stanley Lieber was. The man Stan Lee, who died this week, became world-famous […]
Stopping
This poem was written by John Nolan: Stopping I cannot stop stopping I simply cannot My brain will keep talking Unless I can slot Away impulse and image and instant and id And if they persist a visit begins From the wilderness washing Like particle mist Mutated mangled from sixty minutes All bundled in twelves […]
Mother of All Mothers
This post comes to us from Stacie Tchividjian. I was recently reflecting on my deepest regrets as a mom. My mind started stumbling down a path it doesn’t like to go. I sobbed from a deeply painful place as I agonized over the choices I’ve made that have affected my two sons. When I see them hurting […]
Forty, Finitude, and Me
A lovely personal reflection from Katy Attanasi: This is a story about the tension that exists between Christian triumph and human frailty, between the ideal and the real, and between the myth of unlimited potential and the reality of constrained choices. Once upon a time, my 21-year-old self was on top of a world that […]
Maniac: Saved by an Easy-to-Swallow Capsule
This one comes to us from Ethan T. Perkins. My latest binge-watching series on Netflix was nothing I intended to watch. I had heard a few mentions via Twitter about Netflix’s latest psychological thriller/comedy, but it was not on my list of things I was waiting to start. I saw the trailer completely by mistake. […]
Hopelessly Devoted: On Muscular Christianity
Grateful to start the week with this reflection from Alex Chapota: Like many people in ministry, I receive a lot of Christian-related forwards via Facebook and WhatsApp messenger. Friends usually expect me to comment or even forward these messages onward. Plenty of them are insightful and even inspirational. Other times they kick off a debate, […]
The Strange Absurdity of Scorekeeping in The Good Place
A bonzer contribution from one Sam Guthrie: With seasons 1 and 2 of NBC’s The Good Place streaming on Netflix, Kristen Bell and gang bring the laughs with the show’s expository mirror reflecting the religiosity of our modern world. The Good Place follows the adventure of Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) as she navigates her existence […]
An Open Letter to the Charter Representative
This reflection comes to us from Rebecca Lankford. I have a confession: I recently ruined the day of a perfectly innocent Charter service representative. Or at least, I am fairly certain I did. My call to the Charter hotline began with a mere question about billing. An hour and several Charter employees later, my issue […]
Reckoning with Female Rage
Thankful for this one from Sarah Gates. One of my favorite podcasts is “Call Your Girlfriend,” self-described as “a podcast for long-distance besties everywhere,” co-hosted by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman. I listen to it nearly every Friday for a number of reasons, including the no-holds-barred attitudes of the hosts, their passionate feminism, and their […]
Turnips, Kiddies, and Icons
This reflection comes to us from Kim Kaufmann, part of the team at StoryMakersNYC (our awesome new children’s ministry initiative). Hold up an old, dried, brown, and knobbly turnip to a kid, and what do they say? “That looks like Gramma!” “It smells like poop!” “I bet there’s a fairy living inside!” “It’s a tree for […]
What If My Whole Life Has Been Wrong?
A stirring face-off with existential dread, by Eric Youngblood: An unopened bill still must be paid. I suspect we have all realized it to be so. Even though your mortgage statement sits stacked and unexamined on top of bills from the water company, Chase Manhattan Bank, and Comcast, none of them can go untended to […]
