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Howard Macy Speaks Out on His New Book

By Katie Terrell

Katie Terrell interviewed Howard Macy about his new book, Stepping in the Light: Life in Joy and Power. Their conversation follows:

Katie: You say in the introduction to your new book that the story “adventures” within these pages arose from “trying to walk in the Light.” What do you mean by that?

Howard: The Bible and people of faith often talk about faithfulness as a journey, a pilgrimage, and this metaphor makes a lot of sense to me. Faithfulness has a lot to do with the dailyness of doing what’s in front of you, paying attention to what’s going on in your life and your world, listening to God and to other folks. These particular pieces were written in that sort of day-to-day context rather than as a big, long-term project. Sometimes an experience or an insight would stick in my head or heart and grow toward maturity. Often something someone said to or near me would hang around. Sometimes a column would fi nally come to harvest from something I’d written in my writer’s chapbook. (I think that’s what some folks call them. I call my idea notebooks compost piles.) In editing the essays for the book I was struck by how many of them grew out of more or less ordinary life and by how many people graced my life in this journey.

Katie: What role does humor play in your writing and your faith?

Howard: I’d like to make this sound more sophisticated and worthy than probably it is because I enjoy the playfulness of humor and use it all the time. I am convinced, though, that humor is not merely frivolous or playful, but that it often can say important things powerfully. It’s a tool for perspective-taking, for seeing the truth, as well as a way of telling the truth that is fun, sneaky and effective all at once. I’ve explored these ideas at book-length in my recent Laughing Pilgrims: Humor and the Spiritual Journey. No, really, it’s funny.

Katie: You cite D. Elton Trueblood as one of your teachers. How did he influence your faith?

Howard: I first met Elton when I came to Earlham School of Religion as a student. He was entering retirement from regular teaching, but I took a class from him on writing as ministry. He strongly urged us as his students to write as a way of ministering to people we’d never see, broadening the effect of our work and service. Many students remember him as an encourager; in my case he was one who helped me dream bigger than I had dared up to that point. He taught simple habits of work, planning, and study that I still use and pass on to my students. He was one of the fi rst to get me to take seriously some of the great Christian classics. He was steady in his own spiritual journey and helped me be discerning about my own. One fond memory from my student years at ESR is participating in a daily, early morning devotional/worship period that Elton hosted for students and others in his study. His friendship with me lasted more than 25 years and I’m very grateful.

Katie: Do you have a daily spiritual “routine” of reading, waiting and praying that keeps you spiritually fresh?

Howard: Frankly, this is a bit of an awkward question for me since I hardly see myself as a spiffy model of spiritual practice. I’m not sure that the word “routine” quite gets at it for me. I am intentional and am regularly involved in reading the Bible and other formative spiritual reading, in various settings of worship and in prayer. I am particularly drawn by the model of “practicing the presence of God” as found in Brother Lawrence and Frank Laubach, which is very like Thomas Kelly’s guidance about living out of the Center (or from that same era in Evelyn Underhill). So there’s a kind of interweaving and spontaneity mixed with intentionality. Sometimes I work for a while with lectionary readings. Sometimes I gulp down big chunks of a book or even of music that is timely and has gotten me by the throat. I sometimes take times of retreat. I need space and silence in the midst of the intensity of academic life. Acts of creativity in writing, music and photography are sometimes important means of grace, of noticing, listening, responding, something like potters who practice centering prayer while throwing pots.

Katie: Do you feel that being a writer has helped you carry on the Quaker tradition of being “Publishers of Truth?” How do you see non-writers relating to this tradition?

Howard: I’m glad to be able to write and have been writing one thing or another since I was a boy. I am glad to be joined in some small way in a tradition that has touched the world powerfully through writing. But writing is only one way of “publishing” Truth. All of us can fi nd ways of saying what we know by heart and what we know must be shared. “Let your lives speak” is one of those ways, and we all can (and must) live with integrity, following Christ and being Christ’s people in the world. Some “publishing” may come through notable acts of service, others through scarcely noticed acts of kindness, some in conversation over coffee or over the back fence, some through imaginative ventures in the arts, music, video, community building, peacemaking and more. I really like the other early name, “Children of Light,” and there are lots of ways we can shine in the world.