2025: The Year of the Hermit
some thoughts on care and the future of this Substack
Dear Substack Community: When I started this Substack I had high hopes of spending countless hours writing and creating pathways for knowledge production. At the time, I wrote from Nashville, TN. I was living life on the road at the time, speaking to colleges, universities, community centers, museums, and being flown all across the country, including Europe and Canada to do public theology. I had finished my PhD, and the job market had crashed in 2008, just before I started the PhD. and I wasn’t quite sure I wanted a traditional path in academia. So, I turned to writing here on Substack.
I make this Substack free, and I did that after not liking maintaining two groups. But, because of trolls and folks who have targeted me, I’ve had to lock the comments down for paying subscribers, only. I would like to keep this Substack free to read and free to access. I want the world littered by the goodness that can come of building an ethical sustainable community.
I’m at that place in my life where things have shifted and my work is now rooted in a local community, in a church, and not so much online or in the public square. I joined BlueSky, of course, when it launched and then am still active on Instagram and FaceBook, but I’m wanting to really root into community. I’ve always wanted that. I amassed a following on Twitter and FaceBook and Instagram, but that space didn’t seem conducive to turning my tweets and public platform into a community. I even tried Mighty Networks to see if having a private social media space would work. I’m still working out the kinks on all of this, but want to recognize that there are people here on this Substack who might want to read in community, or have a monthly coffee chat, or something. I’d like to go into 2025 by placing care in the center of everything I do, and for the folks here who buy me a cup of coffee, I’d like to start offering a monthly coffee chat with those folks. More on that later!
I’d also like to do a pop-up book groups. I want to send out a list of must reads for 2025 and read with you. For those who buy me a cup of coffee, I’ll suggest that we incorporate that into the monthly coffee chat! Just thinking how we might utilize this space for learning journeys and ways to build community. I’ll see if there are members of my church who would also like to join! Let me know what you think by leaving a comment on this post.
Thank you for being here. I want to spend time here with you and learn with you how we build the beloved community, kingdom of heaven on earth. I’m still very much committed to the stories of Jesus and his imagination of another possible world. There are many who inspire me to continue along this path of committing to the land on which I live and stewarding my place on earth as if it was heaven. We don’t know what the future holds for any of us, but we do have each other, and if we nurture the bonds of community, we can outfox the empire.
Let us not look for a political leader for we have examples in history on how to build the world we want. We must commit to each other to be the kinds of neighbors we long for and to nurture community, because it will be our saving grace.
The world will not wait; the world turns. Join me in nurturing another possible world here with Our Collective Becoming. We will embody story, so that we can flip the script on hegemonic narratives.
I will soon begin writing about care and the importance of care this year that we should consider.
If any of the ideas above sound interesting, let me know! Still sorting through things and trying to figure out how to use this space effectively!
Paz, —Roberto Che Espinoza