I have new book coming about living well in a broken culture

I’m happy to announce that I have a book coming out before the end of this year called “10 Signposts on the Road to Living Well in a Broken Culture.”

I can’t give you an exact date, because I’ve never self-published a book before. I have a good portion of the manuscript finished, but that’s only the first step. The copy has to be edited. The cover and pages have to be designed.

When it’s all said and done, I should have a paperback version plus a Kindle edition and an audiobook version.

Books such as this rarely sell many copies — even from “legitimate” publishers — so this is more of a project I’m doing because it’s important to me. This book represents the evolution of my thinking — personally and philosophically — over the last 20 years.

This book isn’t a guidebook or a “how to” self-help manual. It represents what I’ve learned as I’ve tried to make sense of a broken and dysfunctional culture. I don’t have any interest in telling anybody how to live. I’m not begging you to change your beliefs.

It’s simply a systematic examination of what I’ve learned. Ultimately, I’ve been trying to answer one central question:

How can a person live a meaningful life in a culture that has lost its sense of meaning?

Although the manuscript can still evolve, I’m far enough along with it to tell you that it revolves around 10 ideas that I believe go together. They start at the level of culture and work their way back to the most personal level of each individual.

As a preview, here are the 10 ideas:

1. Ideas shape civilizations.

When a culture embraces dysfunctional ideas about reality, human nature and truth, the consequences eventually appear in its institutions, relationships and stability.

2. Our technologies reshape us.

The tools we create to serve our needs quietly change how we think, communicate and experience the world.

3. Political conflict is usually just a symptom.

The loud battles of politics often reflect deeper philosophical and cultural confusion that politics itself cannot resolve.

4. Nature reminds me what endures.

While human societies rise and fall, the natural world quietly reveals a deeper and more stable order that doesn’t change.

5. Human connection transcends cultural divisions.

When people meet one another as individuals rather than categories, shared humanity often proves stronger than ideology or identity — and it requires courage to make the first step across those divides.

6. Modern culture no longer reliably provides meaning.

In a fragmented age, each person must search more intentionally for a life that truly matters to him or her. If you accept what the culture teaches, you will end up believing nonsense that leads to misery.

7. Wisdom begins with humility.

Real understanding grows when I recognize how often my previous certainties have needed revision.

8. Healing requires patience and trust.

Whether in wounded animals or wounded people, the restoration of trust usually happens slowly and gently.

9. Love is harder than we imagine.

The greatest moral challenge of life is learning to love people who are not easy to love. It’s pretty easy to love people who are like us — especially if they love us — but it’s painfully difficult to love our neighbors.

10. Meaning appears in ordinary moments.

A meaningful life is usually built not through dramatic achievements but through quiet moments of connection, beauty and reflection.

There’s almost nothing in this book about politics — and certainly nothing supporting any partisan side — so it doesn’t matter where you stand on partisan politics. (If you follow my advice, you will end up ignoring politics entirely.) It’s also not a book about religion, so it doesn’t matter whether you’re a Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jew, agnostic or atheist. Or something else entirely.

Although I’m a Christian and I see my ideas as rooted in nature’s God, these ideas can apply equally to anyone, regardless of religious “tribe” or faith.

I’m arguing that the wider culture is dysfunctional, but that meaning is still possible for individuals who choose to take care of their own hearts and minds, especially for those who choose to build voluntary communities around the things that are important to them.

I’m suggesting that the culture confuses us about what matters, that it rewards shallow priorities and that it distracts us from genuine reflection. What’s worse, the culture pushes ideological and group identity conflicts over understanding of one another.

But I don’t see any reason to dwell on the outrage. We simply need to understand the environment in which we’re living — so we can make honest choices about our lives.

I reject the notion that this cultural dysfunction has to make our lives meaningless. I am arguing that we can find meaning through things such as love, friendship, beauty, nature, humility, intellectual honesty and small human connections — actually pursuing those things, not just claiming to believe in them.

Meaning is no longer handed to use by our culture — as has tended to be true in most societies through history — but it can still be discovered and cultivated personally.

I can’t change the world. I can’t change you. But I can change myself. And you can change yourself.

But before anything can happen, you have to understand what’s gone wrong — and what steps you can take yourself to create meaning, even if the culture around you is broken.

I hope this book can give you hope that this is possible — and point a way for you to get there.

I look forward to giving you details about the book’s release date as it gets closer to publication.