June Wrapped
what I am reading, watching and loving! plus, a Toy Story 5 guest essay
Welcome to this month’s installment of Wrapped. If you are new here, this is basically like virtually grabbing a cup of coffee with me and I share with you about everything I am reading, watching and thinking about. If you are reading this via email, click on the title to read this post in its entirety <3
I usually try to publish these posts on the first day of the month, but I failed, and for that I am sorry. But I do have some very valid excuses. Also, Happy 4th of July!!!
Mainly, July 1 is my (3-year) wedding anniversary! So I had other priorities (eating tacos, going on a walk and dreaming up the next few years with my beloved husband).
That was two days ago. And last night I had book club with my friends, so no writing there, either. Plus, let me give another valid excuse: I just came from a full day of trotting around Los Angeles, sipping on iced cappuccinos, strolling through museums and eating delicious Mediterranean food. My heart is full <3
But I want to be offline for the rest of the weekend, hence my panicked writing on the evening of July 3. You know who else has been offline???? Who has a much busier weekend than I??? Miss Taylor Allison Swift. I was aggressively checking my phone today (between sipping my Erewhon smoothie and browsing LACMA exhibits) for updates on the nuptials.
At the time of this writing, no photos have been released, only minimal tidbits (Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds NOT attending, Adam Sandler officiating and her and Travis forgoing traditional bridal parties). As a Swiftie since 2008, I am far too invested, but I will leave my remarks at that. It’s valid to critique the spectacle of it all (but I am sure much more articulate folks are writing their think pieces already), but as a lifelong fan, I am mostly just glad she got her happily ever after — even if it’s at MSG. (My thoughts on this are subject to change, blame my naive and overly romantic and optimistic tendencies!)
Let’s dive into what I have been into this month.
Articles, Substack Posts/Notes & Poems that I want to show you!
“The Real Soul Mate is the One You Are Actually Married To” by Ben Christenson
Marriage has been on my mind a lot lately (with the whole anniversary thing, ya know), plus the fact that it seems like everyone in Hollywood is either just married or is getting married (Zendaya and Tom Holland, Taylor and Travis, of course, and Dua Lipa and Callum Turner). Who we choose to marry is perhaps the biggest decision we will ever make, after, of course, putting our faith in Jesus Christ.
It’s a decision that requires significant discernment and care — but it also will never be a perfect decision. Christenson highlights a passage from Tolkien that says it better than I can: “Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes.”
Christenson highlights the flattened and simple stories we are told about love in fiction, mainly on social media and in rom-coms. Marriage is hard and rarely perfect, but it is beautiful and worth pursuing.
Drafted Into the Church’s Gender War by Kaitlyn Schiess
The Egalitarian/Complementarian conversation is exhaustingggg, and something I wish we could put to bed. But sadly, it is not just a debate around whether women can be pastors or not (that certainly is one question within the argument) — it’s an existential one: what are women for?
“I have known so many women—talented, faithful, curious, engaging—who ended up spending most of their careers focused on gender when they didn’t even want to in the first place. They wanted to study, write, and teach about other parts of the Bible, other areas of theology, or other issues deeply affecting the church, but they ended up spending much of their lives working on gender. They had other gifts and other callings that were all overshadowed or left behind by being drafted into evangelicalism’s gender war.”
In her piece with Holy Post Media, Kaitlyn masterfully articulates the struggle of being a woman in seminary, and having literally NO interest in writing/reading/researching about gender, but being forced to do so to defend her place in theological education.
I can HEAVILY relate to this, as I regularly get comments (mostly on TikTok/Instagram and almost always from women) about how 1. I should not go to seminary because I am a woman, 2. I can’t be a pastor because I am a woman, 3. By making Christian content as a woman, I am promoting women to be pastors. Literally just existing as a woman in a Christian space becomes polarizing.
Idk. I might just start responding to the comments citing Ephesians 5 and 1 Timothy 2 with “‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy.”
Books I recently read or am reading (sometimes a review) and a recommendation from my library. Let’s be friends on GoodReads!
Read
Non-fiction
Make Sense of Your Story: Why Engaging Your Past with Kindness Changes Everything
5 stars
I wish this book were required reading for everybody. I absolutely loved this book. The author, Adam Young, takes readers on a journey of helping them understand how their past is influencing their present.
“You will not experience freedom from the places where you are bound until you name what is most true about your story. In many ways, healing and growth are simply a matter of getting closer and closer to naming what is truest about your story.”
I loved his focus on naming what has been true about your story and the importance of having an empathetic witness hold your story! As somebody who has already done a lot of family of origin work, this book helped break open so many new areas of my story I was unaware of.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is trying to make sense of unwanted, difficult or painful patterns that keep resurfacing in their life. I found Adam from this podcast episode with the Allender Center. I highly recommend listening to get a sense of his approach.
Fiction
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
5 stars
You have probably heard of this book if you are a reader and a Christian, lol. It has over 400,000 ratings on Goodreads (with an average of 4.47 stars). Let’s just say my heart was warmed. I have not read a book this tender, sweet and truthful in so long. In short, the book is about an older man moving into a small southern town and how he touches the lives of the people who live there.
This book reminded me of the verse in the gospels that points out Jesus spoke only through stories. It’s almost like God made our hearts that way on purpose.
Consider this my endorsement!!!!
Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center
4 stars
Female firefighter learns how to embrace vulnerability and forgive!
I read fiction on my Kindle about 20 minutes or so before bed, so this was one of those easy reads. I did stay up quite late on a few occasions because I was eager to find out what would happen next. I love that Katherine Center is a closed-door romance writer and that all of her plots are so fun and unique!
How to Walk Away by Katherine Center
5 stars
This one, on the other hand, was PERFECT. Oh my gosh. I know this would not be a 5-star read for everybody, but it was for me.
I loved how the author touched on difficult relationships with parents/siblings, outgrowing relationships and coping with life going a different direction than you expected. Also, a truly wholesome and lovely romance. Wow. This plot will stick with me for a LONG time.
Mostly music and movies. Let’s be friends on LetterBoxd.
Music
Playlists I keep going back to:
JUNE 26 — it is what it sounds like, my monthly playlist.
SUMMER MIX — I am curating this rn, but I am going for an upbeat, fun and pop vibe.
SPRING WORSHIP MIX — I need to make a summer worship mix next…
Top 3 Songs:
expectations by Olivia Rodrigo — this entire album, oh my GOSH. It’s so good. I have all of the songs on repeat (except for honeybee; sorry, I’m a hater). This song especially has a chokehold on me! I won’t settle for a guy with a fake job…
Orbiter by Noah Kahan — I really want to stargaze while I listen to this song. Existential, sad and reverent; really something. Prob should be orbiting around God instead of a mortal lady, but I like the vibe, Noah.
I Knew It, I Knew you — perfect to ME. PERFECT TO ME!!!! I wrote about it here.
Movies
Disclosure Day
4 stars
I managed to watch this movie 2 times within 3 days (I do not recommend). There were so many things I enjoyed in this movie. Mainly the score (love a Steven Spielberg x John Williams collab), characters and religious themes! I am not a person who is compelled or frankly curious at all about other intelligent life existing. I just don’t care! But this was nonetheless fun to watch and consider.
I loved how Spielberg portrayed religious faith as something that can hold complexity. While the religion depicted in Disclosure Day was Catholicism, it was broad enough that even the Protestant girlies (such as I) could relate. And the Oscar goes to: Emily Blunt — for somehow portraying emotion despite all odds (Botox).
Toy Story 5
4 stars
This movie made me laugh. HARD. I wasn’t expecting that because once you get to the 5th movie in a franchise, it usually just becomes some dizzying collision of nostalgia bait and repetition. But this movie had something to say! Tech is bad (sometimes!)
My pal Jake is breaking it down in a full review below, so keep reading to get a full, unvarnished review!
You’ve Got Mail
5 stars
I have somehow NEVER seen this movie. Diabolical. 5 stars; this was perfect to me. As somebody who met their partner via the Internet and messaged them for a long time before meeting them, this movie felt SO relatable (except for the part where your crush is a stranger and they squash the small business your dead mother left you).
Also, this is shallow. Just warning you. But I can’t stop thinking about it. Tom Hanks just is not that attractive. It almost took me out of the narrative. WYD Meg??? is what I kept thinking…and maybe it’s just because I was born in 2001, but I don’t think I will ever understand the Tom Hanks Being Hot Thing. Does anybody believe this? Were women falling at their feet for Tom in his ‘prime’? Maybe I am just more of a Hugh Grant girl. IDK.
The section where I tap the shoulder of writers and thinkers I love, so you can get a taste of writing that is good, true and beautiful!
Toy Story 5 Review by Jake's Digital Journal
As a pastor, teacher, and father of two young kids, Jonathan Haidt’s 2024 book, The Anxious Generation, has changed the way I think about, well, virtually everything in my life. But mostly, it’s changed the way I parent. It’s raised my awareness of the acute harms social media and digital devices can cause children of all ages.
So, when the Toy Story 5 trailer released, with a storyline centered on “The Age of Toys” being replaced by “The Age of Tech” it immediately became one of my most anticipated films in years… and coming out of the theater, I had mixed feelings.
I thought the film captured what’s at stake in this “changing age” quite well — repeated scenes of disjointed households where each family member is on their own device, in separate rooms; the intense feelings of isolation, shame, and embarrassment Bonnie experiences because of her device; and the unhealthy example of digital addiction many parents in the film are modeling for their kids. And I believe its director, Andrew Stanton (maker of the cogitative film Wall-E), made a genuine attempt at showing how parents can make digital devices safer for kids, but still its message felt half-baked.
The Anxious Generation outlines “Four Norms” to transition away from a phone-based childhood, and l think Toy Story 5 captures one quite well – “more independence and free play” — in the concluding scene between Bonnie and her new friend Blaze; but it fails miserably at properly addressing two others: “no smartphones/devices before high school” and “no social media before 16.”
Bonnie is 8 years old in this story — and even at its conclusion, the film’s message about what a healthier relationship with technology should look like for her is much closer to what an appropriate relationship with technology might be for a teenager rather than a 2nd grader.
The Anxious Generation would argue that Bonnie’s parents should get rid of her iPad completely for at least 7-8 more years. They should not give her unsupervised time on social apps or access to a digital device alone in her room.
Yet even as the film comes to a close, her parents are still incredibly passive in what they change for Bonnie, leaving it up to the child (or the iPad, which is somehow portrayed as having good intentions?!) to make those changes instead. I’m sorry, folks, but Silicon Valley does not specialize in creating soulful, well-intended devices for kids.
Toy Story 5 settles for a message that technology can be helpful in the modern age if properly constrained - and while I agree in principle - what those specific constraints should be for children are drastically different depending on a child’s stage of development. Perhaps the creators of Toy Story 6 will have the courage to say something more profound about how parents can navigate the Age of Tech.
Jake Nagy is the co-pastor of Kainos Church, a network of home churches in the Portland, OR metro. He also serves at King’s Way Christian School in Vancouver, WA, where he teaches classes on theology, film and geography and serves as the high school campus chaplain.
Fun fact: Jake was the officiant at Parker's and my wedding. Everything is coming up wedding/marriage/officiant! Wow!
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Your friend,
Love this June Wrapped. Love the Mindel family. Loved getting to write this with you. Thanks, Jenna!!
finally getting to reading this lovely piece - first off, ADORED toy story 5 && thank you for the Theo of Golden rec, will be adding to my next book club reads <33 also happy anniversary!!!