“Take care of your blog,” Robin Rendle wrote.

“Blogging changed my life,” my friend Hugh Hollowell, Jr. wrote in a recent newsletter.

Inspired by them I’ve returned to this space…one two three and a half weeks later I’m still trying to get this post up. Ugh. Such is life here at All I Can’t Leave Unsaid—still the most ironically named site ever.

The silly part about all the inactivity here is that I’m creating content (kinda hate myself for using that phrase, but it is apt) in plenty of other places. Often with the intent of posting it here too, but that just hasn’t happened. “Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was.” [sigh]

But! Correcting that right now. 

Remember the podcast I co-host with my good friend John? Well, we’re up to 50 episodes now. Our most recent was a super fun interview with comic book artist, David Sanchez, who is a terrific human being. Plus, Coffee ’n’ Capes is now also an online coffee and comics store!

So every Monday I write a blog post for our website highlighting five comics that I recommend reading. I’m pretty pleased with how yesterday’s post turned out. I’d love for you to read it all. As today is Election Day here in the United States, I focused on books staring Captain America. Number one this week is a book from last year, The United States of Captain America. Here’s a piece of my, uh, piece there:

The United States of Captain America #1 is very creative and fun as this story lets us see Cap at work outside of his usual New York/D.C. habitat. But for me, what really takes this story (and 5-book mini-series) to the next level is how egalitarian it is, right from the start. It is beautifully philosophical—poetic, even. Take a peak inside Steve Rogers’ mind: 

The first American dream is the one that isn’t real. It’s the one some people expect to just be handed to them. And they get angry when it disappears. When the truth is, it never really existed in the first place. This is the White Picket Fence fallacy that, if we’re not careful, becomes nationalism, jingoism. That dream was never real. Because that dream doesn’t get along nicely with reality. Other cultures. Immigrants. The poor. The suffering. People easily come to be seen as ‘different’ or ‘un-American.’ The fence becomes a gate to keep people out. A good dream is shared. Shared radically. Shared with everyone.

Tomorrow, November 8th is Election Day here in the United States. I hope you vote. More than that, I hope you take Captain America’s words to heart and vote to keep America—like comic books and geek culture!—a place where everyone belongs. I hope you vote like a superhero: looking out for the most vulnerable among us.

Next, let’s look in on what I’ve written for my church blog. Wait. Instead of turning this a super long post, I think I’ll make that and my most recent sermon into parts two and three. Check back tomorrow and Thursday for more! Or, you know, possibly 5 months from now. [sigh]