A Call to Contribute a Paragraph toward an ongoing Wayfare series Wayfare Magazine, in its mission to cultivate a faith-informed and abundant life within individuals and communities, seeks to animate diverse and faithful forms of political thought and responsible citizenship.

This piece intends to raise but not directly answer the headlining question of how to think politically (which could be interpreted as a prescription for how everyone should think politically). Leaving that interpretation to each reader, Wayfare instead invites thoughtful, at least one-paragraph responses to the query: how do you think politically? What practices and cautions work, how do you implement those strategies, and why?

Our goal is to showcase a living anthropology of political practices and principles, not a register of entrenched positions.

We hope you will help us share the how, not the what, of the good political life.

Read on for a bit more detail on guidelines, offer, and timeline:

Guidelines

No advocacy of specific positions, policies, or parties. We want practical examples and models of complex thinking, so please showcase political methods, not content.

Focus on your principles, techniques, cautions, and other best practices as a voter. Normative claims are welcomed but should not be the primary content; in other words, it is fine if you end up suggesting how one might think politically, generally, but the primary starting point should begin more empirically, personally, and reflectively: how do you think politically?  

Write more as if you were speaking at a neighborhood caucus in a middle-school cafeteria (more here), not defending the decisions you make by secret ballot. In this spirit, we ask that you submit your email (for possible internal document review only) and associate your first and last names and a very brief title with your paragraph as we anticipate publishing no anonymous responses. The obvious and only exception would be if your wellbeing, reputation, or livelihood were endangered by publicly associating your name with your political method.

The Wayfare Offer

Those whose paragraphs are submitted on time and selected by internal editorial review will then have the opportunity to edit (or remove) their paragraph, in view of all other selected paragraphs, on a single Google document before all paragraphs are published as a single piece.

While we cannot guarantee at this point that this piece will be emailed to all 4,000+ (likely 10,000+ views) subscribers, all evidence suggests that this planned “How to Think Politically” piece will reach thousands. At the very minimum, it will be made available as a permanently accessible link for sharing among your own networks. A selection of this emailed and online piece may also be prepared to appear in a future print issue for paid subscribers only.

Timeline This timeline assumes quarterly publications in March, July, and October 2024:

In the month of February, June, and September 2024: authors of selected paragraphs will be contacted by email and then invited to edit and finalize their paragraph drafts. Rejection notices will not be sent.

By about March, August, and October: after internal copy editing (made by a professional copy editor without author approval or final review), the piece will be published before the 2024 US Presidential election.

Submissions outside of this timeline may not be considered.

If you do not receive an email, your paragraph has not been selected after internal review for further editing. Regardless, please know that we appreciate all contributions and hope to benefit from your insights in the future.

For any questions, please submit them via the submission form and a member of the Wayfare editorial team will get back to you.

Thank you for your consideration,

Wayfare Magazine