My Year in Writing: 2023

A pivotal time for my faith and health

Photo by Grant Whitty on Unsplash

For the years 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, I published end-of-the year “My Year in Writing” posts. Then, after a four-year hiatus, on the last day of 2022, I resumed that tradition. On this last day of 2023, I continue it.

As I wrote a year ago, “2022 was my most prolific year as a writer yet.” I wrote 91 articles that year. “Hopefully in 2023,” I added, “I’ll write more than 100 articles.”

Alas, I did not. Here are the 46 essays I did write in 2023, in case you find any of them valuable to read.

On New Year’s Day of 2023, I posted this resolution on Facebook:

I've been publishing daily to my Substacks, which has been an empowering practice. Now that a new year is upon us, it is a good time to raise the bar for myself. Starting today, I'm challenging myself to publish a full FEE article every day.

I only sustained that for the first nine days of the year. Those nine essays were based on a Hazlitt Project lesson I had developed called “Our Libertarian Heritage.” I cross-posted them on FEE.org and my Liberty Letters Substack.

• The Libertarian (and Whig) Heritage of America: Libertarians founded America, and libertarians can restore America

• The Old Order and the Libertarian Revolution: The historic struggle continues

• Cato’s Letters Explained “the Glorious Principles of Liberty” to the American Founders: “Must the magistrate tie up every man's legs, because some men fall into ditches?”

• What Ayn Rand Meant by “Americanism”: It was more about a principle than a nation (A version of this was also published by The Objective Standard.)

• Running Away from Our Own Revolution: What Leonard Read meant by 'Americanism'

• Herbert Spencer’s Two Types of Society: And the partisans of each

• It's Either Commands or Contracts: Ludwig von Mises’s two types of society

• When a Congressman Tried to Censor FEE: 74 years ago the censorship playbook was much the same as it is today

• What Leonard Read Learned from Mises and Nock about Changing the World: The power of ideas and of the Remnant

The last daily post, published on January 9, was so long and in-depth that it took me from early morning until late evening to finish it. I realized that that approach to daily writing wasn’t consistent with both getting enough sleep and keeping up with my other work. So after that, I broke my daily streak.

On January 10, I turned 45.

My next post came on January 14: By Teaching, We Learn… and Vice Versa: Henry Hazlitt and the protégé effect

Then, a high-profile attack on FEE, Leonard Read, and Read’s classic FEE essay “I, Pencil” prompted me to write How Atheist Anti-Capitalists Miss the Point: Why they’re wrong to sneer at the invisible hand and “I, Pencil” on January 18. I discussed this essay with Gene Tunny on Economics Explored, Australia’s top economics podcast.

Working with my FEE colleagues Maggie Anders and Olivia Rondeau to develop early episodes of their new podcast Undoctrination inspired these two posts:

• Individualist Feminism Versus Collectivist Feminism: How to tell the difference

• Call Off the Call-Out Culture War: The cause of freedom needs educators, not inquisitors

On February 14, I published online an essay I had written for the “Notes from FEE” print publication: A Legacy of Light: How Leonard Read's electric candle illuminated the world.

On March 6, I published Unpopular Truths Need to Be Told: Freedom needs fearless truth-tellers.

And on April 16, I published Raise a Standard for Others by Improving Yourself: True leaders and teachers rally voluntary followers and students on my self-improvement Substack Civilize Thyself.

Then came a turning point. On May 1, I published Pray for the Good Things You Long For: God’s answer may surprise you with its power and promptness: my first post that directly referenced my Christian faith, which had just blossomed after germinating for months. In that post I referred to praying on a plane trip the night before. On that flight, I rededicated my life to Jesus Christ.

That was the first of a series of religious posts including:

• Your Being Is a Temple: The key to becoming dedicated

• How a Daily Devotional Practice Can Replenish Your Soul: Go back to the well on a daily basis

My daily Bible study inspired me to briefly resume daily publishing, yielding the following five scripture-inspired daily devotional essays:

• How to Guard against Self-Doubt and Self-Sabotage: From both psychological and religious perspectives

• How to Genuinely Forgive: Resentments should be resolved, not repressed

• How to Have Faith In Yourself: Faith requires fidelity

• Procrastination Is Rooted in Hedonism: And it’s self-defeating, even in the short term

• Devout Doesn’t Mean Dismal: Rejecting hedonism actually makes life more pleasurable, not less

Then on May 30, I transferred my religious writing from Civilize Thyself to a new Substack called Developing Devotion. My first two posts there were:

• What the Sin of Greed Is and Is Not: Wealth-seeking can be sinful or virtuous

• Make Time for Contemplation of the Ideal: Set your heart on heaven to do better work on the earth

In June, I had the opportunity to deliver a break-out session at the Objective Standard Insitute’s fantastic LevelUp 2023 conference. My talk was called “Drawing Inspiration from Heroic Individualists, Real and Fictional.” Here’s the blurb they featured on the web site:

Join Dan Sanchez for an inspiring examination of real-life and fictional individualists, identify the traits that make them heroes, and discuss ways to embody such traits in your own life. You’ll gain a deeper understanding of the nature of individualism and the practical, life-serving value of being an individualist.

Then came another turning point in my life. On July 31, I had a seizure, which led to me being diagnosed with stage-4 lung cancer that had spread to my brain and spine. I publicly announced my diagnosis and discussed how I was dealing with it spiritually in my August 20 post A Note about My Health: And how I am finding inspiration in the face of adversity. That announcement drew an outpouring of support (both moral and financial) that overwhelms me and fills me with gratitude to this day.

In September, dealing with my illness prompted and informed another flurry of daily writing, yielding the following seven posts:

• To Sleep, Perchance to Heal: How I'm seeking to solve my sleep deficiency

• Praying More Properly: It's not a matter of merely making wishes

• While I See, I Write: A new perspective on perspective

• My Seizure, Diagnosis, and Initial Treatment: The first leg of my cancer journey

• Introducing the Read Academy: And its inaugural course, FEE 101

• To Abide in Christ: The practices I am following to develop my devotion

In September, while exploring cancer care options in Boston, I wrote the following four posts between medical appointments:

• Doctors Should Be Educators, Not Just Medicators: Empowering patients to make informed decisions about their own bodies and lives

• Learning to Write and Writing to Learn: With key word outlines

• The Deadly Dangers of a Life Adrift: Calm waters can be deadlier than stormy seas

• How Sin Makes Us Sick: And how personal responsibility is necessary for healing

Then in October, after returning to Atlanta, I had a wonderful discussion with my old friend Bob Murphy about my illness, faith, and work for an episode of his podcast that was released the following month.

Also in October, I started a new approach to regular writing which I explained in Writing Daily on My Daily Reading: Stacking a new habit on top of an old one. This yielded the following seven Bible study essays on the Book of Matthew:

• The Son of David: and heir to the throne

• A Just Man: When Saint Joseph chose mercy over sacrifice

• The King Is Born: Jesus proved to be an unprecedented kind of king

• The Call to Repent: How John the Baptist made way for the Kingdom of Christ

• The Trinity Made Manifest: and Christ's earthly mission inaugurated

• Baptism as Hero’s Journey: A plunge into the abyss for the ultimate treasure

• The Anointed One: Water, oil, and the Holy Spirit

The last essay I published in 2023 was a November 11 post for my Superhero Studies Substack: The Man of Tomorrow: Superman as utopian role model.

Since then, I’ve been slowly and painstakingly working on the next post in my Book of Matthew series, this one discussing the devil’s three attempts to tempt Jesus Christ. Over the holidays, I’ve also been working on an in-depth memo applying the hero’s journey to my team’s work at FEE. And in the coming year, I intend to write a series of essays (that will hopefully culminate in a book) based on a “FEE 101” series of lectures I delivered this past autumn.

As 2023 draws to a close, I am deeply grateful that my cancer has receded (recent scans showed significant shrinkage of the cancer in both my brain and my lungs) and that my neurological and visual symptoms have cleared up, enabling me to write. For 2024, I ask God to grant me the devotion and discipline to maintain a daily writing regimen that will honor the gifts He has given me and help me fulfill my calling.

Thank you, dear reader, for your interest and support.