The 2025 Wheelie Awards
A totally subjective awards ceremony.
You’re reading Tethered Letters, a monthly long-form letter on creative faith and faithful creativity. Everything I write is AI-free. Thanks for reading.
Hello loved ones,
Our December clipped along to the tune of Christmas, but for various reasons the actual day was quiet and reflective. This is mostly due to the absence of various family members (all for wonderful and good reasons) who tend to bring the party with them. But it’s also due to a gradual acceptance, over the years, of what Christmas might bring. I’ve been trying to keep the posture of just letting it come and wash over us. We’ll be here and ready. I’ll make a pot of coffee and pull out a large bowl of Chex mix. We’ll live the life that unfolds before us.1
Part of what unfolded this year for the fam was the pure enjoyment of many books, albums, movies, and other sundry pleasures. I do love a year-end list of favorite things, mostly so I can make my own of what I will enjoy in the year to come. But instead of a full run-down, I thought I would just do an awards ceremony. I’ll call it the Wheelies, because why not?
Here’s what you’re in for. I’ll be giving out Wheelies this year for the categories of: albums, songs, books, games, movies, TV shows, Youtube videos, pipe tobaccos, garden vegetables, mushrooms, birds, and favorite poems and letters I’ve written (along with a few honorable mentions and a few failures). The criteria are simple: whatever I liked most wins, quality and popularity and year created notwithstanding. Pure, glorious, subjective favoritism all down the line. I hope you enjoy!
Album of the Year: As Long As I Am in the Tent of the Body I Will Make a Joyful Noise (John van Deusen)
I had been aware of John’s music since several years back, but this album hit me at the exact right time with the exact right words and sound that I didn’t even know I needed. Beyond my personal connection to it, however, it’s a magnum opus for an already prolific songwriter, and a testament to a local church musician seeking to glorify God with his music.
I find that there are (generally) two types of church musicians who are also recording artists: the sort who use their church as a springboard for a record deal, and the sort who love their church and write for them. John is the latter, and you can hear it in his work. This alone makes it worth the listen. But then you find out it rocks hard too.
Honorable Mentions:
A Liturgy, A Legacy, and the Songs of Rich Mullins (Andrew Peterson & Co.) — I hold the original music so dear, so of course this was going to be on the list as a close second.
Graceland (Paul Simon) — Our family’s summer soundtrack, and the perfect road trip music.
Clarity of Cal (Vulfpeck) — This live album is accompanied by a live concert video on Youtube that got a lot of play at our house (beloved by all ages).
Song of the Year: “Disco Snails” (Vulfmon)
Jack Stratton has already made a great argument for this song, which I think is wholly sufficient to the task.
But for our part, Disco Snails was the answer to everything this year, an all-purpose anthem that never lost its groove or potency in any circumstance, and a reminder that disco will never truly die. It was the constant play that celebrated constant play.
Honorable Mentions:
BAD DECISIONS (Andy Squyres): The best of a near-perfect EP of love songs.
Dawn (Vulfmon): A beautiful little throwback-style gem.
By Gracious Powers (John van Deusen): A modern hymn that will stand the test of time.
Every Christmas (Colony House): I slept on this one last year, but I believe it’s destined to become a classic, with its singable nature and perfect, simple lyrics.
Book of the Year: Deeper (Dane Ortlund)
Pastoral, practical, and Christocentric unfolding of sanctification that acts as a giant relief and necessary antidote to the law-focused narratives I grew up hearing. It’s unassuming when considered against some of the others in the honorable mention list, but I went through it with my men’s group at church, and it just seemed like it was signaling and celebrating how God has been at work in all of our hearts this year. More than any other book this year, this one characterizes the spiritual landscape of 2025 for me. Thanks to John Yany for the rec!
Honorable Mentions:
Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck) — I listened to this book throughout the summer, and was just in awe of Steinbeck’s journalistic storytelling. The common kindnesses and resilience of the characters in the face of devastating hardships, societal failure, and familial fractures… all of this lives in my mind to this day.
The Art of Loading Brush (Wendell Berry) — I love that Wendell Berry’s wisdom is deeply rooted in a local place and applicable to all of life. This collection of essays is capped off with a Port William story that speaks to generational change and offers clear hope for the future.
Great Possessions (David Kline) — Speaking of deeply rooted, this book is just a delightful nature journal of an Amish farmer. We read it throughout the year, corresponding with the seasons.
Fails (DNF because I did not want to):
The Creative Act: A Way of Being (Rick Rubin) — I may make some folks mad here, but I found this bloviating, unhelpful, and unnecessary. Couldn’t make it past 20 pages. It was like wading through a morass of self-indulgence.
Oathbringer (Brandon Sanderson) — I really enjoyed the first two Stormlight Archives meganovels, but I read them in succession. After a six-month gap, I just could not find the story line or the motivation to keep up with this one. Made me wonder whether there was such a thing as too epic.
Everything That Rises Must Converge (Flannery O’Connor) — Finally took the plunge into O’Connor. She’s a great writer, to be sure. But it was just too… unrelenting. I could predict what was going to happen in every story, and every story was of a kind, meaning the kind that makes you dread the ending. I might have to come back to her when I’m in a different headspace.
Game of the Year: Duel for Middle Earth
A latecomer in a slew of great games we played this year, but I’m hard put to think of any other perfectly balanced game that I’ve played since Wingspan. It’s a two-player with multiple win conditions, a perfect run-time, an easy learning curve, and growing intensity to the final chapter. And it runs on respect for LOTR. Highly recommend for any Tolkien aficionado or board gamer.
Honorable Mentions:
Survive the Island — This is utter chaos and totally mean and the kids and I loved it. Any game where you get to say “om-nom-nom” while having a kaiju eat somebody else’s meeple is a work of art in my book.
Sea Salt and Paper — Great game in a small package, with beautiful art. Perfect quick summertime play in between beach-combing.
Finspan — While not as perfect as Wingspan, Finspan really leans into its theme with some new mechanics and a more sandbox approach to gameplay. It really feels like anything is possible, like you’re floating in the ocean finding beautiful and weird fish.
Movie of the Year: Perfect Days (Wim Wenders)
This movie was a wash of delight. I’ve already written about it extensively, and how much I loved it. But the true test of it is that I’m still thinking about it fondly to this day and mulling it over in my heart and mind. It is a testament to a different way of viewing the world, of understanding purpose and success, and of, just maybe, only buying another book after you’ve read the current one.
Honorable Mentions:
Superman (James Gunn): Saw it in theaters, loved it. Watched it at home, loved it more. Wrote about it.
All the Studio Ghibli films: We watched Totoro, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Castle in the Sky, and Kiki this year, and all of them were delightful (with varying reactions from the kids). Also wrote about these.
TV Show of the Year: The Middle
Linnea and I tried this a few years back and couldn’t get into it. This year, though, we have our first teenager, and with the transition into a more chauffeur-style of parenting on our horizons, this show hit the spot (not to mention it’s set in small-town Indiana). It is pure catharsis. Its humor is simultaneously innocent and zany, and its love for its characters is so good-natured. Plus, the Heck family just makes us all feel seen and understood and better about ourselves, I think.
Honorable Mentions:
The Great British Bake Off (Series 6) — Our favorite series of the whole show. We introduced this to the kids this year and they all loved it.
LEGO Masters (Season 2) — Also our favorite of the show. Totally over-the-top but also totally fun and inspiring.
Fails:
Okay, hear me out. I thought the latest season of The Bear, despite my affection for it, started to crack. It felt a little too indulgent. It didn’t have the oomph or passion or restraint that made the past seasons so wonderful, and they were pushing too hard for “feels.” The last episode was near unwatchable. I hope they pull it back for the next season and end well.
Youtube Video of the Year: “Is This the GREATEST In-Camera Effect of ALL TIME?” (Corridor Crew)
Late in the year, a winner arises. The Corridor Crew is always doing fascinating things with a gonzo sense of fun and a lot of heart, but this one was the perfect marriage of love for Peter Jackson’s trilogy, love for cinema and practical effects, and wonder. We all watched it and all loved it.
Honorable Mentions:
“America’s Dumbest Crop” (Climate Town) — Warning on crass language, but this was a highly entertaining mini-doc about the American obsession with grass and why it’s stupid. As a proponent of restoring native prairie, can confirm. Also I’m a sucker for solid stats packed into a funny format.
“SURROUNDED: Andrew Callaghan” (Jubilee) — Whatever you may think of Andrew Callaghan and his guerrilla journalism, the guy knows how to have a disarming, challenging conversation with someone. This was funny and weird and thoughtful all at once (which is NOT usually the case with Jubilee videos, tbh).
“Why Are Movies About Research So Addictive?” (Patrick Willems) — Patrick does some of the best video essays about cinema on Youtube (with a shout-out to Thomas Flight), and this one was just a perfect example of why they’re always so interesting.
Pipe Tobacco of the Year: Windjammer (G. L. Pease)
I am not by any means an expert when it comes to understanding and appreciating tobacco, just an amateur. But I loved this navy flake with lots of dried stone fruit and fig coming off the top. It never failed to be an enjoyable smoke.
Honorable Mentions:
Early Morning Pipe (Peterson) — A brighter option.
Black Gold Maple (C&D) — Warm and smooth and the maple wasn’t too forward.
Fails:
Crooner (C&D) — I really wanted to like this, because Bing did. But the addition of the deertongue soured it for me. Not my thing.
Haunted Bookshop (Pease) — I like this smoke, but it’s so strong I have to do a half bowl just to make it through. Maybe I’m a wimp, maybe you’d like it. But I want a long, relaxed smoke without feeling dizzy by the end.
Garden Vegetable of the Year: Cabbage
This was a good year for us to start growing cabbages, it seems, and boy were they fun. Just lavish, sprawling all over, beautifully colored purple and green leaves, huge yield for small effort and cost. We made so much coleslaw. And did you know that after harvesting the large heads, cabbage will still produce some smaller ones for a second harvest?
Honorable Mentions:
Kennebec Potatoes — They’re a classic crop for a reason, and super versatile. All around, the best kind of crop for lazy gardeners who still want to grow a bunch of their own food.
Music Garlic — Low maintenance, very little bug pressure, and you get garlic scapes to enjoy midway through the season. Not to mention the beautiful garlic braid for storage, and the flavor is noticeably better than store-bought garlic.
Fails:
The brussel sprouts we grew were delicious, but they were fussy to harvest and got really beat up by bugs this year. Too much effort for too little reward, IMO.
We tried peas (both sweet and snow) and despite the fact they just didn’t do too well, nobody really seemed to enjoy eating them. Kind of a “meh” for us.
Mushroom of the Year: Pheasantback
The foraging was good this year — yielding quite a few pounds of good quality shrooms, and adding a number of new edibles to my identification list, including honeys and resin mushrooms. But the all-star was the pheasantback, a beautiful, gigantic bracket fungus that has a distinct and delightful flavor. We just kept finding them cropping out of this old stump in our tree row, spring and autumn.
Honorable Mentions:
Chicken of the Woods: Spotted in multiple places, but the highlight was a four-pounder sprouting up from a subterranean stump in front of our church. Spotted by a friend of mine, and we enjoyed it sautéed with butter and onions with him and his family that evening.
Puffballs: Not only did we find a few fist-sized puffballs in our own backyard at peak freshness, but puffballs are fun regardless of whether you can eat them or not. If they’re just past prime, they’re delightfully disgusting pus-pockets. If they’re well past, they’re poofy balloons full of powder.
Fails:
Of all things, our winecaps failed this year, after several seasons of successes. For whatever reason (probably weather-related), they never came up at all. I’m crossing my fingers for spring.
Bird of the Year: Barred Owl
While around the campfire one night this year, at Turkey Run, we heard the goofiest sound I’ve ever heard a bird make: the caterwauling of a barred owl. Barred owls mate for life, and apparently they reaffirm their love for one another by doing this in the fall. For months afterward, Linnea and I were who-cooks-for-you-ing around the house at each other.
Honorable Mention:
At a very close second is the whippoorwill, which Linnea and I both heard for the first time together. We were on our 15th anniversary trip, on the back porch of our little cabin getaway in Brown County, and this whippoorwill just wound up and let loose.
Favorite Poetry I Wrote:
This one captured some of the sense I got this year of time shifting around us and flowing through us, of slow growth and delights along the way. It came together slowly, in fragments, and then I wasn’t sure how to end it. But then Linnea gave me the final lines over the phone one day. It was that rare combination of painstaking shaping and editing, coupled with serendipity — one of my favorite poems.
Honorable Mentions:
Oh, and I released my third book, Rehearse the Return.
Favorite Tethered Letter:
It was hard to choose, because this year I dug into a lot of old ground that needed to be tilled, a lot of past errors and God’s guidance along the way. This one felt like a culmination of many years of thinking and practicing, a bunch of things I love, and a word I really needed to hear myself, so it takes the top spot.
Honorable Mentions:
That’s all for now, friends. Would love to hear some of your favorites (or rebuttals!) in the comments. Happy New Year!
C
Thanks to one of my son’s current favorite book series, The Wilderking Trilogy by Jonathan Rogers.
I agree on Flannery. I think maybe she’s good, cathartic reading for when you’re angry?
I came literally face-to-flat-face with a barred owl at our new home last summer. I could have touched him. I keep looking and listening for his return.
This is such a great list. I need help with these kinds of things so thank you. I forgive you for failing Flannery.