Are you a Lamed-Vavnik? According to Jewish tradition, there are 36 exceptionally righteous (read: supermensch-like) people in the world in each generation, and without whom the world would cease to exist. (In Hebrew counting, 36 is “lamed vav” (lamed =…
Tag: There’s a God in My Soup
Religious experience, or at least the experience of religion.
Litmus
A SURE TEST OF ANY theology is to ask, “Does God exist before human beings?” Among other things, the answer can shed light on one’s grasp of science. For if you allow for a God who watched over the dinosaurs,…
Aside
“GOD” IS NOT A FAN club.
Aside
“GOD” IS THE EXPERIENCE OF “experiencing God.”
I Am In Love With Edna St. Vincent Millay
EVIDENTLY, SHE WROTE A POEM in 1928 called “Dirge With Music.” I have not yet read any of her other works, but I hope they’re like this one. The last stanza says it all: Down, down, down into the darkness…
Pithyism #16
THE WORLD LOOKS A LITTLE more friendly with something fragrant bubbling on the stove.
The Aim Of All TRUE Religion
PROLONGING THE GOD EXPERIENCE INTO every waking moment. (All else — songs, prayers, chants, acts, texts, charity, incense, beads, building fund — is just stage direction. Which is not to dismiss the stage direction, since that’s one of the keys…
Aside
O G?D, DEAREST AND WISEST One, Maker of mercies and miracles, Describer in line and form, please: Save us from those sincere souls who know what You really meant.
Equationary Simples
METAL = ROCKS + FIRE / SLAG. WRITING = WORDS x TIME / TALENT. LOVE = PEOPLE – EGO x ACTION. COOKING = INGREDIENTS + TASTE x EXPERIENCE. TEACHING = THOUGHT1 + THOUGHT2 x EXPERTISE / TOPIC. FILM = IMAGES…
Two Indigent Sketches
1. HITCHHIKING THROUGH RENO IN 1985, I wandered by the green banks of the Truckee River, where a number of seen-better-days men lived in the park, in what apparently remained of their business suits. “Hey buddy, you got a second?”…
Punch-drunk Piety
WE ARE THE WRESTLERS-WITH-God, the ones grabbing His lapels and hollering “Speak up, sonny!” and don’t worry about staining the carpets. And we like It that way. You who put God on a shelf Who pull Him out once or…
Pithyism #210
RELIGION, OR AT LEAST JEWISH religion, and certainly a root cause of religion’s comfort, appeal and danger, is simply and little more than people doing what they like to do in the way they like and feel compelled to do…