Too bleak for your taste? Tell me another one.

You give your first author more credit than may be due when you imply she is malicious and biased; perhaps she's just plain stupid.

Well, since Republicans are the only ones stupid enough to believe Billy Barry, let's hope it's their votes that are suppressed.

Sometimes I wonder what planet they live on.

Wish he’d go skydiving, then....

I think there is benefit to medical/scientific research on mental illness. Diagnostics, not so much. If they want to do research, how about effective, results-based interventions? I do agree about allocating more for assistance of all kinds. As far as truth goes - will anybody who needs help with ascertaining truth really going to read this?

But the only way I’ll know if she says anything more is if you tell me. You know I won’t watch that shit.

This is original sin.

I kind of like “useless eater:” it defines little donny pretty well.

I was just thinking about this on the way home from church (so less than an hour ago)! Teaching a Lenten study on John's Gospel, and thinking that you really have to enter into it differently than the synoptics. More like reading poetry, though lots of people don’t “get” poetry, either. Maybe more like getting ready to listen to music, or even to sing. Sometimes lyrics don’t make a lot of sense, or sound really banal, if you just read them out loud, with a rational, logical mind. But once the music is there, lyrics are transformed into something more, something meaningful, metaphorical. Maybe it’s just surrendering ourselves to the movement of the Spirit. And yes, our reading from Romans today was similar - “Just as through the one man, we all are sinners, so through Christ are we saved” (rough rendition). Not literal; more poetic, metaphorical. Great minds....

You go! Great inquiry!

Living in fear, here, and feeling pretty helpless to do anything.

Scialabba isn’t wrong, and neither are you. As a churchy-type person, I keep trying to show people how scripture and (admittedly, pretty flexible Episcopal) dogma promote this view and approach to life, rather than divert from it. I spend a certain amount of time translating. Like any good thing, scripture and dogma can be used for enrichment or impoverishment.

Thanks for this. Have been thinking of a couple of things touched on in this: the ordinary appearance of “the holy,” much of the time is something I preached about today. Just finished a book with the subtitle “Carl Jung and the end of humanity,” and this helps me name the error of fatalism and linearity (even though my author tries to sidestep this). I think this is why I always enjoyed our rambling conversations so much.

Interesting ideas. I especially like the one about sharing and friendly critique of ideas in groups of friends. Have been corresponding about this with a Facebook/email friend. So can we really retrieve our democracy by walking more? Think I’ll walk to breakfast tomorrow, if I’m well enough. But I’m still driving to church in Lancaster!

I have been thinking about something like this for a little while. Ego transcendence is essential. Mystical experience is pretty important (call it what you will. “Oceanic” seems a little trivial for how profound it feels). The Church’s agreed upon definitions of theological things are pretty irrelevant these days. But hearts are still hungry. To use churchier language, the God-shaped hole is still there, and still can’t be filled by the usual things we try. So if the church is to continue to exist, what is it that we have to give? I’m wrestling with this.

Wait - did you just tell me to go to hell? And here I thought you were my friend! It was one of those times when I read through with great satisfaction and agreement, then did a double take and said, “Hey, wait a minute!” 😳🤪😁

Beautiful. Thank you. Perfect prayer for the New Year.

Merton can be difficult sometimes, but not here. Of course there’s no room inside little donny, because he is so completely full of himself. So small. So impoverished. Oops, I could almost see around my blind rage there, to a place of feeling sorry for him. But not quite.

Roy, I was told it might be an old grain silo top. Very heavy.

Wow. That’s all. You could have stopped with the definition of liberalism.😱

Completely agree! If it’s not relevant to how we can live today, how we can live more deeply, richly, and abundantly (and I’m not talking about material riches and abundance), why bother? Better to just sleep in on Sunday morning.

😄😂 Yes, Obama had a few scandals in his administration, though by current standards they could be classified as “controversies.” And there is a point to be taken (however poorly made) about news media exaggerating things, just as The Weather Channel often (not always) exaggerates weather events. I’m thinking about the huge deal that was recently made of Bernie’s recent heart attack. Yeah, sure, it’s a big deal; but the breathless speculation about “Where is he? Why are other people speaking on his behalf???” was hard to stomach. If “the elites” are trying to take down little donny, I wish them great success. Looking forward to President Nancy!