Eleanor Rigby

Last Sunday, I attend a new church for the second time. During the sermon, I found myself thinking, “Why do I do this?” Why indeed. I can think of dozens of “Why nots.” But I am running short on “whys.” The only thing I could come up with is that I am lonely. But is it […]

Sky Cake: The Middle Weigh

Before reading this entry, watch the video that inspired it. I love cake. My middle can attest to this fact. Red velvet in particular is very tasty. But as I am sure you can already guess that this posting is not about actual cake. Rather it is an appreciation of Patton Oswald’s routine on faith. […]

Attachment and Engagement

Here are thoughts for a rainy day from a practicing agnostic Christian Buddhist. I have been struggling of late with the third noble: suffering is the result of attachment. I think what I got hung up on was the antonym of attachment: detachment. Detachment denotes aloofness. Visions of a monk in a cave come to […]

Hilarious

When my son is in the hospital, my wife and I take shifts staying overnight with him. That way there is always one coherent parent present when Drs and nurses come by. In this last 6 day stint, Monday was one of my nights off. When I got home I was so keyed up, I […]

Kinda Prayin’

I must preface my remarks today with an observation. Love has become an almost meaningless word to me. It is so ubiquitous in our lexicon that it can refer to hamburgers, sex or a lifelong commitment. So I am going to stop using it. For today’s entry the word I will use to convey my […]

I’d rather laugh with the sinners, than cry with the saints

The older I get the more I think that I may not be compatible with heaven. It is most assuredly not for a lack of information. I have heard about heaven and hell for all of my life. I have spend most of my life surrounded by people that knew beyond a shadow of a […]

A Generous Idolatry

I have been thinking about Idols a lot recently (not the Paula Abdul kind). The second commandment says you shall not make carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven or above. If you go with the narrowest interpretation of the commandment, it would be pretty easy to keep. I do not […]

Veal or Chicken?

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” –Proverbs 22:6 When I was a kid, much of my free time was devoted to church and church activities. If there was an event that included my age group, I had to attend or […]

Sorry…Stolen from a friends blog

A friend of mine (Brian , who will remain safely anonymous…ooops) wrote recently about an apology he heard at work. I am shamelessly stealing this theme. To paraphrase, one of the things he said was that good apologies feel like you are ripping something out of your chest. Agreed! A former friend of mine was […]

Vergence, Part 3, the Practice

I start this entry by describing the best class of my undergraduate years. It was my final semester and I was taking 19.5 units. By that time, I had completed all my religious studies and I had only upper division psychology classes, including my thesis left. Oh, and one pesky general ed. class. I needed […]