The Ecology of Reading Patheos

As the Patheos Blue Banner loads, a pop up add elbows its way into view from the left. I click ‘close’ and scroll down the page looking for an interesting read. The pop up returns. I click ‘close’ again, trying not look at whatever cookie-coded-spyware-demographic-locator-add is striving for my attention.

Scrolling past posts on politics, radical Islam, Batman vs. Superman, Easter, Bodhisattvas, I am enticed by low low mortgage rates, and then a do-gooder non-profit asking for donations, playing my Christian charity like a harp.

The pop up appears again, like a smiling face from behind a door…Books for sale, Retreats, NewsWatch, Fresh Voices, Facebook banners… It feels strange to seek a temple in a marketplace. To seek refuge bombarded by messaging. To seek simplicity in a place filled with complexity, and silence in a place filled with noise…