At this moment in my life, I suffer from an abundance of offers of free books. Well, not actually free. The cost is a promise to review it. Mostly I decline these offers. The truth is the stack of books I want to read for my purposes is dangerously high. And I want to get the stack lower, not add unnecessarily to it. For that reason, I tend to keep close to my subject when I agree... Read more

      I’ve just noticed that the Episcopal Church observes today, the 13th of June, as a feast, of sorts, for Gilbert Keith Chesterton. He is perhaps best known as G. K. Chesterton. According to Wikipedia his “friendly enemy” George Bernard Shaw spoke of Chesterton as “a man of colossal genius.” And a public intellectual of his time and place. Chesterton was a wit and a controversialist.  He was a both a literary and social critic. he turned his... Read more

      Emptiness: A Practical Guide for Meditators GUY ARMSTRONG Somerville, Mass.: Wisdom Publications, 2017. 307 pp., paper, $17.95. Introduction to Zen Koans: Learning the Language of Dragons JAMES ISHMAEL FORD Wisdom Publications, 2018. 248 pp., paper, $17.95. Reviewed by Dhananjay Joshi Of course the bird we see and hear exists. It exists, but what I mean by that may not be exactly what you mean. —Shunryu Suzuki Roshi To come across one good book on a topic like... Read more

          So, there I was minding my own business poking through Youtube’s algorithmic determined offerings, when up popped a delightfully funny, and informative, clip from “Lutheran Satire.” The clip, “St Patrick’s Bad Analogies,” is a worthy romp through the deal of the Christian trinity, while making mild fun of the English missionary to the Irish, St Patrick. So, you know. Win. Win. Totally worth watching… It also set me to thinking about the problems of the... Read more

      Dr Robert Smith took his last drink today, the 10th of June, in 1935. Alcoholics Anonymous, which was organized by Dr Bob and Bill Wilson, dates its creation from this moment. So, happy Eighty-seventh birthday, AA! Using principles first adapted from the Oxford Group and over time evolved into its own thing, Dr Bob and Bill W created a powerful spiritual movement. I’ve reflected on the spirituality of Alcoholics Anonymous a number of times, for instance here... Read more

                  In 2017 Jan and I had the pleasure of spending a couple of days in Manhattan. We took advantage of proximity to have breakfast at the Algonquin, sitting not far from the round table itself, under a portrait of Dorothy Parker and many of the rest of the Vicious Circle. Cost more than I liked by a fair bit. But, we got to eat breakfast under a picture of Dorothy Parker.... Read more

    Prayer as Spiritual Practice: Random Notes from my Dreams James Ishmael Ford I’ve been meeting with an old colleague twice a month for a while now. He suffered from a swarm of strokes that has left him severely disabled, mostly physically, but also to some degree cognitively. Talking is extremely difficult for him. He’s also a Unitarian Universalist Christian. So, after some experimenting, I’ve taken to reading the Psalms with him. This has led me on a journey... Read more

    It was on this day, the 4th of June in 1411, that King Charles VI granted a monopoly for the ripening of Roquefort cheese to the people of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon. Today the European Union recognizes this in law dictating only those cheeses aged in the Combalou caves of Roqueort-sur-Soulzon may bear the name Roquefort. As it should be… Wikipedia tells us how “Legend has it that the cheese was discovered when a youth, eating his lunch of bread and ewes’ milk cheese, saw... Read more

      I see today is the anniversary of the death of Pope John XXIII. He was the pope of my childhood. He was the pope Protestants liked in an era where that didn’t happen. He was known as the Good Pope and Good Pope John. He’s actually the second person to use that particular style, John XXIII. The first was an early Fifteenth century bishop who lost out in the struggles among several popes. In the end that... Read more