The Pageless Book

Above Photo by Tom Coates. Photo Below by Chris Corwin.

The posts I’ve culled from the blogosphere this week all have a strong philosophical bent. Is there some astrological event that is causing this new outlook on religion, spirituality, and God? Nah! It just so happens that my choice in blogs tends to vibe with one another, and often hit upon similar themes… hence the title of my link love column, Friday Vibes.

Jerome, from Under A Violet Sun, wrote concerning naming God, and whether or not the process of putting a name to something limits that thing (in this case, the Divine). His theory was that we labeled people and things in order to control that thing. While I think that there are some individuals who use labels in conjunction with their control issues, I also think that humans like to label things to make communicating about those thing easier. However, his post on the subject definitely had me thinking and comparing my own ideas on the subject with his.

Joy Collins, from Wellspring, describes how her experience with her ailing father helped her come to understand God as a Verb. Her story of how she came to realize God is touching, and I highly recommend giving this article a look. There is also something very appealing to me about seeing God as being a process rather than a “thing.” I’ll have to meditate on that for a while and see where it leads me.

Tobeme, from The Naked Soul, also had a deep article this week about the intuitive nature of truth. It is less about a priori knowledge and posteriori knowledge of the philosophical sense, and more about spiritual truths that go beyond physical proof. The underlying message is that personal truths do matter, are empowering, and should not be discarded simply because it is not physical. I would also like to add something along the lines of “stick that in your pipe and smoke it!” to get a chuckle from my non-theist readers. The article says nothing about God one way or another, so I understand that it makes me look foolish - but, hell, I like being foolish!

Speaking of Foolishness, Rev. Dan from yet another really long blog name blog posted a rather interesting take on politics. He took the perennial Dungeons & Dragons question of real world alignments and asks us to pick alignments for the presidential candidates. My take on it? George W. Bush - Stupid Evil. Hillary Clinton - Chaotic Conceited (with Neutral Vice Presidential tendencies). John McCain - True Neutered. Barak Obama - Lawful Optimistic (with Presidential Good tendencies).

That’s all I have for today! Have a great weekend.

Photo by Andrew Kuchling.

On Wednesday, The Pageless Book had its one hundredth entry. If you deduct the two guest articles I have had, today’s entry would be the one hundredth. Regardless of how you choose to look at it, the blog has reached a milestone. It is is time to take a good look around and ask myself if this blog is progressing as it should.

Do I have the readership I have hoped for? Is the writing quality consistent? Can I say that this blog is efficiently organized? Am I happy with this blog over all? Almost every question I can think of, I would have to answer negatively. I see a lot of room for improvement, both in my own performance and in the quality of my blog.

However, there is also a lot of which I am proud. I love writing and being apart of this community. After six months of blogging, I still enjoy doing this. I’m hoping to expand on this blog and continue to grow. I’m not going to be giving up on The Pageless Book any time soon, despite what my recent actions might indicate.

Over the next few weeks, I will be making several improvements to The Pageless Book, the first of which is to make sure that new material is available Monday through Friday every week. You can also look forward to the continuation of the Friday Vibes and Site In Focus series. I’ve realized the value that they add to this blog, and need to re-institute them. I also need to go through my older entries, rewrite and resubmit them on the weekends. Finally, this site needs to be reorganized so that each post fits into one or two categories, rather than the four or five categories that each post currently falls into.

My hope is that these changes will invigorate this website and bring in new readers. Whether I am successful or not depends entirely on me and my ability to be consistent. I hope to deliver on the promise that this blog represents.

Above Photo by FreaksAnon. Photo below by Monkey123.

One of the major things that I strive to do with this website is offer a different point of view. Sometimes, that means pushing buttons and envelopes - a dangerous game of seeing how far down the rabbit hole you’re willing to follow me. Quite honestly, I’m surprised that I haven’t been admonished yet for going too far. Sure, readers have disagreed with me, but I don’t feel that any disagreements have resulted in a loss of respect. However, I also know that being controversial for the sake of controversy is an easy trap to fall into. Have I crossed that line this week?

My views are genuine, but that doesn’t mean a thing if I’m losing credibility with you, my audience. Sometimes I’m afraid that I am doing just that. I really care about the message I’m putting out there, and I don’t want my own words to get in the way of what needs to be said. Although I do this as a hobby, I also see it as a stepping stone that brings me closer to
my true goal of making this world a better place. Should I be myself, even if that means being viewed as an eccentric?

This is probably one of the more difficult aspects of trying to get people to think differently; you never know if they are actually thinking or if your words are just falling out of their ear, unheard. I wonder if other would-be ministers have ever felt this way. Of course this could all be part of the learning process - or perhaps an indication of the extent of my bovine manure collection. Either way, I shouldn’t beat myself up about it, should I?

It is all a part of the journey. Even if I wasn’t interested in becoming a minister, I would need to have these thoughts and these experiences. My development as a human being depends on making meaningful mistakes. Sometimes that means rubbing people the wrong way. I have this tendency to try to please everyone in my offline life; I need to get away from being so concerned about what other people think of me. Seth Pickens recently wrote about needing to be unmoved by criticism and praise as an important trait of ministry. I can’t agree with him more - I just need to apply that lesson more consistently.

I also need to hear back from you, my readers on a few things. I haven’t received enough responses to my short questionnaire. So far, only two people have taken the time to tell me a little about themselves. Don’t be shy - I really want to hear from you. If you don’t remember the questions I asked, they are:

• Which religion or spiritual path do you identify with?
• Which of my articles is your favorite and why?
• Which of my articles is your least favorite and why?
• What would you like to see more of or less of?
• Are you an RSS Subscriber?

Thank you for listening and Namaste.

Photo above by Diego Avila. Artwork below by Roy Blumenthal.

The last post I wrote was three days ago, on Thursday. I wanted to write a “Friday Vibes” article, but due to technical difficulties, I would have had to post it on Saturday. I decided there wasn’t much sense in doing that. So here I am today, Monday, still contemplating the events of last week, wanting to talk about it, even though it has already been discussed to death. Woe is me…

I really shouldn’t be too disappointed, seeing as last week I nominated for the UU Blog Awards. However, sporadic posting and constant whining about your blog on your blog isn’t necessarily a good way to win a blog award. Cutting back on articles posted per week and dropping one of your most popular series isn’t a good way to muscle in those votes, either. And admitting that you’ve made several mistakes in the past week to turn off your readers? Well, at least I can still say I’m honest. But the most sure fire way to ensure that I *not* win the Blog Awards that I’ve been nominated for, would be to promote my competition instead of myself. It would be rather foolish for me to do that…

Have I mentioned that Shelby from Looking For Faith has been nominated for “Best Religious Writing or Theological Commentary - Best of Class?” Yes, the same Shelby that I keep mentioning over and over again. She is one of the first people to actually welcome me to the UU blogging community, and I’ve been showering her with link-love ever since. She also recently picked up the torch for promoting social media in the UU blogging community. I will, of course, be voting for her.

Jules from UU Deist in Texas got a nod for “Best New Blog”. I really enjoy his writing style, his choice of subject matters, and the new look of his blog is impressive. I know this is wrong of me, but every time I read something written by Julian, I have a habit of imagining his speaking it in a Texas twang. Although to be fair, he may very well be reading this post to himself thinking I sound like Link Larken from Hairspray, me being from Baltimore and all.

PeaceBang’s Beauty Tips for Ministers has been nominated for “Best Design or Use of Visuals.” I have to admit, I don’t read this particular blog; I’m naturally gorgeous and have no need for beauty tips. Although the visuals *are* rather nice, and PeaceBang is spiffy-cool enough to vote for, so I suppose I could make an exception and vote for Beauty Tips.

Finally, there is the “Best Seminarian Blog” award. There is The Pageless Book, which is okay I guess, but I really prefer Elizabeth’s Little Blog. I haven’t been following it for long, but her blog covers some interesting topics and is worth reading. One article, on why “The Secret is Total Bunk,” has even been nominated for one of the single-article awards. I’ll be keeping my eye on this blog for the future.

In all seriousness, I wish everyone best of luck in snagging a few Blog Awards. Despite recent set-backs, The Pageless Book will continue to grow and be will be even more worthy of a Blog Award next year. I’m just honored to have been nominated along side such talent.

Photo above by Ibrahim Iujaz. Image below by “bdesignbe”.

During my middle school years, I was active in my school choir. When I say I was active, I don’t mean that I was the snot-nosed kid that missed half of the events and nodded off to sleep in music class. Actually, I was somewhat of a star student; I was the only baritone. More than that, I was chosen from all of my classmates to represent our school in a regional choir competition. I bet you didn’t even know there was such an animal!

Now, I don’t want you to get the impression that I can actually sing. It took a lot of voice training and effort on my part to sing on key and in harmony. If you asked me to try to sing now, I’m sure I’d shatter glass and make dogs howl. I point this aspect of my past out because it is one of the major reasons why I hate Christmas music and show tunes and yet never seem to get them out of my head. Singing in the Rain? Yes, it stuck in my head right now. Silver Bells? God Bless Ye Merry Gentlemen? Oh, Christmas time was our big season! The King and I? The moment I wrote the title of this post, I began compulsively singing…

Yet, this is still apart of who I am. I wouldn’t be who I am today if it wasn’t for the experiences I have had in my past. Every day I post a new article, I’m revealing apart of who I am, what I believe, and where I am going in life. I’m sharing some of the most intimate details of myself. I think a bit of turn-around is only fair.

One of your number nominated my blog for the UU Blog Awards. While this is an honor, I think it is more important that you are showing me that I am doing something right. I want to know what that is so I can do more of it! As such I’ve written a list of questions below that I’d like you to answer as honestly as you can in my comments. This is to help me understand you, my readers, so I can make this blog a more welcoming place for all of you. I especially want to hear from my RSS subscribers! Please answer the following:

• Which religion or spiritual path do you identify with?
• Which of my articles is your favorite and why?
• Which of my articles is your least favorite and why?
• What would you like to see more of or less of?
• Are you an RSS Subscriber?