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Results for "author_first: Jay, author_last: McDaniel"
Loyalty to Collective Breathing: A Yoga of World Solidarity
I feel fairly certain — as certain as I can feel — that when George Floyd couldn’t breathe, God couldn’t breathe either. What I mean is that George Floyd’s gasping for air was shared by an…
Finding Your Inner Banjo: A Theology
You can hear your inner banjo by listening to Rhiannon Giddens sing “Julie,” which she wrote. Or at least you can hear her inner banjo, and then find your own. That’s our calling in life. We w…
How Zen, Whitehead, and Jesus Ruined Me
I was told that the most important thing in life is to be rich, powerful, and famous. What happened?
Zen and Whitehead ruined me. Zen taught me to measure my life in terms of moments of expe…
Blessed Nostalgia
My mother, Virginia McDaniel, loved Perry Como. I grew up watching her listen to him sing and listening along with her. I loved and love his voice, and I love the image of my mom loving his voice…
Dressing Up as Mister Rogers for Love’s Sake
I am in a band, and on Halloween evening we played at one of my favorite restaurants in central Arkansas, Toad Suck Buck’s restaurant. Members of the band had an informal understanding that we mig…
Toward a Theology of Onions
A first step in developing a theology of onions is to recognize how beautiful they are. When I watched the video above from the Spiritual Literacy DVD series, using the words of Mary Hays G…
Sympathetic Joy as a Spiritual Gift
I’ve discovered a new word and I want to share it with you. It’s called midding. Here’s the definition as found in John Koenig’s Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows:
midding
v. intr. feeling t…
Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Six High Ideals
"Rosh Ha-Shanah is a time for us to contemplate our highest ideals and our actual behavior. We make amends to ourselves, to one another, and to God for the gap." So writes Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artso…
Pop Songs as Postmodern Angels
Not a lot of my liberal friends believe in angels, but I do. I am, after all, a process theologian.
I think pop songs are angels. They fly through the air with their sonic wings, carrying their k…
Playing Hide and Seek with God
I've been playing hide and seek with God most of my life. Sometimes I hide from God and sometimes God hides from me. I think I've discerned a pattern: Whenever I become confident that God is found i…