“The intellectual factors of religion are important, but their overdevelopment is likewise sometimes very handicapping and embarrassing.” — The Urantia Book In a thrift store recently I saw a framed sign for sale. I didn’t buy it, but remembered it. It said: Life is a test. It is only a test. If it had …
The Small Voice We know that the still small voice is there to be heard, and yet every excuse is made not to find the time to listen to it. You think you desire to put aside a small part of each day for your divine appointment, and yet, your mental appetites make it impossible of accomplishment. Some people even …
Juan Cole shared a spotlight with Pastor Rick Warren over the weekend, at the annual Muslim Public Affairs Council in Long Beach. His post is well worth reading, especially so for those who would rather get poked in the eye with a sharp stick than listen to Warren deliver the inauguration invocation.
Frank Vincent Zappa, Urantian musician, was resurrected on the third period following his physical death on December 4, 1993. He was as surprised as any resurrectee that comes through here, pretty much a fucked-up agnostic who thought he was just another burnt weenie. But Frank is quick, clever, and smart, and got with the program from day one…
When the crowds who came to hear Jesus teach began to include many of his bitter enemies, he explained his decision to teach in parables this way: “I will present my teaching in a parable, so that you may each take for yourself that which finds a reception in your heart.”
Album covers gave musicians an opportunity to use visual art as an insightful dimension to their music. Zappa’s THEM OR US cover features the remarkable artwork of Donald Roller Wilson, which uses themes from other Wilson work starring PATRICIA, in the red smock. The Heinz ketchup bottle and nipple baby bottle are items which appear frequently in Roller’s work. It’s not surprising Zappa appreciated Wilson’s work, as they are similar in important ways.
If you have never heard this parable, or only know the second-hand account from the Bible, reflect on the fact that the Son of Man created this story, not just for the confused and confounded souls of his day, not just for all future residents of our world, but for every lost soul on each and every world of a projected ten million inhabited planets.
