Posts from Preachy

Gaming repackaged the terms of Stoicism for me so that randomness replaced the Stoic principle of accepting the inconsistencies of the world around us. I imagined a spirituality by which this randomness defines our own lives, a place where one can acknowledge chance in life.

Disagree? Vote here.

Andover, Illinois, where I grew up, is a small farming town settled by the Swedish. Outsiders were not welcome unless you had family already living there. Not many of us left. Leaving was against the rules. I got the hell out of town as soon as I could.

This Friday, we present a Space Object of the Month, in which a Preachy co-editor invites you to learn how to use his telescope (with him):

45 percent of teenagers in the United States express a belief that there is truth to be found in multiple religions, even when a majority of the same age group subscribes to the same religious belief system as their parents. A shift is coming.

Each Friday, the folks at Preachy will offer you something of a reflection for your weekend. This Friday, we present our re-casting of Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt’s Oblique Strategies cards. We call our version Opaque Strategies. Here is Opaque Strategy number 11:

It has been nearly 20 years since my co-worker Matinal asked me to hang out, with just him and his record player, even though he knew I had a serious boyfriend. Only a year later, I would no longer be in contact with him, and I’d be married to that boyfriend. Still, I remember that night. Its context was nonsensical, but the clarity it offered me on what we hold sacred was indelible.

Throughout my life, I’ve been collecting literature, poetry, and essays that shape my worldview. This personal canon is not carved into stone, but rather it’s fluid, evolving. For myself, I declare these texts important, and so, for me, they are.

Co-editor Mike Kanin was so inspired by Joe MacLeod’s Monday Thought about Bela Lugosi as Jesus that he made a playlist about it. We hope you enjoy it.

A Holy Day of Obligation meant we weren’t in the classroom for a couple of hours. Instead, we were in church—which can be entertaining, or at least interesting if it’s a cool church full of statues and art and stained glass and candles.

We present our re-casting of Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt’s Oblique Strategies cards. We call our version Opaque Strategies.

You’re supposed to eat sweet things for a sweet year on Rosh Hashanah. My Nana’s pot roast is kind of sweet. Mostly it’s the memory of it, I think.mike

Items I will try to find: Neptune. Why?: ’Cause … the planet is at opposition and on close approach. When: September 14, 2021