we will be taking a break after this episode due to the other projects in the works. feel free to check out A Podcast About Names and Other Stuff, as well as Been Pastoring Through Some Hard Times, to see other works while you wait. for now, those, this is arguably one of the most traditional episodes yet. a lot of different pieces, of a variety of types, all coming together to help show you what it is to be a people, a human be-ing, a person. enjoy, think, learn, and see you next time...

this is a long episode; seriously, you may need to pause it a few times to get all the way through; but then, some thoughts take time; this is one of those. join me in thinking deep thoughts on what it means to have direction, how do we orient ourselves in this world, and just how important is a world view anyways? written in 2015, Cardinal Directions is one of my more serious pieces I have done, a long form essay that journeys into the depths of my heart for the world.

this episode is meant to look at the idea of just what does it mean to exist from a number of different angles. the only problem is that some of these essays i'm not exactly sure when I wrote them! "They're Only Human: Sustenance" (2023) is the first installment in a new series of stories to slowly examine the ideas of being, relationship, and meaning in the world. not sure exactly when i wrote this one, but "Autocide" (2008?) makes us stop and ask ourselves just who we are, and what do we honestly think of that? in "Anarchy with Memory" (2010?), while i ironically enough don't remember exactly when it was written, we apply a concept first explored in a political model i had proffered to my own personal state of being. "Have I Introduced You to My Friend Bob?" (2014) forces us to question how we sound, and how we listen, and how even we live. finally, "The Hope of All Hopes" (2007) is my attempt to express just what gave me hope for the future during one of my darker times in life.

What could be more modern than looking at ways to disagree, right? But these aren’t new arguments, once again spanning the years, we look at essays from different times and places that explore a number of the divisions in life. In Apple pie, Baseball, and Jazz (2015) we are confronted with the place of Blackness in the American identity. Then we encounter a diatribe against the alleged unity found in the church in Divide We Stand (2021). Finally, we come to what is possibly the most popular essay from the entire fuzzie squirrel catalog, Button B Has No Function (2005). 

This episode centers around a theme of youthfulness, growth, maturity and even the hope of change. Memoirs of a Pagan Sacrifice (Dec. 2015) is a meditation on the goals parents make for their children. Kids Will Be Kids (Feb 2015) is a short story that may seem strange at first, but soon proves that there really is "nothing new under the sun." Gold Star Snitches (Feb 2015) gives us a brief look into a secret society, so don't tell anyone. Finally, I Had A Dream This Morning (Feb 2014) delves into the melancholic realizations that we can sometimes only make when we are not awake.