Greetings, Merry Mystics!

My seminary was the Earlham School of Religion. I’m so glad I found it—or it found me. I had a great experience there, and I would recommend ESR to anyone who’s thinking of seminary studies.

But what draws students to seminary studies in the first place? My classmates and I spent quite a lot of time trying to explain, to ourselves and to each other, why we were there. I’m not sure any of us came up with an entirely satisfactory answer at the time, but here’s one that’s true for me now.

Bright blessings,

Adam

P.S. I wrote this back in 2017; this is a slightly updated version.

Greetings, Merry Mystics!

Another little political song today. There’s a lot of spoken word in this one. (I’ve been thinking about Gil Scott-Heron’s classic from 1971, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”)

When I first heard people accusing their political opponents of TDS, it seemed to be just a humorous put-down. More recently, though, it seems to be a serious attempt to classify political dissent as mental illness. Last month, in a Justice Department court filing, they accused the National Trust for Historic Preservation of suffering from “Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly referred to as TDS.” And when I posted this video on Facebook, more than one comment insisted that TDS is a real mental illness, and I shouldn’t be making fun of it!

Greetings, Merry Mystics!

Gee, but I always feel reluctant to share edgy songs like this one. What if people take offense? Or what if people embrace it, with realizing that it’s satire? Or what if people are just turned off by politics of any stripe?

But, oh well. As Popeye said: I yam what I yam.

Given that, here’s The ICE Recruiting Song. The song is partly based on a popular song from the Civil War era: “Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! (The Prisoner’s Hope)” by George F. Root.

Mellow greetings, Merry Mystics!

I was thinking about Pete Seeger this week—one of my heroes—so I wrote this little protest song.

Anyone want to send me another verse?