The Prodigal Fouro returns.

Greetings reader![sic?] Pardon the extended absence of typos and mumbling the last several weeks but life/business consumes, eh? Hopefully we've crossed a rubicon, passed through this vale of tears, etc and so forth.

Why all the theo-speak? Well, I just learned about the next book I'll be reading via a post over at Dailykos by diarist, teacherken. He describes "a remarkable book "The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness" by Karen Armstrong. A snippet:

Haym Maccoby had given me a clue when we sat together, six years earlier, eating egg-and-tomato sandwiches in the little cafe near Finchley Central tube station. He had told me that in most traditions, faith was not about belief but about practice. Religion is not about accepting twenty impossible propositions before breakfast, but about doing things that change you. It is a moral aesthetic, an ethical alchemy. If you behave in a certain way, you will be transformed. The myths and laws of religion are not true because they conform to some metaphysical, scientific, or historical reality but because they are life enhancing. They tell you how human nature functions, but you will not discover their truth unless you apply these myths and doctrines to your own life and put them into practice. The myths of the hero, for example, are not meant to give us historical information about Prometheus or Achilles -- or for that matter, about Jesus or the Buddha. Their purpose is to compel us to act in such a way that we bring out our own heroic potential.

In the course of my studies, I have discovered that the religious quest is not about discovering "the truth" or "the meaning of life" but about living as intensely as possible here and now. The idea is not to latch on to some superhuman personality or to "get to heaven" but to discover how to be fully human -- hence the images of the perfect or enlightened man, or deified human being. Archetypal figures such as Muhammed, the Buddha, and Jesus become icons of fulfilled humanity. God or Nirvana is not an optional extra, tacked on to our human nature. Men and women have a potential for the divine, and are not complete unless they realize it within themselves. A passing Brahman priest once asked the Buddha whether he was a god, a spirit, or an angel. None of these, the Buddha replied; "I am awake!" By activating a capacity that lay dormant in undeveloped men and women, he seemed to belong to a new species. In the past, my own practice of religion had diminished me, whereas true faith, I now believe, should make you more human than before."

Hoo-waa, as Pacino would say. In those two paras she gives us the arc of creativitity, hope, compassion, courage and conscience, yeah? Add in great sex and you've got a perpetual motion machine. Okay, great sex and hot, fresh Krispy Kremes and ice cold vitamin-D. Waa-hoo.