A Sound of Sheer Silence

Statistics tell us that we in the United States are approaching the point at which a majority of people do not consider themselves "religious."   Western Europe reached that point a while ago.  But behind those statistics is the question of what the survey recipients might mean by "religious" or "religion."  The popular understanding of this word, an understanding that I think is shared by both the folks who consider themselves religious as well as those who don't, is that religion has to do with an identification with a particular institution or tradition that is organized around transcendent questions and/or the engagement with a set of practices that have something to do with those transcendent practices.  So, one is religious if one identifies oneself with The Episcopal Church, or the Independent Fundamental Baptist Church, or Reform Judaism, or Baha'i, or engages in practices that are associated with one of those entities, or (more likely) bot...

1. I lost. It was close, and it was a good race, but I lost.  And, looking at the totality of the circumstances (the details of which are boring, especially since they were completely out of my control), I believe I did as well as I could have done. In the two months or so since the primary, many people have asked me how I am doing.  They are expecting, I think, for me to be traumatized on some level, and so they offer condolences or a pep talk or words of encouragement.  Truthfully, if you had asked me to predict beforehand how I would feel if I had lost, I would have told you that I would be in need of that kind of pick-me-up. But, I don't.  I didn't feel that way in the immediate moment after I realized I lost, and I don't feel that way now.  I think some folks believe I am putting on a good face, but I can promise you that is not the case.  I'm fine.   No, that's not right--I'm great.  I stood in front of people and asked them to put thei...