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From the library at the University of Notre Dame (yes, the one with the Touchdown Jesus mosaic overlooking the football
stadium; no, His arms do not come down when a team from a secular state institution, i.e. U. of Michigan, scores):

Greetings,

I have decided to e-publish the journal I started keeping when I
moved into the truck last week.  It centers on (but isn't limited to)
the ideas that grew into and continue to form the philosophical basis
of The Peasant and the King, which in itself is just a literary
exposition of the ideas that make up my faith.  It has become
crystal clear to me that none of the Christian churches I have
attended have ever spoken to me, or for me, except partially and
with symbolism that is mistaken for reality.  P&K. is the beginning
of an effort at finding clarify, for myself and maybe for others who
are in the same place spiritually.  

It is something I realize I can no longer be silent about, and rather
than open up the literary form before it is ready, it was given to me
to offer these notes to anyone who may be interested--beginning of
course with you collectively, my dear family and friends who have
helped --often in secret and invisible ways-- this faith to come to
fruition.

The target audience for these writings will be all people of faith who have felt alienated by mainstream Christianity's
assertion of moral superiority and exclusive possession of the Truth, and other dissident Christians who are weary of
being represented by people who claim a unique relationship with God, and profess spirit-choking right-wing politics
cloaked in the dogma of the "Moral Majority."

The aim will not be condemnation (though some condemning will inevitably occur, especially as I establish myself as the
Loyal Opposition), but ultimately reconciliation and unity-in-diversity.  I want to offer something that those who reject
mainstream Christianity --but not God or, in some cases, Christ-- can point to, without being easily classified as their
"enemy".  Some manage to classify everyone outside of their notion of the Truth as their enemy, and that really can't be
helped, but there are many, many loving, compassionate people in the Christian fold for whom "disagreement" does not
equal "rejection," and they will listen to diverse and coherent ideas about God and God's children.

These notes have been surprisingly coherent so far, considering they are sometimes literally written "on the fly", or at least
"roll".  I'm going to send the first installment to everyone; it's brief and unintentionally turned out to be a self-contained
sort of thesis statement for everything that follows.  If it bores you or seems like gibberish or you just plain don't want
anymore, let me know and I'll take your address off the group list, and we'll just talk about baseball or good road food or
whatever else comes up between chronicles, cuz there's plenty of that out here too!

Camerado, by the way, is the name of the truck, and it comes from the last stanza of Walt Whitman's "Song of the Open
Road":

"Allons!  the road is before us!
It is safe--I have tried it--my own feet have tried it well--be not detain'd!
Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen'd!   
Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn'd!
Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher!
Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge expound the law.

Camerado, I give you my hand!
I give you my love more precious than money,
I give you myself before preaching or law;
Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me?
Shall we stick by each other as long as we live?"

I know of no better written description of the open invitation given by God to His children/creation, through the unified
Person and fulfillment of all diverse human hopes that I call Christ (some call him Messiah, others call him Krishna, others
still Tao, etc). "Camerado" is you and I, my friends, you and I.











Next -- Chapter 1
Uncle Walt, the "sweaty-
toothed madman" version
courtesy of Walt Whitman Quarterly
Review