Ephesians 5: Wives, Submission, and the Problem of Reading the Bible Too Literally

One of the most debated—and most weaponized—chapters in the New Testament is Ephesians 5.

"Wives, submit to your husbands..."

For centuries, those few words have been used to justify unhealthy marriages, reinforce patriarchal power structures, and silence women. But is that actually what the author intended?

In this episode, Mark and Jeanne step beneath the surface of the text to explore its historical world, its literary context, and the surprising ways the earliest Christians actually read Scripture.

Rather than treating Ephesians as a timeless rulebook, they ask a deeper question:

What happens when we read this passage the way its first readers would have?

In This Episode

• Why most critical Bible scholars do not believe Paul wrote Ephesians
• What "Deutero-Pauline" letters are—and why they matter
• The difference between evangelical and historical-critical approaches to Scripture
• How ancient Christians learned to read the Bible through allegory rather than literalism
• Why Origen believed difficult passages were invitations to look deeper
• How Greek philosophy shaped Christian ideas of biblical inspiration
• Aristotle's household code and why Ephesians is responding to it
• Why "submit to one another" changes everything
• The Greek word hypotassō and what it actually means
• Why the command to husbands receives far more attention than the command to wives
• How Ephesians simultaneously reflects its ancient culture while moving beyond it
• Why this passage is actually more progressive than many people realize
• What healthy leadership and mutual self-sacrifice look like in modern relationships
• Why Scripture is best understood as a living tradition rather than a frozen instruction manual

Books Mentioned

HarperCollins Study Bible
One of the best English-language study Bibles from a historical-critical perspective, with extensive notes, historical context, and references beyond the biblical canon.

Sarah Ruden — Paul Among the People
An accessible exploration of Paul within the Greco-Roman world that helps readers understand controversial passages on women, slavery, and culture.

N. T. Wright — Paul: A Biography
A readable introduction to Paul's life, theology, and historical context from one of today's leading New Testament scholars.

Ancient Voices

"The Holy Spirit has arranged that certain stumbling blocks and impossibilities should be found in the literal meaning in order that we might be drawn onward to the spiritual meaning."— Origen

"Who is so foolish as to suppose that God actually planted a paradise eastward in Eden...?"— Origen

"Do you demand submission from your wife? Then show her the same care that Christ showed the Church."— Gregory of Nazianzus

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Mark and Eric friend talk about a poem called Strong and Kind, and explore the opportunity for growth that discomfort affords those with eyes to see and ears to hear. But it is important to grow intentionally: strong and kind. This poem is why. We hope you love this episode! (We felt we owed you some studio time! haha) 

Heart, 

Mark and Eric

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Mark and an old friend talk about what to do with Paul when he drives you crazy. Mark gives an overview of Paul's world of growing up in Tarsus and training in Jerusalem, and then we walk through a list of the reasons he believes most modern Christians would like Paul more than they might expect. And if you disagree you're prolly just not chosen. That was a joke. haha

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Mark and Eric friend talk about AI, humanity's search for meaning, how to think about redemption, and what to do in these strange times. We hope you love this extended episode! (We felt we owed you some studio time! haha) 

Heart, 

Mark and Eric

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Mark and an old friend talk about faith and doubt and specifically, how to think about sacred texts as a modern, the character of God recovering from violence, and why sometimes fiction tells the truth better.

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Mark and an old friend talk about faith and doubt and specifically, the "scandal of the particular." Walter Breuggemann coined this term to hold in tension what it means if the God of the Bible is true, personal, and good over and against a vague conception of God or God as deist/clockmaker, or God as uninvolved and dispassionate. We hope you love it!!

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Merry Christmas friends! kk here goes:

HOUSE OF THE WORLD.

Ancient story and artifact meets lo-fi and Mediterranean hip hop in this journey to reclaim the art of the Bible’s creation story. Poetry… in cosmological motion.  haha!

HOUSE OF THE WORLD was craft-brewed to give you the wisdom that our end is in our beginning.

If you grew up with the Bible and it seemed like you were the only one who had serious questions about the creation story... here is a way forward with full acceptance of science and reason applied to ancient literature in context.

We think this can profoundly help you rediscover who you are and what you are here to do and how to hold the sacred text of your childhood now that you've grown up.

Along the way you'll

• learn how the world made in Genesis 1 is less "planet spinning in space and more cosmic snow globe floating safely through chaos waters."
• discover how in creation myths, the creator God makes the world by separating into realms (sky, land, sea) and assigning roles (flying things, land animals, sea creatures).
• observe what it means in context to be made in the statue (צלם) of the divine counsel and ask "what is the best way to be a divine counsel mini-figure anyways?"
• meet a lovable collection of archetypal-first-humans from near Eastern Literature and consider what the first humans in first human stories actually represent.
• explore ancient artifacts and musings from ancient literature like the Book of the Dead and the Epic of Gilgamesh to Seneca, New Testament authors, and Rabbinic Midrash Agaddah.

At the end of the day, we made HOUSE OF THE WORLD to help you reclaim ancient story for a better tomorrow. See you inside!

Be good to each other!

Mark and Eric

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A friend of the show and I continue talking about faith and doubt. This episode we chat about how to be sincere friends with people we love all across the spectrum of faith and doubt. Serving your atheist friend might be the most Christian thing you can do. A lot of times being right is less important than being in healthy relationships. 

We also talk about how many people frame God in very specific ways-- God is the judgmental father in the sky, God is like Santa Clause, God is like an angry storm God-- but this imagery often comes out our own wounds and disappointment. 

Then we pivot and talk more about faith in God and particularly Christianity is not a religion, it is a creed. At least for Mark, he tries to let go of faith as being convinced of uncertain theological tenets or even miracles, and instead about binding yourself to an ethical creed centered around the teachings of Jesus. 

We hope you love it!

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A friend of the show and I continue talking about faith and doubt. This episode we talk about what to do when the bottom falls out-- to have faith or not to have faith?

We both believe that whenever something truly horrible happens, we actually have a choice whether to lean into God/Source/Universe/Being/Oneness, or to lean out. At these times people either grow in faith immensely or become very bitter and angry. 

Along the way, we talk about Jesus' disciple Thomas, hope for all of us part-time believers, and how God fights us with kid gloves. 

We hope you love it!

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A friend of the show stops by to chat about the Faith and Doubt Series. This episode we chat about how tough questions about God from our children actually get to the heart of adult issues with faith, doubt, and being a good human.

Along the way, we talk about God behaving badly in the Bible, the Flood narratives, and how to read with the grain of the editors of sections of the Bible...

It's a trip! We hope you love it!

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Faith & Doubt 03 — God as Mosaic, Faith as a Creed

When you stay in the tradition long enough, you realize something unsettling: God doesn’t hold still. The moment you think you’ve got God figured out—a verse, a doctrine, a tidy metaphor—life shifts. A diagnosis, a betrayal, a miracle, a silence. Suddenly, God looks different again.

That’s what this episode is about. The idea that God is not static
. The story of Scripture is a moving picture—God in gardens, God in deserts, God in exile, God in flesh. From Genesis to Revelation, the divine keeps showing up in new and surprising forms. The faithful are always being asked to reorient, to find holiness inside the disorientation.

In this third piece of the Faith & Doubt series, I explore how faith was never meant to be a posture of certainty, but of fidelity. Faith as showing up. Faith as staying loyal even when the picture blurs. Because maybe what God wants from us isn’t perfect answers—but steady presence.

I talk about the danger of cherry-picking only the comforting images of God
—the gentle shepherd, the loving father, the still small voice—while ignoring the wilder parts: the fire, the storm, the silence that won’t speak. What if the truest picture of God is a mosaic? Jagged, colorful, and whole only when we hold all the pieces together.

“If God is a moving target, maybe faith is the willingness to keep aiming.”

That’s the center of this reflection. That faith is less about having answers and more about staying in the questions. That doubt doesn’t make you faithless—it makes you honest. God isn’t afraid of your questions; God is in them.

If this episode speaks to you, you can read the full essay here on Text & Rock
and check out the rest of the Faith & Doubt series for more reflections on belief, deconstruction, and becoming whole again.

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Who gets to say what God is like? For many, the early answers were simple: God is good, loving, and holy. But as you grow, those answers get more complicated. The Bible’s portraits of God are not one-dimensional—they include the God who liberates and loves, but also the God who floods, rages, and stays silent. The tradition itself preserves these tensions, refusing to sanitize the divine image.

In this episode, we explore how our images of God are always filtered—through culture, trauma, power, or longing. We want a God who looks like what we most need: a liberator for the oppressed, a warrior for soldiers, a philosopher’s unchanging ideal, or a gentle shepherd. But the mosaic is bigger than any single frame. Wrestling with unfamiliar or uncomfortable images of God may be the very thing that expands us.

Faith, then, isn’t about certainty—it’s about relationship, even struggle. Scripture itself makes room for bargaining, lament, doubt, and anger. What if your unraveling is actually the path to a deeper encounter with God? In a world of loss, injustice, and unanswered prayers, you don’t need a cleaned-up God. You need a God who holds light and dark together, and who isn’t afraid of your questions—because maybe God is in your questions.

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What happens when the God you grew up with turns out to be a moving target? From the garden stroll in Genesis to the cosmic transcendence of the New Testament, the Bible presents wildly different portraits of the divine—each shaped by its time, place, and author.

In this episode, I trace the fascinating evolution of God in the Judeo-Christian tradition:

Genesis: God as an embodied human-like figure.
Exodus: Storm deity on the mountain.
Prophets: King above the nations.
Job: Unfathomable whirlwind.
Wisdom literature: Moral force woven into the universe.
New Testament & Philo: Spirit, Love, and the need for a mediator.

Along the way, we’ll explore why God became more transcendent, less human, and what that means for seekers today. This isn’t about losing faith—it’s about seeing the tradition in its full depth, complexity, and beauty.

📌 Subscribe for more explorations of faith, doubt, and ancient wisdom.
💬 Question for you: Which portrait of God has shaped you the most—and has it changed over time?

#FaithAndDoubt #BibleStudy #AncientWisdom #Theology #PhilosopherKings #SpiritualityDescription:

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Hey Text and Rockers! 

Just to change it up, Mark outlines the next several episodes of Text and Rock, including an introduction to the Text and Rock Blog and a 3-part series on Faith and Doubt. 

It's all about leaving the Judeo-Christian tradition so that you enter it again. How to lose old names for new names, and stop trying to fit  new wine in old wineskins... If you are somewhere along the path of deconstruction and reconstruction, we hope it profoundly helps... or at least lets you know you are not alone.

As always, we hope you love it! 

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Mark and Eric explore the creative process behind writing poetry about ecological disasters and the prophetic role of artists in identifying problems before they become mainstream knowledge.

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

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Mark and Eric talk about a philosophy of God that might work for you if simple answers do not. How does human religions actually work in real time? Is God something we can actually name and put in a box? Or it is a moving target of an ideal that humans cast out before themselves to deal with the difficulty of reality?

We hope you love it!

Here is a link to all our socials and our digital press... we have been quietly busy. Boom boom.

https://www.https://linktr.ee/txtandrck

And below is the poem in this episode...

Heart, 
Mark and Eric

___________________________________

YOU ARE ONLY A WATCHER.

Have the humility and awareness

to open your eyes to the unseen

and you will find the face of God.

I don’t mean spirits or daemons

or old gods disguised as just another object.

No. You are invited to the thing behind all things—

big bang’s banger,

electric in lightning,

fortitude in blood cell—

the only wisdom frightening

enough to hold light and dark matter

in one weird-science jar and say, “Oh well.”

Let’s just see what you have to say

to the morning sun that brings in day.

You can predict it will arrive and leave

but that should never give you any reprieve

from the fact that you are only 

an ancient-future Watcher

of the only One truly lonely

when it comes to pulling on unseen string theories;

making it all go. And so no, your existentialism 

does not impress me and it draws the furies.

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

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Mark and Eric talk wealth gap, systemic overhaul, and the scandal of politics in the fading western empire. Along the way, they talk about Jesus as a Second Temple Period human sage, a different kind of kingdom, and how to treat people in hard knock times. 

We hope you love it!

Here is a link to all our socials and our digital press... we have been quietly busy. Boom boom.

https://www.https://linktr.ee/txtandrck

And below is the poem in this episode...

Heart, 
Mark and Eric

_______________________________________

MR. SMITH STAYS HOME.

I’ll save all of my Hallelujahs, 
for a world without hunger
and all of my thoughts and prayers
for the younger generation,
in a private room where I con—fess
just how scared I am to be blessed
by the modern world and all its current religions.
Conservative or Liberal, 
Democrat or Republican,
all the same, there and back again,
whatever the name—
The churches in the capitol city
raise praise to capitalism
and corporate identity
while ignoring the fact that
we know all their ideologies, 
are just dressed up in their best
for the funeral of the old West.
We are in an Age
of great overturning and rage;
some of us are prophets
intuiting your profits, Mr. Senator,
or at least we can see,
that yours is a labyrinth free
of any real threat of a minotaur.
I ony see Uncle Scar
and a pack of scrapping hyenas
lost to the realities of the hunt;
a troop of foreign policy runts.
And besides, a modern Mr. Smith
stays home alone like Kevin,
or dreaming of heaven—
he already learned and replied— 
a good man can never go to Washington
and remain virtuous inside.

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Mark and Eric kick around the idea of awareness as a philosophical pillar for meaning, life, and even divinity, before performing an original poem entitled "Awareness." 

We hope you love it!

Here is a link to all our socials and our digital press... we have been quietly busy. Boom boom.

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And below is the poem in this episode...

Heart, 
Mark and Eric

AWARENESS.

Awareness is the first and greatest gift of God. Look, traveller:

in an age that worships intellectual knowing,

be mindful of the primal gift of awareness, 

constantly observing the empirical evidence

in the first place. What is the I that thinks and feels?

You can thank Rene Descartes, for the idea’s first expression.

Or think of Yahweh’s words to Moshe, 

or recall Jesus’ allusion to that same theophany—

all are naming existence before any other discernible fact.

Awareness is the means you have for observing.

No experiment is possible without the observing eye;

no observation of tree line or big sky comes

without center of self and mystic intuition under the mind.

All this is theoretical and heady, but think of the implications

when you actually taste the spaghetti:

Who says you are old or young?

Who says you’ve been here only this long?

Who says when you leave you are really ever gone?

Who says where awareness goes when the body expires?

Who says you have this short time—so make the best of it?

Who says there is no such thing as a silver thread?

God says the answers to all these questions,

but is not interested to spoil the surprise.

Instead, God provides and sustains your awareness

so you can marvel, wonder, and take in the dawn.

If you are an enlightened one,

you have realized the absurdity of assumed finality.

You wonder how you came to the House of the World, 

and how many times, and where you might go next.

Now when you read, “in the beginning”

you ask with the rabbis, “which beginning?” and laugh.

Your cosmology and individuality dances with the idea,

that awareness is the first heavenly light: 

A star factory divided into a billion souls across the ages.

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

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Mark and Eric talk about how to have peace in a world of uncertainty. We hope you LOVE it!

Here is a link to all our socials and our digital press... we have been quietly busy. Boom boom.

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And below is the poem in this episode...

Heart, 
Mark and Eric

...PEACE...

Peace comes when you are ready,
and she is not all that heady—
just quietly turns off the news
because you’ll hear about it later,
and besides, nothing can surprise you, 
at least not at this point.

She gives you wealth from your own account:
maxims and mantras
from the wisdom you collected
reading books and watching films,
learning from the older ones, and experiences—
especially the times you tried and failed. 

She loves blue dawn and amber dusk
because the horizon is clearest
and the impossible things that are possible
and nearest to your minds-eye.
I found that Lady Peace was elusive
for almost every mile of my youth,

but now I never walk alone,
and she reminds me that we don’t do drama.

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Mark and Eric talk about how the animals can teach us wisdom if we have eyes to see. Along with it, we chat about how to move and breathe in a culture addicted to fast wealth and fame (which the vast majority of us never actually achieve). We hope you love it!

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Mark and Eric set up a street performance in front of the "Together We Rise" mural in Cedar Rapids, IA. The mural is a bunch of hands stacked up to the Cedar Rapids skyline, representing the need to work together to rise as a society. 

We did a live set of four poems, and the connection between them is doing the intellectual and moral work on yourself so that you can forgive and live graciously... as opposed to judging culture, opposite political parties, or individuals who have hurt you in the past. We hope you love it!

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Mark and Eric kick talk about consumerist culture and how to cultivate a life that does more good than harm. We also speculate about space archaeologists in 10,000 years, building altars in the back yard, imaginary friends, and why we'd rather be eaten in two-three T-REX chomps than mauled by giant centipedes.

We hope you love it! Be good to each other!

Heart, Mark and Eric

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Mark and Eric kick around the theory of rituals in religious traditions, and try to help you focus on the posture of the heart that actually helps. They also introduce their new book HOLY ROLLER and pop a recent live set on the back end. 

We hope you love it! Be good to each other!

Heart, Mark and Eric

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Mark and Eric talk about the upside-downside, good/evil encompassing nature of divinity and how to keep faith while being in on the joke. This one is all about why it is okay to admit you cannot know everything and are free to hold life with levity.

We hope you love it! Be good to each other!

Heart, Mark and Eric

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Mark and Eric talk about how to parent kids towards their natural gifting and talents and away from cultural pressure. We hope you love it!

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Mark and Eric talk about how religion has changed in human intellectual evolution and what kind of mythology has its place in the post-modern world. So small potatoes...

We hope you love it!
Mark and Eric

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Mark and Eric chat about a quote by Joseph Campbell, one of the first to popularize comparative mythology, and introduce a new poem called FOLLOW YOUR BLISS (you can read it at www.textandrock.com/poetry). We talk about how many people feel caught between their passion and just trying to make it...and how to hold it all at once. We hope you love it!


Text and Rock On.

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

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Mark and Eric talk about how having an internal authority and a righteous mind means having inner peace no matter what life throws at you. We hope you love it!


Text and Rock On.

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

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You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Mark and Eric talk about the worrisome trends of western production and consumption, and introduce the poem Corporate Future. This is the second of two episodes we filmed at the Dubuque Street skate park in Iowa City. We hope you love it!


Text and Rock On.

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Mark and Eric jam on the power of peace in an age of un-creative violence, asking whether we gave everything around us its living essence, and whether or not we have any right to take it away. This episode suggest the most powerful peace is capable or violence and retaliation, but makes a choice to stand down.

Text and Rock On.

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Mark and Eric talk about the how to pursue cooperation towards moral right in a world of divisive politics and "us and them."

Text and Rock On.

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Mark and Eric talk about the how religion in the west is evolving and how you can get a Masters in Library Science without knowing anything that really matters. En Garde!

Text and Rock On.

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Mark and Eric talk about the how to pursue joy first and foremost, and how more people need to be okay with questioning corporate slogans, intentions, and groupthink ideas. This one is filmed in front of the skatepark on Dubuque Street in Iowa City, one of the places we like to... show up. Ha!

Text and Rock On.

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Mark and Eric talk about the how to take the voices that play in the back of your head like tapes and changed them out, and how it is normal for creative people to have anxiety, elevated highs, and deeper lows.

Text and Rock On.

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Mark and Eric kick around a new poem about how to treat people well so they grow to their full potential-- it only takes a little hope for people to make great strides forward.

We also talk about how to take a day off as a pirate, Hillel and Shammai, and Socrates' sage advice: "Be who you pretend to be." שלם and enjoy!

Text and Rock On.

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Mark and Eric talk about the difference between passion and occupation, what to do when something lights you up, and how to do what you love no matter the cost.

Text and Rock On.

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Mark and Eric talk about the beauty of everyday kindness and respect for others, and introduce the making of "Beautiful Choices." They humbly suggest that mundane moments are sacred moments when you recognize the divinity and goodness in others. We hope you love it.

Text and Rock On.

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Mark and Eric talk about the frustration of environmental danger and capitalist corruption while unveiling the making of "On My Way to Hell." The silver lining is that 1) this world truly matters and 2 ) so does your life. Along the way, we talk about the responsibility we all have to innocent and joyful children. Most of all, we explore how faith is not about eliminating chaos and suffering, it is about how to endure suffering with grit and determination, even when things feel like a lost cause.

We love you TEXT AND ROCKERS!

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Mark and Eric talk about the importance of great friends and worthy challenges. The big idea is that the human soul travels the best 1) with other people 2) who are headed in our direction, 3) taking on a mission that matters. Along the way, we talk about quality friends over quantity, and the kind of goals worthy of you. Best of all, we let you listen in on the making of this poem in a mini-set. We hope you love it!

We love you TEXT AND ROCKERS!

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Mark and Eric suffer through a coffee order fiasco (Scooter's Kris Krossed their drinks...which would never have happened at Cappana.. insider baseball for eastern Iowans there...). Because of the mishap and the immense pain it causes, they kick around the TEXT AND ROCK poem entitled, 10TH MUSE. Along the way, we examine how the best literature and art comes from suffering. This means as human beings we will indeed go through pain, but she can be your creative Muse.

We love you TEXT AND ROCKERS!

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Mark and Eric discuss the need to invest in your soul. They talk about the theme of self-care and others care over and against consumption of marketing in the TEXT AND ROCK poem entitled, SPACE THEY CAN'T TOUCH. On the backend we revisit  conflict managers from Mark's elementary years. He might have had a lotta chats with them. ...he might have had a lot of conflict. 

We love you TEXT AND ROCKERS!

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Mark and Eric discuss the kinds of mistakes that make you grow. They talk about the central imagery of redemption  in the TEXT AND ROCK poem entitled, JOSHUA TREE, and Mark fills you in on Eric's ex-girlfriend situation. Otto takes you home by drumming to Susie Q. This one's got it all, and this trip is a disaster.

We love you TEXT AND ROCKERS!

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Mark and Eric talk about the fear and scrutiny that simply come with making stuff you believe in. They kick around the connection between gladiators and artists as the central image  in the TEXT AND ROCK poem entitled, ARENA, and Eric encourages Mark not to give up on trying to dunk a basketball. ...Mark is like 5'2". It's not gonna happen. Hehe...

We love you TEXT AND ROCKERS!

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Mark and Eric drown your sorrows like Atreyu's horse... did you swing at that change up? Ha! They present the thing behind the thing in the TEXT AND ROCK poem entitled, ATREYU, talk about cyclical nihilism in human intellectual history, and present Xenophon's idea of the soul as the part of you that participates in the divine. After the heavy stuff, Mark tells of his childhood foray into professional wrestling and reflects on the genius of one Christ Schwartz, founder of the Wrestling Federation of Champions. Saddle up Artax, this one is hilarious and hopeful.

We love you TEXT AND ROCKERS!

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Mark and Eric present the ideas and beats behind TRIPLE RIPPLE  (including more cowbell) and talk about how human names for God are inevitably changing in light of human discovery and internal evolution. 

On the road, Eric brings up an interesting idea about God by Hegel the philosopher, and Mark makes playful yet seriously damaging fun of the creation museum in Dumbkentuckistan. Have fun with this one, treat it as a mental map or mind experiment more so than a precise direction forward.

We love you TEXT AND ROCKERS!

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Mark and Eric present the spoken word and rhythmic strategy of ISHTAR, and talk about the dangers of unchecked marketing and consumerism in western economics. So light stuff. Ha! Along the way, Eric compares an ex-girlfriend to Ishtar, goddess of everything terrifying and Mark challenges you to enter a discussion about defining the dangers of empire and leaving in ways that matter. 

We love you TEXT AND ROCKERS!

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Mark and Eric talk about what it is to grow as a person and a creator, the dream to combine poetry, rhythm, and performance, and some sick things coming your way. 

We love you TEXT AND ROCKERS!

Be good to each other, 
Mark Shaffer and Eric Madison


☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️☠️

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This is the last part  of a discussion with "the Negro Artist," Caleb Rainey. It is some of our best work in the earlier rendition of the Text and Rock Show, and so I wanted to replay it headed into Black History Month.
 
We hope these episodes make you think, but more importantly, make you actively listen, understand, make friends you might not have, and see the immense worth of people you might not understand until you have shared stories together.

To get started with Caleb's work, visit www.thenegroartist.com or pick up one of his book Look, Black Boy, by clicking Here.

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

But once again, all he ever wanted to do
Was spread a message of equality
For every man, woman, and child
Regardless of race, religion, color, creed, and sexual orientation

--Logic, Way Back

🥁🎧🎤🎹
___________________________________________

Be good to each other!
Mark and Eric

Hey Text and Rockers!

Check out our new YouTube Channel and Click Subscribe.

To support the work and world of Text and Rock, pick up your copy of WARRIOR: A TEXT AND ROCK POETRY COLLECTION ON ART. HEART. AND THE WARRIOR ETHOS. by clicking HERE.

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This is part seven of a discussion with "the Negro Artist," Caleb Rainey. It is some of our best work in the earlier rendition of the Text and Rock Show, and so I wanted to replay it headed into Black History Month.
 
We hope these episodes make you think, but more importantly, make you actively listen, understand, make friends you might not have, and see the immense worth of people you might not understand until you have shared stories together.

To get started with Caleb's work, visit www.thenegroartist.com or pick up one of his book Look, Black Boy, by clicking Here.

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

But once again, all he ever wanted to do
Was spread a message of equality
For every man, woman, and child
Regardless of race, religion, color, creed, and sexual orientation

--Logic, Way Back

🥁🎧🎤🎹
___________________________________________

Be good to each other!
Mark and Eric

Hey Text and Rockers!

Check out our new YouTube Channel and Click Subscribe.

To support the work and world of Text and Rock, pick up your copy of WARRIOR: A TEXT AND ROCK POETRY COLLECTION ON ART. HEART. AND THE WARRIOR ETHOS. by clicking HERE.

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This is part six of a discussion with "the Negro Artist," Caleb Rainey. It is some of our best work in the earlier rendition of the Text and Rock Show, and so I wanted to replay it headed into Black History Month.
 
We hope these episodes make you think, but more importantly, make you actively listen, understand, make friends you might not have, and see the immense worth of people you might not understand until you have shared stories together.

To get started with Caleb's work, visit www.thenegroartist.com or pick up one of his book Look, Black Boy, by clicking Here.

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

But once again, all he ever wanted to do
Was spread a message of equality
For every man, woman, and child
Regardless of race, religion, color, creed, and sexual orientation

--Logic, Way Back

🥁🎧🎤🎹
___________________________________________

Be good to each other!
Mark and Eric

Hey Text and Rockers!

Check out our new YouTube Channel and Click Subscribe.

To support the work and world of Text and Rock, pick up your copy of WARRIOR: A TEXT AND ROCK POETRY COLLECTION ON ART. HEART. AND THE WARRIOR ETHOS. by clicking HERE.

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This is part four of a discussion with "the Negro Artist," Caleb Rainey. It is some of our best work in the earlier rendition of the Text and Rock Show, and so I wanted to replay it headed into Black History Month.
 
We hope these episodes make you think, but more importantly, make you actively listen, understand, make friends you might not have, and see the immense worth of people you might not understand until you have shared stories together.

To get started with Caleb's work, visit www.thenegroartist.com or pick up one of his book Look, Black Boy, by clicking Here.

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

But once again, all he ever wanted to do
Was spread a message of equality
For every man, woman, and child
Regardless of race, religion, color, creed, and sexual orientation

--Logic, Way Back

🥁🎧🎤🎹
___________________________________________

Be good to each other!
Mark and Eric

Hey Text and Rockers!

Check out our new YouTube Channel and Click Subscribe.

To support the work and world of Text and Rock, pick up your copy of WARRIOR: A TEXT AND ROCK POETRY COLLECTION ON ART. HEART. AND THE WARRIOR ETHOS. by clicking HERE.

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This is part four of a discussion with "the Negro Artist," Caleb Rainey. It is some of our best work in the earlier rendition of the Text and Rock Show, and so I wanted to replay it headed into Black History Month.
 
We hope these episodes make you think, but more importantly, make you actively listen, understand, make friends you might not have, and see the immense worth of people you might not understand until you have shared stories together.

To get started with Caleb's work, visit www.thenegroartist.com or pick up one of his book Look, Black Boy, by clicking Here.

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

But once again, all he ever wanted to do
Was spread a message of equality
For every man, woman, and child
Regardless of race, religion, color, creed, and sexual orientation

--Logic, Way Back

🥁🎧🎤🎹
___________________________________________

Be good to each other!
Mark and Eric

Hey Text and Rockers!

Check out our new YouTube Channel and Click Subscribe.

To support the work and world of Text and Rock, pick up your copy of WARRIOR: A TEXT AND ROCK POETRY COLLECTION ON ART. HEART. AND THE WARRIOR ETHOS. by clicking HERE.

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This is part three of a discussion with "the Negro Artist," Caleb Rainey. It is some of our best work in the earlier rendition of the Text and Rock Show, and so I wanted to replay it headed into Black History Month.
 
We hope these episodes make you think, but more importantly, make you actively listen, understand, make friends you might not have, and see the immense worth of people you might not understand until you have shared stories together.

To get started with Caleb's work, visit www.thenegroartist.com or pick up one of his book Look, Black Boy, by clicking Here.

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

But once again, all he ever wanted to do
Was spread a message of equality
For every man, woman, and child
Regardless of race, religion, color, creed, and sexual orientation

--Logic, Way Back

🥁🎧🎤🎹
___________________________________________

Be good to each other!
Mark and Eric

Hey Text and Rockers!

Check out our new YouTube Channel and Click Subscribe.

To support the work and world of Text and Rock, pick up your copy of WARRIOR: A TEXT AND ROCK POETRY COLLECTION ON ART. HEART. AND THE WARRIOR ETHOS. by clicking HERE.

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This is part two of a discussion with "the Negro Artist," Caleb Rainey. It is some of our best work in the earlier rendition of the Text and Rock Show, and so I wanted to replay it headed into Black History Month.
 
We hope these episodes make you think, but more importantly, make you actively listen, understand, make friends you might not have, and see the immense worth of people you might not understand until you have shared stories together.

To get started with Caleb's work, visit www.thenegroartist.com or pick up one of his book Look, Black Boy, by clicking Here.

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

But once again, all he ever wanted to do
Was spread a message of equality
For every man, woman, and child
Regardless of race, religion, color, creed, and sexual orientation

--Logic, Way Back

🥁🎧🎤🎹
___________________________________________

Be good to each other!
Mark and Eric

Hey Text and Rockers!

Check out our new YouTube Channel and Click Subscribe.

To support the work and world of Text and Rock, pick up your copy of WARRIOR: A TEXT AND ROCK POETRY COLLECTION ON ART. HEART. AND THE WARRIOR ETHOS. by clicking HERE.

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This is part one of a discussion with "the Negro Artist," Caleb Rainey. It is some of our best work in the earlier rendition of the Text and Rock Show, and so I wanted to replay it headed into Black History Month.
 
We hope these episodes make you think, but more importantly, make you actively listen, understand, make friends you might not have, and see the immense worth of people you might not understand until you have shared stories together.

To get started with Caleb's work, visit www.thenegroartist.com or pick up one of his book Look, Black Boy, by clicking Here.

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

But once again, all he ever wanted to do
Was spread a message of equality
For every man, woman, and child
Regardless of race, religion, color, creed, and sexual orientation

--Logic, Way Back

🥁🎧🎤🎹
___________________________________________

Be good to each other!
Mark and Eric

Hey Text and Rockers!

Check out our new YouTube Channel and Click Subscribe.

To support the work and world of Text and Rock, pick up your copy of WARRIOR: A TEXT AND ROCK POETRY COLLECTION ON ART. HEART. AND THE WARRIOR ETHOS. by clicking HERE.

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This one is an original poem about following the Jesus way.

• What is an ethical Christian versus a magic/theological idea of Jesus?
• How the teaching of Jesus best is summarized in one double-love command.
• Love God. Love people. That simple.  

We love you, TXT and RKRS.

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

Check out our new YouTube Channel and Click Subscribe.

To support the work and world of Text and Rock, pick up your copy of WARRIOR: A TEXT AND ROCK POETRY COLLECTION ON ART. HEART. AND THE WARRIOR ETHOS. by clicking HERE.

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This one has a special announcement and a spoken word poem re-thinking the baby Jesus story.

• Enjoy friends and family this holiday season!

We love you, TXT and RKRS.

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

Check out our new YouTube Channel and Click Subscribe.

To support the work and world of Text and Rock, pick up your copy of WARRIOR: A TEXT AND ROCK POETRY COLLECTION ON ART. HEART. AND THE WARRIOR ETHOS. by clicking HERE.

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This one's all about how we need to keep moving forward in naming God for human thriving to take permanent root.
Join us to talk about

• how humanity names divinity at every stage of cultural evolution...
• an original Text and Rock poem about the Battle of Jericho.
• what does it mean that the commander of God's armies doesn't pick a side?
• what is a theophany?
• the concept of counter-testimony in composite literature.
• a counter-testimony to violence then and now.

We love you, TXT and RKRS!

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

A purpose is needed
before you know that you know
to never wonder what you are
and not forget where you come from...

--Foster the People, The Truth

🌍🌏🌎☮️🕊
___________________________________________

Be good to each other!
Mark and Eric

Hey Text and Rockers!

Check out our new YouTube Channel and Click Subscribe.

To support the work and world of Text and Rock, pick up your copy of WARRIOR: A TEXT AND ROCK POETRY COLLECTION ON ART. HEART. AND THE WARRIOR ETHOS. by clicking HERE.

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This one's all about how humanity creates an ideal in divinity and then lives it out, not necessarily the other way around.
Join us to talk about

• how humanity names divinity at every stage of cultural evolution...
• and then that idea pulls us forward morally and intellectually. 
• what is an ancient idol, and how it informs a lot of texts and artifacts.
• journey back to grad school with swift-footed Markilles and talk to Dana.
• how we all have a heart language... and a holy language.

We love you, TXT and RKRS!

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

When times are difficult
We're gonna need a miracle
When things are critical
We're gonna need a miracle
The world's in trouble
Cover it in Marigolds
Cities in rubble
We all need a miracle

--M.I.A.

👊🏼☠️🔥⚡️
___________________________________________

Be good to each other!
Mark and Eric

Hey Text and Rockers!

To support the work and world of Text and Rock, pick up your copy of WARRIOR: A TEXT AND ROCK POETRY COLLECTION ON ART. HEART. AND THE WARRIOR ETHOS. by clicking HERE.

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This one's all about how humanity creates an ideal in divinity and then lives it out, not necessarily the other way around.
Join us to talk about

• how two stories get drawn in to make political point in sacred texts.
• another combat myth if you're down to clown. 
• the unification of Egypt as the thing behind the thing.
• what is the Axial Age and how did humanity come to long for justice?
• how we create our gods and then our gods create us.
• Mark takes you through the evolution of divinity in a minute and a half.
• Otto considers giving his baby sis up for adoption... 

Send your emails to Eric this week. JK! We love you, TXT and RKRS!

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

Age 14 at midnight I hear voices from the kitchen
I let my feet follow the sound as I let my ears listen
I walk upstairs and at the kitchen table I can see
That God is sitting with the Devil, sharing drinks and old stories...

--Ritt Momney, (If) the Book Doesn't Sell.

🌅🌅🌅🌅
___________________________________________

Be good to each other!
Mark and Eric

Hey Text and Rockers!

To support the work and world of Text and Rock, pick up your copy of WARRIOR: A TEXT AND ROCK POETRY COLLECTION ON ART. HEART. AND THE WARRIOR ETHOS. by clicking HERE.

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This one's all about what happens when you combine religion and politics, in the ancient world and today. Journey back to ancient Egypt with Mark and Eric once again to explore the lore of the Memphis Creation Story.

Join us to talk about

• how the thing behind the thing in sacred texts can oftentimes be very political.
• why there is always a danger in invoking God in politics.
• how Shabaka started an imperial cult, and how the Bible has a gnarly parallel.
• all about King Josiah's reform in 722 and centralizing cult for political gain.
• Eric can't resist a Star Wars Joke.
• Boom Shabaka-Laka-Laka. 

KK that's what we've got. We love you, TXT and RKRS!

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

Suicide is easy.
What happened to the revolution?
--Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

☠️☠️☠️☠️
___________________________________________

Be good to each other!
Mark and Eric

Hey Text and Rockers!

To support the work and world of Text and Rock, pick up your copy of WARRIOR: A TEXT AND ROCK POETRY COLLECTION ON ART. HEART. AND THE WARRIOR ETHOS. by clicking HERE.

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

Here's a quick special announcement about the cool things we are making at the Text and Rock Digital Press. Visit us there to support our work and go farther faster with making your ancient story into a better tomorrow.

Here's the quick link:

www.textandrock.com/press

Be good to each other!

Mark and Eric

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

Here's the concluding episode on God and gender.

Join us to talk about

• why it makes so many of us nervous to describe God as a He/Him.

• how viewing your sacred text as part of an ongoing discussion can set you free from frozen ideas about divinity.

• the movement from space in the Judeo-Christian tradition of naming God.

• what most moderns are actually talking about when they talk about God.

• a bit of speculation on what taking "biblical" gender and sexuality would actually mean... buckle up.

That's what we've got. much love TXT and ROCKERS!

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

The magic is here for us all to feel
naming it isn't what makes it real
rushing around for us all to know
noticing isn't what makes it so.
--the Avett Brothers

🌌🌌🌌
___________________________________________

Be good to each other!
Mark and Eric

Hey Text and Rockers!

To support the work and world of Text and Rock, pick up your copy of WARRIOR: A TEXT AND ROCK POETRY COLLECTION ON ART. HEART. AND THE WARRIOR ETHOS. by clicking HERE.

Kapow!

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This one is a quick break from Egyptian lore to talk about God and gender...again. 

Join us to talk about

• how if you back up a thousand years Iron Age sacred texts may have had a divine feminine instead of a male storm god.
• how the conception of the male storm god shifts to a loving father of the house by the time of Jesus... but it is trackable.
• whether we can conceive of a mother-goddess being in the primary text and rippling through interpretation in the same way...  had the sacred text of the Hebrew Bible been written earlier. I know, big waves.
• mother goddess figurine in the ancient Near Eastern Bronze Age  I-III.
• here comes the curve ball........... next week. ha!

That's what we've got. much love TXT and ROCKERS!

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

I hate to interrupt while you're takin' it easy
Have you had a chance to look outside? (Take a look outside)
There's a fight going out on the lawn
And we wanna know whose side you're on
--Bad Cop/Bad Cop
☠️☠️☠️

___________________________________________

Be good to each other!
Mark and Eric

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This one is a quick break from Egyptian lore to talk about God and gender

Join us to talk about

• why God is male in the Hebrew Bible and how
• that gets interpreted all the way through the Bible, Talmud, and Quran.
• whether we should actually think of God as male part one. 
• the Canaanite storm-god combat myth behind the text of the Bible.

That's what we've got. much love TXT and ROCKERS!

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

And even God herself 
has fewer plans than me. 
But she never helps me out when my scan's for free, though. 
She grabs a stick and then she pokes it at me.
When I say nothing. I say everything.
--Jack White
🔥🔥🔥

___________________________________________

Be good to each other!
Mark and Eric

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This one is a quick break from Egyptian lore to talk about holding your life and tradition with joy rather than suffering.

Join us to talk about

• why so many people take their religion so seriously that joy disappears.
• whether or not following God is supposed to be about suffering.
• the mystery of sacred moments that are the opposite of progress.
• Torah embodiment and first century, Galilean sages.
• could you embody your tradition with joy?
• puppy Moses sidetracks the show right on cue. Ha!

That's what we've got. much love TXT and ROCKERS!

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

Only love is real. Only love is real.
I crush everything else based in ignorance and fear.
--MC Yogi

🕌🕌🕌

___________________________________________

Be good to each other!
Mark and Eric

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This one is part two of two on the SO WHAT of an old creation story like ATUM RE.
Big idea is this: You might be rejecting a very old, Iron Age conception of God.

Join us to talk about

• what God's ultimate goal for your life is probably not, and what it might be.
• how some conceptions of God need to be left in the dirt.
• why you have to take ancient stories about the gods one at a time.
• how to ask whether it is a click forward in the human evolution of divinity...or a step backward.
• Mark's adamant rejection of Sky Grandpas.
• the divine conceptions that really, profoundly help.

That's what we've got. much love TXT and ROCKERS!

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

The waters are are a-rising
the old ship's going down.
--the Dropkick Murpheys

⚓️🏴‍☠️⚓️🏴‍☠️⚓️🏴‍☠️

___________________________________________

Be good to each other!
Mark and Eric

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This one is part one of two on the SO WHAT of an old creation story like ATUM RE.
Big idea is this: the conception of divinity is a moving target.

Join us to talk about

• some notions of God are no longer helpful.
• how to consider each story where people try to name God, one at a time.
• how the Hammurabi stele can teach you more about Yahweh than church.
• divinity in the Iron Age: humans writ large, shiny, animal composites. 
• old gods shine. maybe you can too. ha!
• Mark relives the scariest scene from Indiana Jones franchise. Boo!

KK. much love TXT and ROCKERS!

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com or email mark@textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

Get down Moses!
--Joe Strummer.

🌄🌄🌄🌄

___________________________________________

Be good to each other!
Mark and Eric

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

Hey Text and Rockers!

This one is all about the Egyptian creation story of Atum-Ra... and how it bounces off of other ancient Near Eastern texts and traditions.

Join us to talk about

• how multiple versions of stories and legends sit side by side in the ancient world.
• all about Atum-Ra creating "the nine" primary  or "OG" Egyptian gods.
• ancient chaos waters as the starting point of ANE creation myths.
• why it matters that Atum-Ra creates through speech.
• how this ticks like a song with a cadence just like Genesis 1.
• the theme of creation by separation follows by filling the space with creatures.
• a beautiful hint that divinity is outside of the human construct of TIME. ha!

KK. much love TXT and ROCKERS!

You can contact Mark and Eric at www.textandrock.com.

___________________________________________

Walk like an Egyptian.
--the Bengals.

🐅🐅🐅🐅🐅🐅🐅🐅🐅

___________________________________________

Be good to each other!
Mark and Eric

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

This one is part two exploring basic hooks on creation stories in Egypt and the broader Ancient Near East.

Join us to discuss together

• there may be a lotta gods... but creator gods are different.
• why the gods of Egypt are one more way those guys are funky.
• a run through pyramids and a hangout with Seth I and his cupbearer Gary.
• how the two creation stories that start the Bible work from 30,000 feet.
• Eric has a pipe dream about a dragon rabbit. Grr. 

___________________________________ 

See the world from a handstand, upside down.
--the Dirty Heads

☠️☠️☠️☠️
___________________________________

Here is a link to our facebook group if you wanna slide in early. Fist bump.
The group opens in November, but if you want to slide in early, HERE is the link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/439433967697980

We hope this discussion of what is ancient makes your tomorrow better!

You can find out about all things TEXT AND ROCK by clicking HERE
or by heading to www.textandrock.com.

Feel free to contact us with comments or questions at info@textandrock.com. 
We LOVE to hear from you.

Be good to each other,

Mark and Eric

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

• how Eric thinks trolls have an uncanny similarity to a certain former president.
• Mark complains about how sore his is from a Krav Maga wknd.
• Cicero's alter ego and leaning into your shadow side.
• An overview on Egyptian creation myths, pyramids, and NOT ancient aliens. Ha!
• A brief reflection on we have, and more importantly, what we don't have from the sands of time.

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

This one is all about growing past mediocre ways of reading your story.

Join us to discuss together

• the idea from Mike Herrera that "Mediocrity is a Mind Killer."
• how most faith leaders only know their sacred text on a very simple level.
• why striving for great ideas about ancient literature unlocks it for you.
• a similar observation from Rumi, that conventional opinion kills your soul.
• Mark's encouragement that you are safe to DIG. SIT. and WONDER. here in the TEXT AND ROCK community.

___________________________________ 

The sound of hoofbeats leaving a monastery
where all is timed and measured.
You are that rider.

--Rumi, Hoofbeats

🍻🍻🍻
___________________________________

Here is a link to our facebook group if you wanna slide in early. Fist bump.
The group opens in October, but if you want to slide in early, HERE is the link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/439433967697980

We hope this discussion of what is ancient makes your tomorrow better!

You can find out about all things TEXT AND ROCK by clicking HERE
or by heading to www.textandrock.com.

Feel free to contact us with comments or questions at info@textandrock.com. 
We LOVE to hear from you.

Be good to each other,

Mark and Eric

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

This one is a quick dive into where Egyptian mythology comes from, and how it is different than literature in the broader ancient world.

Here is a link to our facebook group if you wanna slide in early. Fist bump.
The group opens in October, but if you want to slide in early, HERE is the link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/439433967697980

Join us to discuss together

• how we don't really get literary works that lay out Egypt's mythology.
• mythical timelines that run across the ancient Egyptian world.
• Pyramid texts, and coffin texts, and hieroglyphs Oh My!
• how pyramids are miniature maps of the cosmos... it's pretty sweet!
• a story from Dr. Nili Fox that changed how I saw ancient literature forever.

___________________________________  

See the world 
from a handstand--
upside down.

--The Dirty Heads
🔥🔥🔥🔥
___________________________________

We hope this discussion of what is ancient makes your tomorrow better!

You can find out about all things TEXT AND ROCK by clicking HERE
or by heading to www.textandrock.com.

Feel free to contact us with comments or questions at info@textandrock.com. 
We LOVE to hear from you.

Be good to each other,

Mark and Eric

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

This one is an intro to the bonkers-ness (is that a word?) that is ancient Egypt and why it matters to you and your tradition.

Here is a link to our facebook group if you wanna slide in early. Fist bump.
The group opens in October, but if you want to slide in early, HERE is the link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/439433967697980

Join us to discuss together

• why Herodotus says Egypt is the gift of the NILE.
• chaos (isfet) and order (ma'at) in the ancient Near East.
• cosmic waters and creation if you're down to clown.
• a little riff on time in Egypt and in the broader ANE.
• how we have to puzzle piece together Egyptian mythology...

___________________________________  

So how do you measure the worth of a man
In wealth or strength or size?
In how much he gained or how much he gave?
The answer will come
The answer will come to him who tries
To look at his life through heaven's eyes

--PRINCE OF EGYPT
🌅🌅🌅
___________________________________

We hope this discussion of what is ancient makes your tomorrow better!

You can find out about all things TEXT AND ROCK by clicking HERE
or by heading to www.textandrock.com.

Feel free to contact us with comments or questions at info@textandrock.com. 
We LOVE to hear from you.

Be good to each other,

Mark and Eric

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

This one is all about how to cultivate WONDER in your heart. It's the third of three episodes on the core values of the Text and Rock world, taken from some new videos in our facebook group.

The group opens in October, but if you want to slide in early, HERE is the link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/439433967697980

Join us to discuss together

• the Midrashic story of Shimon and Reuven and the Yom Suf.
• how we can mis the miracle of life when we fail to have wonder.
• how wonder has two parts, gratitude and curiosity.
• A little revisit to Dr. Heschel's remark about knowledge and wonder.

___________________________________  

Only LOVE is real. Only LOVE is real.
I crush everything else based in ignorance and fear.

--MC YOGI.
🔥🔥🔥🔥
___________________________________

We hope this discussion of what is ancient makes your tomorrow better!

You can find out about all things TEXT AND ROCK by clicking HERE
or by heading to www.textandrock.com.

Feel free to contact us with comments or questions at info@textandrock.com. 
We LOVE to hear from you.

Be good to each other,

Mark and Eric

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

This one is all about how to SIT with new ideas. It's the second of three episodes on the core values of the Text and Rock world, taken from some new videos in our facebook group. Puppy Moses ups his snoring game in this one... Puppy Moses = snoring par excellence!

The group opens in October, but if you want to slide in early, HERE is the link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/439433967697980

Join us to discuss together

• how we can SIT with tough ideas instead of turning off.
• the idea that gods don't write texts. we do that.
• why your tradition may have to break your heart before it can heal you.
• the words of Zeno, that "well being is realized in small steps...but it is no small thing.
• why the posture of learning and listening is more powerful than that of teacher.

___________________________________  

Was the answer
in the question
all along?

--MXPX
🔥👊🏼☠️🚀
___________________________________

We hope this discussion of what is ancient makes your tomorrow better!

You can find out about all things TEXT AND ROCK by clicking HERE
or by heading to www.textandrock.com.

Feel free to contact us with comments or questions at info@textandrock.com. 
We LOVE to hear from you.

Be good to each other,

Mark and Eric

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

This one is the first of three episodes on the core values of the Text and Rock world, taken from some new videos in our facebook group. Listen for puppy Moses snoring... it's a hoot!

The group opens in October, but if you want to slide in early, HERE is the link:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/439433967697980

Join us to discuss together

• what it means to be a person who digs through their tradition.
• how keeping things light allows the heart to go towards the heavy.
• how to excavate a text instead of reading it like a manual.
• the lovely University of Minnesota grad student I met a while back in Jerusalem.
• why so many of us own copies of our stories but SELDOM READ THEM.
• how to open the story again for the first time in a long time.

___________________________________  

If you are alone tonight,
you can come with us.
If you don't have friends or family
or people that you trust.
We will be your confidants,
your sisters and brothers--
we don't have much but we got each other.

--Got Each Other, The Interrupters
☠️☠️☠️
__________________________________

We hope this discussion of what is ancient makes your tomorrow better!

You can find out about all things TEXT AND ROCK by clicking HERE
or by heading to www.textandrock.com.

Feel free to contact us with comments or questions at info@textandrock.com. 
We LOVE to hear from you.

Be good to each other,

Mark and Eric

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

This one is all about the beginning of KNOWLEDGE. It's not what you might think.

Join us to discuss together

• where Christianity fits into ancient Judaism.
• how finding truth one click away is sometimes better.
• why the modern assumption of skepticism only gets you so far.
• whether God was born in a cave in France, or we just finally noticed...
• how human intellectual evolution is like the Grand Canyon.

___________________________________  

While many men search for bliss
I see the vision, it's my interest
Intellect can only take you so far
Intuition is the way to live stars
Rid them from the lids we stay open
Cast my line into the ocean
Come up for air when I'm floating
Through the clouds an explosion
So rain down on the creation

--Black Heart, Matisyahu
🖤🖤🖤🖤
__________________________________

We hope this discussion of what is ancient makes your tomorrow better!

You can find out about all things TEXT AND ROCK by clicking HERE
or by heading to www.textandrock.com.

Feel free to contact us with comments or questions at info@textandrock.com. 
We LOVE to hear from you.

Be good to each other,

Mark and Eric

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

This one is all about the PAIN and GAIN of leaving common conception for bigger and better ideas about the divine and human thriving.

This one is actually two episodes...because Eric asks a great question just as we were wrapping up. So stay tuned after the credits TEXT AND ROCKERS!

Join us to discuss together

• another Swift-Footed Markilles poem called "You Have to Leave."
• why so many folks are having bigger and better ideas about God and human thriving.
• how no one is necessarily going to go or grow with you.
• The TEXT AND ROCKER MANTRA! ☠️☠️☠️
• Eric asks great question no the backend about testing and growth.

HERE is a link to the poem "YOU HAVE TO LEAVE."

______________________________________________________

Because those are the borders of your old land.

It was human religion, 

collective gyration with no imagination,

that has not blessed nations and can’t speak pidgin.

--Swift-Footed Markilles

⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️

_______________________________________________________

We hope this discussion of what is ancient makes your tomorrow better!

You can find out about all things TEXT AND ROCK by clicking HERE
or by heading to www.textandrock.com.

Feel free to contact us with comments or questions at info@textandrock.com. 
We LOVE to hear from you.

Be good to each other,

Mark and Eric

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

This one is all about a different definition of God and God's goodness taken from the Stoics. How to align a good divinity with good fruit in your life.

Join us to talk about

• Why Christian theology is ultimately derivative of Greek philosophy.
• the Four-Virtue, or Stoic, canon of virtues.
• What Jesus is doing when he says good trees bear good fruit.
• How extreme political leanings cancel out treating people with ethical justice.
• How you are a fish in a bowl, God is the water inside and outside the fish, and the water is LOVE.

Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
--Jesus 

⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️

We hope this discussion of what is ancient makes your tomorrow better!

You can find out about all things TEXT AND ROCK by clicking HERE
or by heading to www.textandrock.com.

Feel free to contact us with comments or questions at info@textandrock.com. 
We LOVE to hear from you.

Be good to each other,

Mark and Eric

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

This one is all about what happens when we flip the arrow of revelation, so that humanity climbs a mountain and points to the divine... not the other way around. Just think on it. We'll help!

Join us to talk about

• Mark and Eric's poetry and suitcase drum set world tour.  Almost. We're getting there Text and Rockers....
• A poem by Mark called "Arrows and Mountains."
• The danger of woodenly applying Iron Age laws to modern society.
• How the model of arrows and mountains from antiquity should be flipped.
• What happens when you make the switch in how you read the Bible, New Testament, Talmud, Quran, Upanishads, etc...

They say that if you climb up

the god will climb down 

and tell you how to run your town...

--Swift-footed Markilles
             🔥🔥🔥

We hope this discussion of what is ancient makes your tomorrow better!

You can find out about all things TEXT AND ROCK by clicking HERE
or by heading to www.textandrock.com.

Feel free to contact us with comments or questions at info@textandrock.com. 
We LOVE to hear from you.

Be good to each other,

Mark and Eric

For Text and Rock Poetry, Podcasts, and Video Content or to contact Mark and Eric, visit us at www.textandrock.com.

You can find all of social handles here:

TEXT AND ROCK SOCIALS.

Want to support the show, experience our best creative work, buy one of our books or give an uncommonly better gift or art and heart? Ha! Head to the TEXT AND ROCK DIGITAL PRESS.

This one is all about what to take away from the Epic of Gilgamesh series: What to do with what we've learned together.

Join us to talk about

• how as bizarre as it is, Gilgamesh was a religious text for a long, long time.
• why in the world Mark picked Gilgamesh for an expanded series.
• how deep learning comes after fun and knowing a teacher is "for" you.
• whether the goal of a faith that actually matters is belief or unity and a better world.
• how to hold your text with levity and wonder.
• why logic rocks will weigh down your ability to grow wise from ancient literature.

Everything, Everything's magic!
--Angels and Airwaves
             🔥🔥🔥

We hope this discussion of what is ancient makes your tomorrow better!

You can find out about all things TEXT AND ROCK by clicking HERE
or by heading to www.textandrock.com.

Feel free to contact us with comments or questions at info@textandrock.com. 
We LOVE to hear from you.

Be good to each other,

Mark and Eric