mid-morning time waster

if smoking pot was legal, you did not have any moral objections to the practice, it was your birthday (so you really deserved a treat) and you could only smoke up with three people…who would you choose?*

this is the question that has been vexing a certain 32 year old grumpy old man and myself for a little over a week and we’d love for you to join in the conversation. we welcome any and all responses, but think it would be fun if you chose your three fellow deviants from one particular field (i.e., musicians, writers, reality t.v. show contestants, etc).

since i am (an admittedly misanthropic) minister, i’ll share the three religious figures i would love to smoke up with.




number one on my list is st. francis of assisi. i realize that in the late medieval period in upper umbria sharing a water pipe was not a recreational option. however, if it was i have little doubt that francis, with his love of mystical experience and the natural world, would be more than willing to share a few loose joints with me. the mere idea of lolling on the hillside of assisi, smoking with francis and sharing the secrets of our inner life (i would have to ask about the nature of his affection for Claire) makes me get a little misty.




my second would be the pride of lowell, massachusetts, jack kerouac. although jack is not specifically a religious figure, he was intrigued by buddhism and once defined beat writing in as a means of being “sympathetic” to the common man. i think that definition applies equally well to Jesus’ ministry and i would love to take a hit with jack and listen to his stream-of-consciousness ramblings as we jumped a freight train or hitched our way out west.




malcom’s own depictions of his hep-cat days in boston as well as the remarkable reactions he had against his youth suggest that rolling one with him in his early days, strapping on a zoot and maybe heading down to the city to see ella fitzgerald would have been interesting.

my buddy and I hope you can take a moment to share your list.

* for the record, i: have not smoked pot in over a decade, realize that this post will make a few people more than a little uncomfortable (hi mom!) and am fairly certain that this would be a piece of damning evidence against any candidacy for a traditional church job. but, i’m bored, don’t have the time to write anything meaningful and, at the moment anyway, could care less about the consequences.