About

I am 48 years married, a father, grandfather, and retired United Methodist clergyman. I continue to serve as a pastoral counselor working with individuals and couples.

But I hope none of that will, right off the bat, discourage you from further exploring this site or, more importantly, reading LAST SUPPER RED - The Synaptic Edition!

That's very likely as much as you need to know "about" this website.

But if you're curious about how I came to write LAST SUPPER RED, read on. If not, then I hope you'll have a good time exploring the site further and reading the book!
~~~~
In 2011, when I turned 70, my daughter gifted me with another website as a place to put some photos, poetry, and maybe a sermon or two that had unfortunately escaped the shredder (gasp!). I began posting some items, including a few small pieces of fiction.

But then, as probably often happens in your life too, something unexpected happened: Hilarity insinuated itself into some of what I was writing. ("Hilarity" is capitalized for reasons you'll discover if you read the "Prologue" to LAST SUPPER RED.)

A chapter at a time, I began to post an emerging story featuring two most unlikely characters: Snark, whose name suggests an aspect of his character; and Advocatus di Aboli, a rather stuffily rigid old prelate who knew some of the Roman Emperors. (Sure, I probably stole that from the 1961 routine between Mel Brooks and Karl Reiner called "The 2000 Year Old Man.") I had no idea where this silliness would lead, but the writing was great fun.

Since I was posting a chapter each week or so, there were times when I had written my characters into a corner and revisions needed to be made. But how to do that? That's the reason behind the literary conceit that the chapters represent recently discovered and translated writings that had been buried, Dead Sea Scrolls-like, in a sub-basement of the building where my fictional company, Another-Fine-Mess, has its headquarters. The "RSV" "NRSV" "MSG" and "KJV" suffixes after certain chapter titles indicated the degree of revision by our team of expert decipherers and translators since the last time a visitor had read it. (The Appendix of LAST SUPPER RED tells this story and the meaning of the suffixes in more detail.)

I gave these chapters a deliberately abstruse title: Dialogues Upon Sundry Occasions.

These chapters were becoming something of a satire about how the church sometimes clings tenaciously to certain beliefs that may need to be re-examined; and how it too often insists on expressing its theology in a very outmoded manner . . . which has the unfortunate effect of turning off millions of people who otherwise might find both Christianity and involvement in the church a live option for them.

A sub-text began to emerge, suggesting what is often necessary for my-way-or-the-highway adversaries to forge a more useful relationship . . . which is, of course, a topic of absolutely no relevance to our time.

The book's point of view, voiced chiefly by Snark, is informed by Progressive Christianity, which is the theological flavor to which I'm most drawn.

Initially, I told myself that my granddaughter might want to know this side of her grandfather when she's of an age to wrestle with her own philosophy/theology of life. That thought kept me going.

Further on in the project, it also occurred to me that other people . . . particularly Seekers, those who consider themselves "spiritual but not religious" and "Nones" might profit from giving the story a read as well.

A little over a year after I began, the then-completed Dialogues were heavily revised and expanded. Since July 20, 2012, they have been available on my older website as a free, downloadable e-book. The Dialogues acquired a new name for the book: LAST SUPPER RED.

The version of LAST SUPPER RED you'll find here represents a further revision from the initial one. It bears the subtitle: "The Synaptic Edition." That silliness is explained in the book's "Preface."

If you've read this far, you have a sturdy constitution indeed!

I hope you'll enjoy LAST SUPPER RED - The Synaptic Edition, and that it will be of use to you in your own journey.

Jim Truxell
Reston, Virginia
October, 2014

That's very likely as much as you need to know "about" this website.

But if you're curious about how I came to write LAST SUPPER RED, read on. If not, then I hope you'll have a good time exploring the site further and reading the book!
~~~~
In 2011, when I turned 70, my daughter gifted me with another website as a place to put some photos, poetry, and maybe a sermon or two that had unfortunately escaped the shredder (gasp!). I began posting some items, including a few small pieces of fiction.

But then, as probably often happens in your life too, something unexpected happened: Hilarity insinuated itself into some of what I was writing. ("Hilarity" is capitalized for reasons you'll discover if you read the "Prologue" to LAST SUPPER RED.)

A chapter at a time, I began to post an emerging story featuring two most unlikely characters: Snark, whose name suggests an aspect of his character; and Advocatus di Aboli, a rather stuffily rigid old prelate who knew some of the Roman Emperors. (Sure, I probably stole that from the 1961 routine between Mel Brooks and Karl Reiner called "The 2000 Year Old Man.") I had no idea where this silliness would lead, but the writing was great fun.

Since I was posting a chapter each week or so, there were times when I had written my characters into a corner and revisions needed to be made. But how to do that? That's the reason behind the literary conceit that the chapters represent recently discovered and translated writings that had been buried, Dead Sea Scrolls-like, in a sub-basement of the building where my fictional company, Another-Fine-Mess, has its headquarters. The "RSV" "NRSV" "MSG" and "KJV" suffixes after certain chapter titles indicated the degree of revision by our team of expert decipherers and translators since the last time a visitor had read it. (The Appendix of LAST SUPPER RED tells this story and the meaning of the suffixes in more detail.)

I gave these chapters a deliberately abstruse title: Dialogues Upon Sundry Occasions.

These chapters were becoming something of a satire about how the church sometimes clings tenaciously to certain beliefs that may need to be re-examined; and how it too often insists on expressing its theology in a very outmoded manner . . . which has the unfortunate effect of turning off millions of people who otherwise might find both Christianity and involvement in the church a live option for them.

A sub-text began to emerge, suggesting what is often necessary for my-way-or-the-highway adversaries to forge a more useful relationship . . . which is, of course, a topic of absolutely no relevance to our time.

The book's point of view, voiced chiefly by Snark, is informed by Progressive Christianity, which is the theological flavor to which I'm most drawn.

Initially, I told myself that my granddaughter might want to know this side of her grandfather when she's of an age to wrestle with her own philosophy/theology of life. That thought kept me going.

Further on in the project, it also occurred to me that other people . . . particularly Seekers, those who consider themselves "spiritual but not religious" and "Nones" might profit from giving the story a read as well.

A little over a year after I began, the then-completed Dialogues were heavily revised and expanded. Since July 20, 2012, they have been available on my older website as a free, downloadable e-book. The Dialogues acquired a new name for the book: LAST SUPPER RED.

The version of LAST SUPPER RED you'll find here represents a further revision from the initial one. It bears the subtitle: "The Synaptic Edition." That silliness is explained in the book's "Preface."

If you've read this far, you have a sturdy constitution indeed!

I hope you'll enjoy LAST SUPPER RED - The Synaptic Edition, and that it will be of use to you in your own journey.

Jim Truxell
Reston, Virginia
October, 2014