{"product_id":"the-salt-of-the-universe-praise-songs-and-improvisations-9780374607920","title":"The Salt of the Universe: Praise, Songs, and Improvisations","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA book of mischief and improvisation that answers fundamentalism with rage, music, and delight in this earth.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhere does freedom live? \u003cbr\u003eWhy does it sometimes feel so good to be told what to do? \u003cbr\u003eWhat on heaven and earth is an apicklypse? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Salt of the Universe\u003c\/i\u003e raises these and other questions arising from Amy Leach's experience, including her time playing fiddle and her childhood in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, with its many prohibitions (coffee, dancing) and its emphasis on the apocalypse. The book argues against argument, but most of all against fundamentalisms of all kinds and their limiting effect on our humanity. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAfter listening to thousands of sermons, Leach has written her own unceremonious sermon on the dangers of dogma. \"To borrow the words of an old hymn: This is my story, this is my song.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the company of four-year-old mystics and six-year-old geologists and bears and butterflies and willow trees, after a lifetime of playing the piano in church and dance halls, Leach praises not obedience but freedom, not secondhand but firsthand thoughts, not homogeneity but heterogeneity. She champions Emily Dickinson and Jesus over interfering prophets, questions over answers, unpredictability over predictability, the soul over the institution, Miles Davis over miles of marching. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLeach reminds us, amid a delight of linguistic cartwheels, philosophical shenanigans, and love songs to the earth, that we must run toward mischief, music, love, the wonders of nature, and the wild joys of experience and improvisation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Farrar, Straus and Giroux\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/06\/2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780374607920\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 240\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 7.50h x 5.00w x 1.00d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/01\/0001\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Amy Leach","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44273814372533,"sku":"9780374607920","price":22.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_5d7bce44-8042-465c-a6a4-62f43b2a37fe.jpg?v=1718082675","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-salt-of-the-universe-praise-songs-and-improvisations-9780374607920","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}