Bonus: Avoid shit.

The 77% Weekly

The 40/52-weeks-a-year, quick-reading, thought-lingering, spiritual-religious newsletter.

Religion-Outside-The-Box (oldrotb.wpengine.com) is a donation supported not-for-profit empowering adults to find and be with (the) God (of their understanding).

BONUS ISSUE… From the desk of Rabbi Brian

Avoid it…

Yesterday
on my drive home, I phoned Larry, my best friend. I’m lucky to be able to call him
when I need some support.

“I
need the counsel of a wise, retired minister,” I told him.

“What’s
going on,” asked the man most of you know as the author of the Simple Prayers you get in your in-box on the 3rd Monday of the
month.

I
spilled to Larry my angst which boils down to this: A guy I know was acting like an ignorant jerk and I couldn’t figure out what to do.

When
I took a break from my rambling-venting, Larry simply said this: “Brian, when you
are out there walking along, do your best to avoid stepping in fecal matter.”

How
true, how true.

I
don’t need to do any of the bad options I had considered.

I forgot I could just not deal with the guy who was being a jerk.

I
forget that.

I
forget that I have the option to step around the fecal mater.

And,
I bet there are times that you forget this also.

That’s
why I wanted to send you this e-mail.

And, because it’s a great the spiritual-religious truth, I will quote Larry and repeat it here: when you
are out there walking along, do your best to avoid stepping in fecal matter.
How true, how true.
-RB

The 77% Weekly

The 77% Weekly: The Religion-Outside-The-Box Newsletter helps people find and be with (the) God (of their understanding) 40 out of 52 weeks a year.

Why 77%?
Two reasons:

1) 40/52 = 0.76923. The newsletter is sent every Monday except the last of each month.
2) In school 77% was a passing grade and ROTB is delighted to remind you that life isn’t graded.

Religion-Outside-The-Box is a donation-supported,
non-denominational, internet-based, 501c3-tax exempt religious congregation.

Flash Bang

February 6, 2026

✧✧✧ My buddy Marc meets me near my house at 3:30 on Saturday afternoon so we can bike to the small park named for Elizabeth Caruthers. I looked her up as I started to write this article. Elizabeth Caruthers was an early pioneer woman whose Supreme Court case led to the 1850 Donation Act—ruling that a woman, married or not,

Hiawatha Johnson, JR.

January 31, 2026

January 2026 — Portland, ORE Hiawatha Johnson, Jr., a mentor and friend died. Summer 1985 — Magic Camp Oakdale, Long Island I’m 15. He’s 30. He wears a dashiki. He uses a walking stick. I’m prepubescent. I listen to comedy cassettes on a Walkman. I’m in awe. ✧✧✧ I perform a rather banal magic act that year — me narrating

The Delay

January 14, 2026

2026 issue #03 — The Delay I’m in my buddy David’s car. He’s driving me from my mom’s apartment in NYC to Newark, NJ, where I’m going to catch a plane back home to Portland. David and I have been friends for fifty years. Amazing. My phone dings. I look at it. Nothing important. Just an alert from United. *

Bonus: Avoid shit.