Start of May Bonus Issue

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

Bonus Issue
A thought…

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Zeitgeist is a German loan-word meaning the “spirit of an age.” It’s the feeling that everyone around feels.
The sense I have had in the last two days has been pretty rough. I’ve talked with a lot of folk, and it seems we all are having a particularly hard time — overly sad, stressed, on-edge, disappointed, frustrated, etc. No one seems to be quite the best version on themselves in the past few days to a week.
I don’t know really what caused it. (Was it the sensational royal wedding followed by the sensational death of Bin Laden? Or, is it simply that the stars and planets are aligned maliciously?)
Something in me felt moved to send this e-mail in case you too were feeling the odd zeitgeist these days. There seems to be some comfort knowing I’m not alone.

Spiritual-religious advice: See if you can’t be more aware of your breaths than of your thoughts.

With love,

Rabbi Brian

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. *

Start of May Bonus Issue