(Posted on the vernacular body on July 15 2004)

Are you a laupe?

A laupe is someone who takes a Literary Approach to the Unorthodox Pursuit of Enlightenment. Most people on my blogroll are laupes.

A "literary approach," because laupes care about how they express what they express. Laupes wield language skillfully, and they tend to be avid readers. But they are typically not simply focused on literature or, like the purveyors of "literary blogs," the news and gossip that surrounds contemporary novelists. They do read new books, but it is not their only, or even their main focus. Laupes are different from the tech-bloggers, or the politickers, or the sordid-detailers. Laupes are a whole nother kettle of fish.

"Unorthodox" because most laupes are writing from the margins of spiritual practice. Laupes tend not to be Islamic fundamentalists or garden-variety born-again Christians. Even when they are Christians (and many are), laupes tend to be deeply ambivalent about certain aspects of the Apostles' Creed, and they tend to be on the liberal side of things. Many laupes are sympathetic to Buddhist ideals, and some are Buddhist but, again, they are always questioning the tradition. Some kind of unaffiliated Taoism seems to be the closest thing to a laupe religion, though almost all laupes are suspicious of authority (and suspicious of their suspicion of authority). Laupes have a pantheistic streak.

"The pursuit of enlightenment" because, unlike many other people with a serious interest in spiritual matters, laupes are pretty sure they don't have it all figured out yet. Laupes have unfinished business. Laupes are unfinished business.

Rumi was a laupe. So was Marcus Aurelius.

Thoreau was a laupe, as was Emily Dickinson.

Savoradin was a laupe. Denny, too.

George W. Bush is no laupe. Neither is Michael Moore.

Laupes love trees. Laupes love sex.

Laupes are willing to try anything once.

Laupes beg to differ.

Laupes are open-hearted, they are generous to a fault, and they are willing to look at things from the other person's point of view.

Laupes really dislike being rushed. Wherever laupes go, there they are.

There is more love expressed in a laupe disagreement than in most agreements elsewhere.

Most laupes were weird children.

Laupes will talk your ear off.

Laupes will go days without saying a word.

Laupes have no leader.

Laupes have been to the dark side.

When laupes suffer, they do so in exquisite poetry.

So, are you a laupe?