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Lexical Trilogy #3
Whistling in the Dark: A Doubter's Dictionary
Awry and thought-provoking jaunt through the spiritual terrain of our everyday language -- a lexion of uncommon insight to jar the mind and nourish the soul. "I think of faith as a kind of whistling in the dark, because in much the same way," writes Buechner, "it helps to give us courage and to hold the shadows at bay."
144 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
88 people are currently reading
940 people want to read
About the author
Frederick Buechner
93 books1,241 followersFrederick Buechner is a highly influential writer and theologian who has won awards for his poetry, short stories, novels and theological writings. His work pioneered the genre of spiritual memoir, laying the groundwork for writers such as Anne Lamott, Rob Bell and Lauren Winner.
His first book, A Long Day's Dying, was published to acclaim just two years after he graduated from Princeton. He entered Union Theological Seminary in 1954 where he studied under renowned theologians that included Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, and James Muilenberg. In 1955, his short story "The Tiger" which had been published in the New Yorker won the O. Henry Prize.
After seminary he spent nine years at Phillips Exeter Academy, establishing a religion department and teaching courses in both religion and English. Among his students was the future author, John Irving. In 1969 he gave the Noble Lectures at Harvard. He presented a theological autobiography on a day in his life, which was published as The Alphabet of Grace.
In the years that followed he began publishing more novels, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist Godric. At the same time, he was also writing a series of spiritual autobiographies. A central theme in his theological writing is looking for God in the everyday, listening and paying attention, to hear God speak to people through their personal lives.
His first book, A Long Day's Dying, was published to acclaim just two years after he graduated from Princeton. He entered Union Theological Seminary in 1954 where he studied under renowned theologians that included Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, and James Muilenberg. In 1955, his short story "The Tiger" which had been published in the New Yorker won the O. Henry Prize.
After seminary he spent nine years at Phillips Exeter Academy, establishing a religion department and teaching courses in both religion and English. Among his students was the future author, John Irving. In 1969 he gave the Noble Lectures at Harvard. He presented a theological autobiography on a day in his life, which was published as The Alphabet of Grace.
In the years that followed he began publishing more novels, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist Godric. At the same time, he was also writing a series of spiritual autobiographies. A central theme in his theological writing is looking for God in the everyday, listening and paying attention, to hear God speak to people through their personal lives.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
December 26, 2022
Wow, wow, wow. I had heard Buechner quoted in various sermons and classes throughout my life, but this was my first time actually reading a full-length work of his. Safe to say that "Whistling in the Dark" will not be the last:)
First of all, Buechner's writing is simply stunning. He has a way of articulating things in a way that's so poetic, so clear, and so insightful that I frequently got goosebumps. I'm usually not one to write in books, but I found myself underlining entire sentences and passages that had a profound impact on me.
More so than the writing itself, however, Buechner's ability to observe the realities of our world and imbue them with theological significance is incredible. The holy anticipation of Advent, the strange beauty of funerals, the newsworthiness of our everyday lives...these are just a few of the things that Buechner reflects on in bite-size form. I truly believe that his words invite the reader into a deeper worship of the God who wove these beautiful intricacies into our lives.
All that to say...I can't recommend this collection enough, and I'm looking forward to reading the other two books in this trilogy soon!
First of all, Buechner's writing is simply stunning. He has a way of articulating things in a way that's so poetic, so clear, and so insightful that I frequently got goosebumps. I'm usually not one to write in books, but I found myself underlining entire sentences and passages that had a profound impact on me.
More so than the writing itself, however, Buechner's ability to observe the realities of our world and imbue them with theological significance is incredible. The holy anticipation of Advent, the strange beauty of funerals, the newsworthiness of our everyday lives...these are just a few of the things that Buechner reflects on in bite-size form. I truly believe that his words invite the reader into a deeper worship of the God who wove these beautiful intricacies into our lives.
All that to say...I can't recommend this collection enough, and I'm looking forward to reading the other two books in this trilogy soon!
November 17, 2021
I read a couple of Buechner books a year, and thankfully still have a reasonable supply of unread ones.
In this, as in its companion volumes Wishful Thinking and Peculiar Treasures (as yet unread), Beuchner creates an alphabetised miscellany by expounding on certain words in brief form.... like five paragraphs on boredom or two paragraphs on dying or four paragraphs on nature or three paragraphs on transfiguration.
The cover design is by Australian cartooning legend Michael Leunig. Which seems strangely apt: the work of both he and Beuchner is known to embody a certain melancholic hopefulness.
In this, as in its companion volumes Wishful Thinking and Peculiar Treasures (as yet unread), Beuchner creates an alphabetised miscellany by expounding on certain words in brief form.... like five paragraphs on boredom or two paragraphs on dying or four paragraphs on nature or three paragraphs on transfiguration.
The cover design is by Australian cartooning legend Michael Leunig. Which seems strangely apt: the work of both he and Beuchner is known to embody a certain melancholic hopefulness.
May 30, 2015
Buechner says so much in so few words. And his brilliance is rooted in the simplest yet profoundest sense of how religion should be practiced: watch, listen, learn.
December 24, 2022
“In effect he is putting a frame around the moment, and what the frame does is enable us to see not just something about the moment but the moment itself in all its ineffable ordinariness and particularity” (reference to Basho, the poet, in Art, p 15).
Whistling in the Dark: A Doubter’s Dictionary is a wonderfully reflective A-Z lexicon that causes the reader to pause and wonder. Author, Frederick Buechner astounds me with his authenticity and ability to take ordinary words and ponder the spiritual dimension present in their meaning, use, interpretation and possibilities. I love that Buechner, a Presbyterian minister who actually never held a pastorate position, is so incredibly honest. There are no airs and graces and over-spiritualising in these lexical meditations but raw humanity. I took a long time to read this book as I read it word by word, day by day, taking some time to reflect on fresh meanings for me.
Words as ordinary as anxiety, beauty, comedy, dreams, earth, faces, goodbye.... Buechner finds the depth and slant to create real meaning in relation to the depth of life and connection to the story that we sit within that transcends each of us.
I first came across Frederick Buechner in Phillip Yancey’s “Soul Survivor” book where Yancey devoted an entire chapter to unpacking the influence that Buechner had had in his life. His gentle yet courageous no-holds-barred exploration of the human condition in many of his 39 authored books is testament to this man’s character and life. I just read in an article online describing him that “Mr. Buechner said he believed that chance largely ruled the universe, but also that “through the chance things that happen, God opens up possibilities of redemptive human change in the inner selves, even of people who wouldn’t be caught dead believing in Him.”” I love that intersection, chance and possibilities. Makes me ponder the meaning of what is at times, this absurd existence.
Whistling in the Dark is actually the third book in a trilogy, is the third and final instalment of Buechner's lexical trilogy, which includes Wishful Thinking (1973) and Peculiar Treasures (1979). The fact that illustrations by my favourite reflective cartoonist, Leunig adorn the covers of all three of these is enough for me to know that they speak to the heart.
5 stars no doubting.
Whistling in the Dark: A Doubter’s Dictionary is a wonderfully reflective A-Z lexicon that causes the reader to pause and wonder. Author, Frederick Buechner astounds me with his authenticity and ability to take ordinary words and ponder the spiritual dimension present in their meaning, use, interpretation and possibilities. I love that Buechner, a Presbyterian minister who actually never held a pastorate position, is so incredibly honest. There are no airs and graces and over-spiritualising in these lexical meditations but raw humanity. I took a long time to read this book as I read it word by word, day by day, taking some time to reflect on fresh meanings for me.
Words as ordinary as anxiety, beauty, comedy, dreams, earth, faces, goodbye.... Buechner finds the depth and slant to create real meaning in relation to the depth of life and connection to the story that we sit within that transcends each of us.
I first came across Frederick Buechner in Phillip Yancey’s “Soul Survivor” book where Yancey devoted an entire chapter to unpacking the influence that Buechner had had in his life. His gentle yet courageous no-holds-barred exploration of the human condition in many of his 39 authored books is testament to this man’s character and life. I just read in an article online describing him that “Mr. Buechner said he believed that chance largely ruled the universe, but also that “through the chance things that happen, God opens up possibilities of redemptive human change in the inner selves, even of people who wouldn’t be caught dead believing in Him.”” I love that intersection, chance and possibilities. Makes me ponder the meaning of what is at times, this absurd existence.
Whistling in the Dark is actually the third book in a trilogy, is the third and final instalment of Buechner's lexical trilogy, which includes Wishful Thinking (1973) and Peculiar Treasures (1979). The fact that illustrations by my favourite reflective cartoonist, Leunig adorn the covers of all three of these is enough for me to know that they speak to the heart.
5 stars no doubting.
July 15, 2025
Conceptually, Whistling in the Dark is a beautiful idea. If only its execution had fulfilled its latent potential. This book purports to be a "doubter's dictionary." It contains 108 entries where Frederick Buechner offers varying lengths of definitions on topics of interest to the doubter. He covers everything from "aging" to "depression" to "homosexual" to "jogging." The entries range from the pithy one or two sentence entries to mini-essays that are tangentially related to the topic.
Positively, Frederick Buechner can write! For example, under the entry "today" he writes, "It is a moment of light surrounded on all sides by darkness and oblivion. In the entire history of the universe, let alone in your own history, there has never been another just like it and there will never be another just like it agin. It is the point to which all your yesterdays have been leading since the hour of your birth. It is the point from which all your tomorrows will proceed until the hour of your death. If you were aware of how precious it is, you could hardly live through it. Unless you are aware of how precious it is, you can hardly be said to be living at all!" (117-8)
Or consider how he defines/comments upon "unbelief": "Unbelief is as much of a choice as belief is. What makes it in many ways more appealing is that whereas to believe in something requires some measure of understanding and effort, not to believe doesn't require much of anything at all" (121).
Sadly, this little book is not only characterized by Buechner's beautiful writing. It also reeks of his theological liberalism. He frequently quotes Scripture - even correctly using it in many instances. Yet, he drifts far afield from a biblical worldview at many, many points. In fact, I decided to employ "the stamp" on this book. I have a stamp in my library that uses red ink to declare a book "HERETICAL MATERIAL: Research Purposes Only." I don't use the stamp often. I cherish those who would push the boundaries of my thinking. I think it foolish to live in an echo chamber and eschew those who only read authors with whom they agree. However, there are books that go too far. Whistling in the Dark is such a book. Its danger rests in its beauty and its frequent wise entries. Still, there is enough heresy here for me to caution the reader.
Positively, Frederick Buechner can write! For example, under the entry "today" he writes, "It is a moment of light surrounded on all sides by darkness and oblivion. In the entire history of the universe, let alone in your own history, there has never been another just like it and there will never be another just like it agin. It is the point to which all your yesterdays have been leading since the hour of your birth. It is the point from which all your tomorrows will proceed until the hour of your death. If you were aware of how precious it is, you could hardly live through it. Unless you are aware of how precious it is, you can hardly be said to be living at all!" (117-8)
Or consider how he defines/comments upon "unbelief": "Unbelief is as much of a choice as belief is. What makes it in many ways more appealing is that whereas to believe in something requires some measure of understanding and effort, not to believe doesn't require much of anything at all" (121).
Sadly, this little book is not only characterized by Buechner's beautiful writing. It also reeks of his theological liberalism. He frequently quotes Scripture - even correctly using it in many instances. Yet, he drifts far afield from a biblical worldview at many, many points. In fact, I decided to employ "the stamp" on this book. I have a stamp in my library that uses red ink to declare a book "HERETICAL MATERIAL: Research Purposes Only." I don't use the stamp often. I cherish those who would push the boundaries of my thinking. I think it foolish to live in an echo chamber and eschew those who only read authors with whom they agree. However, there are books that go too far. Whistling in the Dark is such a book. Its danger rests in its beauty and its frequent wise entries. Still, there is enough heresy here for me to caution the reader.
November 13, 2021
This one is overly quaint most of the time, but maybe that's how Buechner is able to package some of his challenging notions and questions for his American Christian readership. Here are the questions and observations that resonated with me:
"Anyone who claims to believe in an all-powerful, all-loving God without taking into account this devastating evidence either that God is indifferent or powerless, or that there is no God at all, is playing games."
"The New Testament speaks of the Cross, part of whose meaning is that even out of the worst the world can do, God is still able to bring about the best. But all such explanations sound pale and inadequate before the gas chambers of Buchenwald and Ravensbruck, the ovens of Treblinka."
"True patriots are no longer champions of Democracy, Communism, or anything like that but champions of the human race. It is not the Homeland that they feel called on to defend at any cost but the planet Earth as Home."
"Suicide is perhaps less a voluntary act than a reflex action. If you're being burned alive with a loaded pistol in your hand, it's hard to see how anyone can seriously hold it against you for pulling the trigger."
I wish I could report that there are more observations along these lines, but the truth is I found most of the other stuff to be pretty dull. In all fairness, though, I do expect quite a bit of books. At least it's short.
"Anyone who claims to believe in an all-powerful, all-loving God without taking into account this devastating evidence either that God is indifferent or powerless, or that there is no God at all, is playing games."
"The New Testament speaks of the Cross, part of whose meaning is that even out of the worst the world can do, God is still able to bring about the best. But all such explanations sound pale and inadequate before the gas chambers of Buchenwald and Ravensbruck, the ovens of Treblinka."
"True patriots are no longer champions of Democracy, Communism, or anything like that but champions of the human race. It is not the Homeland that they feel called on to defend at any cost but the planet Earth as Home."
"Suicide is perhaps less a voluntary act than a reflex action. If you're being burned alive with a loaded pistol in your hand, it's hard to see how anyone can seriously hold it against you for pulling the trigger."
I wish I could report that there are more observations along these lines, but the truth is I found most of the other stuff to be pretty dull. In all fairness, though, I do expect quite a bit of books. At least it's short.
May 17, 2020
Refreshing and relaxing read. The sections were brief but surprisingly deep and intriguing enough to pique my interest in related topics. Though written from a theological perspective, the thoughts and emotions reflected were unexpectedly raw and real to today’s issues of the world.
When I begin, I did not expect to take away significant intellectual insights but completing this book actually left me with a better appreciation of the spiritual, emotional, and intellectual aspects of life.
Notably, I really enjoyed “Government” and “Jobs”.
When I begin, I did not expect to take away significant intellectual insights but completing this book actually left me with a better appreciation of the spiritual, emotional, and intellectual aspects of life.
Notably, I really enjoyed “Government” and “Jobs”.
April 29, 2023
"They say they will love, comfort, honour each other to the end of their days. They say they will cherish each other and be faithful to each other always. They say they will do these things not just when they feel like it but even – for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health – when they don’t feel like it at all. In other words, the vows they make at a marriage could hardly be more extravagant. They give away their freedom. They take on themselves each other’s burdens. They bind their lives together in ways that are even more painful to unbind emotionally, humanly, than they are to unbind legally. The question is: what do they get in return?
They get each other in return. Assuming they have any success at all in keeping their rash, quixotic promises, they never have to face the world quite alone again. There will always be the other to talk to, to listen to. If they’re lucky, even after the first passion passes, they still have a kindness and patience to depend on, a chance to be patient and kind. There is still someone to get through the night with, to wake into the new day beside. If they have children, they can give them, as well as each other, roots and wings. If they don’t have children, they each become each other’s child.
They both still have their lives apart as well as a life together. They both still have their separate ways to find. But a marriage made in Heaven is one where a man and a woman become more richly themselves together than the chances are either of them could ever have managed to become alone. When Jesus changed the water into wine at the wedding in Cana, perhaps it was a way of saying more or less the same thing."
They get each other in return. Assuming they have any success at all in keeping their rash, quixotic promises, they never have to face the world quite alone again. There will always be the other to talk to, to listen to. If they’re lucky, even after the first passion passes, they still have a kindness and patience to depend on, a chance to be patient and kind. There is still someone to get through the night with, to wake into the new day beside. If they have children, they can give them, as well as each other, roots and wings. If they don’t have children, they each become each other’s child.
They both still have their lives apart as well as a life together. They both still have their separate ways to find. But a marriage made in Heaven is one where a man and a woman become more richly themselves together than the chances are either of them could ever have managed to become alone. When Jesus changed the water into wine at the wedding in Cana, perhaps it was a way of saying more or less the same thing."
September 28, 2017
A literal dictionary
I'm not sure what I thought I was going to read when I bought this. Buechner has come up several times in conversations I've had with friends, so I thought I'd give him a try. This is the first book I've read of his (maybe not the best place to start.)
He goes through the ABCs of what he would categorize as faith topics or topics that would come up in a persons conversation regarding faith. Each letter of the alphabet has a number of entries and it's almost like reading three paragraph blog posts.
I'm not letting this book paint my portrait of Buechner but I'm not recommending this one, either.
I'm not sure what I thought I was going to read when I bought this. Buechner has come up several times in conversations I've had with friends, so I thought I'd give him a try. This is the first book I've read of his (maybe not the best place to start.)
He goes through the ABCs of what he would categorize as faith topics or topics that would come up in a persons conversation regarding faith. Each letter of the alphabet has a number of entries and it's almost like reading three paragraph blog posts.
I'm not letting this book paint my portrait of Buechner but I'm not recommending this one, either.
August 5, 2011
My favorite Buechner book. I especially love the essay entitled "Faces".
April 9, 2023
I really enjoy his writing but not sure I agree with all his theology. Good things to think through though.
October 9, 2016
I am me. I am a sinner. ” “Hi, you. ” Hi, every Sadie and Sal. Hi, every Tom, Dick, and Harry. It is the forgiveness of sins, of course. It is what the Church is all about. No matter what far place alcoholics end up in, either in this country or virtually anywhere else, they know that there will be an A.A. meeting nearby to go to and that at that meeting they will find strangers who are not strangers to help and to heal, to listen to the truth and to tell it. That is what the Body of Christ is all about. Would it ever occur to Christians in a far place to turn to a Church nearby in hope of finding the same? Would they find it? If not, you wonder what is so Big about the Church’s Business
There is perhaps no better proof for the existence of God than the way year after year he survives the way his professional friends (pastors) promote him.
If we would only speak the truth to one another—parents and children, friends and enemies, husbands and wives, strangers and lovers—we would no longer have to act out our deepest feelings in symbols that none of us understand. In our sickness, stubbornness, pride, we starve ourselves for what we hunger for above all else.“Speaking the truth in love” is another phrase from Ephesians (4:15). It is the only cure for the anorexia that afflicts us all
In effect he (Basho, haiku poet) is putting a frame around the moment, and what the frame does is enable us to see not just something about the moment but the moment itself in all its ineffable ordinariness and particularity. The chances are that if we had been passing by when the frog jumped, we wouldn’t have noticed a thing or, noticing it, wouldn’t have given it a second thought. But the frame sets it off from everything else that distracts us. It makes possible a second thought. That is the nature and purpose of frames. The frame does not change the moment, but it changes our way of perceiving the moment. It makes us NOTICE the moment, and that is what Basho wants above all else. It is what literature in general wants above all else too.
From the simplest lyric to the most complex novel and densest drama, literature is asking us to pay attention.
Literature, painting, music—the most basic lesson that all art teaches us is to stop, look, and listen to life on this planet, including our own lives, as a vastly richer, deeper, more mysterious business than most of the time it ever occurs to us to suspect as we bumble along from day to day on automatic pilot. In a world that for the most part steers clear of the whole idea of holiness, art is one of the few places left where we can speak to each other of holy things.
Believing God is something else again. It is less a position than a journey, less a realisation than a relationship. It doesn’t leave you cold like believing the world is round. It stirs your blood like believing the world is a miracle. It affects who you are and what you do with your life like believing your house is on fire or somebody loves you. We believe in God when for one reason or another we choose to do so. We believe God when somehow we run into God in a way that by and large leaves us no choice to do otherwise. When Jesus says that whoever believes “into” him shall never die, he does not mean that to be willing to sign your name to the Nicene Creed guarantees eternal life. Eternal life is not the result of believing in. It is the experience of believing.
BOREDOM
To be bored is to turn down cold whatever life happens to be offering you at the moment. It is to cast a jaundiced eye at life in general including most of all your own life. You feel nothing is worth getting excited about because you are yourself not worth getting excited about. To be bored is a way of making the least of things you often have a sneaking suspicion you need the most. To be bored to death is a form of suicide.
The major difference between hating and loving is perhaps that whereas to love somebody is to be fulfilled and enriched by the experience, to hate somebody is to be diminished and drained by it.Lovers, by losing themselves in their loving, find themselves, become themselves. Haters simply lose themselves. Theirs is the ultimately consuming passion
The two words: "Help me". They open a door through the walls, that’s all. At least hope is possible again. At least you’re no longer alone.
It is not the object of our sexuality that determines its value but the inner nature of our sexuality. If (a) it is as raw as the coupling of animals, at its worst it demeans us and at its best still leaves our deepest hunger for each other unsatisfied. If (b) it involves some measure of kindness, understanding, affection as well as desire, it can become an expression of human love in its fullness and can thus help to complete us as humans. Whatever our sexual preference happens to be, both of these possibilities are always there. It’s not whom you go to bed with or what you do when you get there that matters so much. It’s what besides sex you are asking to receive, and what besides sex you are offering to give.
Innocent people may be up to their necks in muck with the rest of us, but the mark of their innocence is that it never seems to stick to them. Things may be rotten all around them, but they preserve a curious freshness. Even when, like the disciple Peter, they are guilty of tragic flaws and failures, you feel that some inner purity remains untouched.
If not working is the chief pleasure they have, you wonder if they wouldn’t do better just to devote themselves to that from the start. They would probably end up in breadlines or begging, but even so the chances are they would be happier than pulling down a good salary as an insurance agent or a dental technician or a cab driver and hating every minute of it
They both still have their lives apart as well as a life together. They both still have their separate ways to find. But a marriage made in Heaven is one where a man and a woman become more richly themselves together than the chances are either of them could ever have managed to become alone. When Jesus changed the water into wine at the wedding in Cana, perhaps it was a way of saying more or less the same thing.
u
Love your neighbour as yourself,” we’re told. Maybe before I can love my neighbour very effectively, I have to love me—not in the sense of a blind passion but in the sense of looking after, of wishing well, of forgiving when necessary, of being my own friend.
Maybe our hunger to know each other fully naked is in the last analysis simply our hunger to know each other fully.
want to know you with all your defenses down, all your pretenses set aside, all your secrets laid bare. Then maybe I will be brave enough to lay myself bare so that at last we can be naked together and unashamed
A man and a woman are getting married. A child is being given a name. A war is being remembered and many deaths. A boy is coming of age. It is life that is going on. It is always going on, and it is always precious. It is God that is going on. It is you who are there that is going on. As Henry James advised writers, be one on whom nothing is lost.OBSERVE!! There are few things as important, as religious, as that. OLD
When you remember me, it means that you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me. It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart.
Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and is summoning you to where, if your soul is to be saved, you should go to next.
Unbelief is as much of a choice as belief is. What makes it in many ways more appealing is that whereas to believe in something requires some measure of understanding and effort, not to believe doesn’t require much of anything at all.
Truth itself cannot be stated. Truth simply is, and is what is, the good with the bad, the joy with the despair, the presence and absence of God, the swollen eye, the bird pecking the cobbles for crumbs. Before it is a word, the Gospel that is truth is silence, a pregnant silence in its ninth month, and in answer to Pilate's question, Jesus keeps silent, even with his hands tied behind him manages somehow to hold silence out like a terrible gift.
There is perhaps no better proof for the existence of God than the way year after year he survives the way his professional friends (pastors) promote him.
If we would only speak the truth to one another—parents and children, friends and enemies, husbands and wives, strangers and lovers—we would no longer have to act out our deepest feelings in symbols that none of us understand. In our sickness, stubbornness, pride, we starve ourselves for what we hunger for above all else.“Speaking the truth in love” is another phrase from Ephesians (4:15). It is the only cure for the anorexia that afflicts us all
In effect he (Basho, haiku poet) is putting a frame around the moment, and what the frame does is enable us to see not just something about the moment but the moment itself in all its ineffable ordinariness and particularity. The chances are that if we had been passing by when the frog jumped, we wouldn’t have noticed a thing or, noticing it, wouldn’t have given it a second thought. But the frame sets it off from everything else that distracts us. It makes possible a second thought. That is the nature and purpose of frames. The frame does not change the moment, but it changes our way of perceiving the moment. It makes us NOTICE the moment, and that is what Basho wants above all else. It is what literature in general wants above all else too.
From the simplest lyric to the most complex novel and densest drama, literature is asking us to pay attention.
Literature, painting, music—the most basic lesson that all art teaches us is to stop, look, and listen to life on this planet, including our own lives, as a vastly richer, deeper, more mysterious business than most of the time it ever occurs to us to suspect as we bumble along from day to day on automatic pilot. In a world that for the most part steers clear of the whole idea of holiness, art is one of the few places left where we can speak to each other of holy things.
Believing God is something else again. It is less a position than a journey, less a realisation than a relationship. It doesn’t leave you cold like believing the world is round. It stirs your blood like believing the world is a miracle. It affects who you are and what you do with your life like believing your house is on fire or somebody loves you. We believe in God when for one reason or another we choose to do so. We believe God when somehow we run into God in a way that by and large leaves us no choice to do otherwise. When Jesus says that whoever believes “into” him shall never die, he does not mean that to be willing to sign your name to the Nicene Creed guarantees eternal life. Eternal life is not the result of believing in. It is the experience of believing.
BOREDOM
To be bored is to turn down cold whatever life happens to be offering you at the moment. It is to cast a jaundiced eye at life in general including most of all your own life. You feel nothing is worth getting excited about because you are yourself not worth getting excited about. To be bored is a way of making the least of things you often have a sneaking suspicion you need the most. To be bored to death is a form of suicide.
The major difference between hating and loving is perhaps that whereas to love somebody is to be fulfilled and enriched by the experience, to hate somebody is to be diminished and drained by it.Lovers, by losing themselves in their loving, find themselves, become themselves. Haters simply lose themselves. Theirs is the ultimately consuming passion
The two words: "Help me". They open a door through the walls, that’s all. At least hope is possible again. At least you’re no longer alone.
It is not the object of our sexuality that determines its value but the inner nature of our sexuality. If (a) it is as raw as the coupling of animals, at its worst it demeans us and at its best still leaves our deepest hunger for each other unsatisfied. If (b) it involves some measure of kindness, understanding, affection as well as desire, it can become an expression of human love in its fullness and can thus help to complete us as humans. Whatever our sexual preference happens to be, both of these possibilities are always there. It’s not whom you go to bed with or what you do when you get there that matters so much. It’s what besides sex you are asking to receive, and what besides sex you are offering to give.
Innocent people may be up to their necks in muck with the rest of us, but the mark of their innocence is that it never seems to stick to them. Things may be rotten all around them, but they preserve a curious freshness. Even when, like the disciple Peter, they are guilty of tragic flaws and failures, you feel that some inner purity remains untouched.
If not working is the chief pleasure they have, you wonder if they wouldn’t do better just to devote themselves to that from the start. They would probably end up in breadlines or begging, but even so the chances are they would be happier than pulling down a good salary as an insurance agent or a dental technician or a cab driver and hating every minute of it
They both still have their lives apart as well as a life together. They both still have their separate ways to find. But a marriage made in Heaven is one where a man and a woman become more richly themselves together than the chances are either of them could ever have managed to become alone. When Jesus changed the water into wine at the wedding in Cana, perhaps it was a way of saying more or less the same thing.
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Love your neighbour as yourself,” we’re told. Maybe before I can love my neighbour very effectively, I have to love me—not in the sense of a blind passion but in the sense of looking after, of wishing well, of forgiving when necessary, of being my own friend.
Maybe our hunger to know each other fully naked is in the last analysis simply our hunger to know each other fully.
want to know you with all your defenses down, all your pretenses set aside, all your secrets laid bare. Then maybe I will be brave enough to lay myself bare so that at last we can be naked together and unashamed
A man and a woman are getting married. A child is being given a name. A war is being remembered and many deaths. A boy is coming of age. It is life that is going on. It is always going on, and it is always precious. It is God that is going on. It is you who are there that is going on. As Henry James advised writers, be one on whom nothing is lost.OBSERVE!! There are few things as important, as religious, as that. OLD
When you remember me, it means that you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me. It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart.
Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and is summoning you to where, if your soul is to be saved, you should go to next.
Unbelief is as much of a choice as belief is. What makes it in many ways more appealing is that whereas to believe in something requires some measure of understanding and effort, not to believe doesn’t require much of anything at all.
Truth itself cannot be stated. Truth simply is, and is what is, the good with the bad, the joy with the despair, the presence and absence of God, the swollen eye, the bird pecking the cobbles for crumbs. Before it is a word, the Gospel that is truth is silence, a pregnant silence in its ninth month, and in answer to Pilate's question, Jesus keeps silent, even with his hands tied behind him manages somehow to hold silence out like a terrible gift.
August 29, 2025
Buechner is one of my favorite writers, and this is one of his best. He has a great way with words and when you find a defintion that resonates, you will remember it for years to come. Here are some of my favorites:
I think of faith as a kind of whistling in the dark because, in much the same way, it helps to give us courage and to hold the shadows at bay. To whistle in the dark isn’t to pretend that the dark doesn’t sometimes scare the living daylights out of us. Instead, I think, it’s to demonstrate, if only to ourselves, that not even the dark can quite overcome our trust in the ultimate triumph of the Living Light.
There is perhaps no better proof for the existence of God than the way year after year he survives the way his professional friends promote him.
Literature, painting, music—the most basic lesson that all art teaches us is to stop, look, and listen to life on this planet, including our own lives, as a vastly richer, deeper, more mysterious business than most of the time it ever occurs to us to suspect as we bumble along from day to day on automatic pilot. In a world that for the most part steers clear of the whole idea of holiness, art is one of the few places left where we can speak to each other of holy things.
To be bored is to turn down cold whatever life happens to be offering you at the moment. It is to cast a jaundiced eye at life in general including most of all your own life. You feel nothing is worth getting excited about because you are yourself not worth getting excited about. To be bored is a way of making the least of things you often have a sneaking suspicion you need the most. To be bored to death is a form of suicide.
When a child is born, a father is born. A mother is born too, of course, but at least for her it’s a gradual process. Body and soul, she has nine months to get used to what’s happening. She becomes what’s happening. But for even the best-prepared father, it happens all at once.
An empty room is silent. A room where people are not speaking or moving is quiet. Silence is a given, quiet a gift. Silence is the absence of sound and quiet the stilling of sound. Silence can’t be anything but silent. Quiet chooses to be silent. It holds its breath to listen. It waits and is still.
TODAY It is a moment of light surrounded on all sides by darkness and oblivion. In the entire history of the universe, let alone in your own history, there has never been another just like it and there will never be another just like it again. It is the point to which all your yesterdays have been leading since the hour of your birth. It is the point from which all your tomorrows will proceed until the hour of your death. If you were aware of how precious it is, you could hardly live through it. Unless you are aware of how precious it is, you can hardly be said to be living at all. “This is the day which the Lord has made,” says the 118th Psalm. “Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Or weep and be sad in it for that matter. The point is to see it for what it is because it will be gone before you know it. If you waste it, it is your life that you’re wasting. If you look the other way, it may be the moment you’ve been waiting for always that you’re missing. All other days have either disappeared into darkness and oblivion or not yet emerged from it. Today is the only day there is.
Highly recommended.
I think of faith as a kind of whistling in the dark because, in much the same way, it helps to give us courage and to hold the shadows at bay. To whistle in the dark isn’t to pretend that the dark doesn’t sometimes scare the living daylights out of us. Instead, I think, it’s to demonstrate, if only to ourselves, that not even the dark can quite overcome our trust in the ultimate triumph of the Living Light.
There is perhaps no better proof for the existence of God than the way year after year he survives the way his professional friends promote him.
Literature, painting, music—the most basic lesson that all art teaches us is to stop, look, and listen to life on this planet, including our own lives, as a vastly richer, deeper, more mysterious business than most of the time it ever occurs to us to suspect as we bumble along from day to day on automatic pilot. In a world that for the most part steers clear of the whole idea of holiness, art is one of the few places left where we can speak to each other of holy things.
To be bored is to turn down cold whatever life happens to be offering you at the moment. It is to cast a jaundiced eye at life in general including most of all your own life. You feel nothing is worth getting excited about because you are yourself not worth getting excited about. To be bored is a way of making the least of things you often have a sneaking suspicion you need the most. To be bored to death is a form of suicide.
When a child is born, a father is born. A mother is born too, of course, but at least for her it’s a gradual process. Body and soul, she has nine months to get used to what’s happening. She becomes what’s happening. But for even the best-prepared father, it happens all at once.
An empty room is silent. A room where people are not speaking or moving is quiet. Silence is a given, quiet a gift. Silence is the absence of sound and quiet the stilling of sound. Silence can’t be anything but silent. Quiet chooses to be silent. It holds its breath to listen. It waits and is still.
TODAY It is a moment of light surrounded on all sides by darkness and oblivion. In the entire history of the universe, let alone in your own history, there has never been another just like it and there will never be another just like it again. It is the point to which all your yesterdays have been leading since the hour of your birth. It is the point from which all your tomorrows will proceed until the hour of your death. If you were aware of how precious it is, you could hardly live through it. Unless you are aware of how precious it is, you can hardly be said to be living at all. “This is the day which the Lord has made,” says the 118th Psalm. “Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Or weep and be sad in it for that matter. The point is to see it for what it is because it will be gone before you know it. If you waste it, it is your life that you’re wasting. If you look the other way, it may be the moment you’ve been waiting for always that you’re missing. All other days have either disappeared into darkness and oblivion or not yet emerged from it. Today is the only day there is.
Highly recommended.
July 20, 2019
The following is a gift, from Buechner, to me, to you:
BOREDOM
As 'acedia,' boredom is one of the seven deadly sins. It deserves the honor.
You can be bored by virtually anything if you put your mind to it, or choose not to. You can yawn your way through Don Giovanni or a trip to the Grand Canyon or an afternoon with your dearest friend or a sunset. There are doubtless those who nodded off at the coronation of Napoleon or the trial of Joan of Arc or when Shakespeare appeared at the Globe in Hamlet or Lincoln delivered himself of a few remarks at Gettysburg. The odds are that the Sermon on the Mount had more than a few of the congregation twitchy and glassy-eyed.
To be bored is to turn down cold whatever life happens to be offering you at the moment. It is to cast a jaundiced eye at life in general including most of all your own life. You feel nothing is worth getting excited about because you are yourself not worth getting excited about.
To be bored is a way of making the least of things you often have a sneaking suspicion you need the most.
To be bored to death is a form of suicide.
BOREDOM
As 'acedia,' boredom is one of the seven deadly sins. It deserves the honor.
You can be bored by virtually anything if you put your mind to it, or choose not to. You can yawn your way through Don Giovanni or a trip to the Grand Canyon or an afternoon with your dearest friend or a sunset. There are doubtless those who nodded off at the coronation of Napoleon or the trial of Joan of Arc or when Shakespeare appeared at the Globe in Hamlet or Lincoln delivered himself of a few remarks at Gettysburg. The odds are that the Sermon on the Mount had more than a few of the congregation twitchy and glassy-eyed.
To be bored is to turn down cold whatever life happens to be offering you at the moment. It is to cast a jaundiced eye at life in general including most of all your own life. You feel nothing is worth getting excited about because you are yourself not worth getting excited about.
To be bored is a way of making the least of things you often have a sneaking suspicion you need the most.
To be bored to death is a form of suicide.
October 20, 2017
Little vignettes on various words. Thoughtful, often beautiful and usually simple but profound. A chance to stop and think about some of the everyday things of life and get down deep into them and realize their huge significance. Not every perspective was one that I shared ideologically or theologically but all were worth reading and considering.
I enjoyed this more and more, every time I picked it up. I read it for a few days at first, but the format begged to be taken slowly a little more like a daily devotional. So I read the remainder in bits and pieces, between other books and so on.
Buechner has been on my radar for a while and this was good taste. I definitely hope to read more from him.
I enjoyed this more and more, every time I picked it up. I read it for a few days at first, but the format begged to be taken slowly a little more like a daily devotional. So I read the remainder in bits and pieces, between other books and so on.
Buechner has been on my radar for a while and this was good taste. I definitely hope to read more from him.
January 1, 2021
I've been told to read this since I graduated seminary 18 years ago. I have not ready any of Buechner's other works though he's been highly recommended. My lower star rating is mainly due to the outdated nature of some of these essays, now 35+ years old, written when I was a child. Some, like Advent and Lent, are timeless, whereas I rolled my eyes at the essay on female and his outdated understanding of feminism, outdated even for the 80's though he may have held a more mainstream opinion. Still, there was much I enjoyed, and I'll keep a few of these essays handy for sermon illustrations.
December 14, 2019
This was a very interesting concept for a book type that I normally am not a fan of: collections of essays. I still love Buechner's refreshing writing style, but this book falls into the same issues that I have with every collection of essays. There isn't a larger idea or an overarching point, so, by the time you've read one essay, you've forgotten what the previous one was about.
With the essays in this book being so short, it's far easier to fall into that trap.
With the essays in this book being so short, it's far easier to fall into that trap.
May 9, 2020
A slim volume filled with nuggets of gentle, but startling insight and wisdom. The entries on 'Art' and 'Law of Love' are great examples - pay attention to the world around you through the supreme law of love. Buechner is funny, contrary, nudging, forgiving, practical, and hopeful. The little experiences turn out to connect us to greatest experience of all - our connection with one another and to God.
November 13, 2025
What I admire most about Buechner is his sheer honesty; the manner in which he does not shrink from the questions of life but faces them with humble surrender. Of tears, he writes, "Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from..." Moving words.
July 18, 2017
Any time I am marking up the book, tweeting lines, and writing "keepers" on the back pages, it has been a good read. But then, it's Buechner. In Whistling in the Dark (a follow-up to Wishful Thinking), Buechner provides succinct, thought-provoking reflections on the theology behind everyday words.
March 15, 2022
“Whistling in the Dark” was a companion for me mostly at nights. I totally loved the idea of the ‘ABC’ concept!. Frederick Buechner opened my eyes and heart to a lot of things ranging from faith/Christianity to the beauty of normal everyday life, other people and even myself. It is totally worth the read!
July 27, 2020
A bit dated at times, but wonderfully poetic and honest. Highly recommended for any struggling with feeling out of step with the ebb and flow of life for "normal" people and in need of spiritual renewal.
February 4, 2024
An interesting little book where Buechner shares his thoughts on an alphabet worth of common language. It makes for short snippets on a range of topics, many quote worthy, but no real coherence of the whole.
November 13, 2025
Honestly, this was not my favorite Buechner tome, but I do so love his down-to-earth and fresh writing. I really think I would have loved to have met him in a cafe, chasing his meandering thoughts, always replete with a new perspective on spirituality and life in general.
October 5, 2017
Though a little uneven, this was a wonderful way to begin my day. Meditations using a dictionary format.
March 30, 2018
4.5. Short essays with one word titles. I underlined a lot.
April 14, 2019
Some of the little stories were good, some were meh. Very outdated current events references but I could still understand them (mostly Cold War stuff)
April 25, 2019
Some thoughtful essays. 4/19
April 3, 2020
Another serious contender for best book I’ve read in 2020
August 27, 2022
Some of it has an 80s spin, other parts of definitely a Presbyterian outlook, but much of it has aged well. It's a book in which I think helps one feel not alone.
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