“Soul Pancake” Isn’t Quite What You Expected, But Possibly Much More

“To quote Teilhard de Chardin:
‘We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience.’”

So I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from “Soul Pancake: Chew on Life’s Big Questions.” I mean, my only impressions of Rainn Wilson came from his portrayals of Arthur Martin in “Six Feet Under” and, of course, Dwight from “The Office.” Let’s just say both of those characters are, well, quirky. And then I had been told to follow Wilson’s Twitter feed, where he is alternately hysterical and thought-provoking. So I guess I had the feeling that “Soul Pancake” would be a bit humorous and a bit quirky -- but I wasn’t ready for how deep it turned out to be.

“What is SoulPancake? SoulPancake is a movement to chew on life’s big questions. It’s a space to tackle art, philosophy, creativity, and spirituality. And ultimately, SoulPancake is about you -- the thinkers, artists, poets, and misfits who seek to stamp out stigmas, shake up truths, and redefine what it means to be human.”

“Soul Pancake” called for a lot of reader involvement, with numerous requests for interaction. It was largely a workbook, asking you to consider certain monumental issues about life, religion and all else, then document your answers (or questions). I have to admit I didn’t use the book in that way, so I’m sure I didn’t get everything I could have out of it, but it was still thoroughly intriguing.

In the intro/foreword, I was surprised at how good a writer Wilson is … I was also surprised at how much of an impact Darryl Strawberry and “A Chorus Line” had on his career and spiritual choices, but those are stories for another day. It turns out Wilson had endeavored to read all the religious books of all the core religions, in order to give himself the most information possible to inform his decisions about his belief paths and his soul direction.

“To my crowd of artist friends, belief in God or religion seemed like a throwback to a previous generation. It was quaint and obsolete, a weakness of our parents and grandparents. It was a simplistic way to moralize and to live for some superstition-filled fantasyland of heaven with God, the ultimate daddy-figure, patting you on the back and telling you that you were a good kid. Faith was a crutch for the weak. Religion was there to make you feel bad and keep you oppressed. Believers were judgmental simpletons who lived in big, square states in the center of our country and equated Jesus with gun rights and hated gays and oppressed people of color, and wanted women to stay in the kitchen. Religion’s time had come. And gone.”

“I didn’t want to be like so many others and have some unexplored, unexamined philosophical stance on something that was truly important. I mean, there either has to be a creator or the universe has always been as it is, beautiful and purposeless.”

“I thought about all of this long and hard. (That’s what she said.)”

I certainly appreciated the depth of feeling and thought that went into the construction of this book, but I derived perhaps the most utility of it through the amazing collection of quotes it contained. Sarcastic, emotional, ironic, informative, awe-inspiring, controversial; they ran the gamut -- much like the book itself.

“Soul Pancake” is certainly worth checking out if you don’t mind a book that will make you work a little bit in the reading. And you have to get past the image of Dwight writing a book, which is harder than it seems (that’s what she said); because if you maintain that image for too long, this particular book will blow your mind …