About Taoish

The name of this blog should really be Daoish but that would baffle people even more (or be misread as Danish). Welcome to a new home for irreverent, modern spirituality and related subjects.

What kind of subjects?  Oh, you know.  Ultimate meaning, palindromes, gender, comedy, sports, politics, art and music.  That sort of thing.

I’m your host, Mark Saltveit, a dad, standup comedian, skimboarder, palindromist, writer, former altar boy, and unorthodox Daoist.  My goal is to collect a group of writers and readers interested in a fresh take on spirituality that is not be pompous, righteous, holier-than-thou or sectarian.

I don’t understand how anyone can think they’re probing the deeper aspects of the world without finding laugh out loud absurdity, yet anything funny is usually considered sacrilegious.  Well, tough nuts.  I’m also interested in how we find meaning today, in modern life.  Too much of religion is obsessed with ancient words and practices, in my opinion.  If something is true spiritually, it should be just as true in today’s Cleveland or Shanghai as in ancient Palestine and India.

Personally I am most engaged (at the moment) by the two Daoist classics, the Dao de jing (aka Tao Te Ching) and the Zhuangzi (aka Chuang Tzu).  Yet I’m interested in everything from the various flavors of Christianity and Buddhism to Jungian thought, existentialism, and the idiosyncratic insights of art, music and sui generis oddball mystics.  I’m sure readers will clue me in to many more fascinating threads, and I’m very open to guest posts and articles.  Have fun!