My editor here is a guy named Patton Dodd. I’m blessed by that (though I hate throwing around cliched words like ‘blessed’). He’s a wonderful writer. His book, My Faith So Far: A story of conversion and confusion is a beautiful and nakedly honest book that deserves to be read. His articles for Beliefnet – most recently his one on prayer – are important and insightful. Here’s a great quote:

But as supplication goes, praying for parking is, for those who pray, a mark of shame. It’s on par with praying that The Gap has the right size jeans or that your TiVo’s hard drive doesn’t crash during “Grey’s Anatomy.” It’s a prayer of tedium—for those too bored to pray for things that matter. It’s a prayer of luxury—for that blessed 1% whose wealth can put them in a car and give them cause to drive to the tony shopping district where parking is the only scarcity.

Every so often – most every day – Patton pings me on IM and asks me questions about posts. That’s not right. He IMs me and critiques things and challenges me and makes me think a lot. It is fun and good, and though I sometimes want to hit him he lives in Colorado and that isn’t very close to DC.

So today as he pinged me and asked me what my Apple love/obsession/interest has to do with walking with Jesus. I suggested that we start blogging things back and forth. It is going to be fun. Plus, I kind of owe him props because he is also one of those people who has been bugging me about Dylan and who has patiently suffered through my naive and stereotypical responses about a guy who seems unintelligible.

Patton…your turn…