Robot Soft Exorcism

Say it with me: Robot. Soft. Exorcism

Let it be a mantra for the season of Advent (if Advent is a thing for you or someone you love): Robot. Soft. Exorcism.

Robot Soft Exorcism is a theory and a practice. It is a phenomenon I myself have experienced. The above visual was put together about two years ago by my beloved friend, wise counselor, genius musician/songwriter, barber, and Soccer Moses, Stephen Mason. I don’t know if he remembers doing it. His art is effortless that way.

Robot Soft Exorcism is also a song written, recorded, and released in August by a band called Thrice. The song gets at the concept I first put into words on June 29, 2019. The origins of the practice to which the theory bears witness are lost to history, but perhaps 6.29.2019 can mark the beginning of Robot Soft Exorcism Theory.

All eloquence is borrowed. But there’s a sentence which, perhaps more than any other sentence of mine, will, I think, be repeated when I’m gone. Here it is:

To love a person is to love a process.

It is my hope that Robot Soft Exorcism, which I believe to be grounded in the conviction that a person is a process, will also catch on.

It’s a working theory, and I have many more sentences to attempt as I tease it out, but in the meantime, I have been given a great gift by Evan Rosa of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture. Evan studied my work on Robot Soft Exorcism and set me up with all the right questions and prompts to consider and hash out its implications. Next to the Thrice song (lyrics penned by Dustin Kensrue), the resulting conversation is perhaps the most thorough public hearing Robot Soft Exorcism has yet received. You can read about it and listen to it here.

I welcome feedback. In truth, Dustin and Evan have helped me better behold and meditate upon what I’ve named. Folks who’ve commented upon or reacted to the Twitter thread within which the theory is being set down have also come to my aid. After you’ve listened to the podcast, please feel free to do the same. It’s a mouthful, but I’d like to think Robot Soft Exorcism Theory generates a kind of light.