Steve, at the risk of making my equine friend Norman jealous...er, may I hold your hand? :o :o :o

But seriously, I like what you wrote. I admire the heck out of writers who do not pander to the genrefication machine of the publishing publicity industry. Jack is a literary hero of mine for more reasons than one.

As for the supernatural, you never need to apologize about belief/disbelief. My purpose in discussing extra-physical concepts is not to convince rationalist-materialists that there is "life after death," but to show that reductionism always gives us less of a picture of What Is than by refraining to put hard and fast borders around that which we perceive or contemplate. Am I making any sense?

By the way, which ballpark do you think has the best hotdog?