Standing On My Head ... With My Fly Open - Softcover

9781519238306: Standing On My Head ... With My Fly Open
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When this awards-winning author was in the fourth grade, a Philadelphia Inquirer photographer caught his grammar school tumbling team's premier performance at a PTA meeting. As a result, Duke Robinson claims to be (trumpets!) the only Presbyterian minister in the history of Western civilization to have had his picture in a major metropolitan newspaper standing on his head with his fly open. The fact his fly was open, he says, reflects the innocence typical of an eight-year old boy reared in a very religious family in the first half of the Twentieth Century. That's who he says he was. That's what he did, and he says, "I wanted never to do it again."

Robinson's intimate memoir takes you through a life marked by complex coincidences, surprise twists and turns, and life-or-death close calls that impacted him dramatically. His curious mind kept him asking and trying to answer, with some measure of intellectual integrity, why life works the way it does. How come the smallest incident or choice, either by yourself or someone else, can turn your life in a direction you never dreamed of?

The mythology on which Robinson was reared gave him an answer to this question. It emerged, however, from an ancient people who thought the world had recently been created for them, believed demons caused illnesses and didn't know where the sun went at night. He says that he came to see that he could not be whole living in both that world and in the scientific cause-and-effect world we all know today.

The author's story of his personal change has to do with discarding a lot of superstition, sentimentality and wishful thinking in religion, in order to be integrated with and liberated by relating honestly to the real world. Looking back, he says, "I began my adult life vowing never to be caught standing on my theological head with my fly open."

This book gets you inside the head of a Presbyterian minister who also found that he could not go through the motions or play so many of the games that the Church generally asks of its clergy today. He has wrestled with traditional religion for well over a half-century.

Robinson's four other books also bear witness to his changed and changing worldview. Here, in more personal terms, he weaves together stories about his Christian fundamentalist upbringing, reflections on sexual repression, his wonderful families, hilarious adventures on stage, his reputation for humor, parenting four strong children, hilarious, embarrassing professional mistakes as a pastor, and fascinating projects he adopted in retirement.

Robinson served the once very traditional now progressive Montclair Presbyterian Church of Oakland,CA, from 1968 to 1996. He began by asking its membership to lighten up and to get real. And they did. And he tells some remarkable stories about them.

He also talks about being a fervent fan of the Philadelphia, Kansas City and now Oakland A's baseball teams for almost eighty years. He asks, "How much more theological stature can you get than that?"

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From the Back Cover:
"The title of this book caught your eye, didn't it? This book is better than the title."
      Dr. John Hadsell, Professor-Emeritus,
San Francisco Theological Seminary, author
"Duke Robinson - scholar, humorist, teacher, leader, author, family man - led a public life of achievement and honor. Despite his rational, straightforward, practical outlook, in all his books he beats the drum for agape, the powerful love so beautifully demonstrated in the ancient prophets and Jesus. To read Robinson's memoir is to take part in his lifetime spiritual quest in facing life's mysteries."
      Douglas Hergert, author, Nothing in Paris, a novel
"Sure, everyone has a story to tell, but only a few can tell it well. Robinson succeeds admirably. As a child he picked up his nickname from DuPont company (DUCO) paint accidentally spilled on him. Here, he brushes his life experiences in bold, clear, colorful strokes, each of which is almost a story in itself. This clear-thinking retired pastor takes us through dramatic "what ifs" and "how comes" of his life and breaks through expected norms. Finally, he forms some surprising, head-standing conclusions that are at variance with his family, traditional religion, and even the predictable portrait of himself."
      Robert W. Bone, author, Fire Bone, a Maverick Guide to a Life in Journalism
"Duke Robinson has never been afraid to question what has been set before him and find the good in it, albeit, not always in conventional ways. Reading this memoir, at times I laughed out loud, at other times, shed tears. Here is a guy who is not afraid to bare his soul, warts and all. He also serves delicious food for thought."
      Julie Blade, Living History, Memoir Consultant
"There is a great life to be had without gods and Duke Robinson has lived it and writes about it eloquently. The path away from sentimental nonsense to intellectual integrity, compassion and concern for peace and justice has never been better described!"
      Eric Maisel, Ph.D., author, The Atheist's Way and Life Purpose Boot Camp
About the Author:
In 2000, Time Warner published the paperback version of Duke Robinson's award-winning hardcover book GOOD INTENTIONS, under the title TOO NICE FOR YOUR OWN GOOD: How to Stop Making 9 Self-Sabotaging Mistakes. It appears in 13 languages and as an early Kindle book. It still sells briskly.

His second non-fiction book, CREATE YOUR BEST LIFE: How to Live Fully Knowing One Day You Will Die, appeared in December 2011, published through CreateSpace.

In September 2012, he published his novel, also through CreateSpace, SAVIOR: An Old Notion in a New Novel of Unthinkable Absurdity .

Robinson was reared in the Philadelphia area, graduating in 1950 from Haverford High School. He holds a BA degree in philosophy (1954) from Wheaton College, and a Masters of Divinity degree (1958), from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Since 1960, he's lived in the East Bay of Northern California.For 28 years before retiring to writing, Robinson led the dynamic, progressive Montclair Presbyterian Church in Oakland. For several years during that ministry he served part-time as an adjunct professor at San Francisco Theological Seminary, from which he holds an earned doctorate (1979). Prior to retiring in 1996, he was known widely as a speaker and appeared frequently on Northern California television.

In 2000, he and his wife Barbara moved to Rossmoor, an adult community in Walnut Creek, CA, 30 miles east of San Francisco.  After 54 years together, she died in 2008 (He writes of her dying, and of his almost dying in 2009, in CREATE YOUR BEST LIFE). He has four mature children, nine wonderful grandchildren and two great-grandsons, who, he claims, are absolute geniuses.

In April 2014, Robinson published another award-winning, nonfiction work, A MIDDLE WAY: The Secular/Spiritual Road to Wholeness.

This book, his memoir, STANDING ON MY HEAD ... WITH MY FLY OPEN, appeared in November 2015. Robinson was eight when he stood on his head.  In January 2018, he turned 85, standing on both feet.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

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