1 So much so, that to go into it in really specific detail would take up far too much space. Readers interested in this would do well to consult Brian Aitken’s 1990 essay “Baseball as Sacred Doorway in the Writing of W.P. Kinsella,” which discusses Ray and the monomyth in fourteen stages. What is discussed here draws on this essay, unless otherwise noted.

2 Making further connections to Christianity, this text, reworded by Kinsella, is spoken by Jesus in the New Testament, in John 6:63: “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” My thanks to Joyce Hildebrandt for this additional insight.