Some folks wonder about Archie. They even ask if he is real. I generally say that he is as real as Santa Claus, and more real than much of what we have to put up with in our daily lives. What is real has the power to stir my soul, and Archie does that. He's not so real for people who need him to be a literal and physical dog. For me, the physical and literal things in life are not very meaningful. So it is both practical and most meaningful to keep Archie as a virtual reality.Archie is a wise companion, who helps me through those occasional dark nights of the archival soul, keeping me happy, healthy, and only harmlessly insane.

Archie is virtual host. As a virtual host, he has much deeper supper dog qualities than are apparent in ordinary dogs. Virtual can mean several things: it can mean essential, and he is that. Virtual also means 'made with computing software', and he is that. At another level, virtual also means 'an optical image made by reflection on rays of light'. So I tell my more earnest friends that Archie is best seen as an essential image made by his reflection on rays of light. Images of light play a big metaphorical role in our church traditions, so I am very pleased to think that my friend Archie impious, edgy, critical, wise, funny, loyal, loving, doubting, even upsetting is just the theologian that I need to keep my spirit fresh as we engage in our chats. My less earnest friends don't require an explanation for Archie. They know that if he did not exist, I would have to invent him. And of course, I would never do that...

In this reconstruction, Archie and I have five pages of conversation, which can be found below. All you have to do is click on each of them as you wish.

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