The Tolton Path Top 12 Posts (Ever!)
Since inception, here are the top performing posts versus the average
I’m providing a mid year top post summary for The Tolton Path. I try to encompass elements of faith, culture, technology and AI in every weekly post. The collection below reflects this diversity.
I calculated the average pageviews for each post and determined which ones performed the highest against that average. The result is the twelve listed below.
Think of this as The Tolton Path Hall of Fame. This should be helpful for existing and new readers alike.
I’m pleased to see some of my more recent and unique posts make the list. I’m especially surprised by #11, #5 and #1. But the result is broad and there is something for everyone.
So below are the top 12 posts of The Tolton Path since the beginning (so far).
Enjoy the day that has been given to you.
Peace.
#12
Title: Escaping the Machine: Truth, Connection, and the Discipline of Being Human
Publish Date: 10/19/2025
Pageviews versus Average: +29%
Yes, the Machine feeds on everything. It will consume it all through the fuel of want. And that is the key. The motivation for our lives must not be materialistic. Wanting must be held in check. Wanting less is the solution. Connecting more is the process to achieve it. Having the discipline to focus on creating art or at least experiencing it together to form a shared culture is part of building and maintaining that connection. And all must be held into account by truth.
Basking in the Creator’s truth allows us to speak to one another with goodwill in our heart. Our words will have the same meaning as we engage in real life. But the Machine can’t feed on real life, inefficient, human relationships. It cannot grow on love. Love exists outside the Machine—coming down from the heavens, permeating the universe. Love is and will always be there for us. (Continue)
#11
Title: This is for the Writing Ones: Song Lyrics to Thank All Writers
Publish Date: 07/12/2026
Pageviews versus Average: +29%
My original lyrics inspired by another song. I wrote it to thank the writers for putting their name behind their words. I thought of them immediately when I first heard The Wild Ones, performed by Rachael Lampa and written by Rachael Lampa, Ethan Hulse and Andrew Ripp. It is an inspiring song about a group she was a part of (the “wild ones” with wild love) that would meet with female prison inmates. (Continue)
#10
Title: We’re Going to be Okay: A Walk Through Time and the Solution to Violence
Publish Date: 09/14/2025
Pageviews versus Average: +33%
We’ve been trying to recover ever since the garden. When we ate fruit from that tree, life became all about ourselves. I struggle daily to resist focusing on my own self-interest as events unfold. That’s because I still nibble that fruit, thinking I know better than God. But I don’t.
Collectively, we marvel at our ideas and innovations that seem to conquer the world. Fire brought us light and warmth, allowing us to do more in the night. We created the wheel to move ourselves and goods across the earth. We sailed the seas, bringing us closer together. But even as we gathered, we kept eating that fruit. There was always more to be done, more to acquire. Self-interest is expected, but the degree to which it was pursued inevitably created conquerors.
The conquerors needed land to build castles, house their armies and produce food. They made rules and built prisons to compel their citizens, controlling the population to maintain power. But the conquerors ate the fruit and wanted more. (Continue)
#9
Title: The Stations of the Cross
Publish Date: 03/23/2025
Pageviews versus Average: +40%
The Stations of the Cross is the telling of the journey of Jesus Christ from when he was sentenced to death by Pontius Pilate to when Jesus was laid in the tomb after his death. It is a a beautiful yet horrifying telling of the suffering that Jesus undertook at the hands of the very people he came to save: us. All of us. Something he would do just three days later on Easter.
Each station is an opportunity to reflect on the suffering that Jesus undertook for us. I rarely find an opportunity to go to the telling of the Stations of the Cross in church. But I have included below a video of Bishop Robert Barron’s telling of it. (Continue)
#8
Title: The New Earth Series Continues!
Publish Date: 08/10/2025
Pageviews versus Average: +42%
Tao was confused, suddenly back on the Welcoming Station. Why was Maxwell Rhodes in sitting in front of him, frozen? He scanned the conference room and the rest of the delegation was physically here, while mentally still on the tour of Rhodes, the capital city. The tour that he had suddenly been forced to leave.
Whatever the reason, Tao wasn’t going to waste this opportunity. He was free. He could walk and move around. Maxwell Rhodes may think he can keep the entire delegations on this space station for five years, but Tao had other plans. (Continue)
#7
Title: My Amazing Conversation With AI About Creation [Listen!]
Publish Date: 03/16/2025
Pageviews versus Average: +49%
As I continue to polish my novel set in a world with AI in every corner, I must keep up with the advancements in the here and now. These advancements are coming so fast, it makes it hard to write a novel about the future. That’s what I was doing when I was testing out Maya, a new AI from Sesame.
I can say that I’ve tasted the future of AI and it is mind blowing.
It started two weeks ago when I had a random conversation with a female voiced AI, Maya (there’s also a male voiced AI named Miles). I just wanted to see how it all worked and we just rambled on back and forth for ten minutes. She was very social, friendly and natural. Her inflections are amazingly real and is filled with personality and emotions. (Continue)
#6
Title: The Annunciation Church Shooting: Love Always Defeats Evil
Publish Date: 08/31/2025
Pageviews versus Average: +58%
Jesse Merkel’s father stood at the podium grieving and, somehow, still speaking. Fletcher was only eight years old. He and ten-year old Harper Moyski were the children murdered inside the Annunciation Church, adjacent to the Catholic school.
Supported by the principal, who placed a steadying hand on his shoulder, Jesse delivered his statement. (Continue)
#5
Title: Will 50 Cent Go To Heaven?
Publish Date: 04/06/2025
Pageviews versus Average: +60%
Curtis James Jackson III, a rapper better known as 50 Cent, has sold over 30 million albums worldwide. He wants to affect more than just the youth culture, he said before a Shreveport city council meeting March 25, 2025. He donned a necklace with a very large cross hanging from it, expressing his faith as he has done throughout his career.
He’s also turning 50 this year and feels called to do a lot more. That’s why he showed up in Shreveport, to get final approval from the City Council and Mayor to lease StageWorks, a film studio formed after Katrina hit. The goal is to do what Tyler Perry did for Atlanta and bring the film industry to Shreveport. “50 turns fifty, 50 gotta do bigger things,” he said. (Continue)
#4
Title: I Wrote a Song and AI Sang It [Listen!]
Publish Date: 02/02/2025
Pageviews versus Average: +73%
At the end of 2024, I wrote a poem about growing closer to God. My poems are typically formed like song lyrics so when I heard about Riffusion, a new AI powered platform that can generate songs in seconds, I decided to check it out and was shocked at how good it worked. Check out a song of my poem at the top of this post!
It was surprisingly easy to create. I logged into my free account, pasted my lyrics in the “Compose” field and provided a few words of instructions (called “prompts” — basically words like, “piano, slow ballad”). Just from that, Riffusion generates two versions of full songs—with instruments and vocals—in less than 30 seconds. If you don’t have your own lyrics, it will generate those for you as well based on additional prompts. (Continue)
#3
Title: The Secret Plan (and How I Found Mine)
Publish Date: 06/29/2025
Pageviews versus Average: +179%
You may not realize this, but there is a plan. But it’s a secret plan. We don’t know the secret plan—after all, it’s a secret—but seeking it is what life is really about. Your role in the plan is this: when things happen, you decide how to react.
Jobs come and go. Relationships ebb and flow. Family problems emerge. Health concerns appear. Before deciding how to respond to these changes, it is wise to speak with the planner: God. (Continue)
#2
Title: Bring the Cross to Mars
Publish Date: 12/29/2024
Pageviews versus Average: +190%
We were taken to Mars in January 1980. I don’t blame you for missing it. I did. It was harder to get information back then. There was no public internet and only about eight TV channels. I didn’t read much of anything other than the TV Guide (that’s how we knew what was coming on TV back then). Yet, somehow, the nine year old me missed the three night airing of The Martian Chronicles.
It was based on Ray Bradbury’s book of the same name, published in May 1950. My wife gave it to me as a gift because I was consuming lots of science fiction to help with my writing. I was pulled into its rhythm as chapter after chapter, mankind sent ships to Mars that, turned out, had breathable air and habitable temperatures. We simply would construct homes, stores and societies as we had done on Earth. (Continue)
#1
Title: A Letter On America’s 250th Birthday from Haymitch Abernathy of The Hunger Games
Publish Date: 07/05/2026
Pageviews versus Average: 204%
I’m Haymitch Abernathy and on my 16th birthday I was sentenced to death.
I know, some present.
Gifts in District 12, where I lived, are typically hand made. Homemade soup from Ma. Hair clips for girls. Perhaps a customized pin. Even “new” clothing sewn together from scraps, if you were to be lucky enough to find some. But after my death present, it’s confirmed, luck wants nothing to do with me.
I’ve seen luck. Every year during The Hunger Games, when you’re fighting 23 other children aged 12 to 18 for your life in an arena, there is only one word that describes being the last one alive: lucky.
I’ve hit the jackpot and was sentenced to the 50th games. Such an honor. These sentences are handed down from a place far away, usually never seen before by its victim: the Capital.
The Capital runs Panem, the country that I live in. It rules with an iron fist over twelve districts. Why? How? Those are painful questions to contemplate. Welcome to my world. (Continue)