Once you get past the “Ooooh, pretty” phase of winter, you settle in for accumulations of white poo. The stuff starts to pile up on sidewalks, roadways, and parking lots. There are very few parking lots at this moment where the lines are even remotely visible – white on white. Not even any tar to speak of for roadways on the side streets.
When you add a month of really cold weather on top of snow, you now have piles of the stuff bordering roadways that has taken on the consistency of concrete below the surface layer of an inch or less. That top inch is like crusty sand left behind by the high tide near the ocean. If an unsuspecting (or belligerent/speeding/reckless) motorist hits the verge of the roadway, the tires on that side slow down just like driving into sand. The wheels on the other side continue at speed and the car veers off the roadway – if you’re lucky.
If you’re unlucky, you find that the wonderfully piled snow covers the guard rail and acts as a perfect ramp to launch you into the air and flip your vehicle. Doing that little stunt at 60 miles per hour does not get you a job with Joie Chitwood’s Thrill Show. It usually totals your vehicle and the occupants. Yes, you can get dead from being forced to the shoulder by some jerk. A heavy price to pay for inattention, timing your entry into traffic poorly, or a lack of control.
The point? Please be careful out there folks. That snow by the side of the road is rock hard and can cost you your life. Same goes for pedestrians. We’ve got at least another month (two, but that makes me cringe) to go and I’d like all of you to be here come April.
For my friends in the south – I’m so envious and cold that my teeth hurt.
One thing I’ve really enjoyed since starting this blog is the opportunity to promote other authors and social causes. I met Jason and Erika last year when I was on a missions trip to Haiti. I even got to play Santa for Oak, their son. In the past 6 months things have changed for them and they’ve launched a new mission in Haiti called Reimagine Haiti. Over the next year I will be featuring them every-other-week (hopefully) on this blog. I’m still madly in love with Healing Haiti and will alternate posts between the two and the other charities I have run across. I thought the readers would like a little glimpse into some other things from time to time.
Without further ado, I introduce the folks at Reimagine Haiti. All content is theirs, and I claim no credit for what they write. But it is interesting that Matthew 25 keeps popping up in my life…
Reimagine Haiti is the brainchild of three long-term missionaries, living and working in Haiti. With 10+ combined years on-the-ground, we concluded the need to REIMAGINE the non-profit concept and create something fresh, unique and innovative. We have entrenched our peppy new organization in the SE region of Belle Anse and pledged to be tenacious advocates of total community advancement! By tossing aside the detrimental practice of hand-outs in favor of galvanizing relationships, we will be a catalyst for change today and lead a renaissance of prosperity and sustainability for the future generations of Haiti.
Thirsty to know more? Intrigued? Just plain confused? Be enlightened in all the usual places.
Today’s blog comes from co-founder (and Zen Master), Erika.
(End scene…)
(And now, the excerpt from Erika’s blog…)
when i was thirsty…you gave me a coconut
since moving to haiti, i have learned a lot…a lot.
my views have also changed about a lot….a lot.
one might argue that these go hand-in-hand and i tend to be one of those…”ones.”
…the thing is, ignorance is never an excuse.
over the past two years this passage out of matthew 25 has become more and more foundational, not just to my thinking…but to the very core of who i am….
“i was hungry and you fed me,
i was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
i was homeless and you gave me a room,
i was shivering and you gave me clothes,
i was sick and you stopped to visit,
i was in prison and you came to me.’
….i’m telling the solemn truth: whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’ “
i love eugene peterson’s translation in the message for one reason….
there is no real separation between whom jesus is talking to and whom he is talking about…everyone can relate to at least one of the places listed.
all my life i heard this same passage…in various other translations….and they all said, “least of these.”
i don’t believe that the original meaning of the text was at all meant to be what it has turned into…but it essentially has become a term with which christians can express…
judgement.
pity.
self-righteousness.
superiority.
piety.
…and all of those other things that we christians do…to make the rest of the world hate us…and want nothing to do with jesus.
i know…that stings. brush it off…deep down you know it’s true so don’t pretend to be shocked…we all do it and we need to fix it.
when did we, not just as a society, but as the culture of christianity, decide that we have the right or even the ability to determine that one life is more valuable than another…that one life is more useful, or successful, or legitimate?
how many times have each of us been “the least of these?”
i cannot count how many times i have qualified for the title….
but the longer i live in this amazing country…with these amazing people….the more god is teaching me about how he sees humanity…about the value that he puts on each one of us and as a result…
I’d like to start the day out with a link to a great blogger, James R. Lileks. I’ve been reading Lileks since the 1980s when we were both students at the University of Minnesota. Over the many years I grew to feel like I knew him personally. Heck, probably ran across him now and again and didn’t even know it at the time.
I mention him today as his blog post is about the death of his dog, Jasper. In a strange twist of fate I spent my morning writing a chapter about the death of a dog and how it impacted the character. The dog in my book was modeled on my dog Edzell. Over the past few years I read Lilek’s blog and his anticipation of Jasper’s demise. It was similar to what I was witnessing in Edzell’s life. So, I started the day out crying over a dog in a book and finished it with crying over a dog in a blog.
Go take a minute to read James Lileks write about his struggle with the death of Jasper. I know it’s bad form to ship your readers off somewhere else, especially when the writer is that good, but I feel like I owe it to him in solidarity on the loss of his dog. Then come back, below the picture of my friend Edzell, and read some of those traffic tips I promised you yesterday.
James, if you stumble across this, thank you for a beautiful tribute to your friend. The pain lessens with time but the tears threaten to emerge without warning for as long as that memory remains. I’ve got a collection of collars in the garage that I could really do without myself. And I still look for all of their owners on occasion.
I just want to provoke a little bit of anticipation – Sunday we’ll have a guest blogger. I’d really like all of you to drop by and see what they have to say.
Yup, good stuff. Already have the copy from them and it’s nice. Very nice.
So, hopefully some witty stuff tomorrow on traffic. I’ve had lots of input since the blog last week and I’d do it today but I just didn’t have the cutting edge needed to snark today.
Instead, I’d like to thank you for dropping by and know that I’m praying for my readers. You are a blessing.
I had dinner with my sister and her husband on Saturday. She is a regular reader of the blog and she thought it was neat that I don’t flog the “aspiring writer” thing all the time. I try really hard not to do too much of the “inside baseball” on this blog. Some bloggers do a great job and give rookies like me an insight into the business that is truly appreciated. I’m not yet published (in book form) so I am reluctant to spread my paper thin wisdom around. Today will be an exception.
One thing that seems to be universally accepted is that good authors have to read quite a bit. It is a trap when you write in that you either ape the works of others or shut yourself off so as to avoid that problem. You miss out on good books, great stylistic trends, and the horrid blunders of other authors. In the last two years I’ve read more horrible books than I can even count. I no longer read every book cover to cover. The bad ones get about 10 pages before they get the dustbin.
The joke in the title goes back a ways – you’re a poster child for either the good or the bad in your life and your career. You get to pick, usually, which you will be. (Including the choice to split infinitives on occasion.) I have several authors that I’ve read for years and years with nothing short of glee. I preorder their books on Kindle and wait for them to pop into my carousel. I get an endorphin rush when I see them on the shelves. Two of them, who shall remain nameless, have now fallen off of my list.
The first author decided to spend more time bashing Christianity than crafting their stories. It was sad to see them descend into this madness since I’d been reading them for thirty years. I knew they were at best agnostic for a long time. No problem, the stories were great. But each of their last dozen books got more abusive toward my faith. The last one I read (and it will be the last) was nothing short of hatred unmasked. This was coupled with a decline in the quality of the story – more recycled elements than I’d seen in a very long time.
The second author had created a world that I loved to visit. It’s a thriller/espionage series that was ongoing for the better part of two decades. All of the books were fun reads right up to the one I have now. When it was published I read some reviews on Amazon and they were all pretty negative. Bad. Two star bad. I thought he’d angered some group and the haters came out to sink him. Ah, er, um, … they were right. The book stinks on ice.
I’m in the middle of putting my sequel on paper. The book is written in my head but now I’m flinging it down on the computer. I’ve struggled mightily with how much back story I need to put into the book. When you write a series (which Assault On Saint Agnes leads) you must make each book strong enough to stand on its own. You also want to make it fun for the people who’ve read the first book to continue to read. And, ideally, you’d like the person who comes in at the middle or the end to go back and buy the other books. Best of all, if they have exactly the right amount of information to make book two or three work, but no more, they will enjoy the previous books and not complain that it’s a rehash.
This beloved author (who garnered the two star reviews) spent exactly 50% of the book doing back story on the previous two decades worth of books. Not just a dribble here or there, but literally 50% of the book, almost the entire first half, was expository back story. Not a bit of fun in that, and it was done badly. You have some work cut out to do back story well, and you try to accomplish it through a clever device that makes it look important. You never have characters say, “Well, I’m glad you asked about my entire life story. Sit still and I’ll tell it over the next 172 pages.” Would you read any further? Me neither.
I am seriously considering putting the book down and not finishing it today. I love the characters, I love the whole story, but I’m wondering why I should continue. He’s made cartoon characters out of his cast and it’s just stupid. Not funny, not enjoyable, not the mark of a good author. I would have been much happier if he’d quit after the last book in the series and started something new.
So, now I have my example and my warning in one author. He was great in the first dozen or two books. The last one will drive his fans away. Lord, please guide me and prevent me from doing the same stupid things. I’m too new to do that yet – hopefully never.
I hope all the books you read today are wonderful. If not, what is annoying you with your literary selection?
