Monthly Archives: November 2021
Celestial Dance
Dust motes dancing in a beam of refracted light
Flaring briefly into existence
Winking out an eye blink later
Swirling specks of brilliance
Eternally on the move
Suspended in a mote of time
Each a separate life
Some swift, some languid
Distant specks of soft crystal radiance
Caught in a gentle updraft
Fireflies suspended in mid dance
Miniature meteors flaming bright, momentary diamonds, sapphires, emeralds and rubies
Lingering only in memory
Tiny fragments of light all too soon dimmed beyond sight
Bright stars outshining their brethren, fading before thought defines their existence
The angle of the light shifts and the dance vanishes
As a solitary speck takes a final bow
Thankful
It’s been 21 years since we returned from our sojourn overseas, and with Thanksgiving right around the corner, I decided to reflect on the many blessings we enjoy here in America. In spite of the current political climate that would have everyone believing 1) America is all bad and only whites are privileged or 2) a person should be ashamed for being blessed and having what others lack, there is a third alternative: to be grateful.Gratitude is the keystone to being generous and kind. When a person realizes how richly he is blessed and is grateful for what he has (no matter how much or how little), that person is free to share and share generously with others. Being ashamed of what you’ve been freely given or earned through hard work is akin to squandering a precious gift, literally throwing it on the ground and stomping on it. I’m reminded of a story from the Bible. King David was on a long, hard campaign. The army had been gone long enough for even the king to be homesick. In such a moment, he expressed a desire for a drink of water from his home well. Two of his men risked their lives going through enemy lines to retrieve a pitcher of water for their beloved king. Upon receiving the water, instead of accepting it with a grateful heart for the love his men demonstrated for him, in his own pride, shame and arrogance David poured out the water on the ground. I can only imagine how those soldiers felt seeing the waste and have often wondered if the very act caused them to lose faith and trust in their king.
Such a simple act of kindness and blessing—a glass of water. Yet how often do we allow our own shame, guilt, pride, or political climate to affect our own sense of gratitude or lack thereof?
This Thanksgiving season, I’d like to remind all of us of the many blessings we share regardless of socio-economic status.
We should be thankful for:
- Electricity. We take for granted the simple act of flipping a switch and having light illuminate our world, run our devices, protect from the darkness. If you have access to electricity, you are more blessed than 1.2 billion people worldwide who lack basic electric power. (1)
- Clean tap water. Granted some of our city water doesn’t always taste the best compared to rural well water, but it is nothing short of miraculous to turn an indoor faucet and have running water to drink, cook, clean or bath with. If you have access to indoor plumbing, you are blessed more than the 2.2 billion people worldwide who lack safe drinking sources, 4.2 billion who lack sanitation services and 3 billion who lack basic water for washing. (2)
- Freedom. While social media is making it more difficult to express one’s opinion or disagree publicly with popular philosophies or government in America, we are still guaranteed freedom of speech, freedom of religion and equal access to education, work opportunities and respect. If you enjoy the ability to work, create, or learn, you are blessed more than a third of the world population who live in countries without basic human rights. (3)
Sometimes we want to make life more complicated than it should be. We demand more than what we need. We take for granted the very things that are priceless and that we cannot attain through our own efforts. Instead of comparing ourselves with others this Thanksgiving season, take a moment to look around at your life, your family, your home, your friends and count your many blessings. Be thankful and allow that thankfulness to motivate you to share or make a difference in someone else’s life.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/03/freedom-house-freedom-in-the-world.html ( having trouble entering the hyper link in WordPress. just copy and paste the link in your browser to find the article for the following statement.)
“2020 stands out as a particularly bad year, with 73 countries experiencing declines in freedom compared with only 28 seeing gains. It represents the worst decline since this downward trend began.”
As Natural As Breathing
One of the recurrent things I see on Twitter for writers is the question, “If you never sold a book, would you still write?’ There is also the age-old debate of the difference between a writer and an author.
Regardless of where you stand on the debate, here’s my definition, per my high school English teacher’s definition: A writer’s job is to write.
Since I was in first grade, I’ve been telling stories. Whether it was a class assignment or merely scribbling down a short story about a wonder horse, I’ve been writing. Of course, the stuff written in junior high and high school aren’t worth the paper it was written on, and I think I’ve dumped all of it over the years as badly written pieces of prose; however, it was good practice in putting ideas down on paper.
I love the smell of ink on paper, having blue stained fingers and marks on my clothes that just won’t come out, but I also love the convenience of computers in saving hours of editing time and stress of trying to decipher days later what I’d written. I love creating worlds and characters and seeing how they react in a given situation. But more than that, I love creating a story world that reflects the best in humanity. My view of writing is best summed up by the quote by Samwise Gamgee when he reminds Frodo of the reason they’re going to Mordor: hope.
“It’s like the great stories, Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad has happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines, it’ll shine out the clearer. I know now folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something. That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.” Return of the King, Tolkien.
Writers create worlds that stick with us; long after both the book and author have faded from memory, the message of the story still resonates within us, encouraging us, strengthening us, motivating us to keep striving.
For me, writing is as natural as breathing. I have to do it. If I stop, something within me withers. While I’d love to have a thousand readers eagerly awaiting the next novel, it doesn’t discourage me not to have sales. The sales are icing on the cake, but the writing is what counts. Even if it’s just one reader that draws comfort, entertainment, or encouragement that is a blessing beyond price. However, that’s not why I write.
I write because the stories live in my head. These characters and their situations are reflections of the principles I believe, my core values, the hope that is unquenchable and unassailable in my own life. It’s a permanent way of sharing something vital that will live on beyond me. Even if they don’t last as long as I hope, for a brief span of time, these people and worlds exist, created out of my hopes, beliefs and dreams.
Writer? Yes, definitely. Author? As long as I live.
Outdated Culture
In a political climate with an alphabet soup of terminology, acronyms, and abbreviations for ideas I’ve never heard before, perhaps the most confusing for me is OC: outdated cultural depiction. Oh, I understand what the words mean, I’m just confused about the way in which they are being used. Apparently only certain programs receive this rating as if the mores and values depicted are somehow obsolete.
Unfortunately, I see the same negative mores, stereotypes, and values portrayed in current television programs. Of course, modern programming takes these things to a whole new level. Bigotry in the Old West is repurposed and applied to a different people group, but it’s still bigotry. Considehring a group of people as second-class citizens or property is dressed up in fancier clothing, but it is still a staple of television dramas or sit coms. And portraying certain individuals as weak, clueless, helpless is still around today only the gender has changed.
Thus, the only reason I can think of for old westerns (just to name a few) receiving OC ratings is because Hollywood must hate decency, kindness, respect for the older generation, looking out for orphans and widows, treating young ladies with courtesy, personal honor, valuing the strength of family and home, and calling out evil doers whether they are politicians or leading citizens.
I watched a lot of westerns during Covid and pretty quickly I discovered westerns weren’t bashful about showing the ugly side of human nature or pointing out the many times white folk mistreated Indians or other nationalities. At the same time, they also portrayed folks of character (including white folk), who stood with the mistreated and abused, often at the risk of their own lives.
Unfortunately, Hollywood and mainstream media today really don’t want folks to believe that version of history because it flies in the face of their revised history (fodder for a future blog). Nor do they want people to consider family values and morality as a possible way of life. Yet recorded history is filled tales of moral people accomplishing extraordinary things to stand on the side of right and justice. Our nation’s past wasn’t all good, but it wasn’t all bad either. Many of the “heroes” of bygone years paid for their integrity with their lives, their goods, or their livelihoods. Many of those stories weren’t recorded, just passed down by word of mouth within families. Some were recorded in newspaper articles, old historical texts, letters, diaries, etc.
However, our modern-day experiences have left us jaded and cynical, and we often find it difficult to believe such tales, passing them off as exaggeration or flights of fantasy. Somehow it is far easier to think poorly of someone than to think well of that person, especially if the political climate is against them. We lump folks in all or nothing categories, much like folks did back in the Old West. The categories remain the same, only the groups of people have changed.
Influenced by a steady diet of entertainment, fantasy, and make-believe, it’s perhaps easier to understand why we doubt the “facts.” After all nobody is like that today, everyone has an angle, such people are too good to be true, so probably aren’t. As a culture we are so distrustful we are compelled to find flaws in all our heroes.
Unless of course, the person is a villain, then all bets are off. We make excuses, we shift blame, we rationalize and end up glorifying someone for heinous and reprehensible actions and vilify the person calling a spade a spade.
One hundred years from now someone is going to look back on our old OC shows and today’s version of entertainment and laugh hysterically. One, at how OC today’s entertainment will be perceived and two, how relevant those old shows are.
On second thought, maybe future generations will mourn that today’s culture let such steadfast and productive values slip through our fingers.
Through Alien Eyes 