What was learned

"This is dedicated to . . . ."

So begins so very many books. The author starts the story by dedicating the whole shootin' match to someone who, usually has nothing to do with the story, but very often a great deal to do with its existence. Here is the first thing I learned. Well, it may have not been, in chronological order, the first thing I learned, but it is the first thing I want to mention. That is, the authors are telling the truth when they write the dedication. There is a writer out front, sure, but behind the writer is who knows who else and he, she, or they are sacrificing who knows what in order to leave the writer alone to write. I have seen it.

And before I am unfairly accused of presumption, let me clear something up. I am under no illusion about what I have done this month. It's a homemade blog that contains between 50 and 60 posts that run roughly 3-5 paragraphs apiece. It is no book. I know that. But I also know, and you cannot deny that I know, just exactly what it takes to crank out fifty-some-odd posts in 31 days and that is why I can say that anyone who takes on a book (a real, live book) is telling the truth when he says it would not have been possible without so-and-so. I have seen it.

Which leads directly to the next thing that was learned. It takes time. Lots of time. If a person intends to write, it is good if they can write for a living. In others words, it is good if they do not have to go to another job in order to pay the bills. As you can see, this is directly tied to the issue that has already been addressed. If one has a full-time job and then needs the evenings to work on the book, or the article, or the blog, well, it just wears on everybody. Be sure you have time.

And when you decide to give time to writing, guess what? You have taken time from something else. This has been covered above in relation to people in your life, but other things get ignored, too. I like to read, but you can't spend too much time on that if you mean to write. Cardinals baseball? Can't watch it very much. How about staying caught up on sports blogs, news blogs, and other info in my reader? Can't do it. I spend my evenings slaving over a hot keyboard.

It is work. Again, this draws on so much of what has already been said. Generating ideas gets hard after you have thought of all your ideas and you still need to write 12 more posts this week. So you pad Friday with pictures and you fill Tuesday with haiku. And if you think of something, how do you make sure it doesn't sound like something you wrote the other day. The mind and the fingers head to the familiar places. It is work.

I've learned that you have got to have people in your life who will give of themselves so you can write. It is work and you have to give up some good things you enjoy in order to write. As a writer friend told me years ago, "Stay in the hard chair." It's true.

I've also learned I still love it, even when it wears me out. I love it when a sentence sounds good. I love it when I've built a story that satisfies at the end. I love words.

And I love my wife, without whom this blog would not have been possible. 

Discerning, beautiful Abigail

Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. And there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved; he was a Calebite. (1 Samuel 25:1-3, ESV)

Pastor preached from the 25th of I Samuel Sunday.

Notice the description of Abigail. The text does not just say she was beautiful, but that she was discerning and beautiful. Discerning is listed first. This is a fairly familiar text. Abigail is the wife of Nabal who is a foolish, harsh, and badly behaved man.

In the course of this story, Nabal manages to offend David, who then decides to lop off Nabal's head and kill anyone else attached to his household. A servant then runs to Abigail.

But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them. Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with them. They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.” (1 Samuel 25:14-17, ESV)

The servant understands that Nabal is "such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him". What's more he understands he can say so to Nabal's wife, Abigail. I think this means at least two things: 1) it is no secret to anyone that Nabal is worthless and will not listen, and 2) Abigail, who knows #1, is possessed of such character, discernment, that she must be told of the danger if anyone is to survive. Nabal can't handle it.

And Abigail is successful, of course, in defusing the situation.

And David, of course, does not forget it.

For Jack

the long wait
the treasured bundle
a humbling, blessed gift
joy

(my frame of mind the day our grandson was born)

The idea

My wife’s mind has a hard time shutting off. She is always thinking about everything. So it came as no surprise to me to learn that while we were watching a movie the other night, she was busy thinking about something else. Or better, something in addition to the movie.

We were watching ‘Julie and Julia’. In this movie, a young lady, Julie Powell, decides to cook every recipe in Julia Child’s cookbook ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking’ in one year. There are 524 recipes in that book and, as you are probably aware, there are 365 days in one year. And to top it off, Powell determines that she would blog about the experience. And this gave my wife an idea.

I am approaching my 55^th birthday. That seems like a big number, but I can’t help it. The sun gets up every day and so do I and if you do that enough, you will eventually get to birthday number 55. For me, that’s been happening since late in the summer of 1958.

“I have an idea.” When Kathy says that, I gird myself.  Not out of fear, but because whatever she is about to propose is going to be a departure from whatever we have been doing. And this is often a good and necessary thing. But I gird myself anyway because, whatever it is, it will not be the status quo and I am a creature of habit. Or habits, plural. Especially my particular habits.

“For your 55^th birthday, why don’t you write 55 posts in 31 days during the month of August?” she said. I was so happy that this was her idea and not something like, “We should only eat fruits and vegetables that are orange or begin with the letter ‘a’.” Not that she would say that, but as I said, when she has an idea, it is normally a departure from my comforts and it's easy to fear the worst. Writing blog posts, on the other hand, is something I love to do.

So that is what this blog is about. My dear wife knows I want to write, that I aspire to write, and she has given me a big shove toward doing so. Knowing her, she will get a great deal of satisfaction and joy from watching my happiness, because that’s the kind of person she is. And it is one of the many reasons I love her.

Or, as Paul Child said in the movie of Julia, “She is the butter to my bread.”