When publishing, it's easy to underestimate the extensive legwork required to get people to notice you. It's infuriating, because with 6 billion people on this planet everyone has an audience even if they're a piece of shit.
The last time I marketed my stuff I was at Comic Con back in 2014. I had a thousand cardstock mailers with a download link to my book via a Box.com link that I set up on my own. Everything was so touch and go, like having sex for the first time. Of the thousand, I was able to pass out almost 500. (Not bad for a first effort.) There were SDCC volunteers catching on to my schemes toward the end. I had to evade them like a cold war spy in Russia.
One thing they don't tell you is how to deal with rejection. I still remember to this day the feeling of passing out that first card, and someone declining, as if they wanted extra shit to cart around in an ever expanding grab-bag of toys, fliers, comic books, and so on. But still you take it personally. Today I kind of laugh about it, but back then I wanted to shrivel up and die. But to anyone passing out fliers just remember quantity is key. I estimated a 2-3% response rate (looking at the download metrics on Box). Of the 500 or so I passed out I got about 40 unique downloads. (A whopping eight percent!)
Marketing techniques have evolved over time, with Google AdSense and Facebook data mining to the infinitesimal, making advertisement the easiest in decades. The caveat to this is the saturation of ads. Just like Journalism, its easy for good content to get drowned out by every Tom, Dick, and Harry with a blog. (And, yes, the irony is not lost on me.) So you may have noticed two pages appear on my blog: two personal thank you notes to prospective buyers of my two books (one available, the other's sale date TBA).
It feels apropos to do this. Sony never thanked me for buying their bluray players or Apple, their phones. If you click on to these pages, my sentiment is sincere. I know that I can be an anti-social, cynical asshole sometimes. But I care about the people who care about good art. They are the human beings that need to keep breeding. These two projects, and all my future ones are my best effort at contributing to the great body of Western Literature. (Though I'm not above writing pulp drabbles time to time.)
So, like all authors, I begin my journey, my trek into deep space, shouting into the void for alien life. To bridge cultures and opinions with tales on the human condition. I'll need help. I am many things: Husband, Father, Christian, Author, IT Consultant, Avid Reader, Player of Beep-Boops, and Anxiety Medicated Agoraphobic. But I'm not good at being all at once.
It takes a village to publish a book. And I'm thankful to everyone who fights along side me.
Working and Writing for the Man. Full-Time System Admin, Part-Time Speculative Fantasy Author.
Showing posts with label personal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personal. Show all posts
Saturday, January 20, 2018
Saturday, November 11, 2017
No Love For Wizardry
I hate Harry Potter because it’s a sham.
Like most children back in the late nineties, I was introduced to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
It was immensely popular, and my grandmother was adamant about identifying a
book that would get her grandchildren to read, pushing it on to us desperate
and concerted. Truth be told, I was not an avid reader until I was out of
college. Before all that, reading was a chore and something you did in school,
not when you got home. I spent most of my time outside, turning rocks into
spaceships and sticks into swords. Books never pulled me in like they do now. I
was much more visual then. Converting and abstracting text into visual stimulus
was only a recent development.
My vehement distaste for Harry Potter is inexplicable. Or was, until
very recently.
I’ve never liked people pushing me into things, including hobbies. I’ve
never liked musicals. (They want you to sing along, see?) I’ve never liked
sports. (Competitive teamwork.) I’ve never liked fads. (Vapid, short-lived,
things.) I’ve always been an insular, and supremely unlovable person. The idea
that my cousin “Bucky,” the poster child of self-absorbed intellect, read it
faster than my brother and I didn’t bother me either. What bothered me most was
that I was expected to like it.
No. I don’t like Harry Potter because it’s too real to me. And I am not
satisfied with the narrative that it pushes. (It’s about a young boy that
discovers his parents were wizards, that he is a wizard, that they left him a
fortune to allow him to board in an exclusive boarding school. His subsequent adventures
are formulaic, and I wonder why his professors didn’t have a yearly meeting
about the shit he was going to get into next.)
The origins of Harry Potter being raised by abusive relatives mirrors
my experiences in subtle and substantive ways. While I have never been forced
to live in a confined space underneath the stairs, I have a potently vivid
memory of breaking my Dad’s VCR when I was maybe between 6-8 years old. I was
so afraid that he would hit me that I told him from afar and hid in his
orchard. And while he shouted vainly into the winds for me to come out, I
stayed and waited. It eventually got dark but I was still hiding. I got into my
Dad’s red Toyota pickup and slept in the cab overnight, and snuck into the
house in the morning.
Another experience: We were at a local, independent grocer, one that I
have scores of fond memories at their amazing deli and all the strange, foreign
things they would buy and display at the front of their isles—food from
Germany, Britain, Italy, etc. My brother had a quart of pasta salad that he was
entrusted with, only to drop it on accident. My father flew into a rage and
pushed him to the ground calling him “stupid” while he cried. There were people
around us, aghast. Someone scolded my father, to which he replied, “mind your
own business,” and we hurried out of there like cockroaches exposed to a
bright, shining light.
And while, only by the Grace of God, I have forgiven my father of these
things over the years of dealing with this—and
there are many other incidents—I have no love for a series that
depicts acts of abuse and mulls them over with discretionary wealth and
elitism. I think my disproportionate response stems from my deep seated belief
that the fairy-tale narrative archetype is a load of bullshit. Abuse never
leaves you, it clings to you and stays with you. A moment of 1-5 minutes
imprints upon your life a brand of shame and anger that never leaves, though
over time the scar fades. I reject the Harry Potter narrative because in real
life people that suffer that kind of emotional trauma, in many cases, never
escape. And even if they do, they limp away and heal lame.
I recognize that now as much as I did back then. I stopped reading
after the first book, not because I refused to continue reading the entirety of
the series, but because I couldn’t accept its fantasy that seemed to ridicule
my own suffering.
Monday, November 6, 2017
Fireside Eggnog Chats
I've started reading my bible again.
I'm reminded every once in a while that what I believe is technically crazy talk. Imagine a belief system that conquered the world, a singular faith founded on the teachings of a homeless Jew in Palestine roughly two thousand years ago. Now, imagine someone who is all in on that particular reality, and trying to make sense of it in the modern world. That's me.
Occasionally reading my bible brings new perspective to my life. Seeing through the eyes of a memoir, or a repetitive series of coined sayings recovered from oral tradition and framed to proclaim a gospel to a specific group of people. It's refreshing to go into it in what I call "easy difficulty," wherein the context and historicity of the scriptures gets completely thrown out, in favor of a layman's reading. I learn new things, like Jesus's cattiness or the urgency of those asking him for help. Jesus takes things slow, ramps up to the climax. It reminds me that our fears and worry are never as severe as they seem. Everything boils at 210 degrees, but our bullshit is lukewarm.
I've begun the process of putting together a second book in the interim, an anthology of works. I started writing them shortly after finishing my second novel draft, something to keep me active and fresh for when I got back my notes. The result was a meditation on Americana.What is the "frontier?" How has its disappearance changed the meaning of the "American Dream?" Is there even a dream worth pursuing anymore? Was there ever a "dream" to begin with? The novella includes 4 shorts and an epilogue. Currently, approximately, 82 pages. Included in the backmatter are a few shorts that I've written in the recent past that I will be revisiting. They all seem to originate on the eve of Trump's election, the catalyst of this whole period. I feel pretty good about the material and I'm hoping for a release early next year. Stay tuned...
That is how life is right now. It's tenuous, day-by-day, which is not all so bad considered the alternative. I like the flexibility and freedom to walk away from a project to bang out another. Its refreshing and constructive. I'll never be the person that "labors" over their masterpiece for a decade. We change too quickly. Our states of mind are too ephemeral to compose a consistent narrative. While the first draft is composed over a two-four year period, the second draft (the most important, also) is where the narrative coalesces. The hard days are coming, but I always find a way to get through them.
For Halloween I dressed up as our company mascot for a costume contest. Even though the prize was $100 and it cost me $200 to make, the admiration of my co-workers was payment enough. That's a bit of an overstatement, actually. But it was one of those moments in my life where I wanted to commit to a vision and see it through. Our swan song of present culture is one of defeat and taking the path of least resistance. In a way, the reality that my costume took third wasn't crushing at all. It was exhilarating that 11 people thought mine the one superior. (Not many actually vote--the winner had 14 votes.)
I'm reminded every once in a while that what I believe is technically crazy talk. Imagine a belief system that conquered the world, a singular faith founded on the teachings of a homeless Jew in Palestine roughly two thousand years ago. Now, imagine someone who is all in on that particular reality, and trying to make sense of it in the modern world. That's me.
Occasionally reading my bible brings new perspective to my life. Seeing through the eyes of a memoir, or a repetitive series of coined sayings recovered from oral tradition and framed to proclaim a gospel to a specific group of people. It's refreshing to go into it in what I call "easy difficulty," wherein the context and historicity of the scriptures gets completely thrown out, in favor of a layman's reading. I learn new things, like Jesus's cattiness or the urgency of those asking him for help. Jesus takes things slow, ramps up to the climax. It reminds me that our fears and worry are never as severe as they seem. Everything boils at 210 degrees, but our bullshit is lukewarm.
I've begun the process of putting together a second book in the interim, an anthology of works. I started writing them shortly after finishing my second novel draft, something to keep me active and fresh for when I got back my notes. The result was a meditation on Americana.What is the "frontier?" How has its disappearance changed the meaning of the "American Dream?" Is there even a dream worth pursuing anymore? Was there ever a "dream" to begin with? The novella includes 4 shorts and an epilogue. Currently, approximately, 82 pages. Included in the backmatter are a few shorts that I've written in the recent past that I will be revisiting. They all seem to originate on the eve of Trump's election, the catalyst of this whole period. I feel pretty good about the material and I'm hoping for a release early next year. Stay tuned...
That is how life is right now. It's tenuous, day-by-day, which is not all so bad considered the alternative. I like the flexibility and freedom to walk away from a project to bang out another. Its refreshing and constructive. I'll never be the person that "labors" over their masterpiece for a decade. We change too quickly. Our states of mind are too ephemeral to compose a consistent narrative. While the first draft is composed over a two-four year period, the second draft (the most important, also) is where the narrative coalesces. The hard days are coming, but I always find a way to get through them.
For Halloween I dressed up as our company mascot for a costume contest. Even though the prize was $100 and it cost me $200 to make, the admiration of my co-workers was payment enough. That's a bit of an overstatement, actually. But it was one of those moments in my life where I wanted to commit to a vision and see it through. Our swan song of present culture is one of defeat and taking the path of least resistance. In a way, the reality that my costume took third wasn't crushing at all. It was exhilarating that 11 people thought mine the one superior. (Not many actually vote--the winner had 14 votes.)
The "CIO Switch and Receiver Jr." |
Better luck next year.
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Gum Chewing Racism
Chewing gum, occasionally I bite my lip on accident, feel my
teeth sink in just a little bit. It hurts a lot but after a while the saliva in
my mouth coagulates the ruptured skin and I’m back in business. This has been
happening a lot lately, chewing gum. It helps me forget and relax, kicking in
my monkey-amygdala brain.
I keep getting the best ideas in the worst possible places.
When I try to remember them I feel like I’m wandering in a fog and trying to
make out shapeless blobs of cohesive thought. I had an Idea about racism,
seeing that that is the flavor of the week. Since Trump took office I’ve only
been able to conceive of myself as an oppressor even though I’ve never seen
someone as being lesser than myself. (A note. I have plenty of racist thoughts
in my head that make me consider Jesus’s sermon on the mount, wherein he
suggests that the act of being angry is equivalent to murder. Does that mean
that because I’ve had a racist thought that I’ve also considered someone to be
sub-human?)
The quintessential quality of a “white person”—at least what
I assume to be, in the context of a American everyman raised in the “good part”
of town with minimal hardship—is a very human one. The preservation of
property. It’s easy to look at material possessions as a right, when in fact
the ownership of property is merely by chance. Unless I suddenly won the lottery,
the acquisitions of life, liberty, and happiness is a slow going affair. So
slow, in fact, that by the end of it all the hard work and chance luck just
blurs together into one concerted effort. I find myself harboring bitterness
toward my neighbors as if I’ve built up a life for myself in a one bedroom
apartment. In reality I’m paying a slumlord a pound of flesh while being angry
at my neighbors for littering. I don’t own the streets, or the hedges, or the
sidewalks. But I’m under the pretense that I own the space that I occupy. Maybe
this is spurred on by the concept of social contract?
Social Contract, as I conceive of it, distilled to its essence is about fairness. (This is the zeitgeist of the 21st century, correct? That meaning is fluid and taylor-fit?) And what we perceive as "unfair" is in violation of the social contract. My psychiatrist tells me that this isn't a realistic way to live, and I agree. Holding people accountable to a contract they never signed with me is tantamount to giving someone a roofie and sociologically fucking them.
In other, less-introspective, news, I got notes back from Desmond on my second book. Reading them has become a bit of a past-time for me, a one man roast on my labors which, I find extremely funny. It's soothing, also, to know that your work is taken less seriously by others than yourself. It's a safety net, placed under your ego, so that when it all falls apart you have a place to land. Like most first drafts, everything is raw and disconnected. Ideas are inconsistently spread across the canvass and need to be thinned out to an even grade. I've done this before with my first book and it's a very frustrating process, though worth wile. And whats interesting is that I've tried to write a second book in between drafts, a shorter novella that I'm really happy with, a tangential work that helps me vent creative frustration. I'm finishing it this weekend and giving it out for another round of notes.
I'm really bad at ending my blogs.
So that's it.
Go back to work.
Social Contract, as I conceive of it, distilled to its essence is about fairness. (This is the zeitgeist of the 21st century, correct? That meaning is fluid and taylor-fit?) And what we perceive as "unfair" is in violation of the social contract. My psychiatrist tells me that this isn't a realistic way to live, and I agree. Holding people accountable to a contract they never signed with me is tantamount to giving someone a roofie and sociologically fucking them.
In other, less-introspective, news, I got notes back from Desmond on my second book. Reading them has become a bit of a past-time for me, a one man roast on my labors which, I find extremely funny. It's soothing, also, to know that your work is taken less seriously by others than yourself. It's a safety net, placed under your ego, so that when it all falls apart you have a place to land. Like most first drafts, everything is raw and disconnected. Ideas are inconsistently spread across the canvass and need to be thinned out to an even grade. I've done this before with my first book and it's a very frustrating process, though worth wile. And whats interesting is that I've tried to write a second book in between drafts, a shorter novella that I'm really happy with, a tangential work that helps me vent creative frustration. I'm finishing it this weekend and giving it out for another round of notes.
I'm really bad at ending my blogs.
So that's it.
Go back to work.
Friday, September 1, 2017
A Concise Summary of My Recent Wit
This is not one of those blogs where I write something once or twice a week. It was... but look where that got me: depressed and stressed out. Today, I'm sitting in a dark room, lit only by a solitary LED desklamp in the far corner of the room, casting soft, unobtrusive light across the floor. Soft shapes decorate the room, stains of darkness on creme paint. The desk is cluttered, even after a thorough cleaning. Piles of to-dos and unfinished books vie for my affections, while a monitor stands erect, in defiance of taste, acting as a mirror.
I don't play video games anymore. Or I play them, but in secret, like a fat man binging in shame, squeezed into a 1999 Honda Accord, with mounds of cheese and animal flesh scattering his torso, under the tangerine hue of the dwindling twilight. Little by little do I understand the vampire-esque habits of my parents who dealt with me in the daylight only to flourish in the night. This is amusing to me, because I used to be a "night person," staying up late at night, watching Adult Swim and checking my Facebook for unexpected contact. Fleeting moments of relief in the endless screams.
I've been looking at my progress over the past few months and I am satisfied where I'm at. The balance struck between obligation and dedication is at the apex straddling commitment and poised to fall one way or the other. But with finesse and fortitude the armistice prevails. While I have been awaiting feedback from my second book, I've started a novella anthology featuring the primitive objects of my worship as a younger man: the tall tale men of Americana. Pacos Bill, John Henry, Paul Bunyan, and Johnny Appleseed are on the move, acting independently of one another in a collage of tales. It's actually not a bad start, and I've felt very satisfied with the end result. While not being as heady as my previous works, it is probably the most human work I've attempted, hoping to evoke the struggles of the American everyman, post-frontier.
My good friend, and fellow man-child, Desmond Write was able to return, at long last, the notes I sought from him for the aforementioned "second book." And while the chafing, yet witty, scathing, yet instructive, remarks of my contemporary be, I've been able to get a good laugh out of my nascent work. Too many writers think of their tear stained lyric as the poetry of the Gods, yet can't see through their smeared eye liner how shit their prose is. Desmond is the kind of friend that shits on your book, then uses the excrement to stencil in a greater, more profound, foundation. Lesson learned, and always remember: a derisive commentary deciphers opportunity, but a flattering rhyme incites pride.
That's it.
I don't play video games anymore. Or I play them, but in secret, like a fat man binging in shame, squeezed into a 1999 Honda Accord, with mounds of cheese and animal flesh scattering his torso, under the tangerine hue of the dwindling twilight. Little by little do I understand the vampire-esque habits of my parents who dealt with me in the daylight only to flourish in the night. This is amusing to me, because I used to be a "night person," staying up late at night, watching Adult Swim and checking my Facebook for unexpected contact. Fleeting moments of relief in the endless screams.
I've been looking at my progress over the past few months and I am satisfied where I'm at. The balance struck between obligation and dedication is at the apex straddling commitment and poised to fall one way or the other. But with finesse and fortitude the armistice prevails. While I have been awaiting feedback from my second book, I've started a novella anthology featuring the primitive objects of my worship as a younger man: the tall tale men of Americana. Pacos Bill, John Henry, Paul Bunyan, and Johnny Appleseed are on the move, acting independently of one another in a collage of tales. It's actually not a bad start, and I've felt very satisfied with the end result. While not being as heady as my previous works, it is probably the most human work I've attempted, hoping to evoke the struggles of the American everyman, post-frontier.
My good friend, and fellow man-child, Desmond Write was able to return, at long last, the notes I sought from him for the aforementioned "second book." And while the chafing, yet witty, scathing, yet instructive, remarks of my contemporary be, I've been able to get a good laugh out of my nascent work. Too many writers think of their tear stained lyric as the poetry of the Gods, yet can't see through their smeared eye liner how shit their prose is. Desmond is the kind of friend that shits on your book, then uses the excrement to stencil in a greater, more profound, foundation. Lesson learned, and always remember: a derisive commentary deciphers opportunity, but a flattering rhyme incites pride.
That's it.
Saturday, June 24, 2017
It's Not About The Lemons
I had this very bizzare, very “Santa Barbara” experience at the farmers
market today.
I was picking up the essentials (lettuce), as I am wont
to do every Saturday morning. Usually there is a vendor selling Meyer lemons
(great for salad dressing), so I found one quickly and went to pick out four of
them (50 cents each) and fumbled with three of them, attempting to reach a
fourth. This woman, who came after me, swooped in and started grabbing the ones
I was going for. I made a comment that I was grabbing at least one more and she
looked at me unapologetically, holding her $5 cup of coffee from the Handlebar,
and just said, “sorry.” (What she meant to say was, “Fuck you and your
lemons!”)
A phrase that I own and coin often is something akin
to, “I’m a socialist. But it would never work in America.” There are variations
of the same phrase that I often rehearse but the essence is there. I say this to
my chagrin because I have been influenced in my life by events that make me
pine for fairness. (Getting beat up at school, being viciously made fun of, and
raised up under unremarkable circumstances. Also, my own parents have never
even read my first book.) It has made me characteristically cutthroat and
exploitative and I often wonder if there is an alternate timeline where things
were better. At its core I’ve always felt enamored with a political and social
mindset where people shared their resources to make the world a better place.
Facebook, among other outlets, sings the same familiar
tune. (And when played backwards, you hear the Satanic inverse.) But I don’t
think people practice what they preach. I’m a god damned positivist and I don’t
practice what I preach. The socialist voice in America isn’t the same pitch and
timbre of the places where this actually works, and I think for the most
obvious reasons.
American nationalism peaked at the conclusion of the
War of 1812. Subsequent spikes are the work of foreign wars and social
upheaval, intermittent incidents in a long national history of eulogized
selfishness. Even a Christian cult emerged, Mormonism, which nationalized
religion and mythologized America’s origins, placing the United States at the origin
of the universe. (The opposite was the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a Christian cult
emerging at the height of political corruption in the United States, which
eschewed all appearances of nationalism.) At both of these peaks and valleys,
American expression remained steady in its love of self-interested wealth. Our
constitution is rooted in the Pursuit of Happiness, appended by the inferred,
“And if you infringe upon mine, why I oughta’…”
The contrast that we see in Europe, the social milieu
that makes socialism so viable, is their roots in tribalism that goes back
thousands of years. There has always been infighting between states, but
uncanny internal bonds. And while there has always been a sectarian conflict
between ethnic groups within states, once these states matured past the
frustrations of religious and class warfare, there has been a reasonably steady
peace. War has also hardened these bonds on kinship. For instance, Russia has
repeatedly attempted to invade Finland over the past thousand years, with the
Fins rebuffing many, if not all of the assaults. The shadows of Empire have
also strengthened national resolve, in the case of Norway being a property of
Denmark for nearly 500 years. (They celebrate their “independence” every
Seventeenth of May.)
In the United States where we are so blessed with an
abundance of natural resources, acquired over the centuries through many shrewd
dealings, our sordid gains have likely made us complacent. Combined with the
mentality of Frontierism, prosperity through expansion and entrepreneurship, we
have inherited a mindset from our forebears that is untenable in our exhausted
real estate. We expect wealth and receive it from the least of our peers:
migrant workers, wage slaves, immigrants, etc. Even myself, a proponent of
ensuring we invest in our citizens through community programs and education, I
have everything to gain from an economy that favors my willingness to exploit
the labors of others.
All this came to a head, flashed before my mind, as I sarcastically,
non-confrontationally, replied, “Wow, this IS Trump’s America.” It is very
likely that I will not see this woman again, but given the demographics of
Santa Barbara, she is statistically likely to be a Democrat, a social
progressive, anti-corporation, pro-choice, drive a fuel-efficient vehicle, and
pro-immigrant. Yet, at our core, we are a despicable people trained to look out
for “number one,” and like a handful of Meyer lemons, we are more concerned
about our welfare than that of others. Imagine the paradigm shift that I
experienced when I saw this complete reversal in Norway when I was able to
spend time there. I constantly compare my brief time there with my lifetime
here. And while I’m sure that Norway has its own kind of culture shock due to
its inherent bureaucracy and insistence on social conformance and enculturation
of immigrants, the underlying spirit of their social contract is present and
palpable.
Enough with myself bitching about lemons…
My second book is coming along with the first draft
complete and being out for feedback among my inner circle for notes. I am
hoping for another set of great comments from my brothers of other mothers Desmond
and Bern. Soon I can start draft two and really dig deep into it.
My daughter Eowyn continues her external gestation.
She’s doing good, and my wife also.
Friday, May 26, 2017
Stress, Work, Baby: Repeat
Usually people look at me when I’m having a panic attack and as me, “why
are you nervous?” And, as I pause between labored breaths, I am drowning like a
fish out of water. I hear that fucking question so many times that I makes me
want to scream, but my collapsed lungs have no air to offer even a whisper.
This all started a few years ago in 2013. I was, before my first episode,
a very productive person. My personality then was very outgoing, very active. I
was a typical “go-getter.” But then the attacks started, and my period of work
dwindled from hours a day to short bursts of maybe 30-45 minutes worth of real
work.
Now I’m a dad. Between my new duty of raising my daughter and writing
my books, I have little time now to pursue my original levels of productivity.
Simply put: I don’t write as much, so you won’t be seeing me posting three
times a week.
But the content is better. I find myself planning my projects with
greater care, investing more time into making my plots flow better. At the risk
of writing without a net (without any idea particular story in mind), I sit on
my posts and shorts, hoping that subsequent attempts will yield a robust result.
This works to a degree. There are stories that circulate over the web about
laboring artists that will agonize over dozens of drafts, which I feel is a waste
of time. My limit is three: first draft attempt, second draft re-write from
notes, and the final third draft where I choose one aspect about my story and
redo it. Taking the extra time to really rack my brain over a concept has
solidified this style I’ve chosen for myself.
Now I’m a dad. It bears repeating. I’m still in shock over the transition.
The presence of this, thing, in my living room that demands my life, my soul, I’ve
never felt this before. My daughter Eowyn cries because she doesn’t understand
the world that she now indwells. It’s not wet or dark, warm and tight.
Everything is so open and vast, an echo chamber that she cries out against and
hears nothing in return. It’s difficult to imagine what it’s like to be a blank
slate.
Stress, work, baby: my new life, some tell me. There is a Mormon that I
work with that insists that my life is over, only using colorful, inoffensive language
extracted from a threadbare flannel board from the mid-80s. I already struggle
with being pessimistic and incorrigible. Insisting that my life is going to
change, bear baiting my dreams and hobbies with the burden of childrearing is
downright nauseating. I knew what I was fucking getting in to when I decided
with my wife that we wanted to have children. It’s not as if I was ignorant of the
changes I was going to face. I welcome this brave new world I have entered, for
better or worse. It’s high time I was forced to get over my depression and anxiety
to serve another. It’s high time I saw myself through the eyes of another. To
see myself carried in the arms of God, crying, lamenting at this hard life I
endure every day. The perspective is awe inspiring. Like most prospective
parents, I am eager to right all the wrongs of my childhood, to be a “cool”
dad. Far more fascinating, in a grim sort of way, will be discovering my own
pretensions that I will impose unfairly. Relying on my daughter to understand
my own faults, that is the gift of parenting.
But one day at a time. Give me, this day, my daily bread. One day at a
time.
I love you Eowyn, my Delightful Charger.
I love you Eowyn, my Delightful Charger.
Monday, February 27, 2017
Writing For The Man
This page has been barren since my last opus—so apologies for that—due to
my work for another master. There’s this cool website that I was turned on to
called The Prose. I’ve been submitting challenges
there over the last few weeks because, let face it, the traffic here is not as
robust. You can view my profile here.
Go nuts.
Work on my second book comes along at a steady pace. I’m
completing about a chapter a week, in hopes that before my daughter is born the
first draft can be completed. I struggle with the reality that this book is
being written fairly quickly, whereas my first one was a far more painstaking
process.
In my experience, the longevity of a work, as well as
the time spent to complete it, does not correlate to the quality of the piece.
I have fallen too quickly into the trap of boasting about the agonizing process
of writing a book. In reality, I’ve come to discover that the process should be
rather straightforward. Things should just flow. After that, it’s only your WPM
that slows the process. So, kiddos, take a lesson from ol’ Uncle Stuart, don’t
brag about how long your book was, or how long it will be, the time spent writing
it, or how long it took you to name your main character: it’s all bullshit.
Nobody cares.
Still, practice what you preach. I haven’t been the
best at this this week. Earlier I told someone that they weren't a
writer, when it turns out they were very prolific. I’m very passionate about what
I do, and I like being in the company of other writing professionals, if not to
bolster my own skills. That said, I heard this person say they were a writer
and my immediate reaction was to say, “No, you’re not. Shitting out Harry
Potter fan-fiction on your Deviant Art page doesn’t count.” Luckily, I have
more tact than that. Later, on Friday, I was confronted to explain my criterion
for being a “writer,” and so proceeded my throwing pearls to pigs, until I
awkwardly broke off the conversation.
Maybe I’m just a shitty person? It would explain a lot
of things, namely getting in unwelcome arguments about philosophically
unverifiable designations. In my mind, since publishing my first book, I would
say that I am an “author,” not a writer. 15-year-old Stuart was a “writer,”
aping characters, concepts, plots, from my favorite TV shows and books, writing
without abandon rote and cliché narratives. (Though, as I write this, the
thought occurs to me that children will “play doctor” and someday grow up to
eventually receive training and licensing to be one. So, perhaps I’m wrong to
discount the future efforts of my soon-to-be daughter’s resuscitation of her stuffed Totoro
after the triple-bypass goes horribly wrong?) I think being an author now, to
me, is having the patience to hear critical feedback, while also striving after
the impossible task of making your characters exist on their own merit. And so,
being the black-and-white person that I am, I will accept nothing less than
100% of my efforts towards achieving this, as well as be prone to discrediting my
contemporaries for not volunteering the same efforts. I’m a passionate and
insecure person. It’s only in my books that I can be truly me.
Still I feel remorse for what I said. After all, I
feel very hurt when I must justify myself to others needlessly. Far be it from
me to dish out to others what I lament receiving. My languid
pace to seek forgiveness from this person, is only impeded by also considering
their presence unbearable. Have you ever known someone who, whether they are
involved in a conversation or not, will just insert themselves into
everything, uninvited, to claim being an authority of
the smallest, inconsequential things? It is infuriating being around
people like these. It’s like I say, “So, I was at the store the other day…”
and out of the ether materializes a lugubrious, squawking creature beating
their breast, declaring “I’VE BEEN TO A THOUSAND STORES!!”
All this considered, in my brief time on this planet,
I’ve learned the merits of letting go of festering feelings. I should just get
over myself and proceed with caution.
XOX
SW
Monday, January 30, 2017
To the Co-Worker That Said I Believe In "Creepy-Christian-Shit"
At happy
hour two months ago, you said something to me that I have thought about in the passing
weeks and I have been burdened with it since. Not that what was said I found
distasteful, or disagreeable, but that I felt excluded from something far
deeper; a dialogue of trust and friendship.
Generally
words like these have hidden in them a lifetime of experiences. Experiences
warranting legitimacy. Who is anyone to tell us that what we believe, and how
we came to believe it—short of being brainwashed, or impressed with another's knowledge—is
wrong? We are, after all, the sum of our experiences, moments weaving a canvas
patched with assumptions and conceptual gaps informed by the majority of the fibers.
So when I hear you say “creepy-Christian-shit,” in reference to my beliefs, I can
only assume that you were brought to that conclusion by legitimate means and
that the defense of that truth is warranted.
There are common assumptions
made about one’s beliefs by the Other, that we succumb to naturally, if not due
to some form of mechanic employed by social evolution, to preserve our identity
in the presence of something we don’t understand. I do this all the time,
usually in the presence of the marginalized and the poor, occasionally in the
presence of those of a different faith. If introspection is worth anything, and
it likely is despite what postmodernism has suggested, I would say that I am afraid
of losing my identity in the presence of another, more convincing and powerful
one. Warding off intellectual and spiritual fascism with definitive statements.
Without overstepping my bounds and assuming
your prejudices, I would say that this is at least, in part, something that
influences your beliefs about my beliefs.
Likewise, in a current climate
of relativism, not to be confused with pluralism, I will be bold enough to say
that not all beliefs are as valuable as the rest. Prejudices, for instance, are
not worth as much as truths, because they are innately defamatory and aim to
devalue something else, person, institution, presupposition, etc. A belief that
declares a value statement needs to be assessed and vetted to determine whether
or not it is a prejudice. Being that you and I are cut from the same cloth, or
that I aspire to be what you are, I hope you can appreciate the social obligation
we have in a pluralist society, to establish a mutual dialogue that encourages
a common understanding and a collaborative spirit.
Transparent Faith For a Transparent World |
I admit that in your life you have
crossed paths with undesirable permutations of Christianity. History
subjectively describes movements and campaigns that highlight the forceful and
dominant expressions, which I have struggled to reconcile. Those in a position
of power leveraged their social and political influence to perpetrate acts out
of self-interest that tainted the reputation and following of forgotten
followers, their voices drowned out by the influence they did not have over the
events they did not initiate. (The same is ever true today, with the rise of
the “Moral Majority” and other caricatures promoted by fringe groups and leveraging
fear of the the Other.) We are all familiar with the corruption of institutions
and the choice we make to generalize that quality across the diverse spectrum
of historical expressions. I have chosen to not do that in regards to secular
humanism, to see the good that it has brought to society by questioning beliefs
long held, and often proven untrue upon further reflection. I would not wish to
make a straw man like administers of my faith have made, often to draw simple
comparisons and conclusions for those without formal education, to create a
digestible, conceptual framework; much to my chagrin as I know full well, the multiplicity
of expressions. As I have had patience for those accepting simple explanations
I ask you do so as well, understanding, with positive intentions, the intended
effect.
But there is a personal dimension
to all this, for without it I would just be blustering elevated quips. Rather than see you as the Other, I wish to
traverse that gap as a confederate, a brother to you in attempt to achieve a
common goal of understanding. Regardless of my points of view, informed by my
personal theology, I would like to express my love for you as a person, with identity
and worth. I see you as unique and capable of great things, as we
all are the same at the core, acting out of self-interest on the small and
large scale. I wish to express my intentions that I am committed to your
well-being because of what I believe, and that I am committed to doing good for
you, your family, your friends, regardless of their positions and beliefs. I
believe that my truth is definitive to this reality, but that does not stop me
from appreciating what you offer to the world, what I believe my maker has given you to
advocate for those that cannot advocate for themselves, to seek equal
opportunity and rights, for dignity in an undignified world. While it is true
that I have given myself over to what others would declare an insane
proposition, the belief in an entity unverifiable by empiricism and its tools,
of a poor, homeless Jew embroiled in the socio-political conflicts of 1st
century Palestine, I have paradoxically employed tools of reason to do so, just
as you have defended the antithesis. Without the guarantee that I would dully
receive your blessing and acknowledgement of my beliefs, I would like to
acknowledge yours are valid and legitimate and it is my deepest hope that we
can foster a relationship of mutual empathy.
My Best to You for the Betterment of All,
Stuart J. Warren
Friday, December 30, 2016
Jared's Best Man Speech
Thank you all for coming today. My name is Stuart, the Best
Man, and I wanted to take some time to talk about Jared for a moment.
Some of you might know Jared through Julie, or know him as a
friend, co-worker, son, or colleague. I know Jared as a friend. We lived
together in college for about a year and I had no idea that I would still know
him almost ten years later. I have many stories about Jared, but one of them
stands out. I had just moved in with him and was still feeling out my
roommates for their quirks and oddities. Jared was the guy that came home late
with other women, not to sleep with them mind you, but to do far less raucous
things like cuddle and play boardgames. But I sat Jared down and talked to him
explaining that what we did at the apartment, which was a complex in Isla Vista
leased to exclusively members of Campus Crusade, was sacred. We were out on
display for the world to see and I wanted to hold him accountable. To my
incredible surprise, Jared listened. He heard me out. And we built on that
moment a mutual, sacred trust that has sharped us together, perhaps like iron
on iron, or something like that…
We are all told that we are special. That we can do
anything. I don’t really believe that now that I’m older, but Jared is one of
those people to watch because he is destined for great things. His career as a
writer and teacher are already in their infancy and he has distinguished
himself as top of his class, par excellence, with his colleagues and fellow
members of the Academy. Why? Because Jared is a magnate for discussion, someone
that people naturally gather to because they see in him something wonderful and
special. He challenges us by his example to question our beliefs and follow in
the footsteps of Socratic liberal education, that we may think critically about
the information that vies for our affections in a world of increasing ambiguity
and obfuscation. And incredibly, as much as Jared challenges us and helps to
mold us, the teacher that he is, there is Julie that has drawn Jared to
herself. You see, if you knew Jared, you would know his aloof spirit as well as
me. “Bear-bear” is always on the run, unmoored by his years of growing up
across the oceans in the jungles of Indonesia and urban China. But he has
finally, at long last, found someone to tie him down in the boudoir and write a
new story about a man and a woman finding each other, seemingly from opposite ends
of the world, and starting another generation of rootin-tooting, suspiciously
hairy, crawdad catching, Whites.
Saturday, November 26, 2016
Being Naïve and the Consequences Thereof
That’s my most common pastime
these days, learning. My wife and I like going to used bookstore and buying
esoteric titles. The illusion that they are used and, therefore, inexpensive has
set us back several hundred dollars, and produced only an overflowing
bookshelf. (I should actually say, “myself.” I’m the one that buys all of them.)
Learning is protection in a world of post-modern, post-truth, post-humanity. The
act of filling up with knowledge gives me support, a feeling of protection from
being exploited by those that are stronger than myself.
As I said before, I’m naïve. It
has caused me lots of grief in my life to be behind, to be told that I was
stupid, that I was below average. While my contemporaries in grade school were
being advanced through government funded programs for the gifted, I was a year
older than all of them but considerably more dull, I was told. I tested twice
to enter the GATE program, each time taking logic tests and solving puzzles to
approximate my IQ. I somehow managed to keep up, in a system designed to disenfranchise
me and others like me that didn’t excel at curriculums structured around
boosting state testing scores.
In AP courses, and parts of
college, I did better. Marginally better. I held my own and passed with satisfactory
marks, excelling at English. But I didn’t appreciate scholarship for what it
was and what it was meant to be. That came after.
I was in an internship for my
church. I told myself that I wanted to be a pastor of the Reformed tradition.
So I read, and read, and read. I was reading two books a month, sometimes
three. During the fruitless process I learned to absorb knowledge in a way that
I had never considered ever in my life. I was driven, and motivated, by a
powerful inclination to understand every facet and argument as it applied to
the Christian faith. When I became disinterested in becoming a pastor,
receiving confirmation from both myself and others that I didn’t possess the
proper gifting, my reading proficiency translated to my hobbies.
But as I read, as I ran from my naiveté,
I became unhappy. An aside: one of the prerequisites to being an author is
being able to see whole worlds, see how they are made, what they are made of,
what people populate them, what histories turn them. My own conception of reality,
of the world at present, I breathed it in, and in my eyes began to see through
the cracks of our humanity. I grew angry. I am
angry that we would be so blind to the forces that press the world forward, and
contend ourselves to glut on petty things.
(Knowledge brings sadness and
sobriety to a repugnant world filled with disappointment. Perhaps this is why
the Apostle Paul once said “the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the
weakness of God is stronger than men.” My vision is bleak, yes. But it is true
and I have the courage to see it for what it is.)
And yet learning, for what it is,
has breathed life into every facet of society since man could reason. There are
some admirably and qualitatively “good” things to arise out of education: public
sanitation, for instance. A means to wipe and flush, washing ourselves of
excrement. This, and many other technologies, distract ourselves from our true
natures.
But I digress. I am still naïve,
despite what I’ve learned. It brings clarity to Socrates’ certainty of
uncertainty, something that I can appreciate as I stave off my descending
spiral into nihilism. Learning has made my life more rich and, myself, a better
author, but at the cost of my ignorance, which I consider a worthy trade,
despite the sadness it brings to me on occasion. I can scarcely describe the wonder
I feel when I read about the exploits of the Romans or experience the mystery
of existential comicbooks. The history of medieval Europe, the language of the
Norsemen, their epics and traditions, expanded my understanding of what it means
to be human. And, in all this, I am somehow a Christian, experiencing the already-but-not-yet
Kingdom of Heaven.
Being naïve has tainted my
interactions with others. It’s difficult for me to feel comfortable and at home
in a situation because I have been taken advantage of many times for my
goodwill and belief in the inherent goodness of others. There are few people I
can feel like being myself with, one of them being my good friend Desmond, a
fellow scholar of erudite wisdom. When we talk, everything comes forth, like a
dam bursting with thoughts and ideas. Our rank commentary, foul words, bring great
joy to us, dethroning the world in absurdity like a Samuel Beckett play. My
love for him transcends fraternal bonds.
There is always hope. The
washing and cleansing of disappointment helps. It’s good to get things out on “paper”
and talk about what we struggle with. I do this occasionally, so forgive my
rambling. Some of the books I purchased this weekend are as follows, in case
you wondered:
Foucault’s Pendulum and Misreadings by Umberto Eco
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy,
Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
Odd and the Frost Giants and Signal to Noise by Neil Gaiman (the
latter illustrated by Dave Mckean)
XOX
Monday, November 14, 2016
SJWs, Freedom of Speech, and The Revelation of St. John
Second attempt today writing. Here. We. Go!
My friend Trey pointed out earlier this
week that my initials spell S.J.W. This is incidental because I also happened
to rain on everyone’s parade growing up. I was at the epicenter of the phrase’s
inception back in 2014, when I was at Sequart Organization. (At least it was
brought to my attention / I noticed it, and others making a scene about it.)
SJW stands for “social justice warrior,” a pejorative word that typically hyperbolizes
a liberal minded person that takes a stand on a number of social issues, to the
effect of making others very aware
of systemic disenfranchisement of minorities and the LGTBQ community. My
careful wording of this implies that, while I cringe at the small proportion of
the general population that such a label applies to, I do not enjoy the term,
its use, and practice. It’s very misleading. It supposes that someone who wants
to be a part of something but is denied entry to that subculture / practice and
voices their very reasonable concern for not gaining entry has sinister motives
for doing so.
As a
white male I have yet to assess my privilege. (Many online surveys I have taken
suggest it to be “Moderate to High”.) I have been told that it is “very good.” But
the issue I have with SJWs is the impact they have on a very moderate
population of women and minorities that are trying to be accepted into the fold
of popular entertainment. In order to pave the way for change, an open dialogue
has to be made with the opposing side. Empathy, to understand the impact that disenfranchisement
has on the Other, is key. This is what was revealed in Kenneth and Mamie Clark’s
doll experiments during
the Civil Rights case, Brown Vs Board of
Education. The arguments I’ve seen thus far are artificially divisive where
each side regurgitates the company line like a 14 year old using their parent’s
arguments for why abortion is right / wrong. I recall one article
a colleague of mine wrote where he attempted to engage in dialogue with an
Anita Sarkeesian harasser, to no avail. Note: there is no intelligent repartee between
Marc and his specimen, just an oddly robotic dialogue.
The controversy
(still ongoing, last time I checked) generally positions one in the camp of
Sarkeesian’s following, because who wants to side with misogynistic near-rapists?
This is frustrating because there could be something intelligent to say on
behalf of the often paranoid doomsayers. There is a real problem today with the
creation of safe-spaces at universities, the unchecked postmodern deconstruction
of institutions, and the growing sentiment of nihilism, which, in turn,
produces similar soldiers that one could term “SJWs.” I was once told by Julian
Darius that for every Ku Klux Klan parade held, there is a line of Jewish and
Black lawyers willing to defend the KKK’s right to assembly and freedom of
speech. To censure a hate group is still censure. America is great because people
get to have an opinion, even if it is really fucking stupid, still many college
professors have been incorrectly coined racists and bigots because of their
failed attempts to explain this caveat to their students. Freedom of speech
extends to all, including the multinational corporations that own the tights
that Superman wears. People have every right to stop buying comics, organize
protests, and initiate and dialogue between the other side. They do not have
the right to harass and emotionally harm another person because they believe
something different. It’s a two way street people!
My milquetoast
rallying cry to moderation could be extended to many dialogues, including our
own recent presidential race. I don’t think for a moment that Trump has anything
to offer America, or her people. He is Satan. (Owning most if not all of the
biblical titles.) It’s possible that we could have avoided Trump by having these
conversations on consensus, say, thirty years ago, but here we are. Now we have
to make the best of 2017, which I have money on being an amped up iteration of
the Apostle John’s Vision of Revelation.
I’ve
made it a goal to hear someone out this year and next, regardless of their position
on life. This is my resolution for the new year. I hope it can be yours too.
XOX
Monday, November 7, 2016
Thoughts on Conservatism and Progressivism
I’ve been
reading a new book called Does God Make a Difference? Taking
Religion Seriously in our Schools and Universities. Though I’m
only halfway through, the message is rather inspiring for the advancement of
liberal free education. Initially when I started the book, I was confronted
with reservations about Nord’s thesis that religion needs to be taught as live,
viable options to cultivate a comprehensive understanding of worldviews around
the world. The book was spurred on by
the secularization thesis, which was posited during the 60s, that eventually
the idea of “God” would become marginalized to the point of irrelevance. Nord’s
thesis contends that the secularization hypothesis has been thoroughly
nullified due to the increase in spirituality around the world. You might have
noticed my use of the word “liberal free” education. This is in reference to
Nord’s distinguishing between two schools of thought that provide the backbone
of western education: Liberal Arts education and Liberal Free education. The two schools underscore the advancement of
what we would recognize today as progressive and conservative arts education. Isocrates
(I believe this is the man Nord references, though I have had some beers and
the book is still at the office) understood the importance of classics and
their value to education. This would be reflected in earlier schooling models
when students would learn Greek and Latin, girding their education with the
cornerstones of Western philosophy and epistemology. (It would be akin to studying drama and
emphasizing the importance of classical acting methodology, replete with
Shakespeare and Greek classics over more modern, experimental acting models
like method acting.) Liberal Free, the second of the two is emphasized by
Socrates, who argued that uncertainty in self-knowledge compels the individual
to continually learn and reform their education; hence the progressive
tone.
All this talk in Nord’s book got
me thinking about the difference in conservatism and progressivism.
The US election this year is
very chaotic. Much of the conflict has been poured out on the existential
meaning of America. (As in the 50 territories that constitute the United States
of America.) The two party system, a broken system in my opinion, has created a
cultural divide across the US between two very unrealistic extremes:
Conservatism and Progressivism. There are many touting the return to a
greatness of America. This is vague and needs definition. What made America
great exactly? America is the product of political experimentation. It is
constantly changing, reforming to compliment the current state of affairs. The
contrarian voice in this is that of Progressivism, which was the zeitgeist of
the 1890’s to the 1910s. Teddy Roosevelt ran on a platform of social reform to
improve the quality of American lives in the workplace and at home, and bolstered
America’s presence on the world scale. (By invading Cuba and building the
Panama Canal.) Progressivism works by momentum. (America was sick of the
rampant political corruption of the post-Civil War period.) Consequently, it is
paralyzed by inactivity and the quagmire of modern American politics.
Progressivism only works so far as the freshness of its ideals. Progressivism
and Conservatism both lack a full solution to social and political issues in
the modern day.
I covet my identity as a
political moderate. I think that it helps me see with steady eyes. When the
past is worshiped with such ferocity, impregnated with nostalgic pandering, we
are waging a hopeless battle to live in the past and not be forward thinking
and anticipatory. It is better to understand the past so that it will inform
our future. There are great lessons to learn from classical literature. The
foundation of Western Civilization is important and the specters of Classical
Learning still haunt us. There is value in understanding where we come from.
Humanity is static in its desires. We really haven’t changed much in the last
10,000 years. Men and Women to this day love and kill. They are proud and
arrogant. They fight for what they love and appeal to others to join them on
crusades against enemies real and ideological. There is still plenty to
encounter there.
My only issue with those that
keep looking forward is that they unfairly caricature the past. Fresh ideas
promise change but have no baseline to test against. There is also an
assumption of positivism, that progressivism is fundamentally idealistic.
Idealism lays the path for change, but it does not establish it. Establishing
change requires brokering deals and compromise. Change also takes time and
thoughtful execution. I am not surprised at all that Obama Care did not do what
it intended. A government funded health plan works only so much as the people
are willing to pay into it and our reticence to adopt a Northern European
healthcare model underscores the painful reality that our economy thrives on
selfishness. Consequently, we are also not Northern Europeans, or possess the
requisite cultural beliefs that are unique to their Socialist States. Perhaps a
slow, continual movement towards that ideology would bring more fruitful
changes?
I am not convinced that voting
for Hilary Clinton will bring about the revolutionary Golden Age that we
envision. Every hopeful presidency begins with the promise of some form of
political activism or Executive strong-arming. But I am certain that voting for
Trump will usher in a dangerous new era of politics that will not overthrow the
free world, to the extent predicted by the Huffington Post-esque outlets, but
initiate a steady erosion of our already waning power. The line between
conservatism and progressivism is now thin and collapsing due to the decrease
in election ethics of either side. That is what I’ve noticed. Now, each side is
an extreme and their proponents, extremists. Our only hope is a return to the
fold of reasonable discussion. I would encourage my readers to read the news of
foreign nations to gain a holistic and outside perspective of our country’s shenanigans.
Even if the news is churned out by propagandists, supposing that we as readers
have the acumen for sorting out truth from fiction, it is all worthwhile to
ingest, even if we have to hold our noses. Food for thought.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need
to read up what I’m going to vote on tomorrow.
XOX
Sunday, April 10, 2016
An Open Letter to My Children
Dear Future Son/Daughter,
Myself, and many others, grow up thinking that moms and dads
know what’s best. And the more I grow, the more I realize that parents are
people like you and me. They’ve had thrust into their lives this wailing,
screaming human that doesn’t know how to eat or sleep. And even though you’ve
never done this before in your life, it is your responsibility to care and
provide for this little person. Along the way you learn things, likely out of
just experiencing the day-to-day, and become familiar with your child and their
quirks. And I’m sure that even these words that I write to you today will
become obsolete in the coming years. But I wanted to say the following because
I love you and feel called to.
I grew up in a tough spot. I didn’t have much to go on
living in a home that was unstable and often times changing. Even though I didn’t
have it nearly as bad as other kids there were still hard days. Usually I would
go to school and come home to play with my toys. Other times I would go over to
other kid’s houses and play video games, even the ones my mom told me not to
play. All these days I would learn new things. Sometimes what I learned was
difficult and it hurt. But each time I learned from my mistakes and from good
times I became stronger. And I want you to be strong like I was.
I realize now that what we see, what we hear, challenges us.
Some things are too much. (I wouldn’t let you play an M-Rated video game when
you turned 6!) But when we face the world and try to understand it, with all its
complexity, we become like a stone on the beach: well-rounded. Some people my
age think differently. They think that if you hide the badness of the world
away that you will be preserved from it. I think people think this way because
they remember what it was like growing up. They remember seeing things they
shouldn’t have seen or listening to people that they shouldn’t have. Out of
love, when they become moms and dads, they want to spare you the trouble they
went through themselves by hiding you away.
I grew up watching things that I shouldn’t have. I grew up
listening to people I shouldn’t have. But, here I am: the finished person I am
today. There are bad things in the world. Evil things. Sooner or later we will
have to face them, and be strong. We have Jesus to show us the way. All of us
were made by him, including the bad people. Even in the darkest places, his
light shines. So when you see something bad, or listen to something that doesn’t
sound right, remember that all things have a root in what has been created by
Jesus. The world out there is worth it. And when you meet people, watch something
on TV, or have a bad day, see the big picture: where things are at and where
they will eventually be. The world isn’t perfect, but it still bears the image
of God, and all over underneath everything he is there ready to redeem it.
So if you want to watch something on TV, watch it with me.
If you want to play a video game, let’s take turns. If someone tells you something
at school, let’s talk about it. We can face this world together, and with Jesus
we are a threefold cord that can never be broken.
Love,
Daddy
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