Good stories
Scenes and characters
-
Timing Is God’s Signature
The idea came to me years ago while walking the neighborhood, a time when several people had urged me to write a Bible Study. I would call it “The Divine Signature.” I visualized life like a blank page as a way to say “Yes, LORD” to whatever God brought into my life. Prof Hendricks told his Bible Study Methods students at Dallas Seminary that only 6% of ideas were any good. Waiting for that thought to register, he then offered the solution. “Come up with lots of ideas.” I have lots of ideas. Since that time, I have had countless ideas, acted on some of them, and most were not…
-
Choose Your Hero: A Good Man is Hard to Find
Nearly every movie, book, or TV show has shifted from good vs. evil to bad vs. worse. The heroes from the past no longer exist. Heroes in the past used to represent admirable role models. But as Flannery O’Connor wrote, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” Stories used to portray discernible character differences tied to moral absolutes. White hats vs. black hats has morphed into 50 shades of gray, and black holes in space where character distinction no longer matters. The outlines have blurred. Dark hearts conceal themselves under public image management. Every character does as he sees fit. Numerous factors and myriad inputs affect the moral compass each…
-
Viva The Las Vegas I Remember
“I would never go there,” the group’s leader said––the person with all the religious status. His remark silenced comments from others. “If I now recognize evil in other people, is it not because I have become evil too? If I see someone has a suspicious nose, have I not smelled the same bad things?” Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club I had told coworkers that for my birthday my husband surprised me with tickets to fly to Las Vegas to see Celine Dion. This guy’s comment made me think how easy it is to make wide verbal swipes against people and places. What made him think he knew anything about the…
-
The Life Is in the Book: Characters Have a Life of Their Own
Last week, I closed the book Tom Lake, at the part where the character Peter Drake is introduced. I already know what happens because I listened to the book on Audible, read by Meryl Streep. Fantastic reader, by the way. After turning out the light, I went from sleepy to wide awake as I started trying to “cast” the characters in this book for a movie. Who could play Peter Drake? Tom Cruise is too short and Tom Hanks isn’t handsome (though he has throughout his career portrayed endearing characters). I thought of them first because they both have dark hair, yet knowing they are too old now to portray…
-
Palindrome
Today’s date, written numerically, is a palindrome. 3-2-23. Palindromes are words, phrases, sentences or numbers that read the same backward as forward. The longest palindrome sentence is: “Able was I ere I saw Elba.” The most referenced: “A man, a plan, a canal: Panama!“ I didn’t say that palindromes have to make sense. Whenever I see or say “palindrome,” the music and words to an old TV Western come to mind. In Have Gun-Will Travel (1957–1963, 225 episodes), the main character’s name is Paladin. Dressed in black, Paladin wore a fancy rig and defied the Western stereotype (white hat vs. black hat) as a gunfighter for justice and good––”a crusader…
-
Read to Expand Your Heart
My husband bought me two toy giraffes. I had admired these in the hardware store after I had finished reading the novel West with Giraffes. Surprising me, he said, “I guess you are in your Giraff-ic period. It follows your Llam-ic period.” He knows how to make me laugh. Previously, I have been a bit obsessed with llamas. Although I still “llove llamas,” I have a newfound love for giraffes. I am smitten. And here’s why. Nancy H. recommended this book. I have come to trust the recommendations of certain friends. They are like a rudder on a boat, steering me to discover books I would never come across otherwise.…
-
“Un-distracted” in an Age of Wild Assaults
“To write a great book, you must first become the book.” Naval Ravikant Bob Goff becomes the books he writes. At least, he lives the book before he writes it. Undistracted: Capture Your Purpose Rediscover Your Joy Somehow, Bob freed himself from distractions in his own life to write a book that he hopes will help readers capture their own purpose and joy. Bob oozes authenticity from an oversized personality that spills onto the pages of the books he has written. Going. Blowing. Doing. “When it comes to the words we use, we’re never shooting blanks.” Bob Goff Bob wants to help other people realize the fullest potential in their…