"For me it's a discovery, it's an exploration, it's a pursuit. It's a sort of wide-eyed, filled-with-wonder, what's-around-this-corner...I find the world terribly electric and I find people endlessly interesting." R-B
For something as deep and high and wide and heavy as a view-of-life, the small amount of space offered on Facebook just doesn't cut it. So I'm continually changing my "Religious View" section, not to completely different things (Christian, no Buddhist, no Spiritual but not Religious!), but to various ways of explaining the same thing. It's like those photo mosaics: if you look at them up close all you see is a bunch of individual pictures, but if you take a few steps back, all the small pictures together make up one giant picture.
Here's the latest:
When a British newspaper invited several eminent authors to write essays on the theme "What's Wrong with the World?" G.K. Chesterton's contribution took the form of a letter:
November is National Novel Writing Month. I skipped the first 4 days because I was busy (horrible excuse) and finally started yesterday. I'm not sure if I'll finish or if I'll even do a week or three days, but I started yesterday. Day 1 was fun! Apparently I'm doing a semi-autobiographical first-person novel. I wasn't going to share anything or even tell anybody I was doing it, but life is short and it seems better to be more open than closed, right? So I'm kind of sort of doing NaNoWriMo. Here's a small excerpt from yesterday:
In a Western Pennsylvania rest stop I was standing at a urinal when a short, skinny, balding old man began quoting from the Bible.
"The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of God shall stand for ever!"
I zipped up and scooted next to him, washing my hands under lukewarm water. He was still holding one finger high in the air as I saw his reflection watching my reflection. I stuck my longest fingernail between my two front teeth and attempted to shimmy out some beef jerky I bought at a gas station in Philadelphia.
"What do you know about Michigan?" I asked.
The old man slowly lowered his hand, blinked heavily and nodded slightly. "My nephew lives in Michigan. Detroit, Michigan."
I made a noise with my mouth, still attempting to remove the beef with my tongue. "How old is your nephew?"
"Twenty-seven."
"I'm twenty-seven!"
He nodded. "Beeee careful young man." His index finger turned toward me. "Beware the eeeevil, son."
"I have like no gap between these teeth. How does food find it's way in there?"
"The wrath of the Lord is at hand!"
I brushed my hair to the side with my fingers, then patted the old man on the back. "Thanks for the advice, sir," I said before leaving.
"Beeee careful."
I arrived in Grandview at 10:30 PM and found that the sun had not yet set. What a strange place, my new home!
