I've been reading "Lost Christianities" by Bart Ehrman. Great book. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know why we have the bible that we have today and the fights and compromises that created the Christian Creed that most doctrine in all Christian churches is built on. One guy even got the pre-existence down almost perfectly. This is like 2 BCE so we aren't talking during the restoration or even the reformation that this knowledge was had.
It makes me think about what it would be like in the post resurrection of Christ. I know after the apostles were killed the priesthood had been taken from the earth so the authority to act in the name of God was taken from the earth but the Holy Ghost remained. The constant comforter guided and directed the people that truly wanted to know and wanted to live a life that would bring them closer to their Heavenly Father and Christ. When you could see that someone was actually looking for the truth, because it had only been a few hundred years since the Truth was on earth, they would come so close. But then you read about the ones that were just working to further their own agendas, to subjugate the early Christians to believe in a way contrary to the word of God, but no so much so that they were sinning. Books were owned by the rich and the poor had to believe in who they thought were best to teach them. Then they'd leave and leave these ignorant presbytery on their own to figure things out. And, if you have ever played the telephone game, you know how messed up things can get when you have to teach things by oral traditions. Dr. Ehrman used the term "eternity past", and it got me thinking about eternity in general. We have been taught to think of our life before the flesh as the "pre-mortal existence", but that denotes a start in our spiritual evolution. Like *poof* one day we appeared from the miasma of the universe and became a sentient being with the desire to grow and learn and progress through the mortal coil and forward. But we have always been, we always are, and we always will be. That's hard to wrap my brain around at time, but it sure does take the pressure off of my perceived failures and inabilities of this life.
With the new term, Eternity Past, that means we are in Eternity Present and we are heading into Eternity Future. Eternity....What a way to live!
04 May 2006
13 April 2006
The Eternal Circle
By His blood I am sanctified
By His works I am edified
By His love I am justified
By my blood He is justified
By my works He is edified
By my love He is sanctified
11 April 2006
The wonder of words....
I've started posting my words for the week on my cube wall at work. Nothing really flamboyant, I don't want people to know just how many words I don't know. I'm never not amazed at how misleading words can be. For example, today's word is sartorial. I try to pull some meaning out of the word before I look it up to see how close I am to the implied meaning.
Sartorial, to me, sounds like a blended word or sarcasm and editorial. So, a sarcastic editorial.
In reality it is thus:
Sartorial: of or relating to a tailor or tailored clothes; broadly of or relating to clothes.
I can use sartorial as a sarcastic editorial, that works for me, but how do you use this word to enhance another word....
Another word for the week for me is Ascetic
Ascetic: 1) Practicing strict self denial as a measure of a personal and especially Spiritual discipline. 2) Austere in appearance, manner or attitude.
So I guess I could make someone a sartorial ascetic, but no one would know what I was trying to say any more than I know what I'm trying to say. Less known words are fun to pull out of your hat when you're in a discussion with someone but when you write for the general public, you have to stay with the more comon words. I guess that's the true anathema of being a writer.
Sartorial, to me, sounds like a blended word or sarcasm and editorial. So, a sarcastic editorial.
In reality it is thus:
Sartorial: of or relating to a tailor or tailored clothes; broadly of or relating to clothes.
I can use sartorial as a sarcastic editorial, that works for me, but how do you use this word to enhance another word....
Another word for the week for me is Ascetic
Ascetic: 1) Practicing strict self denial as a measure of a personal and especially Spiritual discipline. 2) Austere in appearance, manner or attitude.
So I guess I could make someone a sartorial ascetic, but no one would know what I was trying to say any more than I know what I'm trying to say. Less known words are fun to pull out of your hat when you're in a discussion with someone but when you write for the general public, you have to stay with the more comon words. I guess that's the true anathema of being a writer.
07 April 2006
It's not the rejection, it's the waiting for the rejection...
Maybe I'm being pessimistic, maybe I'm a dooms-dayer of sorts, but I am eagerly checking my e-mail every day for Covenant Publishers e-mail of rejection. Not that my work is all that bad, it does need some TLC in the copy editing department, but then what first draft to the publisher doesn't need that? Maybe a manual on copy editing, but this is fiction.
My mind often trips on the daydream about what it would be like to have to go on a book tour, even if it is to different LDS bookstores around the US. I've been trying to figure out how I would do it because me traveling a lot isn't good for Sammy, the feathered beast. I know that's silly, but I take my responsibility to her seriously and when you join a flock or become apart of this animals wild kingdom, you need to take that into consideration. She isn't going to understand me being gone for more than a day or two. Sure, people will still be interacting with her, she will get fed but she is mine and I am hers and she misses me. For example, she starts to have a fit (fit means screaming at the top of her lungs) at 5:30pm, about when I should be home from work Monday - Friday. Then, she has to be on my shoulder the rest of the night until bedtime (hers not mine). It's just what birds do when they find their flock. So, this is my idea..... http://www.fleetwoodrv.com/americaneagle/
Not that I can really expect to earn $300,00-400,000 from my first book, but one can dream. This way I can take Sammy with me. Figure out some place to put a cage. She wouldn't really need a big one because she'd just have to sleep in it and eat in it. I'd try to construct a perch for the front seat for her so she can ride up front with me. But I could live in this, and then go to places where I can visit nice places, make the book tour and not have to go to hotel to motel to pension but have a feather bed to sleep in each night, a place to work, a place where I can close the door and know that I am the only one that has slept in the bed, the only one that has padded around the floor in my bare feet. I wouldn't have to worry about eating out because I can cook in.....but I don't really cook but I can learn.
I know, most of you are rotflyao at me right now. But I take my pet stewardship seriously, as all animal owners should. Parrots can live over 50 years, we're not talking a gold fish here. Sammy has an expected life span of 40-75 years. Depending on how well I take care of her. I think she'll live to be 100 considering how I take care of her. But mostly, I think, I don't want to leave her behind if I have to go on any extended tour. If I could get me one of these I could live in it and work remotely from anywhere in the US, Canada or even Mexico (I don't think I'm that adventurous though).
So, this is how I occupy my time while I'm waiting for the rejection. Not that I'm going to get rejected, I know, but I could and then I have to start this process all over again. So, I'd rather dream bout 1/2 million dollar RV's to travel the US in doing book tours than thinking about what I'm going to do if/when they come back with "thank you but no" or worse, send me a form rejection letter....which would truly hurt. That's how Deseret Books done me. And to add insult to injury, the form letter reads like a Jr. High Schooler wrote it.
I'll save the general fear of going to book signings and giving talks about my book and concepts for another blog. Which is another reason why I would need a place like this of my own to go back to and 'recover' if you will.
My mind often trips on the daydream about what it would be like to have to go on a book tour, even if it is to different LDS bookstores around the US. I've been trying to figure out how I would do it because me traveling a lot isn't good for Sammy, the feathered beast. I know that's silly, but I take my responsibility to her seriously and when you join a flock or become apart of this animals wild kingdom, you need to take that into consideration. She isn't going to understand me being gone for more than a day or two. Sure, people will still be interacting with her, she will get fed but she is mine and I am hers and she misses me. For example, she starts to have a fit (fit means screaming at the top of her lungs) at 5:30pm, about when I should be home from work Monday - Friday. Then, she has to be on my shoulder the rest of the night until bedtime (hers not mine). It's just what birds do when they find their flock. So, this is my idea..... http://www.fleetwoodrv.com/americaneagle/
Not that I can really expect to earn $300,00-400,000 from my first book, but one can dream. This way I can take Sammy with me. Figure out some place to put a cage. She wouldn't really need a big one because she'd just have to sleep in it and eat in it. I'd try to construct a perch for the front seat for her so she can ride up front with me. But I could live in this, and then go to places where I can visit nice places, make the book tour and not have to go to hotel to motel to pension but have a feather bed to sleep in each night, a place to work, a place where I can close the door and know that I am the only one that has slept in the bed, the only one that has padded around the floor in my bare feet. I wouldn't have to worry about eating out because I can cook in.....but I don't really cook but I can learn.
I know, most of you are rotflyao at me right now. But I take my pet stewardship seriously, as all animal owners should. Parrots can live over 50 years, we're not talking a gold fish here. Sammy has an expected life span of 40-75 years. Depending on how well I take care of her. I think she'll live to be 100 considering how I take care of her. But mostly, I think, I don't want to leave her behind if I have to go on any extended tour. If I could get me one of these I could live in it and work remotely from anywhere in the US, Canada or even Mexico (I don't think I'm that adventurous though).
So, this is how I occupy my time while I'm waiting for the rejection. Not that I'm going to get rejected, I know, but I could and then I have to start this process all over again. So, I'd rather dream bout 1/2 million dollar RV's to travel the US in doing book tours than thinking about what I'm going to do if/when they come back with "thank you but no" or worse, send me a form rejection letter....which would truly hurt. That's how Deseret Books done me. And to add insult to injury, the form letter reads like a Jr. High Schooler wrote it.
I'll save the general fear of going to book signings and giving talks about my book and concepts for another blog. Which is another reason why I would need a place like this of my own to go back to and 'recover' if you will.
03 April 2006
I really should be working....
Well, I really should. I mean, that is what they pay me for.....but there are times when money just doesn't satiate the souls wages. The worth of a soul is great in the eyes of God, but that doesn't feed the endless hunger of this life as the physical drains the spiritual of the intangibles to decorate the temporal psyche. Right now, my soul feels like the fog as it lumbers over the Golden Gate Bridge and wrapping the mental structures in an opaque mist making me feel alone and forgotten on the earth. I know I'm not. The conference calls of the other toilers in my cube farm confirm to my mind that I'm not alone, but my soul, my soul cries for recognition and fulfillment. I've always thought chocolate was the answer, and I still manage to kid myself that it is, but true soul wealth has to come from the outside in, stemming the hemorrhaging of the body draining the soul of ectoplasm until it can no long support the body and it slumps in defeat and exhaustion in the ergonomic, pneumontically adjustable chair.
I think work is the culprit. Yes, I should be working to pay the bills, but not at the cost of robbing my soul of it's wealth. Robin Hood had it right, steal from the rich of the world and give to the poor of soul, it's the only way to live. Except, no tights, which is even better.
I think work is the culprit. Yes, I should be working to pay the bills, but not at the cost of robbing my soul of it's wealth. Robin Hood had it right, steal from the rich of the world and give to the poor of soul, it's the only way to live. Except, no tights, which is even better.
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