“Spreading your wings in a perplexing world”
May, 2021 James Hurd

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Contents

• New story: Saving the World in a Season of COVID
• Puzzler of the month
• How to purchase Wingspread: A Memoir of Faith and Flying
• Writer’s Corner
• Wingspread E-zine subscription information
• Follow “james hurd” on Facebook, or “@hurdjp” on Twitter

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New story: Saving the World in a Season of COVID

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The last thing I remember was sorting food from one bag to another.

In the time of COVID, after George Floyd was shot and after the riots, my daughter suggests we go to downtown Minneapolis to help with food handouts, clean up the city streets, and generally help save the world in Jesus’ name. I am all for it, even though I have felt exhausted for several weeks.
We drive by some burned-out buildings, including the post office, broken or boarded-up windows, glass and trash in the streets. Most businesses are closed. We park the car a couple of blocks from the Midtown Global Market, just a few blocks north of the George Floyd memorial at 38th and Chicago.
We grab our brooms and buckets and pull out of the car several heavy bags of food that we will carry three blocks to Lake and Chicago. I barely make it and gladly set the bags down. We see hundreds of people sweeping the streets or just milling around. Dozens of bags full of food sit on long tables. Everybody’s masked up because of the COVID pandemic.
The last thing I remember is stooping over to transfer stuff from one bag to another . . .
To read more, click here: https://jimhurd.com/2021/05/25/saving-the-world-in-a-season-of-covid/
(*Please leave a comment on the website. Thanks.)

Puzzler of the month:

May’s puzzler:
(I had to look up the answer, but when I read it, I realized, “Of course!”)
An off-duty policeman is working as a night watchman in an office building. He’s doing his rounds and he comes upon a closed door. Behind the door he hears voices; people are talking and an argument seems to be taking place. He hears someone say, “No, Frank, no; don’t do it, you’ll regret it.” Bang! Bang! Bang!
The night watchman bursts through the door; what does he see? A dead man on the floor. And the proverbial what? Smoking gun.
And in the room, are three living people; a minister, a doctor, and a plumber. He walks over to the minister and says, “You’re under arrest. You have the right to remain silent.”
How does he know that it was the minister that pulled the trigger?
(Answer next month.)
(Thanks to “Car Talk” puzzlers.)

Answer to April’s puzzler:
Recall the family of four and dog, stranded on an island with rising floodwaters. Only one rowboat that will only carry 180 pounds. The key to this puzzler is that some of the family must make more than one trip:

1. The dog can swim, so discount the red-herring dog.
2. The two kids take the boat across and the son rows back.
3. Mom rows across alone and the daughter comes back.
4. Two kids row across again and the son comes back.
5. Father rows across alone and the daughter brings the boat back.
6. Son and daughter row across and voila! the whole family is safe.
7. (Unless, of course, it takes too long, and the floodwaters wipe out the whole family. Maybe they could train the dog to pull the empty rowboat back, or something . . .)

Buy James Hurd’s Wingspread: A Memoir of Faith and Flying. How childhood (Fundamentalist) faith led to mission bush-piloting in South America—and Barbara. Buy it here: https://jimhurd.com/home/ (or order it at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, etc.)

See pics here related to Wingspread: Of Faith and Flying: http://www.pinterest.com/hurd1149/wingspread-of-faith-and-flying/

Writers’ Corner

Writer of the month: William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Though biographical details may be sketchy, his literary legacy is certain. He wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and a couple of epic narrative poems. He created some of the most unforgettable characters ever written for the stage, and shifted effortlessly between formal court language and coarse vernacular. The Oxford English Dictionary credits him with coining 3,000 new words, and has contributed more phrases and sayings to the English language than any other individual. His idioms have woven themselves so snugly into our daily conversations that we aren’t even aware of them most of the time, phrases such as “a fool’s paradise,” “a sorry sight,” “dead as a doornail,” “Greek to me,” “come what may,” “eaten out of house and home,” “forever and a day,” “heart’s content,” “slept a wink,” “love is blind,” “night owl,” “wild goose chase,” and “into thin air.”

Watch for my upcoming novel: East Into Unbelief (provisional title)
Sean McIntosh loses his father, his best girlfriend, his life dream, and finally, his faith. But how can he be a good atheist, especially when he’s stuck at Torrey Bible Institute? He can’t see it, but grace is coming. . . .

If you’re discouraged about your writing progress, take heart in these “bad analogies”:

Tip of the month: To pull the reader into a scene, make it more sensual: smells, tastes, how things feel to the touch. A smell will bring the reader immediately into the scene.

Word of the Month: WOKE. Used as a verb, such as a “woke person.” This refers to someone who had seen through the illusions and realizes the true cause of their troubles, who sees beyond the lies and understands the oppressive structures behind them. Similar to the older term, conscientization.

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