Spreading your wings in a perplexing world
September 2023 James P. Hurd
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Contents
- Blessed Unbeliever now available in Australia!
- Writer’s Corner
- New story
- This month’s puzzler
- Wingspread Ezine subscription information
- Wisdom
BLESSED UNBELIEVER novel
The novel was written partly for people of nonfaith. I am happy some have read it and commented on it. I am thrilled that Koorong, largest Christian book publisher in Australia, will distribute Blessed Unbeliever.
Blessed Unbeliever (paper or Kindle version) can be found at Wipf and Stock Publishers, Amazon https://a.co/d/9su5F3o or wherever good books are sold.
Writer’s Corner
Tip for writers: After finishing your rough draft, label each paragraph with an italicized word or phrase at the beginning of each paragraph. For example, Sally meets John. Use WORD “outline” mode and select “first line only.” You will see only the first lines of all your paragraphs, including your italicized labels. Easy now to see the structure of your piece, and to move paragraphs around to create a better flow.
Word of the month: SKIPLAGGING. Refers to air travel. You book a through flight with one stop in-between and you get off at the in-between stop. The airlines don’t like this because sometimes they lose money.
I asked which five books you would take if stranded on a desert island: I dunno, but here are my ideas of books and authors: Bible, Cadfael Chronicles by Ellis Peters, Henry Noewen, Charles Dickens, C.S. Lewis.
New story: The Churched Atheist
Really though—if you’re an atheist you need church as much as believers do! Behold, all the benefits of churchgoing—singing, making friends, potlucks, social service, moral guidance, coming of age rituals (e.g., confirmation, graduation), social intensification rituals (e.g., births, baptisms, weddings, funerals). You may find a loving, accountability group (e.g., Christian AA) that offers hope instead of despair. You will find a good job-seeker network. A support group for life crises. A place to get married or buried. A place that offers meaning to your life. You might even find free babysitting! You can have all these things without abandoning atheism because so much of church life does not demand any belief in the supernatural
Turns out that churchgoing is good for your health. A 2020 study published in the International Journal of Epidemiology reported that church attenders had a 26% reduced risk of dying and a 34% lower risk of heavy drinking. Church attendance was also associated with less anxiety, depression, hopelessness and loneliness. Church attenders lean toward healthy family and community behaviors. You’ll find good mentors who will hold you accountable and give you honest critique. If you’re older, just getting out of the house and doing something—anything—is good for you. If you’re younger, hey, it might be worth going just to make your parents happy! . . .To read more, click here: https://jimhurd.com/2023/08/31/churched-atheists/ Leave a comment on the website and share with others. Thanks.
This month’s puzzler
Adapted from Car Talk Puzzler archives
Here is a list of six words.
- Mother
- Father
- Cousin
- Uncle
- Brother
- Aunt
Which one of these words does not belong, and why?
(Answer will appear in next month’s WINGSPREAD newsletter.)
Answer to last month’s puzzler:
Remember that a man’s son asked about hitting 160 miles per hour in both the Mustang and the BMW. How did the man know that the BMW would not hit that speed, and that the Mustang would?
Because when he looked down at the speedometer, he also looked at the tachometer. Both of these cars redline at about 6000 RPM. So, at 60 miles an hour which he was traveling at that time, the BMW was doing 3100 RPMs. And he knew that at 120 miles an hour, it would be beyond the redline and incapable of doing 160 miles an hour.
And the Mustang he was driving at 60 miles an hour was doing less than 2000 RPM. It was running around 1750 at 60 miles per hour. So at that point, he knew that this car could possibly get to 160 without redlining.
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Wisdom
How many of these 21st century words do you know?
- Particularity
- Intersectionality
- BLM
- Cancel culture
- Othering
- Rewilding
- Phubbing
- Skiplagging
- Social Media acronyms
- ICYMI
- IMHO
- LOL, LMAO, LMFAO, ROFL, IJBOL
- FOMO
- GOAT
- YOLO
You knew somebody would think of this sooner or later . . .
While there are many, here is one person’s list of the Top 20 Yogi-isms*:
- “When you come to a fork in the road…. take it.”
- “You can observe a lot by just watching.”
- “It ain’t over till it’s over.”
- “We made too many wrong mistakes.”
- “No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded.”
- “I always thought the record would stand until it was broken.”
- “Love is the most important thing in the world, but baseball is pretty good, too.”
- “In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is.”
- “Pair up in threes.”
- “You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.”
- “The future ain’t what it used to be.”
- “I usually take a two-hour nap from 1 to 4.”
- “If the world was perfect, it wouldn’t be.”
- “You don’t have to swing hard to hit a home run. If you got the timing, it’ll go.”
- “Ninety percent of the game is half mental.”
- “Never answer an anonymous letter.”
- “Why buy good luggage? You only use it when you travel.”
- “Take it with a grin of salt.”
- “It gets late early out here.”
- “I never said most of the things I said.”
*Yogi Berra played catcher for 18 seasons with the New York Yankees.
Happy reading and writing!
Wingspread 
