Monthly Archives: February 2024

Wingspread Ezine for February, 2024


Spreading your wings in a perplexing world
February, 2024                                                    James P. Hurd

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Contents

  • Writer’s Corner
  • Blessed Unbeliever
  • New story
  • This month’s puzzler
  • Wingspread Ezine subscription information
  • Wisdom

Writer’s Corner

Tip for writers: Rabbit trails. Wonderful paragraphs, or even chapters, that interrupt the narrative but may enrich the story. (E.g., in Les Miserables Victor Hugo interrupts the narrative by inserting four chapters of deep, miasmic description of the extensive sewer system under Paris.) How does a writer get away with this—the modern reader may lose interest if the author abandons the narrative. Some answers: 1. Break up these interruptions into smaller bits. 2. Insert some narrative into the diversion. 3. Never put a diversion in the first chapter of the book. 4. Include a protagonist or main character in the diversion. 5. Explain to the reader the purpose of the diversion. 6. Know that some readers may skip over a rabbit trail to get on with the dominant narrative. Charles Darwin, in his own family’s reading together, called this skipping “skipibus.” It’s alright; you have my permission.

Word of the month:  REVENANT: One that returns after long absence or after death. E.g., “He thought I was dead; I was a revenant from his distant past.”

Book of the month: LES MISERABLES. Victor Hugo. 1862. Translated by Charles Wilbour. Modern Library: New York. 1200 pages. A vast narrative set in Paris and its environs in the early 1800s. Fleeing from police inspector Javert, the convicted thief Jean Valjean robs a kind bishop who has sheltered him, but the bishop refuses to turn him over to the authorities. Valjean resolves to amend his life. He adopts little Cossette, daughter of a prostitute. Javert pursues them but at the insurrection barricades, Valjean saves Javert’s life. When Cossette falls in love with Marius Valjean hates him for stealing him away from her. And yet, Valjean saves Marius’ life, delivers him to precious Cossette, and as his own life ends, endows the happy couple with great wealth.

Question for you:  How do you personally overcome writer’s block? I’ll put some of your responses in the next Wingspread.

BLESSED UNBELIEVER novel

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.

New story: “A Letter to my Fourteen-Year-Old Self: You are not Weird”

It’s too late for me, so you ask Grandpa Anderson what it was like building his tarpaper shack on the South Dakota prairie. Or ask him how he survived the death of his two young boys (your uncles), Jamie and Calvin. Grandpa and Grandma won’t be around forever, and after they’re gone you’ll long to be able to ask them questions. Ask them now. . . . To read more, click here  https://jimhurd.com/2024/02/06/a-letter-to-my-fourteen-year-old-self-you-are-not-weird/

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This month’s puzzler

(Thanks to “Car Talk Archives”) Many years ago, we had an uncle named Enzo. We only vaguely remember him. We were very young. Anyway, he went back to Italy. But before he went, he had 11 antique cars here. Each of them had a value of about 500 bucks. This was a while ago. 

So, when our Uncle Enzo died, he left a very interesting will. His will said that his 11 cars be divided among his three sons. But he wanted the oldest son to get more of his estate, due to his age. 

Half of the cars would go to the eldest son. One fourth of the cars to the middle son. And one sixth of the cars to the youngest son. 

So after the reading of the will, everyone was puzzled. Because there are 11 cars, and 11 is a prime number, it cannot be divided in halves, fourths or sixths. 

So just as everyone is scratching their heads not knowing what to do, our Uncle Vinny shows up in his 1962 Chevy Bel Air and says, “Don’t worry. I know what to do. I can help with my car.”

And the puzzler is, how do they do it?

Good luck.
 

(Answer will appear in next month’s WINGSPREAD newsletter.)

Answer to last month’s puzzler: 

“Crusty” the mechanic had a little test to check out how good a car’s engine was. So, what was Crusty doing under the hood?

This little test is something he could do with his eyes closed. He didn’t even have to look at the engine. In fact, he often did this with his eyes closed so as not to be distracted by anything else. 

What he was doing was disconnecting the coil wire so the engine would crank, but it wouldn’t start. It was a kind of compression test. So he was listening for how the engine would crank and whether or not it would crank evenly. So as every piston came up on its compression stroke, he would hear the cadence of the engine. Cool, huh?

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Wisdom

Joyce Johnson said: Artists are nourished more by each other than by fame or by the public. To give one’s work to the world is an experience of peculiar emptiness. The work goes away from the artist into a void, like a message stuck into a bottle and flung into the sea.

He who has a “why” can bear any “how.” Nietzsche

The more often a man feels without acting, the less he will be able ever to act, and, in the long run, the less he will able to feel.   C.S. Lewis

The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean. Robert Louis Stevenson

He was too cowardly to do what he knew to be right, as he had been too cowardly to avoid doing what he knew to be wrong.                  Charles Dickens

A Letter to my Fourteen-Year-Old Self: You are not Weird

Hello, Jamie. Here I am over 80 years old and I realized something—you’re not weird! I found this out about you much later. Know that I’m in your corner pulling for you, interested in all your details. Right now, you’re wondering why your nose is too high on your face, how to get rid of freckles, how to get a tan on non-tannable skin. How to grow more muscle. How to stand up to bullies. How to afford the clothes that the Big Men on Campus wear. How to get more than a glance from girls. I know; I’ve been there.

I know it’s easy to think about what’s not going right in your life—few friends, no girlfriends, clumsy at sports, lack of money, too much control from parents. Even questioning your faith. Instead of obsessing about what’s wrong. But I recommend you focus on all you have, all the stuff you’re taking for granted, stuff most people in the world do not have: job opportunities, faith formation and church, health, the privilege of whiteness, a peaceful life, shelter, transportation, plenty of food, education, mentors and friends—you’ve got it all.

Constantly rehearse what God has done for you—how he’s gotten you out of trouble, what he’s given you. Treasure your interest in mission aviation—it will channel so many of your life choices. Remember that God will protect you from the trap of lust.

Embrace the truth that God has a plan for your future. Indeed, you are his beloved. I know—sometimes all you see is that you’re alone and discouraged but God is supporting you, directing your future. I know you think that to get friends you need to be a strong, funny, handsome, interesting person. Only after high school did I learn the truth—people are interested in people who are interested in them. Learn to talk in terms of the other person’s interests, not your own. (Read Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People.) Focusing on others will attract others to you. Actually, people want to talk about themselves. Ask questions and pursue conversations without jumping in with your own problems, your own stories. Don’t interrupt. I’m still working on being a good listener. People like people who will listen.

Your social life will only get better through high school and beyond—you gotta believe it. You will mature a ton and be better able to handle the challenges you will face. You will gain more friends, have more girlfriends. You will find people are becoming truly interested in you.

Are people opposing you? Hey; to be alive is to have conflicts. But when people accuse you or put you down, know that a lot of that comes from their own insecurity. Don’t be defensive. If someone criticizes you, just smile and say, “I’ve got lots of things I’m working on.”

Look around at the adults who believe in you—your pastor, teacher, your parents’ friends, your employer, your school counselor. Let them know you’re thankful for all their interest and advice. Looking back, I am stunned at how many of these people I took for granted and never even thanked.

It’s too late for me, so you ask Grandpa Anderson what it was like building his tarpaper shack on the South Dakota prairie, or ask him how he survived the death of his two young boys (your uncles), Jamie and Calvin. Grandpa and Grandma won’t be around forever, and after they’re gone you’ll long to be able to ask them questions. Ask them now.

After I married and had kids, I realized that having my own teenagers was punishment for the way I treated my parents when I was a teenager! Notice how your parents sacrifice for you—time, money, acts of kindness. Thank them for this. Cherish their love and support for all you do. Don’t take this stuff for granted.

Take time to explore your world. Learn where your water comes from, your electricity. Learn how your neighborhood is laid out. Go on a mission or a service trip. Travel, if you can. You will not have much time for this later.

Think about a part-time job and start saving a little money each month. Get smart on money matters—saving, investing, spending. Don’t buy a bunch of stuff. These things won’t matter when you get older.

Read the Bible each day and pray the Scriptures. Wise Solomon counsels—“Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth . . .”

Believe it and believe God when he proclaims—“You are not weird!”