Tag Archives: life

WINGSPREAD Ezine for June, 2025


Spreading wings in a perplexing world
June, 2025                                                    James P. Hurd

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Contents

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

Writer’s Corner

Writer’s tip: “If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.” Elmore Leonard

Word of the month: DEIPNOSOPHIST: An expert in the art of discourse while dining

Task for you: Find a piece of writing that you really enjoy and use it as a template for your own writing: style, vocabulary, metaphors, characterizations, description of scenes, plot.

BLESSED UNBELIEVER novel

I confess I sometimes more enjoy talking to atheists than to Christians. My atheist friends seem honest about their doubts. Although my own doubts have been addressed, they have not been quenched. I believe we are all on a spiritual quest and I wish to know the quest of each person I meet. Blessed Unbeliever (below) is the story of one such quest. Much is autobiographical (I won’t tell you which parts!). But the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

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: “Venturing Beyond the Pale”

*Note: This is a different kind of essay where I trace my personal journey from fundamentalism into a more ecumenical faith.

“The President,” sarcastically so called because he was thermometer-thin, unathletic and mute, sat alone on a bench near the Orange High School snack shop. I felt pressure rising in my gut as I sat down to “witness” to him about how all people are sinners and how he needed to “accept Christ” to escape eternal damnation. He said nothing. After about twenty minutes I got up and walked away—and never spoke to him again. My most embarrassing day in high school; I felt like I had committed a violation.

Witnessing to The President was an example of what fundamentalists did. . . . To read more, click here:  https://tinyurl.com/asepunwc

Leave a comment on the website and share with others. Thanks.

This month’s puzzler (thanks to “Car Talk” archives)

Years ago, back in the 80’s, a guy walks into a hardware store to purchase something for his house.

He asks the clerk, “How much is one?”

The clerk says, “60 cents.”

And the guys say, “Okay, how much for 12?”

The clerk says, “$1.20.”

So the guy says, “Okay then. I’ll take 200.”

And the clerk says, “That’ll be $1.80.”

And the puzzler is very simple. 

What was he buying?

Good luck, friends.

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

Answer to last month’s puzzler: 

How start building a bridge across Niagara Falls? They held a kite-flying contest. The first kid to be able to get his kite to land on the other side of Niagara gorge won the contest.

So once the kite was across, they attached a rope to the kite string and pulled it across. And they did this with the rope until they were able to pull the cable across. Pretty brilliant. 

And the kid’s name was Homan Walsh, a 16-year-old kid from Ireland who won the contest and made history. 

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Wisdom

C.S. Lewis’s stepson tells the story of a time when Lewis was walking with a friend and a person on the street came up and asked him for spare change. Lewis emptied his pockets and gave it all to the man, and once he had left, the friend challenged him, “You shouldn’t have given that man all that money, he’ll only spend it on drink.” To which Lewis replied, “Well, if I’d kept it, I would have only spent it on drink.”

The upward path of human evolution

Empathy. These eleven short stories make us think twice about the daily happenings in our lives.

1. Today, I interviewed my grandmother for part of a research paper I’m working on for my Psychology class. When I asked her to define success in her own words, she said;
“Success is when you look back at your life and the memories make you smile.”

2. Today, after my 72 hour shift at the fire station, a woman ran up to me at the grocery store and gave me a hug. When I tensed up, she realized I didn’t recognize her. She let go with tears of joy in her eyes and the most sincere smile and said;
“On 9-11-2001, you carried me out of the World Trade Center.”

3. Today, after I watched my dog get run over by a car, I sat on the side of the road holding him and crying. And just before he died, He licked the tears off my face.

4. Today at 7 AM, I woke up feeling ill, but decided I needed the money, so I went into work. At 3 PM I got laid off. On my drive home I got a flat tire. When I went into the trunk for the spare, it was flat too.

A man in a BMW pulled over, gave me a ride, we chatted, and then he offered me a job. I start tomorrow.

5. Today, as my father, three brothers, and two sisters stood around my mother’s hospital bed, my mother uttered her last coherent words before she died.

She simply said, “I feel so loved right now. We should have gotten together like this more often.”

6. Today, I kissed my dad on the forehead as he passed away in a small hospital bed. About 5 seconds after he passed, I realized it was the first time I had given him a kiss since I was a little boy.

7. Today, in the cutest voice, my 8-year-old daughter asked me to start recycling. I chuckled and asked, “Why?” She replied, “So you can help me save the planet.” I chuckled again and asked, “And why do you want to save the planet?”

Because that’s where I keep all my stuff,” she said.

8. Today, when I witnessed a 27-year-old breast cancer patient laughing hysterically at her 2-year-old daughter’s antics, I suddenly realized that I need to stop complaining about my life and start celebrating it again.

9. Today, a boy in a wheelchair saw me desperately struggling on crutches with my broken leg and offered to carry my backpack and books for me. He helped me all the way across campus to my class and as he was leaving he said, “I hope you feel better soon.”

10. Today, I was feeling down because the results of a biopsy came back malignant. When I got home, I opened an e-mail that said, “Thinking of you today. If you need me, I’m a phone call away.” It was from a high school friend I hadn’t seen in 10 years.

11. Today, I was traveling in Kenya and I met a refugee from Zimbabwe. He said he hadn’t eaten anything in over 3 days and looked extremely skinny and unhealthy. Then my friend offered him the rest of the sandwich he was eating. The first thing the man said was, “We can share it.”

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!”