7:26 AM

The Bishop's Doody

Posted by John |

Once upon this week there was a list brought to my attention, writing guidelines for one publishing imprint.  If you write books for them, you must avoid words or phrases like these:

Arousal, Bastard, Bet/betting, Bishop, Bra, Breast (except for breast cancer if necessary),
Buttocks or butt (alternatively, you can say derriere or backside), Crap, Damn (try "blast" instead),
Darn, Dern/durn, Devil (except in the religious sense, but the circumstances would be rare),
Dang or Dagnabbit, Doody, Father (when used to describe a religious official), Fiend,
For heaven's sake (can use "for goodness' sake" instead), For the love of Mike...

And avoid situations like these:
Kissing below the neck
Visible signs or discussions of arousal or sexual attraction or being out of control
Double entendre
Nudity - people changing clothes "on screen" or any character clad only in a towel
Hero and heroine sleeping in the same house without a third party, even if they're not sleeping together or in the same room
Also, Christian characters should not smoke, drink, gamble, play cards or dance (except in historical novels they may dance but please limit to square dances and balls, no “sexy” dancing like waltzing cheek to cheek), and terms associated with these activities should only be used in connection with bad guys or disapproving of them or such.
Bodily functions, like going to the bathroom, should be mentioned as little as possible and some euphemism may be necessary but we don't want to sound quaint or absurd.

Now you might say "For heaven's sake, John, you fiend, that's a funny list, but people of faith are beyond that these days, they really are."  And I would momentarily stop dancing and reply "but dagnabbit, publishing houses don't do things that aren't profitable, they don't, so this list indicates a significant number of people are buying books that do not contain words and phrases and situations like these.  In other words, a significant number of people are buying and reading doody-free books."


The last time I checked, this was still a relatively free country, so that pub house can publish escapist romance, no problem by me. But I read a list like that in light of the carnage at Ft. Hood and I'm rankled because those guidelines have the word christian attached to them...and a faith of avoidance continues its drumbeat.  When I first heard about the shooting, my response was not blast or dang; it was Damn, not again.  The christian characters in those novels could not say that, even if they wanted to.

There are days when I believe we are what we read.  For the love of Christ, my friends, read well...         

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10:03 PM

A Brief Q&A with the artist known as Amanda Jolman

Posted by John |

As promised, here are a few questions and answers from Amanda Jolman. She did the artwork for my book and I wanted you to meet her.  Don't forget that you can enter to win one of her sketches; do so via the last post (Of Mice and Men and Sheep).


1.       Do you have a sketch that resonated with you?

On some level each sketch is like a child, a co-creation with God.  As much as my pencil marks are contained within a drawing, it lives with a life of it’s own. And in this way, it’s difficult to pick a favorite; each drawing has its own unique resonance with me, its own personality.  Again, like children, I view each with specific memories of it’s development and I also see how it has now outgrown me and stands apart from me.  If I had to pick one in particular, I would probably say that Mary’s feet had the most personal connection.  The process Mary underwent—encountering an angel, being called to carry and birth and mother the Son of God, and her willingness—roused my soul to longing for similar faith and courage.

2.       Talk a little about how you approached these—as in your process….
John’s writing struck me as so intimate and human; most images came to my imagination as close-ups or as a zoomed in lens .  I created a number of gestural sketches, value-indicating sketches, and just let the ideas brew for a while.  I began thinking logistically about what would be possible with lighting and who I would desire for models. Because I prefer drawing from live models to capture the spontaneity and life of the form, I made a number of calls to friends to seek out help.  Once all the pre-production was complete, the actual act of drawing was a very focused and exhilarating time.  I began with the gesture, which captures the spontaneity and movement of the form.  From there I built up the drawings working from general to specific--, checking proportions, comparing shape relations, indicating lights and darks.  I always hold my drawings loosely and ended up making several copies of some of them.  I revisited them, making slight alterations, until I could stand back and say, “well done”.

3.      Could you point to one thing God impressed on you as you walked through these stories?
I mentioned in the first question, how I was inspired by Mary’s faith.  Such a young girl, with such a great faith.  Her ability to say, “May it be unto me as you have said” haunts me.  May it be unto me as you have said about my call as an artist. The Holy Spirit often reminds me of those words when I am faced with a new opportunity or challenge in my craft.

4.       What’s going on in your artistic journey these days?
The journey has led me to a master artist.  She has been drawing, painting and studying for nearly 40 years and is now imparting her knowledge to me. Specifically, she is training me in 17th century, primarily Dutch, methods, materials, and techniques for oil painting.  Under her tutelage, I am copying a Rembrandt painting, Bathsheba at Bath.  Enthralled may be a mild word for how I feel about the special effects possible with a variety of mediums used with oils. The beauty of a single brushstroke can leave me speechless. 

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9:54 PM

Of Mice and Men and Sheep (this week's giveaway)

Posted by John |

Old Robert Burns said the best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley...whew, I'm with Bobby this week.  My plans to post on Monday with the next giveaway got all aft a-gley.  And I know some of you were probably saying An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, for promis'd joy!  Well, more than likely none of you said those exact words, but maybe you were feeling them...a pox upon me, I am sorry, mea culpa.


Last week's sketch-giveaway was Two-Footed Mary.  This week's better-late-than-never giveaway is something I fondly refer to as Self-Portrait.  Amanda and I had talked about having an animal sketch in the book, everybody just loves animals you know.  I turned around and next thing you know, mr. sheep was born. I've liked it since the moment I set eyes on it.  If you have the book, you know this sheep was right there on that blessed night.  If you don't have the book, well, maybe we can remedy that.

Since I'm all aft a-gley this week, let's run this giveaway until next Friday.  Here's the entry deal.  When you think about Christmas, what do you smell?  Cinnamon?  Fresh cut pine?  Yankee candles? Chex Mix?  Pumpkin pie?  Peppermint?  Sheep?  Camels? Frankincense?  Uncle Ben's aftershave?  Give it a whirl and see what memory whiffs your way.

I'm still working on the Q&A with Amanda Jolman, artist extraordinaire.  I'll post it as soon as it's ready.  In the meantime, sniff hard and leave me a comment.  And if your week has also been just a tad aft a-gley, well, know you're not alone...you're right there with the mice and this man.  Hang in there.

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7:20 AM

This Week's Winner and Some Enlightenment

Posted by John |

Congratulations, Lane!  You're the winner of Amanda's beautiful sketch of Two-Footed Mary, plus a copy of the little Christmas book that's trying.  I know you're somewhere close, as the crow flies, so I'll get this to you as soon as possible.


Remember friends, there'll be another of Amanda's sketches given away next week, plus a Q&A with her, so stop by on Monday for a few minutes and enter to win.  And thank you all so much for helping me spread the word about Touching Wonder via your blogs and FB pages and Tweet decks...really, thank you.


~~~


Prior to this week, my last airline experience was in August; I was flying back from Phoenix.  As I boarded the big old jet airliner, I found my row and seat, and chuckled.  I had been placed, strangely enough, beside two striking young ladies.  As I struggled to fit my one carry-on into the overhead, their thumbs smoothly navigated the screens of iPhones, and designer handbags rested on their long-skirted thighs.  Accomplishing my task, I sat down and said hello; my immediate seatmate returned the greeting.


I chuckled again.  We were quite a row, I tell you.  A forty-something jake in Levis and a ponytail beside two teenagers in white bonnets and prairie skirts adorned by unMaybellined-faces. After the plane leveled-off at howevermanythousandfeet, my curiosity prevailed.


Hi, I'm John.


Hi, I'm Missy.


May I ask you about your faith?  


Oh, yes, we're Mennonite.  We get asked a lot.


Do you know how some folks just put you at ease?  Missy had the gift.  We talked a little about our points of origin and destination. Missy told me she and her sister were headed to visit family.  I told Missy I was a writer from Colorado.  She tried to look impressed; I told her there was no need.


Missy, what is your favorite thing about being a Mennonite? Yikes, that's a horrible question, isn't it? (She laughed at me, putting me further at ease).  I mean, what feels special to you about how you're growing up?  (She paused a moment and scratched her bonnet).


I can do the things that make Jesus happy.  The Bible tells me what I should do and when I do those things, I know He's happy.  


Now folks, there's a chance that Missy the Mennonite could have been pulling the wool over my ponytail, that as soon as she and sister reached their destination, they were gonna ditch the floor-length skirts for minis and fishnet and they had told Jacob the Elder he could kiss off 'cause they were headed to LA to live, really live.  But I didn't get that feeling...I really didn't.  What I did feel was the presence of a goodness and innocence like I'd not experienced in a long time.  I was lucky enough to travel, if only for a few hours, beside two girls making Jesus happy.  And it made me happy.  It also made me sad as I looked at their faces, places where the scars would be...


I boarded another plane this week, heading from Chicago back home.  As I found my aisle seat, guess what two people were sitting beside me?  No, not Missy and sissy; this ain't the Paul Harvey show.  I found myself sitting beside two Buddhist monks, shaved heads, saffron robes and all.  I'm not making this up.  Again, we were quite a row to behold.  I wondered if we might get into a riveting conversation about faith, and people two and three rows away would hush and listen to our wrestlings and it would all conclude with a symbolic exchange of the leather bracelet I wear for some ancient Buddhist amulet and we would bow and say namaste to one another backdropped by a snowy Denver.  But that didn't happen.


I did notice, however, their robes were embroidered with the words BODH GAYA and a colorful rendering of a temple.  "Bodh Gaya is the place where Gautama Buddha attained unsurpassed, supreme Enlightenment. It is a place which should be visited or seen by a person of devotion and which would cause awareness and apprehension of the nature of impermanence."  


As the two young monks sat and talked to each other and read their books printed in a language of curlycued letters, I sat and read Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout and took my own little bodh gaya pilgrimage.  I was quite supremely enlightened by this book, and I believe the fictional town of Crosby, Maine should be visited by persons of devotion, folks like you, for these stories cause awareness and apprehension of the nature of impermanence, otherwise known to us non-saffrons as the difficult splendor of being alive.  It is a book about the places where the scars are...  


Here's an an amulet I exchange with you from the book.  These sentences describe Olive on the day of Christopher and Suzanne's wedding.  Christopher is Olive's only son: 
Weeping would not have come close to what she felt.  She felt fear, sitting out there on her folding chair. Fear that her heart would squeeze shut again, would stop, the way it did once before, a fist punched through her back.  And she felt it, too, at the way the bride was smiling up at Christopher, as though she actually knew him.  Because did she know what he looked like in first grade when he had a nosebleed in Miss Lampley's class? Did she see him when he was a pale, slightly pudgy child, his skin broken out in hives because he was afraid to take a spelling test?  No, what Suzanne was mistaking for knowing someone was knowing sex with that person for a couple of weeks.  You never could have told her that, though...

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6:27 AM

Weeks 4&5 of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Book-And...

Posted by John |



The artist formerly and currently known as Amanda Jolman graciously offered to contribute some sketches to my book.  I am thankful for that, I really am.  The giveaway this week and next, that's weeks 4 & 5 for those of you math-types, is a print of one of Amanda's sketches.  She found a native Frenchman who retired into the printing business and he's willing to print them on watercolor paper and such a thing would be suitable for framing for yourself or talk about a unique gift for that special someone...my, my.

This week's sketch is Mary's feet.  In the book, it accompanies my reflections on Gabriel's announcement to the young girl born to be queen.  I envisioned Mary sitting on some bedding with her knees pulled up to her chest and Amanda drew the feet to complete the picture.  

We each bring our own insights to art and here are mine in relation to this beautiful sketch.  I haven't run these by Amanda; they are my own cockeyed lookings.  I see two feet (John, you're brilliant)...no, hold on just a moment.  I see two different feet.  Look at them.  The one on the left is childlike, that of a little girl.  Just look at it.  The other foot, the one on the right, is older, it's been walked on awhile.  Amanda's sketch splendidly captures the two-footed life of the one named Mary.  On the one foot, she was a young girl, most likely a tweener.  I believe in many ways Mary grew up alongside her son.  On the other foot, Mary suddenly had to take steps far beyond her years; she aged all at once - girl, you're a woman now.  In addition to the obvious physical weight she carried, she also bore an old man's words deep within, in the place of pondering: This child will rend your heart.  Mary - the two-footed mother of God...my, my.

How do I enter these next two weeks, John?  Mercy, I'm glad you asked. Would you be willing to help me spread the word about this book?  If you have a blog, would you link here?  If you are all a-twitter, would you whatever-tweet-people-do here?  If you're on Facebook, would you mind pointing the faces of friends in this direction?  All I can do is ask, but sometimes you have not because you ask not...so I ask.  There's a short selling window on a Christmas book, so I've got to carpay dayuhm.  As to leaving a comment, just say hi or something.

I'll reveal the other print next Monday; it's another favorite of mine. Plus, I'll introduce you to Amanda via a brief Q&A.  I think you'll like her.  

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7:52 AM

Eat Or Die

Posted by John |

"Eat or die."
- Jim Harrison

If I hear one more nitwit rage on about consumer christianity or a consumer faith, I may cut my ponytail and go sit in sackcloth and aspens.  The usual script goes something like - "All American Christians want to do is consume; they never give back, never volunteer to serve...all they want is more, more, more, and they want most of it in under an hour, please."  Trust me - I get it and some of it is warranted, but some of it just sounds like whiny leadership types.    

Alright.  Here goes.  I believe ours has always been a consumer faith.  Unless I'm hell-in-a-handbasket-mistaken, the one at the very core of this crazy little thing called faith said these words: take, eat, this is my body...take drink, this cup is the new covenant in my blood... If that's not a faith of consumption, then somebody tell me what it is.  

We're all consumers.  As big Jim says - "Eat or die."  To my little mind, the question seems to be what are we consuming?  I believe life begets life.  So, if we're consuming life, it'll beget life; if we're consuming the seeds of death or half-baked empty promises, well, the landscape will look much like it does these days.  I'm a writer, so I'm always looking and listening and let me tell you, people are crazy-hungry, almost starving...so much so, that we're willing to live on information...



This is not the age of information.
This is not
The age of information.
Forget the news,
And the radio,
And the blurred screen.
This is the time
Of loaves
And fishes.
People are hungry,
And one good word is bread
For a thousand.
- David Whyte

My friend from afar, Winn Collier, wrote about thoughts like these this week.  Here is the link - http://blog.winncollier.com/2009/10/on-preaching.html. Winn's thoughts pertain to preaching.  I like that alot.  You might say John, folks need to learn to be self-feeders.  You know what?  I believe that too.  I also believe we're still living on this dark and bloody planet called Earth and flesh and blood needs flesh and blood and unless there's a new kind of human being born, which I sure as heaven don't believe there is, we still look to some to share with us what they've gleaned - the poets and the preachers and the singers...

Now I don't believe that means that sermons and studies and conferences and all other manner of jesuspalooza needs to go whacked-out-deep-and-heady; that'd just be the opposite but equal error.  What is the good word?  What are we consuming? What are we being fed?  What are we feeding folks?  This is the time of loaves and fishes...bless and break that stuff and the people might eat and be satisfied with baskets leftover.  I read somewhere that happened once upon a time...

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6:03 AM

This Week's Winner and...

Posted by John |

The Jack-the-Beagle-random-number-generator tips the hat to Dee Dee, winner of a mol-a-skeen'-a!! and copy of that little Christmas book.  Dee Dee, please contact me at johnblase@earthlink.net with a mailing address and I'll send them along.  I liked the way Dee Dee began her comment - Anna and Simeon move me - yes, I like that alot.


I pray for each and every one of you who frequent the Dirty Shame that you are moved by or to something this Friday.  I believe whatever that is will be a variation on the theme of beauty.  So I guess I'm praying beauty all over you, my friends...yes, I like that alot.








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