A Belated Easter Gift

As an addendum to Easter I had planned to write for the Fellow Writers Blog Hop, but they don’t have a topic this month because of the A to Z April Challenge.  So I gave it some thought and organized a few ideas that I think every writer who is successful needs to be able to maintain their success.  I believe there are energies in the world that we do not fully comprehend, and for lack of a better term we will call them spirits.  These spirits can abide within us, within the places we dwell, and especially within the things we create.  As a result I recognize writing as one of the most spiritual activities one can engage in.  For within my words I can express what abides within me, reveal to you the places I have dwelled, and create something of greater beauty and value than myself.

Charity in this case means the highest for of Love.

The scripture to the right lies at the core of my life.  I also see this as the foundation of many of the folks I admire most in the world.  All of the most intelligent, awe inspiring, and lovely human beings live these principles in one form or another.  My examples today are a couple of my cousins.  One of them is a Christian Organist and the other is an Atheist Political Scientist.  I’ve have the opportunity to speak with them both about what they do and who they are, and in those conversations (although I’m sure they are unaware of this) they have inspired me to be a better person.

Hebrew 11:1 reads: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.”  Now the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it best as a verb meaning: believe or trust.  Now lets be honest, nobody really believes in something they haven’t had an experience with for themselves.  It is the experience or evidence that lights the fire of faith, or to believe or trust in something.  Only the foolish place their faith blindly.

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My cousin has chosen to live as a Vegan.  Her decision wasn’t based solely on scientific fact, but rather it was a moral decision.  She wanted to withdraw her support from the meat industry for the way they treat animals.  Simply put she doesn’t trust them.  And how can you blame her?  If you have ever watched the way a cow lives on todays farms and how they are later killed it would make your stomach roil.  And the treatment and conditions for the employees of the meat companies are equally as dehumanizing.  She made the choice to value her humanity above that of eating meat.  I wish I were that principled.

Mind you, if you go out to eat with her, you’ll never know she is a Vegan.  She doesn’t beat you over the head with her values.  She’s not going to tell you how evil the meat industry is.  She chosen to be quietly faithful to her values.  For faith cannot be separated from faithfulness.  And my cousin has taught me a lot about what it really means to have faith.

I ask people all the time what they think hope means.  You might be surprised to hear that most people can’t define hope.  But we use in our everyday speech all the time.  “I hope I get there on time,” or “I hope we can save enough money to go to Disneyland next summer.”  In the dictionary it defines hope as: to expect with confidence.  So when you place your hope in something you don’t just think it might happen, you know it will come to pass.  You don’t have room for doubt, because you know this.  You might not have a timeline, but you certainly know it will happen.

My other cousin is married with a large family already.  He really enjoys doing service in his community.  And thankfully his job is one that allows him to serve frequently.  It brings him joy to be able to help folks in his community, but it keeps him long hours.  Often he works at least sixty hours a week.  He does this not only because he recognizes the way it helps the people around him, but because of the opportunities it gives his family.  He has hope that the service he renders will show his community and children alike how to be good people.  Hope is not only alive in his heart, but the hearts of his family to sacrifice their time with him.  They expect good things to come of his service.

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Now in explaining both of these previous principles there is an unmistakeable fabric that ties them together.  Love of another being over oneself.  Love as a noun is defined as: affection for another being rising from kinship or personal ties.  But love as a verb means: to hold dear.  Both of these meanings are seen in the behavior of my cousins.  They have shown they hold the world around themselves more dear than their own lives.  That kind of love is why we celebrate Easter, Christmas, Martin Luther King Jr Day, The Fourth of July and countless other holidays.  We remember those who chose to love us more than themselves from Christ, to Gandhi, to the various soldiers who have fought for freedom worldwide.  And the fact that my cousins have chosen to pattern their lives in such an ennobling way is not lost on me.

But naturally you are probably wondering, what does this have to do with writing?  I’m getting there, be patient.  In order to establish that we need to tie all of these together.  Love is the big picture the quilt that is made by the contributions of faithfulness and the hope of mankind.  But the thread that holds all the patchwork together is something we fail to notice, because we often define it as insignificant.  It is known as humility.

To define humble as “not proud or haughty or not arrogant or assertive” doesn’t define the word.  It tells you what it isn’t, not what it is.  Just like if I tell you that pepper isn’t salty, I haven’t told you really what it is by telling you what it isn’t.  To be humble means that you have inner strength, you aren’t swayed by what society tells you, but can stand on your own.  Humility doesn’t say it is the most awesome thing since sliced bread, instead it serves you the sliced bread.  It doesn’t call attention to itself, it gives attention to others needs.  Just as pride or enmity of man can be called the universal vice, humility can be called the universal virtue.  But we don’t talk about the threads of humility, because this virtue does not call attention to itself.

We as writers need all four of these virtues.  We must be humble and recognize that there are greater writers we must learn from, but that this doesn’t diminish the need for us to share our message with the world.  We stand in the midst of giants who gladly will lift us upon their shoulders.  We must follow in the giants footsteps and be faithful to our craft.  It cannot grow unless we put ourselves at the keyboard and work on telling stories, writing blogs, and expressing ourselves in the written word regularly.  We cannot ever lose hope.  The writers who make it are the ones who make this a lifestyle, they have so much hope in their writing that they are willing to work at it as a second job till they have become successful enough to make it their only job.  And we must love what we do.  We will have to lose sleep or miss out on family time to pursue this dream.  We will miss out on time with friends.  And we do it because we believe through our efforts we will entertain, change, and build a better world for our children.  Even if that’s not why you have chosen to write, that is why I write.

Fellow Writers, I hope that you incorporate these principles into your lives and when you have the time to write that your words may speak to the hearts and minds of your audience.  Happy belated Easter from the First OG, Jayrod Garrett.  And if I may be so bold to ask:

  

What principles guide your writing?

The Culture Blogs: My Religion and Conversion

A while ago a good friend of mine Amber Mae, posted on her blog about her conversion story to becoming a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  In this particular season of trying to learn about our political candidates and what they stand for; I find it important not only for the purposes of using it in fiction to share my conversion story here, but also to clarify the facts about what I believe as a member of the LDS Church.

My Mom and I came out to Utah because of family strife caused by her own conversion to the church.  It was originally supposed to be a vacation, but after almost twenty eight years I think it would be fair to say we settled here.  Now Utah is a unique place for a black mormon family to live for several reasons.  Paramount among them is the fact that for most of my life I've felt like LDS community didn't accept me fully because I was black, and that the blacks didn't accept me because I'm LDS.  To illustrate this point I'll share a story.

Shortly after my mother and I arrived in the State we moved up to my hometown of Ogden.  (I've lived in Ogden off and on for about twenty seven years now.)  In the one of the first wards (another word for congregation) we'd joined my Mother was told by the Bishop of the ward to not bring me back to Primary (our children's Sunday School Program), because the teachers were unable to teach me.  Now I realize back at that age I might be a little hyperactive, but so were most of the other kids.  It wasn't because I was active, but because I was black.  Later on in another ward I was called nigger by the same kids who I was going to church with on a regular basis.  And mind you seven, eight, and nine year olds don't know that word, unless their parents teach them, but much of that story will be saved for when I talk about hypocrisy in religion.

So you can entirely understand when I say that as a child my faith in the church was shaken.  I say my faith in the Church because I've always had a relationship with God.  I know he lives just as well as I know I breathe.  One of the times he revealed his presence to me was when I was baptized into the Church.  Now I went a very non-traditional method of joining the church even though my mother was a member.  She wanted me to choose this for myself so at the age of eight years old, which in our religion is known as the the age of accountability, so I listened to the discussions from the missionaries and my mother took me visiting to different churches.  I still to this day remember some of the church meetings and have images of missionaries from when I was small (we totally should have taken pictures).  And I prayed about it.  I chose to be a Saint (what members of LDS church are called), because I thought this is what God wanted for me to do.

That isn't what solidified my faith however.  It was something my Mom said about God speaking to me through the wind, and that when it blew that meant he was proud of me.  Mind you there is nothing in the scriptures about this, but I believed my Mom.  On the day that I was baptized the wind was blowing really hard and I felt in my heart a warm feeling that I remembered the missionaries telling me was one of the ways that God would speak to me.  Since that day the zephyrs of the desert and the cold wind of courage have been my companions at times when I needed to know God was there.  And while not always the same warmth it has now grown to encompass greater courage, more determination, and perhaps best of all simply the knowledge that what I'm doing at that point in my life is right.

You might say that at eight I was too young to know.  You are entitled to that.  You might say that because I've had racism problems in the church, I know people who have told their bishops they have been raped and the church has done nothing, or because of controversial issues within the origins of the church that it isn't true.  My response to that is: Faith isn't faith if there isn't substantial enough doubt to test it.  My faith has gone through the fire and has been purified to be made knowledge.  I know a lot more about God and his love and his plan for me, than I did when I was eight.  I know that God lives; That Jesus was resurrected and lives that I might live with him again; and that there is a prophet on the earth today.  All of those things came from the commitment to serve God at eight.

What about you?  Are you a Non-denominational Christian?  Are you Hindu or a Buddhist?  Maybe you are an Atheist.  Regardless of what you have chosen to be, I'd like to hear about it.  What caused you to make those choose that belief system?  I am not here to put down what you believe, or what you don't believe.  But if we are to engage in building cultures in our writing we have to look at what one another beliefs with respect.  Because in the fiction, we will have to challenge the beliefs of our characters with solid reasoning from other faiths and ideologies.  But here we can recognize one another as human beings who are trying to find their way to happiness.

Because I know that sometimes it can be scary to follow or comment on a blog, I thought it would be appropriate to share my gratitude with my readers by offering to you a book that I am currently reading.  It is the "Hundred Thousand Kingdoms" by N.K. Jemisin.  I've really enjoyed what I've read thus far.  A black female protagonist in a first person narrative in a fantasy world is unheard of, but Nora K. Jemisin has made a beautiful and believable tale that I highly recommend.  So from now til the end of this month, if you comment on my blog I'll put your name into a hat to receive during March one of three copies of the book I plan on sending out.  Think of it as my way of saying thank you for conversing with me.

If you have any questions about being LDS, I am a pretty solid source to ask, because I am an active member of my faith.  I would love to hear yiu share about your own experiences with faith and your own ideologies, but I will not permit my blog to become a place to tear down other religions.  "And now abideth Faith, Hope, and Charity, and the greatest of these is Charity, (1 Cor 12:13)" and because charity or love is a power I believe we can all recognize that we believe in, please share your feelings with love and respect towards all others who might read.  That being said, I love all of you and hope to hear plenty from you in the weeks to come.  Peace!