Now here’s where I show just how big of a Narnia nerd I am. C.S. Lewis made a mistake in his own quote. I know the scene he is talking about with “plenty of hints”– it’s in The Last Battle, and it’s a conversation between
Jill and the Unicorn actually.
I’ve been known to dabble in a little Narnia fan fiction/fan poetry myself:
Nine Names
Cor & Aravis
Susan of Narnia
Edmund
Castle
The Professor
I’m a little out of control.
You know this list is gonna be awful/incredible when the best of the worst is “Friday”!
5. “Friday” by Rebecca Black | Just asking that mind-stumping question of the ages: which seat can I take?
4. “Mass Text” by Tay Allyn | Is this a joke? I mean, it’s that annoying.
3. “It’s Thanksgiving” by Nicole Westbrook | The guy who did “Friday” did this one too. Be sure to hang with it till the amazing rap into the turkey leg microphone!
2. “Hot Problems” by Double Take | This pretty much seals their spot in the Mean Girls Hall of Fame.
1. “Goodbye” by D4NNY | My heart goes out to this kid– he looks so sweet, and he tried so hard. Unfortunately …
So, here goes nothing! If you have your own Opus on 1st piece to share, please post a link to it in the comments section!
Yellow
He is silent at the table, staring down at the place setting. She had thought it a good idea, but the China seems a mockery.
She knows he knows.
The roast is warm, and the potatoes too, but still she is chilled by his strange presence. If only he would just seem as distant as usual. This odd attending splits her nerves like firewood. The facts she’d recited like a rosary for the last six months trip like dominos.
It’s fine, she reassures herself, taking a seat across from him. It wasn’t wrong. It couldn’t have been wrong when it’s been so long.
She helps herself, and the serving spoon is shaking in her fingers. Shit. He continues to stare at his empty plate. She wants him to speak—
—until he does.
It’s her name, and it’s a whisper, and the quiet resignation of it seems to break apart every dish on the table, seems to shatter her eardrums. How can a whisper have such talons?
It couldn’t have been wrong, not when it’s been so long. Not when he cared more about the newspaper, the dry cleaning, the dog.
The damn dog.
She wishes it was last week—last week, when everything was so perfect and she’d felt such freedom. She had owned herself. And now, today … she wants absolution. Instead, his eyes are accusations, but not like bullets, more like questions.
“I forgot the wine,” she mutters, getting up from the table and going into the kitchen. She comes back with the bottle, reaches for his glass, and with a shaky hand, she pours the white wine that is not really white but yellow.
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme over at The Broke and the Bookish. Today’s topic is
TOP TEN BEST BEGINNINGS & ENDINGS.
I’m focusing on endings today. Remember, I come at this not just as a reader but as a writer … so my favorite endings are not necessarily happy ones. Sometimes they’re downright sad– but that perfect, satisfying, necessary sadness that works at the end of an incredible story.
I’ll try to go ultra-light on the spoilers, though it’s hard when this post is about endings.
10. Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White | That ending! That speech!
9. Stargirl & Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli | Yes and yes. I couldn’t figure out how Love, Stargirl could end in a satisfying way, but Jerry Spinelli pulled it off masterfully!
8. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern | The way it had to end.
7. When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead | All i’s dotted and t’s crossed.
6. Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis | BOOM!!! The ending is INTENSE.
5. Every Day by David Levithan | A selfless ending. Blew my mind.
4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak | Max.
3. The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle | Mmm, epic.
2. Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling | An ending seven books in the making.
1. The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis | No better ending.
Your turn! What books have your favorite endings, happy or sad?
I often hear from obsessive-compulsive Christians asking, “If my OCD is centered around my faith, will ERP still work even if my therapist is not a Christian?”
I’ve written elsewhere about how OCD is an arsonist, setting fires (obsessions) in our minds and how our compulsions are like shortsidedly trying to put out the fires instead of going for the arsonist directly. You don’t need a Christian cognitive-behavioral therapist. You just need someone who knows ERP and knows it well. In other words, you need an OCD assassin.
If you are obsessing about the unforgivable sin or something else faith-related, you don’t need a great theologian to dialogue with you about it. (In fact, chances are that you’ve already discussed this with all your Christian friends and maybe even a respected pastor.) After that conversation with the theologian, you’re probably just going to start obsessing again, either about the same thing or something else. You need someone who can take out the OCD, and yes, I mean “take out” in a sniper kind of way.
“But I’m worried that ERP is just going to cover up my real issues. I don’t want to just forget about these things. I want to solve them.”
First of all, you’re misunderstanding ERP. It doesn’t sweep issues under a rug. It’s not like you’re brainwashed into believing that life is now perfect. Not at all! It rewires your brain so that you can think the way “normal” people do– less circularly.
Secondly, you’re misunderstanding life and faith. These things aren’t “solvable”– at least, not generally. Sure, you might be the one person in a million who has God audibly speak to you one day– but probably not. Life is full of uncertainty. It’s a FACT. And faith is about TRUSTING God even in uncertainty.
You need to get it out of your head that you will ever be rid of uncertainty in this life.
Back to the original question …
Your ERP therapist is not going to talk you through theological issues. That’s not his/her job, and actually, it would be counterproductive to what ERP is all about.
If you can find an incredible cognitive-behavioral therapist who is also a follower of Christ, then yes, by all means, go to that person! But if healing and health are your goals, then your first order of business is finding someone who knows how to do Exposure and Response Prevention. You are looking for an OCD assassin, not someone to have tea and Bible study with.
Thoughts? Further questions?
CAROUSEL HORSES
Most are so stoic,
pinned as they are to the wall
like moths on a board.
Then there are the wild ones,
with eyes that have gone mad
in the years of retirement after
a lifetime of going in circles.
Practice makes perfect!
Let me be clear … I have had an overwhelmingly positive response to my novel so far. Right now, two editors and six agents are reading part or all of my novel, including one who said she was “captivated.”
But tonight I am anticipating rejection, and it’s as if my own mind is sabotaging itself. I am preparing to be let down.
I feel foolish. I feel silly. I feel like, How could I have thought I could write something good?
I think I’m just terribly stressed– the wedding is two weeks from today, and I have convinced myself that no one will like my manuscript, and I’m not eating bread or sugar, and I feel like I want to eat Nutella with a frickin’ spoon tonight.
I keep saying to myself, “Who did you think you were– C.S. Lewis? It takes someone much more special and gifted than yourself to write about Christ in a way that is accessible to non-Christians.”
It is SO HARD to write about Jesus in a way that is free of oversentimentality and yet full of mystery and meaning. I so desperately want to be that writer who can do so– but I feel like I’ve been kidding myself.
I want skill and talent and truth and the right words, and I feel so frustrated and foolish. And those eight people have not even said no. Why do I do this to myself? Does anyone else prepare themselves for rejection in this way?
Random 5 Friday is a weekly meme over at A Rural Journal.
Today I want to tell you about the shows I grew up watching!
1. Rescue 911. Narrated by William Shatner, baby. Is there something strangely gruesome about three kids who would hustle through baths and into pajamas in time to watch a show reinacting crimes, injuries, and accidents? We loved it. And we especially loved the end where Shatner would say, “Next time, on RESCUE ………………………………………… 911.” The pause was Seacrest-worthy.
2. Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. I can’t have been the only young girl with a devastating crush on Sully.
3. Square One TV. My siblings and I didn’t even realize we were being tricked into learning math. The best part of this show was the last 10-15 minutes, featuring MATHNET, where two mathematicians solved crimes. (It was like the original NUMB3RS!) My sibs and I geeked out on MATHNET, pretending to punch details into our fake calculators right along with the investigators, and doing a three-way high-five when we’d solve a crime. George Frankly was the name of the male investigator. Over the years, he had two female partners: Kate Monday and Pat Tuesday. And no, I didn’t have to look any of this up either. 🙂
Bottom left: Pat Tuesday and George Frankly
4. Ghostwriter. WORD! “He’s a ghost, and he writes to us. Ghostwriter. What a trip!” Another mystery-solving show, this time featuring a team of kids from the city solving cases with the help of a ghost who could read. Again, tricked into learning! Gotta love it! My sister even carried around a “case book” and wrote to “GW.”
5. Boy Meets World. Heck yes. Shawn, Corey, Topanga and gang were featured in the show to watch in junior high and high school. Did you know that there is a companion series coming out soon called Girl Meets World, featuring Corey and Topanga’s daughter? Danielle Fishel and Ben Savage are returning!
What were your favorites?
JACKIE LEA SOMMERS 