Chris' Christian Blog

August 30, 2019

"August 30, 2019" 

Prompt: "Book review time: tell us about a great book you have recently read. Out of curiosity, do you make lists of the books you read with a brief summary for future reference?"

Just for future reference, no I do not. If I read it is either to learn something or to pass time. All of my reading now is for the purpose of learning, although my science books have so much fantasy in them that they could be fiction. I have never seen such far fetched ideas in my life. I don't believe for one second that the universe is growing. What is space growing into? More space? It makes no sense!

"Prompt: Write about endings and beginnings."

Life is full of beginnings and endings. A man here at the home is moving out. That is an ending and a beginning. He bought a new car and has now bought a house. Both will pay off long after he dies so they are set up to be considered paid upon his death. His son stands to gain a new house and a new car in the next few years, both beginnings and endings. College for me ends this fall but the semester just began. Again a beginning and ending. When one thing begins something else must end.

I have been reading my oceanography book for college. I am required to have two science classes to graduate and this time it is oceanography. It's funny because if I was ever at the ocean, which I'm told I was, I was too high or drunk to remember it. However, I am not too high to know that I think some of the theories about the universe are absolutely foolish. They actually believe that the universe started from a singularity. A singularity is the very bottom of a black hole. Everything is crushed so infinitely small that it is nothing more than a mathematical number. Even subatomic particles are not that small. Yet these idiots want us to believe that the universe and everything in it, was once contained in one of these theoretical particles. If so is it any wonder it exploded? The explosion I can understand because anytime you overfilled something and continue adding pressure you are going to eventually cause an explosion. However, I don't for one minute believe that the universe ever began from something so small that you need a math equation to even express it. The universe is simply too big! I guess you have to have more imagination than I do to believe something as big as the universe could ever have been compressed down to the sizes they suspect. Besides if there was just a singularity, then what was here? I guess space itself would be the infinite would it not? Something had to be here. Nothing is still something. Space is a big nothingness, but it is still there.

I want to talk about another beginning. Each day when I get up I celebrate the beginning of another day in recovery. Now that may not seem like a big deal, but I know what it is like to be addicted. I was using drugs every day, actively seeking the oblivion of death. I overdosed intentionally I don't know how many times. I took 36 25mg tablets of benadryl or (diphenhydramine) twice a day. At the time I knew that each of those dosages was suicidal. I felt compelled to take them and was actively wanting to die. Thank God I do not have to live that way any more. Another man who had suffered the same as I was suffering, and had found a solution shared his solution with me. It took a lot of hard work, but today (August 30, 2019) I am celebrating 10 years, 6 months, 3 weeks of recovery. I won't say "clean" or "sober" because I believe those words indicate some particular symptom of a larger condition. I am recovered. Each day is the beginning of a new journey for me.

I am also celebrating a new beginning as an author. I was told all of my life that I should "show" my readers, as opposed to "telling" them. I never could figure out what that meant. Well I saw an ad in the toolbar of WDC for another writing site. https:allpoetry.com.

I took out a membership on that site and began writing poems there. The editing tool, in which you submit your work tells you that your words are either "strong" words or "weak" words. I made an effort to eliminate any "weak" words and came to a realization. Weak word were usually either adjectives, adverbs, or prepositions. I then made a conscious effort to begin writing using only nouns, verbs, pronouns, and limited conjunctions. The first thing I knew I was winning all sorts of prizes on their site! Just this morning I won a "gold", which is first place. In the past two weeks I have won a total of fourteen prizes, mostly honorable mentions but a number of first, second, and third place prizes.

Now my new beginning is to learn to write stories using an active voice. This will be a little more difficult for me. I am accustomed to telling what happened. To use active voice I need to say what is happening. Instead of "Timmy rode the bicycle", I need to write Timmy is peddling the bicycle down Front Street. His legs are pumping and the bike is gaining speed."

I think I am off to a new start as an author! Let me know what you think. Do you believe you could improve by using less descriptive words like adjectives and adverbs and using more active words like nouns and verbs?

Another new beginning I would like to make is in writing my blog. I don't always have time to write my blog,but I try to answer the prompt. All too often, I do so quickly and basically give it a half-hearted "hail Mary". I just throw something out there. If I cannot write something with heart,body, and soul I am not going to write at all. Some days I have college early, and those days I may not write at all. When I do write, I am going to make a conscious effort to write more than just a few lines. I want those blogger of the week prizes! I know this entry is in the running for the week as I am adding to it even now {Monday September 2, 2019). Hopefully the edits will win me the blogger of the week!