Invisible

I'm working on a story. This one has been slow in writing. Mostly, I haven't spent the time with it that I should. I write many pages on it and then I get bored and give up for months and then go back to it. At this rate I might not ever finish it. I am still committed to it and am in a phase of being interested in it again. I am want to know what people think, maybe the acclamation of the masses is what I need to spur me into a writing frenzy. We can only hope. I am posting the first paragraph. I would appreciate any feedback you have. Specifically I want to know if after reading this paragraph you want to read more or are you bored right from the start?

I am invisible. When I was young, we, my brothers and I, used to pick what superpower we wanted to have and then we would play super heroes and villains. I always chose invisibility. I felt so powerful. I felt like I always won because I could claim to always be in the right place or avoid fatal blows, after all I was invisible. My brothers, after a time, didn’t want to play with me; they said I was no fun. If I wanted to play with them I had to pick a super power that fit certain stipulations. I am stubborn. Strong willed is what I call it. I chose to play by myself. I used to think invisibility was a super power, now I know that it is quite common. Others don’t notice that people can be invisible. Only those of us who become invisible know that this power exists. I may not have a super power, but being invisible is powerful. For only those who are invisible know how to make everyone forget them, even those who love them the most. One at a time, people fade from your life as you become invisible to them or maybe it is they who gradually become invisible to you. I’m not really sure which way it goes, all I know is that friends are the first to fade followed by your children, father, brothers, husband, and last and most painfully mother. I am forgotten. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this excerpt. Stay tuned for more exciting writing. 

May 24th

To many of you the 24th of may is of little significance. This year it falls on a Thursday which is teasing you that your weekend has arrived. You might be busy planning for the weekend, if you work a job with regular hours and holidays, you probably have Monday off for Memorial Day. Today is significant for me because I took my car in and passed my emissions and safety inspection. It is always a relief to know that you don't have to spend a lot of money to make sure your car is street worthy. I do need to replace two of my tires soon. Other than that, today has been composed of meetings and errand and phone calls.

Although a regular sort of day for me many things of import have happened on the 24th of May.
1218: The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt.
1738: John Wesley is converted thus launching the Methodist movement.
1798: Irish Rebellion against British rule begins.
1830: Mary Had a Little Lamb is published, Thank you Sarah Josepha Hale.
1844: Samuel Morse sends a message to his assistant to inaugurate the first telegraph line that says, "What hath God wrought." from Number 23:23
1861: During the American Civil War, Union troops occupy Alexandria, Virginia.
1915: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary, World War 1
1930: The first woman to fly solo from England to Australia lands in Darwin, Amy Johnson.
1941: The German battleship Bismark sinks the pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood during World War II
1991: Eritrea gains independence from Ethiopia
1992: The last Thai dictator, General Suchinda Kraprayoon resigns.
2001: Sherpa Temba Tsheri becomes the youngest person to summit Mount Everest at age 15.

These are just a small amount of things that have happened on this day.
Here is a sampling of notable people born  on May 24th:
15 BC Julius Ceasar Germanicus
1686: Gabriel Fahrenheit
1819: Queen Victoria
 1874: Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine
1885: Susan Sutherland Isaacs
1895: Samuel Irving Newhouse
1941: Bob Dylan

So you see this seemingly mundane day has seen many important events. For some of you this is an anniversary or birthday and is already memorable, but for the rest of you, what can you do to make May 24, 2012 memorable for you or for someone else.

My thanks to Wikipedia for providing me with plentiful information about May 24th.

Too colourful

In English class we learn about similes and metaphors. When we write teachers encourage us liberally sprinkle our writing with descriptive language. Great writing uses descriptions artfully, delicately. Just like a painter knows that skies contain many colors besides blue, white, grey, and black so the writer knows that the right words may not be the obvious description. I love a good description, but it should not stand out as a description good or otherwise unless your goal is to locate descriptions, it should blend into the story giving it a spice of color, but not a flavor discordant with the theme.
I started reading a book several days ago. I was initially excited to read it as it follows my favorite genre and appeared to have an interesting plot line. On the first page the voice of one of the characters is described, "he whispered in his steel-rasp and Southern-honey-pecan voice." A steel rasp is a fabulous description for a voice. I can hear the sound and anticipate the words that this character will say. A Southern honey pecan is also a good description. It reminds me of comfort and warmth. I became distracted, however, when both were put together. It jolted me out of the story as I tried to figure out what kind of voice could be both honey pecan and steely rasp. I continued reading. In the next chapter again this character's voice is described, "The man's voice was dry, like the rasp of a snake's belly against sand, but coated with a sticky Southern sweetness." This description stood out to me more because of previous one. Again, it jerked me out of the story. I had a hard time understanding and getting into the story because of the odd descriptions. These descriptions were entirely too colourful for me.
On a slightly different, but related note, the first sentence of a books is important. After reading the first sentence, you decide whether or not you will read the rest of the book. This was the first sentence of a book a just finished, "The first time she slit a man's throat she felt sick to her stomach." This is an engaging first line drawing the reader into the story, nearly compelling them to read onward.
The carefully laid word is powerful and can make or break a great storyline.

The Conditions of Value

My thoughts take a philosophical bent today. I am considering what it means when something or someone has value. How do we assign value? Does being viewed as having value affect the inherent worth of something or someone? How does someone who has little perceived value by themselves or by others gain a sense of self worth?
The art of bargaining is based on subjective value. The merchant assigns a certain value to his merchandise and the shopper assigns a value to what she wants to buy. Before bargaining begins the merchant decides what his product is worth and he won't drop his price under that value. The shopper needs to decide what the highest value she is willing to pay for the product. The merchant names his price several times more than what his bottom price is. The shopper counter offers with a price much lower than what she is willing to pay. The bartering goes back and forth. The merchant tries to convince the shopper to buy above his lowest price and the shopper tries to negotiate for lower than her highest price. Both are happy if the agreed upon price is both higher than the merchants final price and lower than the shoppers highest price. The value of an inanimate object is fairly easy to assign and we make these choices constantly.
However, the value we assign to things changes constantly. At the time of purchase an engagement ring has great value. The worth of the ring might fluctuate depending on the price of diamonds, the price of gold or silver, if the ring gets scratched, or if the diamond falls out. The value changes depending on what the person who owns it associates with the ring. If the relationship with the spouse grows deeper and richer over time, the value of the ring may rise. If the relationship fails, the value of the ring drops. A battered ring that has been through years of trials with a person may have much more value than a new one. A glass of water in every day circumstances has little value. It is abundant. An expensive car appears to have a great value especially for someone who drives a clunker. To a person who owns an expensive car, but is dying of thirst, the water has infinitely more value.
Now if we consider the value of people. I work in a helping field. It is common to here someone talk about the "inestimable value of the human soul." Most of us would agree that people have high value, but when we are honest with ourselves we would probably admit that some are more valuable than others. How do we assign value to a person? Do need to like a person to see them as valuable? Are beautiful people more valuable than ugly people? Does a person have to be smart, successful, wealthy, strong, athletic or thin to have value? Maybe value comes because you belong to a family. Does having a husband or a wife give a person value? Does having children contribute to someone's value? John 15:13 says "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." I think a lot of people would sacrifice themselves for their friends, but what happens if a different choice is presented. What if someone gets to choose between saving one of two people or sacrificing themselves in order to save both people? Does it matter who the two people are? How many of us would pick to save the person who has more value to us? Maybe we sacrifice ourselves because we believe we have less value than the other people. What would it look like if we actually treated everyone as if they had equal value to all others?
What do you value in yourself? Do you see yourself as having value or do you have to do something or be a certain way to have value? Maybe the first step in seeing the value in all people is to understand that you are valuable regardless of what other people say or think. If you see yourself as being valuable because you are a person then your will see others as having value because they are people. However, if you see yourself as having value conditionally then others value is also conditional.

The Great Shake Out

Today is a day known across the United States as tax day. Unless you filed for an extension, today you need to mail or e file those taxes. In Utah, however, today is The Great Shake Out. Every 350 to 400 years there is a large earthquake along the Wasatch front. It has been 350 years since the last big earthquake, so we are due for another one. Schools and businesses ran drills commanding their students and employees to crouch under their desks. In the meeting at my internship site, we watched a short video projecting the disaster that an earthquake can cause and some simple survival essentials. You should have a fire extinguisher in your house and three days worth of water per person.
There is a website providing information about earthquake preparedness.There are several pages that answer questions or provide information on how to join in on The Great Shake Out. There is a video on how to make a Grab N Go kit. You can find information about the drop, cover and hold on method of self preservation. This apparently is the new way to ride out earthquakes. The site has several games. You can play an interactive game which presents you with a room full of normal objects. You click on the items and answer a question on how to secure them properly. You click as fast as you can because you never know when the earthquake will shake up your house and you will see your preparedness level. The other game presents scenarios in which you are given a worst case scenario and have to decide the best course of action.
I play my own version of "worst case scenario." I grew up in a part of Mexico where earthquakes are frequent. Sometimes I miss them so as I walk along I ask myself, "If a massive earthquake hits right now, what would I do?" I look around for places free of power lines, away from tall buildings and away from windows. A little bit further on, I find a new place. Sometimes when I'm at work or driving in a car I also think about what I would do in case of emergency. I know it is a little strange, but it is a rather entertaining game. Apparently the government also thinks it is a good way to train people for emergencies.
Are you ready for the next big one?