Philip Pullman said his daemon would be a magpie, because they steal bright shiny things. Writers pick up ideas anywhere and everywhere, and they don’t really believe in ownership.
Society of Authors
Back from a interesting Society of Authors party at Freuds, a beautiful converted church on Walton Street. Talked to Sharon Dogar, villianness of the week after her book on Anne Frank “Annexed” has caused outrage, Geraldine McCaughrean, the children’s writer whose 151 books my children loved, Mari Prichard, (widow of Humphrey Carpenter, Mr. Majeika, widow), poet Bernard Donoghue, whose wife Heather taught me Middle English. And now to write!
An interesting Society of Authors party
A writers’ party, or even an Oxford Uni party is as stimulating, refreshing and motivating for me as a complete break. Came back from today’s Society of Author’s party at Freud’s and started writing.
An interesting Society of Authors party at Freuds, a beautiful converted church on Walton Street.
Talked to Sharon Dogar, villianness of the week after her book on Anne Frank “Annexed” has caused outrage, Geraldine McCaughrean, whose 151 books my children loved, Mari Prichard, (widow of Humphrey Carpenter, “Mr. Majeika”), poet BernardDonoghue, whose wife Heather taught me Middle English at Somerville. Buzz! And now to write!
Asked Geraldine McCaughrean, who has written 151 children’s books what her schedule was. She said, settling down to writing was never a problem for her. Being a good wife and mother was. Remembering to pick up her children for instance.
Amen
Cosmopolitan Oxford
One of the things I so enjoy about Oxford is how cosmopolitan it is.
The Stong Taste of Money and Other Tastes
We had lunch a couple of weeks ago with three other Indian couples.
They were saying that it is fatal to let your children work part-time during A levels and University, because once they get “the taste of money” they lose interest in the slow drag and deferred gratification of study.
We were amused. We never really had “the taste of money” until mid-life. Roy’s an academic and I write, which means we were comfortably middle class.
Then, we founded a small publishing 3 years ago, and were stunned to discover that we were actually good at business. And enjoyed it.
And found that the taste of money can be as ruinous for people in their forties as in their teens and twenties. We were no longer content with the salary cap of being in a profession. We enjoyed the world opening out in exotic travel, Norway, New Zealand, Europe, Europe. Enjoyed the massive new conservatory the business paid for.
“Taste and see that the Lord is Good.”
The one thing, however, that we are determined about is that we should never substitute the taste of money for the sweetness of spiritual tastes, or intellectual or creative or artistic tastes. Or the taste for nature. Or people. Or friendship.
Brutal Economics and Hope for those who Behaved Very Badly
The Parable of the Talents
Okay, let us not doubt the goodness of the King of the Kingdom. The rewards are, always are, disproportionate! Ten cities given to the one faithful with ten minas. That is the reward of successful stewardship and entrepreneurship
I, personally, have squandered a talent which was given to me, and it is now taken away and given to someone who was faithful with theirs.
Is it final, Lord? Will it never be returned to me?
I believe it will be, because nothing is impossible with God. God loves restoring the repentant. If you see, the unfaithful servant is defiant and unrepentant.
The Gospel is about nothing more strongly than Hope. Hope even for those who have behaved very badly.
Peter, commits the ultimate betrayal of friendship, not once but three times, by denying he even knew his beautiful friend.
And he is restored, because his friend knows he loves him.
So, for those of us who have blown it, if we love Christ, there is always hope for restoration.
Restoration of the dreadful years the locusts have eaten.
Love is a COMMAND while peace is a gift
Interesting, Jesus gives us peace as a gift. “Peace I give you, my peace I leave with you.”
He gives us joy as a gift (I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be full.)
The spectacular gifts are just that, gifts. Tongues, healing, prophecy, teaching, leading.
But the most excellent way, the one thing we are commanded to do, is just that —a command. It is how we are to behave.
And that is LOVE.
What a right-brain word. And so Paul, who I think is both right and left-brained, spells it out for the left-brained.
Love is
Patient
kind
it does not envy
it does not boast
it is not proud
it is not rude
it is not self-seeking
it is not easily angered
it keeps no record of wrongs.
It does not delight in evil
but rejoices in the truth.
Oh Jesus, I read this, and feel overwhelmed.
How does one develop this love. Two ways.
One schools oneself (in the workshop of family, first of all) to be patient, and kind, not proud, not rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered, forgiving.
And then, as with anything in the kingdom, we ask for the spirit of love.
Romans 5. The love of God is shed into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
So to ask for the Holy Spirit, a prayer Jesus tells us is always answered, is to ask for love.
Also, once the root of the Holy Spirit is firmly planted in our hearts, love is an inevitable fruit.
Come Holy Spirit
Marginalia imbues a book with your own memories.
Marginalia imbues a book with your own memories.
Marginalia imbues a book with your own memories. Nice piece by Toby Lichtig.
Defacing books: the effluence of engagement
And perhaps this is why I just can’t get excited about recent technological developments in the way we approach, and respond to, literature. While corporate giants clash over the pricing of ebooks, and readers of the world go delirious at the thought of accessing the sum total of history’s writing via their Kindle, nook or iPad, I intend to carry on reading as I always have: with an object I can physically alter; something I can damage with impunity. Ever-primed for action, my pen hovers restlessly just above the page.
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