A Writer's Moment: ‘Always Prefer to Believe The Best’

A Writer's Moment: ‘Always Prefer to Believe The Best’: “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug ever used by mankind.” – Rudyard Kipling   A prolific writer, Kip...

‘Always Prefer to Believe The Best’

“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug ever used by mankind.” – Rudyard Kipling

 

A prolific writer, Kipling was born in Bombay, India on Dec. 30, 1865.  Educated in England, he started his writing career with a series of essays called "Departmental Ditties." But it was his epic novels and short stories that brought him lasting fame. Kipling is probably best known for The Jungle Book as well as Captains Courageous, and, of course, his “Just So” stories.  He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.

  

Rudyard Kipling

Considered one of the greatest English writers, he ironically wrote most of his best-known stories while residing in America – particularly Brattleboro, VT, where he lived for many years after his marriage to American Caroline Balestier in 1892.  

 Friendly and optimistic, Kipling once noted, “I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble.”

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: ‘You Just Have To Do It’

A Writer's Moment: ‘You Just Have To Do It’:   “Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It's a matter of doin...

‘You Just Have To Do It’

 

“Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It's a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write. Having anybody watching that or attempting to share it with me would be grisly.”   – Paul Rudnick

 

 Born this day in 1957, Rudnick is an American playwright, novelist, screenwriter and essayist.  First catapulted to fame for his work Addams Family Values, his plays have been produced both on an off Broadway and around the world.

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: Those ‘Wealthy’ Words of Wisdom

A Writer's Moment: Those ‘Wealthy’ Words of Wisdom:   “It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you&...

Those ‘Wealthy’ Words of Wisdom

 

“It was on my fifth birthday that Papa put his hand on my shoulder and said, 'Remember, my son, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm.’” – Sam Levenson

Born in Brooklyn, NY on this date in 1911, American humorist, writer, teacher, television host, and journalist Levenson was originally a Spanish teacher.  But then he started writing humor pieces which led to a stand-up comic routine.  He appeared a record 21 times on the Ed Sullivan Show

and multiple times on The Tonight Show.

Eventually he focused his writing on nonfiction penning the bestsellers Everything But Money (1966), Sex and the Single Child (1969), and You Can Say That Again, Sam! (1975).

Poetry was another of his somewhat "hidden" talents and he is credited with authoring the well-known poem "Time Tested Beauty Tips,” the favorite of actress Audrey Hepburn, who has sometimes been falsely attributed as its author.  Levenson, who adored children, said he was inspired to write the poem for his grandchildren and in memory of his parents.

He pointed out that while his parents were not wealthy, they cared about what their kids did and encouraged them to read, read, read.  “Any kid who has parents who are interested in him and has a houseful of books," he noted,  "is never poor.”

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Stir a Flower, Trouble a Star'

A Writer's Moment: 'Stir a Flower, Trouble a Star':   “All things by immortal power near or far to each other linked are, that thou can'st not a flow...

'Stir a Flower, Trouble a Star'

 

“All things by immortal power near or far to each other linked are, that thou can'st not a flower stir without troubling a star.” – Francis Thompson

Thompson (1859-1907) wrote three books of poetry, a number of short stories, and several essays including one of the best ever done on the poet Percy Bysche Shelley.

 

He is perhaps best known for writing key phrases that became the focus or central theme for other writings or actions.  His term “With all deliberate speed,” was used in the U.S. Supreme Court decision on Brown vs. Board of Education.  And his phrase “Love is a many-splendored thing” became the title of a novel, a popular movie, and a hit song.  Authors J.R.R. Tolkien and Madeline L’Engle both cited him as a key influence. 

 

For Saturday’s Poem (on Sunday, sorry) here is,

 

Go, songs

 

                               Go, songs, for ended is our brief, sweet play; 

                               Go, children of swift joy and tardy sorrow: 

                               And some are sung, and that was yesterday, 

                               And some are unsung, and that may be tomorrow.

Go forth; and if it be o'er stony way, 

                               Old joy can lend what newer grief must borrow: 

                               And it was sweet, and that was yesterday, 

                               And sweet is sweet, though purchased with sorrow.

 

Go, songs, and come not back from your far way: 

                               And if men ask you why ye smile and sorrow, 

                               Tell them ye grieve, for your hearts know Today, 

                               Tell them ye smile, for your eyes know Tomorrow.

 

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A Writer's Moment: We Are Still Okay

A Writer's Moment: We Are Still Okay:   When we visited Bethlehem a few years ago, I was struck by two things:   First, while visiting the Church of the Nativity was a moving e...

We Are Still Okay

 

When we visited Bethlehem a few years ago, I was struck by two things:  First, while visiting the Church of the Nativity was a moving experience, it lost some of its luster when you emerged to the crass commercialism on Manger Square and in the neighborhoods around it.  Second, when we visited Shepherds’ Field a couple miles outside the city, I was surprised to find myself caught up in the story of the shepherds and the appearance of the angel to them heralding the birth of Jesus.   

 

True, there was also commercialism there, but it was not as profound – and I felt a great reverence when we stepped out onto the hillside that purportedly was the one on which the shepherds tended their flocks on that momentous night. 

  

Looking to Bethlehem from Shepherds’ Field                       The Angels’ Chapel

   (Photos by Dan Jorgensen)

Looking out toward Bethlehem in the distance and stopping at the beautiful chapel erected on the site from which it is said the angel appeared left me with a belief that we can, indeed, have hope for humankind, despite the many bad things happening around our world each day.  

 I thought, too, of this quote by Lucinda Franks, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for the New York Times, who wrote this about her own visit to Bethlehem:  “Christmas in Bethlehem. The ancient dream: a cold, clear night made brilliant by a glorious star, the smell of incense, shepherds and wise men falling to their knees in adoration of the sweet baby, the incarnation of perfect love.”

Hope for the world still abounds, and especially Shepherds’ Field left me with the feeling that we are still okay.

 

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