Publishers tell me I need a blog. Clearly, I do not take them seriously.
I should, of course, but in this age of celebrity, I find I want none. Shame on me.
Work on the novel continues. We are on the third complete re-write/edit. Since truth is stranger than fiction, fiction must be made exceedingly strange to be interesting. By strange, I mean unique - not a mere continuation of what has gone before, but still enough of an echo of it to be comprehensible. This requires work of a unique sort, and continual re-visiting of one's self and one's literary offspring (usually to murder them and start again).
I am whining. This is unseemly.
Back to work. I may return here in a year or so.
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Monday, October 25, 2010
New Work
I am co-authoring two new books: one a fantasy novel, the other a handbook on corporate renewal. My previous two books dealt with religion.
The editor and ghost writer in me deals with what presents itself. I am a little superstitious about this. There are no accidents - that sort of thing.
Or maybe it is just a character flaw.
Sometimes I think I should discipline myself; narrow my endeavors; suppress, somewhat, my compulsion to deal with whatever presents itself. The novel I am working on tempts me in this way.
We shall see.
Fate is the hunter (my apologies to Ernest Gann).
Chuck Sale
Colorado Springs
The editor and ghost writer in me deals with what presents itself. I am a little superstitious about this. There are no accidents - that sort of thing.
Or maybe it is just a character flaw.
Sometimes I think I should discipline myself; narrow my endeavors; suppress, somewhat, my compulsion to deal with whatever presents itself. The novel I am working on tempts me in this way.
We shall see.
Fate is the hunter (my apologies to Ernest Gann).
Chuck Sale
Colorado Springs
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
To Pledge or Not To Claim
Since release of The Biblical Roots of Mormonism, I have heard some talk of who is and who is not a Christian.
This topic has impeccable historical precedents. Discussion of it is regarded as high conversation in many religious and quasi-religious circles. However, these discussions invariably produce more heat than light. Indeed, in earlier times, conversations on this topic could became so heated that the prevailing disputant would conclude the matter by burning the other at the stake. This produced both heat and light, though not of the sort that philosophers and theologians profess to seek
I acknowledge the debate. I do not participate in it. I have no interest in the label.
I rarely call myself a Christian. This is because I am at best a Christian-in-the-making, not a completed Christian who can claim Christianity as a kind of achievement. I am not far enough along the path of Christianity to make any such claim. I am mildly uncomfortable around people who are fond of calling themselves Christians - or who claim to know who is and who is not a Christian. I am unqualified to make such judgments, and I work hard to remain so.
I am pledged to be a Christian, however. This is quite different from claiming to be one.
Claims require proofs, evidence, argument. These rise and fall. They are weighty, compelling, and loud in one moment and swept away like dust in the next.
A pledge is different. A pledge endures as long as duty, honor, faith and free will endure. A pledge does not derive from debate. A man's pledge rises and falls with the man, not with his circumstances. It cannot be taken away easily because it can hide deep in the heart, out of sight, waiting. It cannot be taken away easily because the valiant can exercise it swiftly, boldly, out in the open, before a despot can strangle it. Indeed, a simple pledge - sustained, repeated, passed from person to person, from generation to generation - can topple the mightiest tyranny.
A claim, on the other hand, can be toppled by a gossiper's whisper. It can be overturned by the revelation of a single lie or the discovery of a single truth. A claim is an advertisement for something; it is never the thing itself. While pledges may dip into the sea of gossip, lies, and so-called truths, they do not wallow in the tides of this sea. They are in a realm apart, operating above the ebb and flow of attitudes, opinions, data, and calculations.
Pledges are the wellspring of life, the source of all that takes place around them.
In the eternities, we are what we pledge, not what we claim.
A pledge that has deteriorated into a claim is rotten fruit. It should be discarded.
Chuck Sale
Colorado Springs
This topic has impeccable historical precedents. Discussion of it is regarded as high conversation in many religious and quasi-religious circles. However, these discussions invariably produce more heat than light. Indeed, in earlier times, conversations on this topic could became so heated that the prevailing disputant would conclude the matter by burning the other at the stake. This produced both heat and light, though not of the sort that philosophers and theologians profess to seek
I acknowledge the debate. I do not participate in it. I have no interest in the label.
I rarely call myself a Christian. This is because I am at best a Christian-in-the-making, not a completed Christian who can claim Christianity as a kind of achievement. I am not far enough along the path of Christianity to make any such claim. I am mildly uncomfortable around people who are fond of calling themselves Christians - or who claim to know who is and who is not a Christian. I am unqualified to make such judgments, and I work hard to remain so.
I am pledged to be a Christian, however. This is quite different from claiming to be one.
Claims require proofs, evidence, argument. These rise and fall. They are weighty, compelling, and loud in one moment and swept away like dust in the next.
A pledge is different. A pledge endures as long as duty, honor, faith and free will endure. A pledge does not derive from debate. A man's pledge rises and falls with the man, not with his circumstances. It cannot be taken away easily because it can hide deep in the heart, out of sight, waiting. It cannot be taken away easily because the valiant can exercise it swiftly, boldly, out in the open, before a despot can strangle it. Indeed, a simple pledge - sustained, repeated, passed from person to person, from generation to generation - can topple the mightiest tyranny.
A claim, on the other hand, can be toppled by a gossiper's whisper. It can be overturned by the revelation of a single lie or the discovery of a single truth. A claim is an advertisement for something; it is never the thing itself. While pledges may dip into the sea of gossip, lies, and so-called truths, they do not wallow in the tides of this sea. They are in a realm apart, operating above the ebb and flow of attitudes, opinions, data, and calculations.
Pledges are the wellspring of life, the source of all that takes place around them.
In the eternities, we are what we pledge, not what we claim.
A pledge that has deteriorated into a claim is rotten fruit. It should be discarded.
Chuck Sale
Colorado Springs
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Out of the corner of my eye . . .
Wildflowers are emerging along the front range. Not big ones like those that form the lush colors of spring in the San Juans near Silverton and Ouray. Those are the stars of the wildflower theater. They strut across the pages of calendars and books, they glow brilliantly on computer screens, and they adorn the walls of plush offices. In contrast, the wildflowers in the mountains around Colorado Springs, where I live, are more modest. They wear understated garments, and live closer to the ground. There is more space between them. Their more robust siblings in southwestern Colorado yell the arrival of spring. My wildflowers whisper.
Rusty and I left the car and walked into the foothills of Mount Blodgett. In a small open space I know (that is as precise as I care to be on location), the subdued colors of spring appear reliably each year. A bit of attention is required to find this color. One must stare into the distance and then get close to the ground and listen with the eyes. I bring my camera to make a record and sometimes to capture an essence. I may venture for hours. I am enthralled by simple things.
When I returned home on this day, I began the usual work of post processing my images. I came close to deleting the one you see here. I got caught up in the technicalities. I had caused the depth of field (how much of the image is in focus) to be quite narrow. This was deliberate. In this case, however, I thought I had gone too far. Only the lower front of the blossom is in focus. The rest of the blossom is out of focus and much of the rest of the image is what artists call negative space. Too much negative space, I said to myself, and even the petals are fuzzy.
But I did not delete. I moved on to other images, the more technically pure ones, and finished them. Then I came back to this imperfect one. But I could not delete. I tinkered a bit, cut off the right side of the blossom, stretched the empty space, and saw something out of the corner of my eye.
I saw as I always see the best things, out of the corner of my eye. It was partial, the product of a glance. Perhaps you will see in the photograph how transitory and partial is our experience. And yet how beautiful in its incompleteness. There is no time to bring all things into perfect focus. To do so is to stagnate; we must move on from even the precious things.
This image breaks all the rules but one: It is true. There is a tiny area where things are clear; the rest is a passing blur. We move on. We must always move on.
I think that we are blessed when we find beauty in what is incomplete, partial, visible only as we pass by.
I saw this flower out of the corner of my eye.
Perhaps you will too.
Chuck Sale
June 12, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Readers of The Biblical Roots of Mormonism
Thank you for purchasing our new book and for sharing your kind and thoughtful insights. Eric and I hoped that this book would be well-received by Mormons and non-Mormons alike. Initial reactions suggest it has been and will continue to be.
NOTE: See my earlier posting for more on how and why the book was written. It is available now at book sellers worldwide.
During the writing of this book, it occurred to me that the diversity and multiplicity of biblical interpretations was evidence of the biblical authors' inspiration, not of their failure. Likewise, my prejudicial disdain of subsequent translators, transcribers, and interpreters fell away. Their work too was and is (in various ways and to various degrees) inspired, at least where the work is undertaken with pure intention and appropriate scholarship. We are all seekers, even those who claim to have found, once-and-for-all.
My hope is that you will discover through this book a Bible you may not have known, one that is truly the living word rather than a dead scroll. If you see in what we have called "Mormon roots" an interpretation that appears odd or even false, you are invited to pause. Then put the matter on the shelf. Read on. Come back to it later, or not at all. Read on. Read on. That is all any of us can do. Knowing once-and-for-all is highly overrated.
The Bible is no more than paper and cloth and ink until someone reads it, and, having read, looks up from the page and becomes something more than he or she was before the reading. The Bible lives through its readers and, more narrowly, through their striving to live according to its principles. I am little impressed with anyone's knowledge of the Bible (particularly my own), but much impressed with their striving to live by its teachings. Fine points of interpretation, while they must sometimes be addressed (and we did address more than a few in this book), are of little interest compared to the power of the Bible to change for the good how people live - whatever their interpretations may be.
This is not to say that I do not revere correct interpretations. I have my own, and I believe them to be correct. Nor is it to say that the Bible means whatever the reader says it means. The Bible is telling us something, and we must study and interpret and have faith to get at that something.
I hold the silly notion that the truth requires no interpretation. It is we who require interpretations to cozy up to the truth. Interpretations are tools that help us get along in our thinking. We should not be too taken with them. They can be capricious little critters, and may abandon us in our hour of greatest need. The wonder of an innocent child is to be preferred to the interpretations of the greatest philosopher. Jesus warned that unless we become like little children, there is little hope for us. I think he meant it.
I invite you to ignore these pontifications if they do not in some way inspire your reading. Publishers and book sellers tell me that readers want to know what authors were thinking when they wrote and what they are thinking after the book is published. I am not so sure. I think a book should stand on its own. Nevertheless, you now have a few of my thoughts.
Feel free to check in here from time to time, if you can stand it. My thoughts (and sometimes my interpretations) change without notice, even to me.
Chuck Sale
June 10, 2010
NOTE: See my earlier posting for more on how and why the book was written. It is available now at book sellers worldwide.
During the writing of this book, it occurred to me that the diversity and multiplicity of biblical interpretations was evidence of the biblical authors' inspiration, not of their failure. Likewise, my prejudicial disdain of subsequent translators, transcribers, and interpreters fell away. Their work too was and is (in various ways and to various degrees) inspired, at least where the work is undertaken with pure intention and appropriate scholarship. We are all seekers, even those who claim to have found, once-and-for-all.
My hope is that you will discover through this book a Bible you may not have known, one that is truly the living word rather than a dead scroll. If you see in what we have called "Mormon roots" an interpretation that appears odd or even false, you are invited to pause. Then put the matter on the shelf. Read on. Come back to it later, or not at all. Read on. Read on. That is all any of us can do. Knowing once-and-for-all is highly overrated.
The Bible is no more than paper and cloth and ink until someone reads it, and, having read, looks up from the page and becomes something more than he or she was before the reading. The Bible lives through its readers and, more narrowly, through their striving to live according to its principles. I am little impressed with anyone's knowledge of the Bible (particularly my own), but much impressed with their striving to live by its teachings. Fine points of interpretation, while they must sometimes be addressed (and we did address more than a few in this book), are of little interest compared to the power of the Bible to change for the good how people live - whatever their interpretations may be.
This is not to say that I do not revere correct interpretations. I have my own, and I believe them to be correct. Nor is it to say that the Bible means whatever the reader says it means. The Bible is telling us something, and we must study and interpret and have faith to get at that something.
I hold the silly notion that the truth requires no interpretation. It is we who require interpretations to cozy up to the truth. Interpretations are tools that help us get along in our thinking. We should not be too taken with them. They can be capricious little critters, and may abandon us in our hour of greatest need. The wonder of an innocent child is to be preferred to the interpretations of the greatest philosopher. Jesus warned that unless we become like little children, there is little hope for us. I think he meant it.
I invite you to ignore these pontifications if they do not in some way inspire your reading. Publishers and book sellers tell me that readers want to know what authors were thinking when they wrote and what they are thinking after the book is published. I am not so sure. I think a book should stand on its own. Nevertheless, you now have a few of my thoughts.
Feel free to check in here from time to time, if you can stand it. My thoughts (and sometimes my interpretations) change without notice, even to me.
Chuck Sale
June 10, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
New Book Released
This new book explores the unique and often misunderstood relationship Mormons have with the Bible.
Eric and I spent more than two years on this project. There were many surprises along the way. For example, we expected to find that some, if not many, Mormon beliefs were beyond the biblical pale and thus entirely dependent on modern revelation (the Book of Mormon and other post-New Testament scripture). This expectation was not met. Nearly everywhere we turned, we found solid biblical support for Mormon doctrines and practice.
As our investigation unfolded, we summarized in plain English the various tenants embraced by nearly all Christians, followed these summaries with supporting biblical quotations, and then set against these summaries and quotations the beliefs and practices of the Mormons. Another surprise emerged from this arrangement of the evidence: The differences between Mormons and Christians of other denominations were not nearly so great as some staunch Mormons and some zealous anti-Mormons would have us believe. We found that the similarities were far more numerous than the differences.
Differences - significant ones - do exist. Nevertheless, our study, which we carefully documented in this book, revealed that Mormons hold a a biblically justified place in the mainstream of Christianity. It may be titillating to exaggerate Mormon interpretations, practices, and history, but this titillation grossly distorts the truth.
We invite you to buy the book and test our evidence and our findings for yourself. At the very least you will learn some surprising things about the Bible. If you are a Latter-day Saint, you may be surprised to discover the depth of your biblical roots. If you are not a Mormon, your reading of this book may give you knowledge about your Mormon neighbors (there are some 13 million of them) that is greater than the knowledge many of them have about themselves. We guarantee your conversations with Mormons will be far more lively and informed than in the past.
Enjoy.
Chuck Sale
4June2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
February in Colorado
February is a cold month in Colorado Springs, and sometimes gray. But Colorado is not an enduringly gray place, even in winter. The clouds always threaten to part, and the sun always threatens to illuminate. Always there is change, variety, natural wonders coming and going.
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