His Story
Sleeping off pain meds has left my nights and days confused. Last night I took a nap at 7 PM. Yet now I say that, maybe the nap was less about my recovery from surgery and more about sheer boredom.
Though I love E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web and I require students to read his book, The Elements of Style, I just can’t suspend my disbelief enough to “go with” him on Stuart Little. It’s a story of a human family adopting a mouse—not as their pet, mind you, but as their family member. Uh-huh. Right.
And wouldn’t you know it—last night my daughter chose “Stuart Little” as the movie of choice for family time. So we got some popcorn and made ourselves comfy on the bed. And I made it about halfway through the movie.
Z-Z-Z-z-z-z-z.
Two hours later, I found myself tucked inside the quilt I made my daughter long before she was mine. Next to me was a note scrawled in her ten-year-old penmanship: “Good night, Mommy! It is 9 PM. I just wanted to let you know that I let you keep that quilt on. I found another blanket! I love you. Sleep tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite! Love always, Alexandra”
Aw. Sweet baby. Her mother checks out on her during family time, and in return she offers up a fave warm blanky.
About an hour after my delicious nap, my husband wanted to go to sleep for the night. But I’d just gotten going again. So I crawled back into bed and donned earphones. For the next two hours until I dozed off, I listened to the Pulitzer-winning writer, John McCullough, read his latest book, 1776.
Wow.
Whereas the fiction had put me to sleep, the non-fiction captivated me. It’s usually the other way around. But that McCullough guy—he can send my heart rate right up to 150 bpm writing history.
Listening to him got me thinking today about the craft of storytelling. So this afternoon, I went back and read some words by writers who have influenced me. Here are a few that stood out:
On persuasion. The way to make your case journalistically is not to shout louder but to use narrative, description, and quotation to impress upon the readers the rightness of your case. The readers are like jurors but with one major difference: They are free to walk out of the jury box at any time. Your task is to make your case in a way that keeps them interested. –Marvin Olasky, Telling the Truth
On the influence of narrative. I think it is fair to say that I have been guided in my moral decisions as much by the lessons I acquired from opera as by the preachings of either the Old or the New Testament. –James Michener, The World is My Home
On the point of conflict. The original choice of Adam and the remedy of God ... mean that we can now “know evil as an occasion of heavenly love”—provided, and only if, repentance is part of that knowledge. –Charles Williams, He Came Down from Heaven
On discretion. You know my dear sister that poets and painters wisely draw a veil over those scenes which surpass the pen of one or the pencil of the other. –Abigail Adams in a letter to Mary Cranch
On the power of story. Postmodern people are as open to the gospel as any have ever been. You don’t even have to prove God. All you have to do is tell His story. –Jim Wilson, “In Synch”
On the goal. The journey homewards. Coming home. That’s what it’s all about. The journey to the coming of the kingdom. That’s probably the chief difference between the Christian and the secular artist – the purpose of the work, be it story or music or painting, is to further the coming of the kingdom, to make us aware of our status as children of God, and to turn our feet toward home. --Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water