Umbrellas and Philosophy

     I know, I know. The irony. I finally get a computer, and I don't write for months. Despair not, though, because I have actually been writing enough to keep you happy and informed. I've been keeping a news blog for one of my classes, called The Journalism Project. I learned a few things while keeping another blog (like how to insert links), which I'll try to use to give this one a boost.

     I also made a video while I was out, called Rain or Shine. You'll laugh, you'll cry. It's about umbrellas.

     On a different note, I've decided to use my writing abilities for a field other than journalism. I've been thinking about this for quite a while, almost the whole year. The longer I've studied journalism, the more convinced I've become that it's not the job for me. What really tipped me in this direction was the two-week trip to Summit Ministries in Tennessee. I enjoyed those two weeks more than I've enjoyed anything in a long time. I was surrounded by people who were interested in studying deep things, who weren't afraid to ask questions that would make most Christians nervous. It was a place for true seekers, people who really wanted to dig deep into Christian thought and understand the world. That said, next semester I'll be studying philosophy, with the idea of teaching in the back of my head. I can hardly think of anything I would enjoy more than teaching philosophy.

     What's surprised me most is how little this switch has interfered with my plans. I'm still going to write, it's just that now I'm going to be writing about things I really care about. I've already got an idea for a book. I'm thinking about calling it "Common Philosophy" because I want to show people that philosophy isn't just for the educated and "intellectual elite," but that everyone uses, encounters, and expresses philosophy in some way. We're all philosophers, we just need to learn how to do it right. I think that by talking about a lot of weighty questions in simple terms, people will see that philosophy is an unavoidable, yet enjoyable, part of life.
   
     Enjoy the blog and the umbrellas. I'll try to write soon.

SDG

Book Ideas 2

It's been almost a year since I told you about some of the ideas I've had for future books. At the rate I'm writing them, they may cover my retirement fund and not much else. The book I mentioned last time, about a world which I made up, has undergone some extensive changes. First, I finally have a vision of what the book should really be about. I was planning on writing an allegory, similar to C.S. Lewis's Narnia series. One day, as I was reading my Bible, a particular verse jumped out at me. It said, "love the lord with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength." Instead of thinking about the commandment, like I usually do, I thought, "Interesting. So there are four parts that make up man." I began to wonder how the parts influenced each other and what their functions were. Instantly I thought of my book, and decided that each race in this imaginary world would represent one of the four parts of man. So, even though the main storyline is full of typical fantasy fare, there is also an underlying message of how each person is put together and how our different parts work together to fight against darkness. It can also represent how society works, or should work. After all, in most people, one or two of the parts are more dominant and strongly developed than the rest. It's what gives us our different personalities. Readers might be able to identify with one of the four races, and start to learn what their function should be.
I had an idea for another book, but it's not very well developed yet. I don't know what chain of events led to this idea, but for some reason I began wondering what it would be like to be a kid being raised by the devil. I began to think of all the things that Satan might say and do, and why he would be raising a kid in the first place. Eventually, it gradually morphed into an idea for a book. If I do end up writing it, I want it to mostly have a comical feel, so that it will appeal to a wider audience and be more fun to read. Of course, I imagine that it will have its more serious moments as well.
I have at least one other idea for a book up my sleeve, but I don't think I'll mention it here. It's still really rough, and I don't want to give all my secrets away. After all, if I told you everything now, what would I post about next year?
SDG

My Favorite Author

I figure that, since I'm a writer, I should probably tell you who I look up to and get my inspiration from. My favorite author by far is C. S. Lewis. At first, I was only interested in the Chronicles of Narnia, which appealed to me because of his incredible storytelling ability and imagination. Not long after, I started reading his theological works, and I was hooked. I still haven't read all of his books, and to be honest I'm not exactly sure how many he wrote, but I am slowly and steadily working my way through them as school permits. I feel like I have to get all the boring, useless schoolwork out of the way so I can actually learn something.
Lewis is my favorite author for a number of reasons. His reasoning ability is absolutely astonishing. He has a way of taking those subconcious assumptions that most of us have and sitting them front and center for analysis. When I read Lewis, I constantly find myself thinking, "I never really realized it, but I suppose I do think that way." He also has a very appealing and understandable writing style. The best way to describe it is "conversational." If you don't have a problem with his British terminology and phrasing (which is easily understood by reading in a British accent), then you'll discover one of the clearest voices you've ever heard. That, combined with his firm grasp of logic and liberal use of analogies, makes him one of the hardest people to disagree with that I know. His proof of Christian religion, "Mere Christianity," has converted many an agnostic and atheist, and would have converted me if I hadn't already been a Christian when I read it.
Right now I'm reading his autobiography, "Surprised by Joy." It's not a book I would recommend to people unfamiliar with his works. You have to read his other books to develop an interest in who he is before you can read his autobiography, or at least that's how it worked for me. With all that said, I don't think that Lewis is for everyone. People who don't enjoy logic or truth should steer clear of his theological works and limit themselves to The Chronicles of Narnia and the Space Trilogy series. For everyone else, I recommend starting with "Mere Christianity," which I think is one of the best examples of his writing.
Until next time.
SDG

The Knowledge of Good and Evil

Here's another one of my philosophical theories which, as far as I know, hasn't been duplicated by anyone else. There's a great debate in philosophy about whether or not man has an inherent (pre-installed, or innate) knowledge of what is moral, or whether we just made it up or learned it from an outside source such as nature or God. Until recently, I sided with the philosopher John Locke, who said that although we don't have any inherent knowledge, God has told us and given us the tools to discover what is right and wrong. Locke asserts that we are blank slates when we enter the world, and that the only way we can have knowledge and ideas is by reasoning, using our five senses, and reflection (observing how our own minds work).
The reason I no longer completely agree with Locke is because I thought of an idea that I think is inherent to everyone, even if someone were raised completely separate from other humans. Let me take that example and show you what I mean. Let's assume there's a child who was born in the jungle, we'll call him Bob, and for some reason his mother died and he was raised by animals. Now let's say that you wandered into this jungle and got lost and started to starve. Bob sees you and realizes that you're starving. Due to social instinct, Bob goes to the trouble of finding and preparing some food for you. However, when he brings you the food, let's say that for no reason at all you take it, throw it on the ground and grind it into the dirt. Now what do you suppose that Bob, who has never heard of morality, justice, or right and wrong, would do? He would probably be ticked.
I think that everyone, no matter where they come from, starts out thinking that kindness should be returned with kindness. Even if people say they don't believe it, if they say that we should take what we can get and not bother about where it comes from, I think their actions show otherwise. If we do something nice, we expect people to appreciate it; or, at the very least, not to show contempt for it.
This discovery may seem insignificant, but the desire to have kindness reciprocated is actually the basis for most of our social and moral laws. After all, it is only a small step from there to the famous command, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." And from there, all sorts of theories can be deduced. Kant's Retributivism, and Bentham's Utilitarianism are both different interpretations of that command, when you think about it. So perhaps there is something to be said for inherent ideas after all, or at least for one. Maybe when Adam and Eve decided to chow down on the forbidden fruit, the human race was introduced to the concept of "Do as you would be done by." Maybe our ability to understand that is, in fact, the knowledge of good and evil.
S.D.G.

My Fifth Dimension Theory

     College is useful for all kinds of things, like knowing how to categorize the theories you have come up with over the years. I recently learned about metaphysics in philosophy, and realized, "Hey, one of my theories is about metaphysics!"
     The theory itself is about the structure of reality, and occurred to me when I learned about the different dimensions. It isn't original by any means, I just sort of re-invented the wheel. C.S. Lewis wrote about it in his book, Mere Christianity (one of my favorites), long before it ever entered my head. It goes something like this: There are four dimensions of reality. The first dimension is a straight line which can only go in one direction, right to left. The second is made of straight lines which can go in several directions; right to left, forward and backward, and all the degrees in between. A square is possible in this dimension, and wasn't in the first. The third dimension is made of lines which can go in all the directions of the second, as well as up and down and all the degrees in between. The concepts of depth and volume are introduced in this dimension. A cube is also possible here, which is made of six squares. I'm a little fuzzy on the fourth dimension. I'm no physicist, but I think that space and time are what makes it unique. Anyway, the theory asks the question: What if there were a dimension beyond ours? What if there was a higher level of reality that our reality was a part of, just like the squares from the second dimension were a part of the cube of the third dimension? If this were true, there are two things we can deduce from it.
     1. We could not know anything about this dimension other than that it might exist. Imagine that someone was born and lived in the second dimension and somehow was able to visit the third dimension and learn about it. If he went back to the second, how would he explain to his friends the concepts which make the third dimension unique? He could draw a representation of a cube, but to someone who had never seen depth or volume for himself, it would have absolutely no meaning. In the same way, if it were possible to somehow experience the fifth dimension, no one would be able to explain it to us because it involves concepts which we have never seen or felt for ourselves. This leads us to the second point.
     2. We cannot imagine anything that does not already exist in our dimension. All of our "original" ideas are just things which already exist, rearranged in a new way. Take the idea of dragons, for example. A dragon is just a compilation of ideas which already exist, such as scales, wings, feet, teeth, animals, and certain shapes. Even the fire-breathing thing is a combination of the existing things breathing and fire put together. All we mean by original ideas is to combine existing things in ways that don't occur naturally.
     Another point, but this is purely speculation, is that the fifth dimension could be what we refer to as the spiritual world. In that sense, spirituality would be more real than the material things around us. The possibilities for this theory are limitless. What if, instead of just one other dimension, there were an infinite string of them? Of course, the obvious drawback to this theory is that even if it were true, it could never be proven.
     In all probability, someone else has already written in a lot more depth about this than I have. In any case, I thought it was a neat idea, and I hope it keeps your minds busy until my next post.

Things To Keep In Mind When Reading About My Opinions

     If you tell someone that what they're doing is wrong, does that mean you hate them? That seems to be the popular opinion concerning the religious demographic. Sure, every once in a while you come across a "christian" who shouts hate from the rooftops. But anyone who actually takes the time to read what Christ said will get a different picture. To be sure, the Bible is uncompromisingly clear in saying that homosexuality, addictions, lust, etc. are perversions and sins, but Christ also advocated a "love the sinner, hate the sin" philosophy. The reason that real Christians speak out against homosexual relationships and the like is because they love gay people. The whole idea behind Christianity is to save people from going to hell and give them a relationship with a loving God instead. If we really hated gay people, we would keep silent and let them go to hell. That is the absolute worst thing that could happen to anyone according to a Christian.
     Many people think that the old "love the sinner, hate the sin" philosophy is just a way to weasel out of being called a hatemonger. The truth is that that principle is one of the most basic operational rules of Christianity. It is required, and without it, no one can say that they are a follower of Christ. The best example that I can think of to illustrate this concept is the account of the adulteress who was about to be stoned by an angry mob. The religious leaders who were leading the mob asked Jesus if he would throw the first stone. They knew that the Old Testament Law required the death penalty for adultery, and they were trying to make Jesus out to be a heretic for disobeying the law. This is when Jesus said, "Let him who has no sin throw the first stone." Turned out that no one threw a stone. This is important because it lets us know that we have all broken God's law at one time or another, multiple times, in fact. In other words, since we are all criminals, we don't have the right to punish other criminals. After the mob dispersed Jesus told the woman that her accusers were gone, and then said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more." This tells us that although we have broken the Law, Christ wipes our record clean. However, we are also told not to break the Law again in the future. The problem is that anyone who has tried to live by God's standard soon finds that he is incapable of keeping the Law, no matter how many chances he is given. So what is the point of trying? Trying IS the point. One of the absolute essentials for pleasing God is to come back to Him no matter how many times or how hard you fall. Always strive to do your best, but be forewarned that your best will not be enough. That is why we need Him in the first place.
     One more thing, and then I'm done. I mentioned earlier that we should not punish people who do wrong, because we have done wrong ourselves. That relates to the verse which says, "Judge not, lest you be judged."  The thing I want to clear up is what the Bible means when it says, "judgement." It means judgement in the sense of punishment, as in, the Lord will one day deliver judgement to the earth. It means you don't kill someone for committing adultery, or beat up or insult someone because they're gay. If you want to do those things, it means you are hating the sinner, and that has horrible consequences for both the judged and the judge. It doesn't mean that you can't tell someone they're wrong in order to keep them from going to hell. No Christian in their right mind would believe the Bible tells them to do that.
     I can't speak for all the so-called christians who say that God wants to wipe homosexuals from the face of the earth, but I can speak for myself and say to all terrorists, abortionists, porn addicts, homosexuals, murderers, rapists, etc.: God loves you, and He has something wonderful for you if you will only believe in Him.

A New Name

     I would love to write in this blog more, it's just that not much has been happening lately. At least not in the sense of "me doing stuff." However, as I said in my last post, I have been learning quite a bit lately about following God and my role in His plan. One thing I have been considering is renaming this blog. Not that I think that "A Writer's Journey" is a bad name or anything, but ever since I've felt that God put a writing gift in me (more than a year ago), my focus has been getting less on the Giver and more on the gift. I would like to remind myself and inform others that I write for one purpose only: to give glory to the One who has redeemed me. I don't write to make money or for fame, and I mean that in the strictest sense. Usually when people say that, they mean that they're not trying to make a lot of money, or garner too much attention. What I mean when I say it, is that if I never get hired for a single paying writing-related job in my life, I won't care. I've stopped caring about where my next meal will come from or how I'm going to survive. My God is much too powerful and much too faithful to His followers for me to worry about those things. The goal is not my survival, but God's glorification. Of course there's always the genius who will read that and say, "Well it's hard to glorify anyone if you're dead because you didn't worry about surviving." As I've already said, my God is faithful. He worries about the survival part for me. What's that, Mr. Genius? It's irresponsible to think that way if you have people depending on you, like a family? I say my family (no, I don't have one of my own yet) would be much better off in the hands of Someone who knows exactly what they need and how to provide it, instead of relying on a flawed, corrupt, and foolish man such as myself. Of course, that's not to say that there's no effort required on my part. I have the responsibility of taking the opportunities that God sends to me as a means of survival, such as a job, and working as hard as possible to make the most out of that opportunity. I also have the responsibility of discerning which opportunities I need to take and which I don't, but that will come automatically as long as I stay close to God and seek His will. As I've said before, I don't think that these beliefs are radical. I think that any Christian who has spent a decent amount of time reading scripture must come to the same conclusion. Politicians, stand uncompromisingly for what's right and let God worry about the votes. Singers, sing for Christ and His glory, and let God worry about where you'll perform next. This applies to everyone who has been given a talent from God. After all, our abilities are not our own. We didn't choose them. That's why they are called "gifts," because someone had the sense to realize that they were of a divine nature, and therefore couldn't have come from ourselves. All of us have four choices when deciding what to do with our gifts. We can use it for ourselves, we can ignore it and not use it at all, we can use it for others, or we can use it for God (which usually also requires using it for others).
     Anyway, if any of you could help me come up with a new name reflecting this attitude toward writing, I would greatly appreciate it. Until next time.

The Summer So Far

Where do I even begin? It's not that a lot has been happening this summer, but the things that have happened are so important that I hardly know which to tell about first. When all else fails, go chronological, I suppose. The first thing that happened was that I went to the Ramp. It's a ministry in Alabama, in a small town called Hamilton, I believe. the Ramp is sort of like a gas station for Christians. When you're running low on fuel and you feel that life has lost its luster, you go to the Ramp and get reminded why we're living here at all. We got there on a Thursday night, and I'm glad we did. That way I was able to get all the dead stuff off of me, the things I had been bogged down by without even realising it, and I could use the whole rest of the weekend to focus totally on learning from and praising God. The schedule for Friday and Saturday went something like this: get up at about 7 in order to pray. After praying, eat breakfast as quickly as possible so that no time is wasted in getting to the Ramp. After arriving, get inside the building and start worshiping. Break for lunch (optional). Eat lunch as quickly as possible and return to the Ramp. Start worshiping again, with periodic interruptions as God gives words to the ministers. Break for supper (optional). Return and worship, then hear a prepared message. After dismissal, return to temporary residence, pray, and read the Bible. Sleep (optional, but recommended).
It. Was. Awesome. And it was only the beginning. When I got home, it was like the Ramp came with me. I loved praying. I loved reading God's Word. Now when I read, God continually reveals things to me that I never saw before. I'm currently keeping track of them in a notebook next to my bed, and you can bet there will be some interesting articles in the Opinions section next semester. I think it's safe to say, because I've proven it many times, that I prefer a good message to a meal. God has been doing other things too, but that's a bit more personal than I'd like to get on this blog. Let it suffice to say that God has been working on me in a rather spectacular and supernatural fashion.
Now I would like to get on my lovely soapbox for a moment. I don't consider the kind of life I've recently started living to be radical. I consider it standard Christianity. I can't imagine living any other way. To return to the powerless, dreary, ball-and-chain Christianity that I used to have (as it now appears to me), and that I see so many other Christians needlessly putting themselves through, would be sheer madness. Do yourself a favor, and let God break you apart, then rebuild you. That's one thing that God has been showing me. We all have pride. Every last human (including myself and others like me, of course) is infested with it. What's so bad about pride? It blinds you to your faults, your sin. Think about it, would it be easier to preach the gospel to a university professor, or a homeless man? I'd take the homeless dude every time. The reason is that a professor is full of himself (generally speaking, of course). He has great confidence (and as a side note, confidence usually means pride) in his knowledge and thinking ability. Sin? Why should a distinguished man like him pay any attention to that? Repentance? Fit only for the common rabble. Salvation? The learned and the accomplished are above such things. On the other hand, someone like a homeless person, if they're desperate enough, knows that they are nothing. They are ready to cling to whatever hope someone gives them. What is the difference between these two people? Not much. Where they were born and who their parents were can probably account for most of it. Things that no one can control or boast about. True salvation can come only when we realize that we are insignificant blips in the universe. Deeply corrupted, sinful blips, at that. That is why pride is so dangerous. That is why, when I pray for people, I pray that they would have their souls broken, that God would hold all the filthy, evil rottenness of their life right in front of their face, and then offer them His glorious Redemption.
Anyway, that pretty much sums up my summer. Oh, and I'm learning spanish.

Book Ideas 1

Sorry about the delay, dear readers. Fortunately, I have not been idle during this time. I've been writing like a madman these past weeks, which is the main reason I haven't been able to spend much time here lately. For this post, I decided to make good on something I said I might do in one of my previous posts. I said before that I might talk about some of the books I plan on writing, and now is as good a time as any to do it. The first book idea that popped into my head was sort of what got the whole thing rolling. It started when I was in a car travelling with one of my best friends to spend a night on a retired Navy battleship, the U.S.S. Alabama. We were playing 20 questions out of boredom, and my friend had been coming up with mythical creatures for me to guess, which actually didn't work out very well, since I was pretty knowledgable about those kinds of things. Anyway, once, when I was having a hard time figuring out one of his creatures, his dad asked, "Now this isn't one of those creatures you made up for your little world and that only you know about now, is it?" That comment moved us away from the game and toward a discussion of his "world." I had just finished reading all of the Lord of The Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia books, so I was very impressed that my friend had undertaken the endeavor of creating a fictional world. I had given it some thought myself, but the amount of detail that had been present in the books I had read, especially Lord of The Rings, had intimidated me. I figured there was no way I could do something as involved as imagining every detail of a different world. However, once I listened to my friend tell me about his ideas, I began to think, "If he can do it, then I can too." Soon after that, I began to think about what kind of mythical creatures I would have in my world. It took until the end of the vacation, but finally I managed to come up with one that I was satisfied with. When we pulled into my driveway, my friend was asleep, but I tried to tell him about my ideas anyway. He gave an approving mumble and fell back asleep. From then on for long time I was constantly thinking about all the different stories that might take place in a different world, other creatures that might live there, and so forth and so on. Finally, I was confident enough in the level of detail that I started to write a book, and I'm still writing it today. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten very far, since I went through a long period of inactivity because of other things. But I hope to pick up the pace again soon and get more written. That's the first book idea I had, and I'll tell you about some others another time. If someone requests it, I might even post some chapters I've completed and you could tell me what you think. The next post will come very soon, as soon as the campus newspaper is out, which will be on April 20. I can't release it now because my editor asked me not to. Something about usage rights or some other such nonsense. Until then.

Hypocrisy

"We're all hypocrites to some degree." That was an offhand comment I made while talking to one of my classmates in English. I didn't really think much about it when I said it, it was sort of one of those knee-jerk Christian comments that I make from time to time. You know, things like, "God bless," or "have a blessed day." It was just based on my belief that all men sin, and when we get upset when other people do the wrong things, we're really just being hypocrites. I didn't really think about the implications until one night when I was at a football game with a friend of mine. She was making a joke about Ole Miss, because she knew that I watched their games, and in reply, I said something like, "Do you make comments like that because you're intolerant and culturally insensitive?" I was only joking, but as soon as I said it, I felt horrible. In the days prior to that, I had been thinking of derogatory comments I could make to someone who teased me about being homeschooled. Because I had been thinking about insults I could make, one of them slipped out in normal conversation. The thing that really drove it home for me, though, was that I had been learning about forgiveness, and how we basically don't have the right to be angry at anyone because of all the things we've done ourselves. Ouch.
We're all guilty of hypocrisy. We're supposed to be one of the most tolerant and forgiving societies in the world, but all you have to do is read the comments on an article about Miley Cyrus's latest album to know that's not really the case. People are always willing to forgive, unless they've been affected in some way.
In case you haven't noticed, I kind of like philosophy. Now, on to life. I just got through dealing with a huge wave of tests. I guess the teachers thought it would be fun to wait and hit everyone with all the tests at once. My history teacher thought that it would be even more fun if he did a test on the first six chapters in our history book all at once. Not to say that he's mean, he's just... free-spirited. He has trouble deciding on what to do, so he's been putting off tests until recently. I haven't been writing for the newspaper lately, and I may have to quit it all together. I know I've been saying that for awhile. As always, I'll let you know.

Events and Ideas

     After that epic essay, it's time to get back to what's happening with life. The ReView is going moderately well. By that I mean the stories are going fine (my second one is in the latest edition), and I'm still doing well in all my classes, but it's also taking up a lot of time. College is going well, especially now that I've gotten to know a few people.
     Today I got to meet Charles Pickering. I'm a member of the honor's institute bearing his name at JC. He came to speak with us about a book he wrote, called A Price Too High, which we were required to read. It was about when he was a judge and had been nominated to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. During that time, he suffered a lot of political slander from Democrats because they knew he was personally opposed to abortion and afraid he might make a ruling against it. It's a fascinating book, if you ever decide to read it. At least I liked it. Apparently there are some students who found the book extremely boring. I suppose that's one of the reasons I'm weird. I love reading about subjects dealing with morality, controversy, or some disputed Christian doctrine. I just find the concept of right and wrong extremely interesting, especially when it comes to how we as humans are supposed to act towards each other.
     Consequently, those are the things I enjoy writing about the most. How am I going to do that as a journalist, you ask? I'll find a way. I'll write for the opinions section, or write a novel on the side. Why a novel? I have a short attention span, so trying to write an entire book about these concepts directly might bore me, or more importantly, bore my readers. I decided it would make more sense and be more interesting if the concepts could be seen in action, preferably in an exciting fiction story. Plus, I also love far-out genres like science-fiction and fantasy, so it's a win-win.
     I've got quite a few story ideas, which I may talk about one of these days. At the moment, though, I've got homework to do. Bye.

Introductions

     I suppose, like most beginnings, I should start with an introduction. My name is Seth Houston, and I'm a writer.
     My decision to become so is partly documented in a previous blog, "Thoughts of an Undecided Writer," and in various class assignments relating to the subject. If you're interested in reading the blog, you can do so at http://www.usmsethhouston.blogspot.com/. However, my present purpose isn't to give you my history, although I may decide to relate that in the future. My purpose now is to tell you about my current circumstances, my direction, and myself. I was born and raised in the town of Laurel, in the state of Mississippi. Laurel is in the southern part of the state, about three hours north of the coast. I'm currently in my freshman year at Jones County Junior College in Ellisville, a small town about half an hour south of Laurel. Right now, I'm inclined towards journalism. I'm taking a Monday/Wednesday journalism class, which means that I write for The Radionian, the school newspaper. I've also applied for an internship at The ReView, a newspaper headquartered in Laurel. If I'm accepted, my two newspaper jobs and 13 other hours of classes at Jones may prevent me from writing consistently.
     Now, a little about where I'm hoping to get to. I'm not really sure. I want to follow God's direction as closely as possible, it's just that I haven't received a whole lot of instruction yet. I know that I'm supposed to write for Him. Everything else is up in the air.
     I suppose you should know a little about where I'm coming from. After all, what we believe influences the way we look at everything, which influences how we write. This is true even for journalists, although many like to deny it. Journalists say they write only the facts, which may be true, but a lot depends on which facts you choose to present. For example, I once looked at several different articles about the same event, but the perspectives were extremely varied. In late May 2010, a ship carrying aid (food and medical supplies) for Gaza sailed through Israeli controlled waters. In most of the articles I read, the big bad Israeli navy boarded this peaceful aid ship and senselessly killed eight of the crew. I then found an article containing a statement from an Israeli official about the incident. According to him, the ship was sailing through a blockade that the government had set up to stop imports to Gaza. Apparently, Israeli citizens had been attacked with weapons smuggled into Gaza from ships, presumably ships posing as "peaceful," and as a result, the government decided to set up the blockade. This is a completely different picture than the other articles painted. What I'm trying to say is that journalists are biased just like everyone else, and sometimes that shows up in our writing.
    You might have guessed from the "pro-Israel" example and my earlier reference to "following God's direction," that I tend to be politically conservative. You would be correct. I don't really plan on writing about politics much, and if I do I'll try not to rant. I just thought you should be forewarned. Like I said before, this blog is mostly about my journey as a writer, and my observations along the way. Until next time, dear readers.