Category: Writing

Elwood vs. Ebeneezer

Like many of us who research via various information banks (or libraries) sometimes an odd factoid (as in ‘not necessarily a fact per se) POPS and sends imaginations on a side path. That phenomenon is akin to walking a dog, who suddenly pulls hard on the leash as it encounters a squirrel. Lately, I’ve been thinking about what motivates human beings to pursue a life philosophy. You know, we all have a basic philosophy that influences our daily actions. Some notions serve us well. Often, we can observe, a mindset fails to aid us in becoming worthwhile people.

Well, this morning I was fooling around and looking up things on the internet. For fun, curiosity urged me to look up Harvey. As many of you who have followed me (or at least peeked at my blog) I am an AVID film and theater buff. The quote I wanted was found in the Wikipedia article on Harvey. It goes like this:

“Years ago my mother used to say to me, She’d say, ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be – she always called me Elwood – ‘In this world, Elwood, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.’ Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You may quote me.”

  • James Steward as Elwood P. Dowd

Harvey (1950)

As I read the above quotation, its opposite fictional character came to mind. Ah, yes, Ebeneezer Scrooge. My ‘dog chased that squirrel’. How do these characters compare?? 

Elwood

  1. Background – an upper middle class gentleman who pursues his gifts of hospitality and compassion.
  2. Lives with sister and niece with whom, for his part, fondness and concern are the hallmarks of his behavior.
  3. Manages to overcome the misunderstandings that prompt his sister to have him committed to an institution.
  4. So, Mr. Dowd and his beloved pookah, Harvey, continue in their amicable relationship.

Ebeneezer

  1. Background – an upper merchant class Englishman whose father rejected him (due to the death of his mother, as he was born.)
  2. Lived reconciled with his father and sister, until he was apprenticed in an accounting firm.
  3. Mr. Scrooge only manages to find redemption due to the intervention of his deceased partner (Marley) and the famous three Spirits of Christmas.
  4. Awake to his failings to live with others with compassion and consideration, he ends his days with a new set of values that benefit everyone else in his life and community.

CONCLUSION:  I, too, recommend PLEASANT.

Thanks for stopping by, Susan

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Daily Prompt: Relish

via Daily PromThe pickledpt: Relish

My general understanding of the word “relish” lies in the college prep. education I received sometime in the previous millenium. To relish something indicates that your appetites and preferences thoroughly enjoy whatever it is you are doing or consuming. Example: I relish a meal of prime rib with horseradish sauce. Or, you can use it as a describing word for a jar of chopped pickles to season a hot dog or hamburger (popular in American fast-food as a favored topping.)

There are other appropriate appetites that can apply ‘relish’, for example, I RELISH a really good fiction story – one with lots of history, metaphysical aspects, and genuine human responses to the aspects of the situations that characters encounter over the course of the story. History is obviously my favorite genre. Let me list a few of really GREAT authors that have inspired me:

  • Jude Devereaux
  • Jane Kirkpatrick
  • Morgan Llewellyn
  • Willa Cather
  • Daphne DuMaurier
  • Peter Tremayne

Check them out when you get a chance!  Right now, though, I would relish a nice hamburger; after all, it is my dinner hour.

 

Thanks for stopping by!  Always, Susan

 

 

 

 

On Dealing With Another ‘Blow’

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This image of an ocean at sunset always promotes a thoughtful mood for me. Even better, when I get to go out on the Gulf Coast beach nearby and revel in a real-moment experience. It’s been hard for me to get back on this blog in the past three weeks. Our family had to bid goodbye to yet another family member, my neice. If we’re keeping score, that makes four children my sisters and I have outlived, for one reason or another. I lost my oldest son four years ago to cancer. Enough said.

The post ‘The Grief Never Leaves You’ resonated with me so much that I reblogged it to share a couple of months back. I spoke with my sister whose daughter had just passed away, leaving four children behind. All I could offer was a quiet understanding, because we are no strangers to grief and loss. It is an undeniable fact of life. What we hold onto is the belief that we will see them all again, all those loved and lost.

We call these set-backs  a blow in our culture, because it is very much like being stunned by a violent punch. Experience enough of them and you become numb to the impacts. I have learned, the hard way, to care deeply without engaging in too much of the “could have, should have or would have dones” simply because I firmly believe that:

  1. Dealing with loss in the here and now is best and
  2. It is good to remember the good in the person,
  3. It is even better to love them as they were and forgive them for what they weren’t,
  4. So that you can embrace those left behind with you and
  5. Be in the present moment, ready to lift them up and continue to care about their welfare.

So, it’s undeniably true: the grief never leaves you. You have to find the strength to live on and do the best you can at any given point. After all, you must move on, keeping your people close to your heart and gleaning what strength you can for the rest of this journey of life.

Always, Sue

 

Lifesong: An Irish Odyssey

Lifesong: An Irish Odyssey

My first post was my author picture.  Maybe it just looked like I was categorizing the photo as a historical artifact. If that was the perception, it’s understandable.  There’s some truth to such an inference.

When I created Lifesong, it was truly a labor of love. Some of the present audience have liked Owyn’s story and understood what it was about.  When an ordinary person undertakes a journey, except for arriving at the hoped-for destination and outcome, most of the trip is accomplished without maps or huge stores of information prepared beforehand.  However, with the exception of military and intelligence communities, this is NOT the experience of most of us. How did people accomplish the extraordinary events of life.  Just like you and I, it begins with waking up, getting nourishment and just putting one foot in front of the other.

You can find this story at http://sbprabooks.com/susanoneill

It is available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, as well as Books-A-Million.

Happy reading!!  Thanks, Sue