PASSING IT ON 6-23-17

PASSING IT ON     6-23-17

It is very difficult for me to learn something new, even if it’s only from myself, perhaps especially if it’s from myself, without wanting to pass it on.

For such a long time, that was no problem. I had a pulpit and a pen [well, keyboard] and so many avenues for passing on what I had learned.

I dreamt that in old age, I would be free of all outside constraints, required by my job to pass things on. I forgot about the inside constraints, the ones that say, “You’ve learned something important; you’ve got to pass it on.”

So I went back to passing things on via this blog, mostly because I am the only editor/publisher left who will accept my stuff for “publication.” [1] It’s okay if no one reads it. In fact, I haven’t told anyone, even my wife, that I am passing things on again. But Christ In Winter posts allow me in my winter years to keep on trying to think and write in ways that are coherent enough to keep on growing in knowledge and faith.

About 25 years ago, the teens in my church started coming home from summer camp with a new chorus, one they loved and sang often. “It only takes a spark to get a fire going, and soon all those around can warm up in its glowing…” [1]

Not much of what we pass on will last very long, but I hope that what I still pass on will provide a little spark…in my own mind and spirit, at least.

JRMcF

johnrobertmcfarland@gmil.com

1] That’s not totally true. Black Opal Books was pleased to publish my novel VETS and also took Going After Sally Ann, my fictionalized account of my experiences of being the “hit man” for a cancer center, but I withdrew GASA because VETS proved that I’m past the point where I can do marketing for my own books. It’s unfair to a small publisher to let them go to the work and expense of publishing a book and not try to market it for them.

Daughter Katie Kennedy has no problem getting her YA novels published, because she’s a tremendous writer. That’s why Bloomsburg, which also publishes JK Rowling, is bringing out Katie’s new one, What Goes Up, on July 16, 2017, available from B&N, Amazon, etc.

2] I am always distressed by lyrics sites online, like St. Tekla, that give all the lyrics to a song/hymn and never mention the composer, in this case Kurt Kaiser. That’s theft by neglect.