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It’s Wednesday night and I’m somewhere in Indiana.  That’s one thing I don’t like about GPS – I follow that lady’s voice blindly without ever looking at a map and end up with no feel for where I am in the world.

I’m out here with Jonas – he spoke at a large company meeting about forgiveness.  As usual, he did a great job.  As usual, numerous people came up to us afterward and talked about how challenged they were to think about forgiveness as an option.

The trip out here seemed rather long – I left the house Wednesday morning at 4:00am, drove the hour to Philly airport, flew two hours to Atlanta, had a two hour layover, flew the two hour flight to Chicago, then drove two hours to my final destination.  A direct flight to South Bend (theoretically speaking) might have taken a few hours.  On the other hand I could have driven, and that would have taken maybe 14 hours.

There are a lot of different ways to get from one place to another.

How is your journey to forgiveness?  Have you taken a roundabout route?  Are you still trying to find your way?  Did you fly there directly?

Whatever your mode of transportation, whatever your path, don’t give up on forgiveness – just be willing to make the journey.

Cade says some funny stuff.

Just the other day we were standing in the kitchen drinking chocolate milk.

Cade: Hey dad, why did God give us clothes?

Me: (thinking the multiple answers to this question were fairly obvious) Why do YOU think he gave us clothes?

Cade: Maybe to keep us warm.

Me: That’s it.  That’s a good reason, huh?

Cade: Yeah.  (pause)  I know another reason.

Me: Cool.  What?

Cade: To cover up our wee-whoppers (this is a term he learned from his cousins and refers to his male anatomy).

Me: (laughing chocolate milk out of my nose) That . . . too . . .

Another Tuesday, another Top Ten. These all come from books that I HIGHLY recommend, especially to the artists and writers among us – I could have easily found ten great quotes on writing in each of the books listed below, but what’s the fun in that?

I hope you will excuse the fact that my favorite writing book of all time is allowed two quotes (and the fact that the bold emphasis in every case has been added by me).

10. “…Churchill said hyphens were “a blemish, to be avoided wherever possible”. Yet there will always be a problem about getting rid of the hyphen: if it’s not extra-marital sex (with a hyphen) it is perhaps extra marital sex, which is quite a different bunch of coconuts.” Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss (the title of this book cannot be fully appreciated unless you see the cover, graced by the picture of a panda bear climbing a ladder to paint over the comma)

9. “Only writers, it seems, expect to achieve some level of mastery without practice.” Stein On Writing by Sol Stein

8. “Several delusions weaken the writer’s resolve to throw away work. If he has read his pages too often, those pages will have a necessary quality, the ring of the inevitable, like poetry known by heart; they will perfectly answer their own familiar rhythms.” The Writing Life by Annie Dillard

7. “When a shoddy novel is published the writer is rejecting the obedient response, taking the easy way out. But when the words mean even more than the writer knew they meant, then the writer has been listening. And sometimes when we listen, we are led into places we do not expect, into adventures we do not always understand.” Walking On Water by Madeleine L’Engle

6. “My many weaknesses are beginning to show their heads.  I simply must get this thing out of my system. I’m not a writer. I’ve been fooling myself and other people. I wish I were. This success will ruin me as sure as hell. It probably won’t last, and that will be all right. I’ll try to go on with work now. Just a stint every day does it. I keep forgetting.” Working Days (the journal John Steinbeck kept while writing Grapes of Wrath)

5. “Other than recommending quantities of red wine and garlic, I am without advice.  The closest I can come is, Don’t do it unless you’re willing to give up your entire life.” A quote by Jim Harrison in the book Why I Write, edited by Will Blythe

4. “This book will be the most difficult of all I have ever attempted. Whether I am good enough or gifted enough remains to be seen.  I do have a good background. I have love and I have had pain. I still have anger but I can find no bitterness in myself…I think perhaps it is the only book I have ever written.  I think there is only one book to a man. It is true that a man may change or be so warped that he becomes another man and has nother book but I do not think that is so with me.” Journal of a Novel, the journal Steinbeck kept while writing East of Eden

3. “The very first thing I tell my new students on the first day of a workshop is that good writing is about telling the truth. We are a species that needs and wants to understand who we are…But after a few days at the desk, telling the truth in an interesting way turns out to be about as easy and pleasurable as bathing a cat.” Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott

2. “It is the artist who, more than other men, is able to create something out of nothing. A whole artistic work is immeasurably more than the sum of its parts.” The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers

1. “Perfectionism will ruin your writing, blocking inventiveness and playfulness and life force (these are words we are allowed to use in California). Perfectionism means that you try desperately not to leave so much mess to clean up. But clutter and mess show us that life is being lived. Clutter is wonderfully fertile ground – you can still discover new treasures under all those piles, clean things up, edit things out, fix things, get a grip. Tidiness suggests that something is as good as it’s going to get. Tidiness makes me think of held breath, of suspended animation, while writing needs to breathe and move.” Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott

So what are some of your favorite quotes regarding writing?

On Sunday night I got to hang out with the young adults from my church, GCC.

Part of me is really happy not to be in my 20s anymore…the angst, the uncertainty, the mistakes-yet-to-come.  But there is a passion in that age group that I miss.  And an aggressive questioning.  And a kind of optimism that I’d like to regain.

Anyway, we talked about life as story, the theme made so popular by guys like Allender and Miller.  Towards the end of the night I challenged them to think about a metaphor for their own story.

I had to stop and think.  What’s my metaphor?

Then it came to me: a long hike.

*****

Back when Maile and I lived in England, our friends Doug and Shannon Schneider came to visit.  One day Doug and I decided to head out on the public foot paths, trying to find a cliff that was marked topographically on this map we had.

If you’ve never been to England, I should tell you that the public walking paths are awesome.  They’re everywhere, these footpaths: through fields, through forests, even right through people’s back yards! One took us three feet behind someone’s house. Some are so old and so well traveled that they’ve turned into huge ruts knee-deep.  For hundreds of years people have walked these paths.

Anyway, the map we had was detailed, but there’s no way of ever knowing exactly where you’re at, except by keeping track of the various intersections and comparing them with the intersections/elevations/landmarks on the map.  We set off for a particular overlook, excited about the path ahead.

About five miles later we realized we were terribly lost. We had assumed we were in one place, but slowly realized we weren’t.  After looking back over the map and circling and checking the roads and intersections, we realized we were about three miles off track.

But once we found out where we really were, then we could start again, seeking our destination in earnest.

*****

Sitting with the young adults last night, I realized: this is the journey of our lives. We do the best with what we have, and we set off in one direction.  Then circumstances conspire, perhaps we misread an intersection, and after a few weeks or months or years we realize: we’re not where we want to be! We’re lost! So we sit down and analyze our lives, review the path we’ve taken, find out where we’re actually at.

And we have to decide – are we still interested in the original destination we set out to find, or have things changed?  Is a new destination more appropriate?  If we’re still determined to find that original destination, what’s the new path we need to take to get there?

So where are you in your journey? Just starting out, a full pack and lots of water and no blisters? Suddenly realized you’re lost and feeling like you’ve wasted a lot of time? Setting out on a new journey with renewed hope?  I’d love to hear your story.  And if you think this path stuff is a bunch of hooey, what’s your life metaphor?

*****

To read about the point last year when I realized I wasn’t even close to where I wanted to be, check out THIS POST.

– After the unofficial vote yesterday, I don’t think I made much progress convincing myself (or Maile) that watching Lost on dvd fits within the parameters of our no-tv-for-a-year rules.  Bryan, I’ll be returning the box to you bright and early Monday morning, hoping to re-borrow it on January 1st, 2011.  For anyone who is counting, the final tally I calculated was 6-6 (many people never said what they actually thought, so I had to use the tone of their comment to decide which way they were leaning…I know, I know, a totally subjective method)

– Check out this link to the Fireside Writer’s Conference being held this fall.  We’ve got one speaker’s bio and picture up (but you have to go there to see who it is), and many more to come.  (Editor’s note – make that two; now you have twice as many reasons to click over and take a look).

– I’m about to go on a guest-posting tour to a blog near you. Let me know if you’re interested in having me swing by your site and do a guest-post (email me at shawnsmucker(at)yahoo.com).

– Currently reading: Deep Church, A New Kind of Christian, A House For Mr. Biswas (still), and the most recent volumes of The Missouri Review and Glimmer Train (yes, someone throw me a life preserver because I’m drowning in books)

– Spend these days listening to: Innocence Mission, Over the Rhine, Sting, Natalie Merchant and David Gray

So what are you reading? Listening to? Looking forward to about the weekend?

As you know, we are attempting to go one year without watching television.

As you may also know, one of the caveat’s is that we are allowed to watch movies.

So what constitutes a movie?

This question came up after I threatened on Twitter (follow me HERE) to borrow or steal Seasons 1-6 of Lost, mostly because Bryan Allain kept talking about it EVERY Tuesday on his blog and I finally started paying attention (by the way, if you haven’t read his recap you have to – it was apparently the most read blog ON THE PLANET on that particular day, or close to it).

Magically, “Lost: Season One” appeared on my dining room table (thanks Bryan).

Suddenly I was faced with a conundrum, a quandary, a sticky situation (can you tell I pulled these from my Word thesaurus?): is watching Lost on tv legal?  TECHNICALLY, it’s not a tv show anymore, right?  Maybe?  Couldn’t I classify Seasons 1-6 as a really, really, really long movie?

Maile wasn’t buying it, so I took to Twitter, asking people to vote yeah or nay, hoping to garner some support.

Well, it didn’t work – I was voted down by a margin of 5-1 (actually, the total vote was 5-1).

So like a kid who loses best of three and shouts “okay, best of five” then “best of seven” then “best of nine,” I’m taking this vote to the blogosphere.

What say you? Does watching Lost: Season 1 violate our terms of “no TV for a year”? Be careful how you vote – my short-term entertainment future depends on it.  And if you’ve already voted once, feel free to comment, but no way does your vote count again (unless you’re the one who voted in favor of it on Twitter, then by all accounts vote early, vote often, vote anonymously).