2010 March | Trevor Lund

Reconciliation

Tom didn’t think he would remember his mother’s smile when he returned. He also didn’t think he would remember that tire swing his father put up. That silly swing is still there, he chuckled with amusement. What a time that had been! It didn’t look like it could still hold weight, but it was there, the branch having grown around the rope.
___
I wrote this as an assignment for a creative writing class I took to make me a better preacher… well that was the excuse I gave, I really wanted to learn how to write. I was invited to create a series of stories with similar themes that would be sent out by email, but I only finished a few – most of which I’ll be posting here.

The Bad Bad Very Bad Very Bad Day

Tommy Tinkermorph was about to have a bad, bad, very bad, very bad day. And he knew it.

He didn’t think it would come. Oh, he knew it would come of course. It wasn’t like he was stupid. He just thought somehow it wouldn’t come to this.

After all, everybody loved him. Well, almost everyone. Everyone that mattered loved him and that was all that mattered.
___
This is the almost-true fictionalized account of a couple of years of school I had between Grade 5 and 6. The names have been changed to protect the guilty… I mean innocent. Talking around the table with my kids got me thinking about this story again. It really was the earliest memory I had about someone appreciating my writing.

Patrick’s Passion

He was a young man then. Only sixteen years of age. His wild living had ended abruptly as a band of Celtic pirates invaded the area he lived in and captured this Latin-speaking Briton to sell as a slave.

He was sold to a druid tribal chief named Miliuc moccu Boin, who put him to work herding cattle. It was on those rolling green hills he had his natural revelation of God.
___
I wanted to tell the story of Patrick’s evangelization of Ireland, but I new if I began with a date, people would assume it was history and tune out. But when I turned it into a story, people listened. They hug on the words. I had to laugh when it was over. This story ends with a point, because it was part of a sermon to get people to think differently about the church, it’s place in the world, and our responsibility to the world.

Oh…Daddy?

“Oh… …. …. …Daddy, how do doctors know my friend is lactose intolerant?”

“They probably showed him a picture of a cow and he became quite angry.”

“Oh… …Daddy, am I lactose intolerant?”

“Do you see those cows in that field?”

“Yes.”

“Do you feel angry?”

“No… I feel sad.”
“You’re probably not lactose intolerant.”

_______
This kid’s story came about during a conversation with my son. We like to joke around like this and it often leads to some deeper discussions. We’ve had to deal with the death of my father and our kids have some interesting ways to think about it.

The Qwizwits

The Qwizwits were a charming, loveable and practical sort of folk. Some of course were more charming than lovable and others more lovable than practical, but all in all they were harmless and mainly kept to themselves unless absolutely necessary.

At least that is what was expected.
_________________
The Qwizwits was written after I did an illustrated sermon that I needed to explain the next week. I just couldn’t bring myself to explain a parable, so I wrote a story to illustrate what we witnessed the week before. We also recorded the previous week’s sermon and had it playing in the background as I read this story.
We had a table of sweet smelling, good looking food on the platform. Everyone was welcome to come, but no one was publicly invited.
I went over and helped myself during the sermon and had a few people agree to do the same. It was interesting to see what happened…
That’s what was playing in the background as I read this story.

Archive for March, 2010

Reconciliation

The Bad Bad Very Bad Very Bad Day

Patrick’s Passion

Oh…Daddy?

The Qwizwits

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