Dare You

This is my toddler. Hugging a gravestone. Laughing with glee. She comes by her weirdness honestly, at least.

I've been inspired. I was thinking over all the recent weighty discussions (haha, no pun intended...) and trying to think of moving on with something a little easier. If you have no interest in trying something new, you better leave now. Because I've got quite the challenge for you.

The first part. A debate. This is a sort of fun debate, because there is really no wrong answer, it being a simple preference based mostly on personality. (I think??) Simply put, which is better, Fiction or Non-Fiction?

You might name the two camps thus: Fiction is for people who have Attention Deficit Disorder and have to be tricked into thinking. Non-fiction is for people who have absolutely no imagination.

Which position do you subscribe to? Why? Anyone living a double life and catering to both equally?

I shall give my position, since this is my blog and I can say whatever I want. I read 95% fiction. Now, my 5% of nonfiction may actually be a larger quantity than someone else's 100% due to my actual volume of reading, but still, you are far more likely to grab my attention with a story that isn't true, or at least one that's written that way. For example, if you want to teach me about growing a good potato, it's best that you make the potato farmer a beautiful yet misunderstood young woman living in 1734 in Ireland who meets a really strong, yet sensitive and good looking guy who at first spars with her but ultimately falls madly in love with her. You'll do even better by me if they end up getting married and inventing the time machine together and go back in time to save the lost city of Atlantis where they find a colony of aliens who have been living in cognito on planet earth for three hundred years. Now that's a potato book that I will stay up all night to read.

Sorry. Can you tell I love to write fiction? ...Any kind of fiction?

How about you? What floats your boat? What sets your sails? Tell us about it. Tell us why you feel that way. Pretend its the most important debate you'll ever take upon your humble soul. Feel free to be snarky, sarcastic, opinionated and hotheaded, as in the end it's all in good fun and we'll all pretty much keep reading whatever we want to read regardless of what anyone says.

Then the challenge. A little more difficult. I dare you to read whatever it is that you don't usually read. Expand your horizons. For me, this requires that I actually take a look at "How to Sell Your Novel" which has been patiently waiting at the bottom of my library bag for a few weeks. What does it mean for you?

Oh, and in all your snarkiness, make sure you advertise the best book you ever read.

And tomorrow I have an even scarier challenge for you!

And just so you know, spell check doesn't think snarky is a word.

What to do with Entertainment?

This is a hard post to write. Because I know that everyone has wildly different ideas about entertainment. Mostly based on generation. And I'm sure to offend someone no matter what I say. But I'm not writing to please anyone except the Lord, so I write.

There is part of me that would like to either skip this topic completely or dance around it a little bit. Because there are some people in my circles who think they have this all figured out, and tend to judge others based on everything they don't know. I'm talking about people who judge something without ever reading/watching/listening to it. With some things, of course, this is appropriate. When something is filled with objectionable content or has a message that does not line up with the Bible, it's pretty obvious from the description or the commercial. But there's plenty of entertainment that has really inspired me over the years that I could have judged from the outside and missed out.

I'm going to take a deep breath now and give my top ten most inspiring ever in the area of entertainment. These are things that have made me think more deeply, have inspired my own creative process by either the subject matter or the characters (usually the latter) and yes, all of these have helped me become closer to Christ in one way or another. If you don't like this list and want to judge me, go ahead. You can even comment your judgment. But you have to give your top ten first. And even if you don't want to judge me you can also leave your top ten. I'd really like you to. And we're all going to be completely and totally honest and not say anything fake just to keep others from judging us. All right. Here goes. In no particular order. (It's a given that the Bible is number one.)

The Passion of the Christ (movie)

Fringe (television)

The X-Files (television)

Harry Potter (secular book series)

Twilight Saga (secular book series)

Mark of the Lion (Christian book series)

Lost (television)

Wicked (musical)

The Sound of Music (musical/movie)

Anne of Green Gables (classic book/movie)

Pride and Prejudice (classic book/movie)

About now you're saying "Wow. She makes a whole lot more sense now." Or "She makes no sense whatsoever." My sisters are just thinking about all the things I left out. I will too. Later.

These are the things that first come to mind. Some are recent, some go back to my childhood. You may notice that the list is heavy on the secular. There is a reason for that. I have a problem with stories that don't really present problems. So far, Christian literature, television and movies don't have the kind of depth that inspires me. There are exceptions in literature, especially in the past few years. I'm still waiting for Christian movies to loose that cheesy twinge and be believable. "Fireproof" came closer. That might have made my top twenty.

Anyway, it's not my point today to nitpick. I should really get to bed. I think we'll have to continue this discussion tomorrow.

So until then, leave your top ten most inspiring.