Ruth

The story of Ruth comes between the desperate intercine warfare among the Israelites in Judges and the serious business of Kings but it's not just a bit of light relief. When reading the Bible stories, it is best not to rush but to let the story talk to you. First, is the old maxim that a kindness done without expectation of reward will come back in some way or other. BUt then there is Naomi's advice and Ruth's behavior to think over. The relationship grew, not because Ruth pushed it but because she let Boaz decide to pursue it. All Ruth did was to give him the opportunity. Any relationship, personal, working, or business will only succeed if both partners want it to. Pressurising another party into a relationship is a recipe for disaster. This is not the same as reaching consensus, which may involve sacrifice; the sacrifices must not create animosity, os course, or the relationship will implode. hard lessons from a love story!

A writer's life is sometimes a happy one

Well, all I need to do now about the food stories is write them up but my, 'to do' list gets longer and longer and I need to just get down to writing the stories in alphabetical order. The initial ideas can be developed with the list technique but the detailed plotting of one of them can take just as long as finding a good subject. It's easier if the characters are familiar as they do a bit of the writing but making the plot three dimensional can be hard, especially at 300 words, as there has to be some doubt about the outcome. My immediate priority (I think that's a repetition of terms) is to get a monologue and a report of a museum visit written for my Writers' Group's annual anthology. I've already sent in the short story and the poem and a news report. I had the choice of a short play instead of the monologue but decided against it as the stage directions don't count and I tell half the story in them, anyway. The thing I'd like to get moving is Just Life notes about aggravations like people in bus queues and amusing things overheard on the bus. Like the woman who was asked to visit her daughter for a few days near the time of her seventieth birthday and got all excited but found she was the baby-sitter while her daughter and son-in-law went to a party.
I suppose with the early nights, I'll get a lot more done.

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An extra ration of food for thought

What I like about making a list of possible story lines is, if one persists, they start to yield good even exceptional ideas. This business of food in Writing Magazine, for example, has already produced several with potential, not always light heated but with legs. Now let me list another.
Suppose an animal lover who has been training as a chef goes into the army in WW1 but is so disgusted at the food, he joins the Catering Corps. His unit are getting ready to go to the line for an attack, in which half of them will not return. He wants to give them a hearty meal to set them on their way but there is only tinned sausage. The major has a horse, which the men regard as a kind of mascot. It's kept in a stable to one side. As the 'chef'' considers the enemy have seent a ranging shot that fell short. The next one will be long and possibly near the kitchen. The shot comes over and kills the major and the horse. Now what will the chef do? There's enough horse meat but it's only the French who eat horse.  There's enough in this to answer the editor's ideas of what a short story should contain, pre-warning of disaster, ticking clock, moral dilemma etc.

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The 'normal' trap

After Samson the last chapters of the book off Judges mentions that there was no king in Israel and everyone did as they pleased. That situation has been repeated often in the succeeding centuries. Many revolutions have degenerated into petty quarrels among the ‘victors’. The crux being that there is no longer any central authority, or even objective and squabbling becomes the 'normal' relationship. The Israelites had been absorbed with claiming the land they had been promised but when that was done, they lost direction. There are many lessons in the story, personal, relationship wise and for business.

In personal life, it highlights the need for a long term goal, many fail college and university because their goal has been achieved. The idea that they are at college or whatever to learn how to be a doctor, for example, is dampened by the realisation of their short term goal; those who succeed see it only as a stepping stone.

Relationships break down for similar reasons. Great sex, intellectual compatibility, even being a good doubles partner at tennis or golf become ‘normal’ and descend into boredom after a while and it is those who want to share their life experience that make real partners.

In the business sphere, without firm direction the sales manager argues with the production manager, who argues with IR, who argues with PR and energy that should be directed to success is dissipated in internal wrangling.

What is needed is a plan for what happens next; the understanding that the realisation of one goal will open the door to another challenge. Someone who wants to be a foreman for being a foreman rather than to learn how to be a manager, for example, will become bored and useless, unless their life objective lies elsewhere. There is no point in getting into a relationship where the sex is great but the partner is thick as a brick, that’s obvious, but so is a partner who doesn’t share long term goals. Before a business has maximised it's market it must have plans to change direction or be sold.

It is distressing to see how many ignore the lessons of Judges for no better reason than that they are in the Bible. They are not only for the religious but contain the wisdom handed down from antiquity.

Food for thought

I had three options for a story for Writers Magazine in which food played a major part. One was the last two men of the Arctic expedition wondering who would eat who to survive. It's a good psychological study. One man may even volunteer to be eaten. What will the other think? It could have one man talking religion to the other to avoid being eaten but intending to eat his companion, as an allegory for how evil can hide behind morality in the church and politics.
The third idea was the baking contest where the husband of A was having an affair with B and didn't know who to bribe the judge for. Fairly straight forward.
The second idea of the king's taster knowing the meal was poisoned lad me to think what point of view would be best, then to think it would make a good tale doing several points of view - the queen's feelings, where the taster's loyalties lie, the kings attitudes, if he knows about the poison and so on, to show the group dynamic in a court as an illustration of what it can be like in the top echelons of industry. That led to thought that it could be a novel with someone trying to work out who the poisoner is. One candidate for the 'detective' would be the taster, who has only the time from the meal is cooked until he tastes to find a solution. It could be the king is setting up some way to accuse the queen, or a senior courtier of disloyalty. Not so much a 'Who-dun-it' as a counter espionage story about 'who will do it and how can they be stopped'. I had a go at the genre with the sailing story 'Vital Spark' and enjoyed it and the one I'm working on now with the help of Lorraine Mace, is looking good but the idea will have to go on the back burner for now.

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One of the people our Sunday School teacher made a hero of, was Samson. Of course, it was war time and there were Nazies to hate but, since then, there have been a number of terrorists/freedom fighter organisations who have made me re-examine the Samson story and the lessons it teaches. When Samson arrived, the Israelites were dominated by the Philistines. Samson grew up, killed thousands with the jaw bone of an ass, married someone from their culture, was betrayed, blinded and took his revenge by pulling down their place of entertainment, thereby killing, not only himself, but more than he had when he was alive. After all that, the Israelites were still dominated by the Philistines. So, apart from the death of many Philistines, what had Samson achieved? It doesn't seem to have been a great deal, so what lessons does the story teach?
Firstly, as has been proved over and over since 1945, killing people solves very little. 
However, these notes are meant to deal with personal and relationship problems and it is necessary to look more closely at the incidents in the story. Samson was betrayed by his wife, a wife he had taken from outside his culture. That's not the same as race or social class, it's the philosophy we live by, how we see our social responsibilities. For a relationship, social, work, or business to work, partners' cultures have to overlap. For some reason, it is better if they have areas of difference that have to be worked on, but the overlap must be considerable or one partner will betray the other.

Then there is the question of revenge. Samson’s efforts may have altered the demographics but each tit following a tat only escalated the confrontation and solved nothing of the general problem of Philistine domination or equality between them and the Israelites. The same applies in relationships. Paying back some slight only encourages another. It’s not good to allow oneself to be trampled on but, ideally, one should leave the other party an honourable way out of a dispute.

Food stories continued

I made a list of some story lines that might suit the Writers' Magazine competition on my website but they needed fleshing a bit. The one that seemed to have instant drama was the one where the two survivors are eating one of their dead companions and wondering which of them will be next.
That led to me thinking the possibility of rescue or survival would influence what happened. If they have no hope, they may just decide to die but if they are expecting rescue, or are close to safety then another dynamic is introduced. Suppose one is big and the other small and skinny. Then the bigger chap would be stronger and better able to survive but he would represent more meat and the skinny guy would live linger. Who is the point of view character? The big guy may not be too worried, he can always choke the smaller one but the small chap needs some devious way of killing.
That's a bit gruesome but was triggered by seeing something about the North West Passage to the Far East.
The funeral idea where the eaters wonder who will inherit as each dish is the favourite of a different person seemed all right but how does it finish? I'm not sure it would be believable.
Let me introduce an additional line of thought. Let's assume it is in the days when there was a royal taster and the taster knows the food may be poisoned. Will he eat it? If he refuses, will he be forced to eat it or will he be forced to tell how he knows, then have to eat it? In other words, is he going to die anyway? That would depend on the ruler. Can he find a way out? The ruler loves his dogs, so that is out.
Then we have the WI scone confrontation. A's husband is a butcher like Gillespie in 'Best in Show' and can influence the judge with fillet steaks and legs of lamb, but he is having an affair with B. What will he do? If B wins what will he tell his wife? I think this is one for the sequel to Best in Show.

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