All posts by M.J.

Books by the Author

#401: Characters Hiking

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #401, on the subject of Characters Hiking.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first six novels, Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel, Old Verses New, For Better or Verse, Spy Verses, Garden of Versers, and Versers Versus Versers, in serialized form on the web (those links will take you to the table of contents for each book).  Along with each book there was also a series of web log posts looking at the writing process, the decisions and choices that delivered the final product; those posts are indexed with the chapters in the tables of contents pages.  Now as I am posting the seventh, Re Verse All,  I am again offering a set of “behind the writings” insights.  This “behind the writings” look may contain spoilers because it sometimes talks about my expectations for the futures of the characters and stories–although it sometimes raises ideas that were never pursued, as being written partially concurrently with the story it sometimes discusses where I thought it was headed.  You might want to read the referenced chapters before reading this look at them.  Links below (the section headings) will take you to the specific individual chapters being discussed, and there are (or will soon be) links on those pages to bring you back hopefully to the same point here.

There is also a section of the site, Multiverser Novel Support Pages, in which I have begun to place materials related to the novels beginning with character papers for the major characters, giving them at different stages as they move through the books.

This is the twenty-first mark Joseph “young” web log post covering this book, covering chapters 121 through 126.  It was suggested that more shorter posts were a better choice than fewer longer ones, so there will be posts every six chapters, that is, every other week, for this book.  Previous entries were:

  1. #354:  Versers Reorienting, covering chapters 1 through 6;
  2. #355:  Versers Resettling, for chapters 7 through 12.
  3. #357:  Characters Connect, for chapters 13 through 18.
  4. #359:  Characters Engage, for chapters 19 through 24.
  5. #361:  Characters Explore, for chapters 25 through 30.
  6. #364:  Characters Learn, for chapters 31 through 36.
  7. #365:  Characters Travel, for chapters 37 through 42.
  8. #367:  Versers Encounter, for chapters 43 through 48.
  9. #370:  Characters Confront, for chapters 49 through 54.
  10. #373:  Nervous Characters, for chapters 55 through 60.
  11. #376:  Characters Arrive, for chapters 61 through 66.
  12. #379:  Character Conundrums, for chapters 67 through 72.
  13. #381:  World Complications, for chapters 73 through 78.
  14. #383:  Character Departures, for chapters 79 through 84.
  15. #385:  Characters Ascend, for chapters 85 through 90.
  16. #388:  Versers Climb, for chapters 91 through 96.
  17. #390:  World Facilities, for chapters 97 through 102.
  18. #392:  Characters Resting, for chapters 103 through 108.
  19. #395:  Character Obstacles, for chapters 109 through 114.
  20. #397:  Verser Challenges, for chapters 115 through 120.

History of the series, including the reason it started, the origins of character names and details, and many of the ideas, are in earlier posts, and won’t be repeated here.

Chapter 121, Takano 49

I had Lauren order breakfast to demonstrate that she had learned how to use the computer to obtain food.

This was another nothing happens leg of the journey, but I decided to delve a bit into the background for the world by having Tommy ponder the design of the machine and why the world was as it was.

Chapter 122, Beam 103

Bron’s decision to get the power tools was something of an abrupt choice.  I figured he knew how to use them from the bunker, and he knew they were more efficient than what they were using, and it made sense for him to add them to his cart.

I had envisioned the destructive wake of the mining machine previously, and wanted to continue the evidence that the computer was malfunctioning, so having it destroy the restaurants and head somewhere else made sense.

Chapter 123, Hastings 223

I was on some level filling space as I turned to Lauren musing about guidance and whether she was right in seeking the other verser and dragging Tommy along with her.  I don’t think it was wasted, though, as her musings on guidance are of some value.

Chapter 124, Beam 104

The double reason to have the construction crew stand by the bridge was obvious, but actually I thought of the second reason first:  they would have to be there in case the bridge broke, so they could repair it.  It would be better, though, for that not to be the first reason, and the idea that they should be honored for their work was an easy idea to set first.

I knew these chapters were all short, but it was difficult to make them longer.  The story was being told in pieces.

Chapter 125, Takano 50

I knew it was a training day, and I knew they would be stopping in an apartment block, so I had to wrap my head around what they would have that Lauren could use as training equipment.  I remembered that in my own game Raiden had me walk on the backs of benches; I didn’t remember whether I had included that in Lauren’s training, but it seemed likely and anyway a reasonably obvious option.  The mattresses were not as obvious, because I wasn’t sure whether I had previously said they could or could not be removed, but I wanted Tommy to have a soft surface for rolling and falling, so I decided to go with that.  I still have to do a read-through edit, so maybe I’ll notice if I didn’t make them removable, and I’ll try to reconcile it then.

I had actually thought of pot roast for the last Beam chapter, but didn’t go for it, and then this time I decided that it would work for Tommy and Lauren.  I did not decide whether it was pork or beef, but instead ignored the question.

Chapter 126, Beam 105

The potential mutiny of the people struck me, given that they had climbed eight levels and nothing was different.  I’ve set myself up for a Beam speech, which I’m going to have to figure out in his next chapter, but I’m not too worried about it.  I am worried about how I’m going to decide whether he loses people, and who he loses.

This has been the twenty-first behind the writings look at Re Verse All.  If there is interest and continued support from readers we will endeavor to continue with another novel and more behind the writings posts for it.

Elections, Law and Politics

#400: New Jersey 2021 Primary

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #400, on the subject of New Jersey 2021 Primary.

I must admit that the primary snuck up on me this year–it’s today, June 8th, 2021, and I only discovered this last night.  So I have rushed through a bit of research to get this for you.  We are electing a governor this year; that’s not all we’re electing, but that’s the big deal.

On the Democratic side, Governor Phil Murphy (pictured) is not exactly running unopposed.  Although his is the only name on the ballot, Lisa McCormick is formally listed as a write-in candidate.  Her name was struck from the ballot due to evidence that some of the signatures on her nominating petition were fraudulent.

On the Republican ballot, there are four contenders, but the leading percentage of voters as of yesterday had 38% undecided.  Otherwise, Jack Ciattarelli holds the lead with 29% of the voters in most recent polls and all the major endorsements.  He has served in the State Assembly, started two successful businesses, has an M.B.A. from Seton Hall, and owns a publishing company.  He recognizes Trump as the legitimate standard bearer of the party until a new leader is elected even though Biden won the 2020 election.  He promises economic improvement for the state.

Some distance behind him, at 23% of the vote, is Hirsh Singh, an avid Trump supporter who believes the 2020 election was fraudulent.  Singh is an engineer with a bachelor’s degree covering engineering science, biomedical engineering, and material science, with experience in the fields of missile defense, satellite navigation, and aviation security.  He has no political experience.

Philip Rizzo is third with 8% of the vote in the polls.  His bachelors from Villanova is in business management, he has held no previous political office, but he has worked in real estate and construction and served as a pastor.  He met with Trump in May at Mar-a-Lago, and compared his campaign to Trump’s 2016 run.

Finally, polling at 2%, is Brian Levine.  Former Mayor of Franklin Township and Somerset County Freeholder, his bachelors degree is in economics, from Rutgers, and he is a C.P.A.  He is running a grassroots campaign.  He says he supports some of Trump’s policies, but that the party needs to take its eyes off Trump and put them on economic issues.

In addition to the governor’s race, both New Jersey legislative houses are up for complete replacement.  Most of these races, though, are uncontested at the primary level, and those that are contested would take too much space and address too few readers to be worth covering here (we have forty districts).

I shall endeavor to provide additional information once the primary dust settles and we know who the candidates are for the November election.

Uncategorized

#399: The Song “Look Around You”

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #399, on the subject of The Song “Look Around You”.

This is one of the early ones.  I am reminded that it’s early, because it has brass parts (lost in the mix, but you can hear them in your left ear faintly if you’re wearing headphones).  The Last Psalm had a brass section in the first half of 1973, which dissolved when my seniors graduated.  I remember John Ford on trumpet, a younger trumpet player whose name I don’t recall, Barbara Unrath on french horn, and a trombone player, I think his name was something like Steve Gruber.

For a song that old, yes, there are a lot of anecdotes.  I remember that the trombone player never made it to a single rehearsal.  The funniest was when he invited us to rehearse at his house and was there while we set up and then said he had to go somewhere and left us rehearsing at his house while he went out.

We did the song with The Last Psalm, much the way I did this recording, with Peggy Lisbona and I trading vocals back and forth on the verses and the others coming in for four-part harmonies on the choruses.  The last year John Miller sang with us, a black student who brought a couple of spirituals to our repertoire, but not on this song; but at one of the rehearsals as I was singing the first line, “all you see is darkness”, I hyperemphasized that last word and looked right at him, and we both cracked up and the song fell apart.  But the song stood us in good stead for the entire run of the band.

I redid it with Collision, transposing the brass to the keyboard.  I also wrote a part for John Mastick to play on a euphonium, at his insistence that he wanted to join the band as our second drummer and sometimes brass player, but I think he realized that a hundred fifty miles was too far to travel for rehearsals, and he never made it even to one.  (What is it with brass players, anyway?)  I remember worrying that Baxter would goof, because there’s one chord in the chorus that’s an A minor the first time through and an A major the second time, but he never once got it wrong, which impressed me.  We only had two voices with Collision, but were adding a third in that final year before the band dissolved.

This recording is one of the four vocals over midi instruments ones I did when Jessie Oldham asked me to get her a recording of Last Psalm music.  As I mentioned, I’m trying to sound like Peggy on some of the lines, but her voice is better than that.  Tristan did not list this song among his choices, and perhaps because it seems dated to me I ranked it number thirty for the song itself–but the recording and performance is pretty good, thirteenth on the list, which pulled it up to number 25 overall.

Look Around You.

So here are the lyrics.

Look around you, all you see is darkness.
Ev’rywhere the world is in despair.
‘Though we try to tackle all our problems,
We can’t find the answers anywhere.

But Jesus died that we might live.
You know He gave His life, ’twas all that He could give.

Many people say there’s no solution
To the problems that we all must face:
Sex and drugs and crime, war and polution,
And the hatred in the human race.

But Jesus died that we (that we) might live.
You know He gave His life, ’twas all that He could give.

He gave His love to me for all time,
So why is it that I can’t give Him mine?
He said He loved me, too,
And all I gotta do
Is ask Him in, believe in Him, and let His love shine through.

So it’s time that you made your selection,
And decide which way you’re gonna go.
Do you want to go your own direction,
Or let Him lead you to this peace I know?

Jesus will give you peace, I know.
Jesus will give you peace, I know.
He’s the Prince of Peace,
The Lord of Love,
He’ll give you peace, I know.

I can only hope you benefit from the song in some way.  I will continue with additional songs in the future.

*****

Previous web log song posts:

#301:  The Song “Holocaust” | #307:  The Song “Time Bomb” | #311:  The Song “Passing Through the Portal” | #314:  The Song “Walkin’ In the Woods” | #317:  The Song “That’s When I’ll Believe” | #320:  The Song “Free” | #322:  The Song “Voices” | #326:  The Song “Mountain, Mountain” | #328:  The Song “Still Small Voice” | #334:  The Song “Convinced” | #337:  The Song “Selfish Love” | #340:  The Song “A Man Like Paul” | #341:  The Song “Joined Together” | #346:  The Song “If We Don’t Tell Them” | #349: The Song “I Can’t Resist You’re Love” | #353:  The Song “I Use to Think” | #356:  The Song “God Said It Is Good” | #362:  My Life to You | #366:  The Song “Sometimes” | #372:  The Song “Heavenly Kingdom” | #378:  The Song “A Song of Joy” | #382:  The Song “Not Going to Notice” | #387:  The Song “Our God Is Good” | #393:  The Song “Why”

Next Song:  Love’s the Only Command

Law and Politics

#398: New 2021 Face Mask Rules in New Jersey

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #398, on the subject of New 2021 Face Mask Rules in New Jersey.

As of Friday, May 28, 2021, Governor Murphy has lifted many of the enforced COVID-19 restrictions that have been in place over the past year–but not all of them.

Last year, on the day before Halloween, we went to a costume store and they told us we had to wear masks.

O.K., that’s probably the last opportunity I will have to tell that joke, so I hope someone giggled.

I am among those who thought the restrictions were a bit too strong.  For example, CDC guidelines stated that respiratory patients such as asthmatics and people with COPD should not wear masks due to the danger of hypoxia, but only some facilities had signs suggesting that persons with relevant medical conditions were excused.  Also, there is good reason to believe that anyone who had the virus and beat it was thereafter both as immune and as non-contagious as someone who had been vaccinated, but no credit was given to that and persons who had been infected were still vaccinated despite evidence that such people had more severe reactions to the vaccines.  But reason is returning to New Jersey.

Speaking of reason, although there will not be legal enforcement, the governor has expressed his hope that those who have not been fully vaccinated (two weeks after the final vaccination injection of any version of the vaccine) would continue to exercise precautions including masks and social distancing.  I find this a bit amusing.  Granted that there are people who have been thus far unable to obtain a vaccine, I am inclined to think that many of those who have chosen not to be vaccinated believe that the entire virus story is a scam and precautions are nonsense.  However, that is the hope.

At the same time, not all restrictions have been lifted, and they are not all being lifted simultaneously.  Here are some of the highlights.

  • The state no longer requires the wearing of masks in public spaces, such as retail stores, restaurants, bars, theaters, and similar establishments.  However, businesses with public areas are permitted to retain such restrictions if they desire.  So it might be that your local grocery store will want you to be masked and observe social distancing, and they are allowed to require that, but the state no longer mandates that they do.

  • Similarly, social distancing is no longer required in a long list of public facilities and functions, including retail stores, personal care services, gyms, recreational and entertainment businesses, casinos, and indoor gatherings including religious services, political activities, weddings, funerals, memorial services, commercial gatherings, catered events, sports competitions, and performances.  However, once again businesses overseeing these facilities can retain the restrictions if they wish.

  • During this crisis it has been unlawful to order food or to eat or drink while standing in bars and restaurants.  That restriction has also been lifted.

These restrictions have all been terminated as of Friday, May 28th, 2021.  There have also been gathering size limits on all indoor gatherings, set according to the type of gathering and the size of the venue, but all these are lifted as of June 4th, 2021, restoring all venues to their licensed capacity limits.

Now for those restrictions which have been retained.

  • Masks are still required in all health care facilities, including long-term care (e.g., nursing homes), medical offices (e.g. doctor visits, physical therapy, labs), and hospitals.  This is consistent with CDC (Center for Disease Control) guidelines.

  • Masks are also required in facilities hosting or housing large numbers of persons, including correctional facilities, homeless shelters, child care centers, youth summer camps, and schools from preschool through twelfth grade whether public, private, or parochial.

  • Business worksites and offices that are not open to the public still must enforce the restrictions.  If you work in an office that does not entertain clients or customers in your area, you are still required to follow both masking and social distancing rules while at work.

  • Restrictions remain in effect in all government offices, including those which are open to the public such as government benefits programs and motor vehicles.

  • Masks must be worn on all forms of mass transit, including trains, buses, and planes, and at the connected railway stations, bus terminals, and airports.  This again is a CDC regulation, and probably outside the authority of the governor.  There is a good reason why activity on airplanes is regulated by the Federal government (Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking, we have just entered New Jersey air space, please affix your required medical masks while we are crossing the state).

So we have not returned to normal, but we are a significant step closer.

Books by the Author

#397: Verser Challenges

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #397, on the subject of Verser Challenges.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first six novels, Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel, Old Verses New, For Better or Verse, Spy Verses, Garden of Versers, and Versers Versus Versers, in serialized form on the web (those links will take you to the table of contents for each book).  Along with each book there was also a series of web log posts looking at the writing process, the decisions and choices that delivered the final product; those posts are indexed with the chapters in the tables of contents pages.  Now as I am posting the seventh, Re Verse All,  I am again offering a set of “behind the writings” insights.  This “behind the writings” look may contain spoilers because it sometimes talks about my expectations for the futures of the characters and stories–although it sometimes raises ideas that were never pursued, as being written partially concurrently with the story it sometimes discusses where I thought it was headed.  You might want to read the referenced chapters before reading this look at them.  Links below (the section headings) will take you to the specific individual chapters being discussed, and there are (or will soon be) links on those pages to bring you back hopefully to the same point here.

There is also a section of the site, Multiverser Novel Support Pages, in which I have begun to place materials related to the novels beginning with character papers for the major characters, giving them at different stages as they move through the books.

This is the twentieth mark Joseph “young” web log post covering this book, covering chapters 115 through 120.  It was suggested that more shorter posts were a better choice than fewer longer ones, so there will be posts every six chapters, that is, every other week, for this book.  Previous entries were:

  1. #354:  Versers Reorienting, covering chapters 1 through 6;
  2. #355:  Versers Resettling, for chapters 7 through 12.
  3. #357:  Characters Connect, for chapters 13 through 18.
  4. #359:  Characters Engage, for chapters 19 through 24.
  5. #361:  Characters Explore, for chapters 25 through 30.
  6. #364:  Characters Learn, for chapters 31 through 36.
  7. #365:  Characters Travel, for chapters 37 through 42.
  8. #367:  Versers Encounter, for chapters 43 through 48.
  9. #370:  Characters Confront, for chapters 49 through 54.
  10. #373:  Nervous Characters, for chapters 55 through 60.
  11. #376:  Characters Arrive, for chapters 61 through 66.
  12. #379:  Character Conundrums, for chapters 67 through 72.
  13. #381:  World Complications, for chapters 73 through 78.
  14. #383:  Character Departures, for chapters 79 through 84.
  15. #385:  Characters Ascend, for chapters 85 through 90.
  16. #388:  Versers Climb, for chapters 91 through 96.
  17. #390:  World Facilities, for chapters 97 through 102.
  18. #392:  Characters Resting, for chapters 103 through 108.
  19. #395:  Character Obstacles, for chapters 109 through 114.

History of the series, including the reason it started, the origins of character names and details, and many of the ideas, are in earlier posts, and won’t be repeated here.

Chapter 115, Hastings 221

I’m still struggling to create interesting story, and having Tommy discover the history of the world provides backstory for them and for Beam, who was never interested enough to look for it.

I find myself writing about food not because I’m hungry but because I know they have to eat and sleep and it breaks the monotony of travel.

Chapter 116, Beam 100

I was not sure how much to cover in this section, but I had decided that Beam was going to create a construction crew which would be useful on the surface, even though I had no idea what I would be doing on the surface.  I wound up postponing the bridge building partly because I didn’t like the way it was shaped in my brain and didn’t want to start it, even though I had no idea what Tommy and Lauren would be doing.

Chapter 117, Takano 48

I was struggling with the effort to find something different, and decided that a utility control room would be different.  Once I’d decided that, and knowing that I needed to include physical training, I envisioned the pipes as tools for training, and went with the balance skills.

When I was a child, our next door neighbor had what we incorrectly called split rail fences (they were properly called wooden post fences), and we–my brother, my sister, the girl next door who was my brother’s age, and I–learned to walk on them, forward, backward, eyes open and eyes closed, maybe, if memory serves, jumping on them.  The hardest thing I remember was negotiating past the roses, but different slats had different shaped surfaces and posed different challenges.  Then once we’d learned enough, we began teaching the other kids in the neighborhood how to do it.  A lot of that is being channeled in this training session, although some of it comes from my imagined gameplay when I first started playing Multiverser.

Chapter 118, Beam 101

I had been writing this and stopped abruptly when I realized that I had been envisioning it as if the entire crew was at the top, but I had only brought up three plus Dawn and Beam.  There were only a few corrections–I had had Beam address Bron at one point–but I wasn’t sure how big a mistake it was so I set it aside, went to bed, and fixed it in the morning.

I felt like this chapter was dragging on, not letting me get past the dull stuff, until finally I managed to get to bringing Bron up and I could break it.

Chapter 119, Hastings 222

I decided to reverse the teacher/student relationship mostly to do something that would be at least a little different in this chapter.  Besides, it makes sense for Lauren to want to know how to get food in this world without being totally dependent on Tommy, and for her to want to learn more about using computers.

Chapter 120, Beam 102

The bridge design sort of came together in pieces.  I kept visualizing it a bit different.  I had actually typed that the planks ran parallel to the edges of the hole, but immediately decided that they had to run across the hole, and changed it before I’d finished the sentence.

I knew it would take more than one day to finish, and I knew that Beam was the sort of person who wouldn’t stop work until he had to, so to get him back for dinner I had to deplete the lumber.  This would also send him back to the hardware supply and use part of his next day, although less than they had used previously.

This has been the twentieth behind the writings look at Re Verse All.  If there is interest and continued support from readers we will endeavor to continue with another novel and more behind the writings posts for it.

Bible and Theology, Music

#396: Why Music Matters

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #396, on the subject of Why Music Matters.

In a private group on Facebook, the Christian Music Network, someone named Esther Waraa asked this question:  Why is music important in praising the Lord?  I immediately decided this was a topic worth exploring, and I had already been saying that I needed a web log post this week, so here goes my exploration.

First, a few credentials and caveats.

I spent five years in Contemporary Christian Radio, but probably before most of you and many of today’s artists were born.  From that I have been publishing a series about the artists who were at the roots of the Christian Contemporary/Rock Music world, the most recent of these articles post #391:  Pat Terry, with links to forty-two previous articles going back to people like Larry Norman and Ralph Carmichael.  I have also been a musician all my life (my kindergarten teacher called me her little songbird), and have begun publishing some of my compositions, the most recent #393:  The Song “Why”, again with links reaching back to twenty-three previously released songs.  I know something about music and particularly about Christian music.

The caveat, though, is that I consider the act of leading worship to be pastoral ministry, leading believers to intimacy with God.  I am not a pastor; I am a teacher.  I have written extensively about that previously, a nine-part series culminating in #107:  Miscellaneous Music Ministries which explains how music might be used in various ministry callings.  It also addresses the modern error that music is always specifically for worship, partly by contrasting it to the error of a previous generation, that music was always specifically for evangelism.  Indeed, music is for worship, but it’s also for evangelism, teaching, and other ministry functions–and sometimes it’s just for entertainment.  The question, though, specifically asked about “praising the Lord”, and thus is about pastoral ministry and worship music.

I am starting in an unlikely place–indeed, when I started thinking about this article I thought I would put this at the end, but the more I considered it the more I thought this really was a primary reason, if not the primary reason.  When we are told in Genesis that God made man in God’s image, up to that point about the only thing we had been told about God was that God created.  He spoke His creations into existence.  Thus the image of God in man is not that we have arms and legs, nor indeed that we have thought and speech and feelings, but ultimately that, like Him, we create.  Creation, usually in the form of artistic or artisinal expression, is the ultimate expression of the image of God in us, and as such is fundamentally glorifying to God.  Thus when we create music we reveal the divine, and when we use that creation to point to the divine we intensify that aspect.

The second point I am going to propose is that music is engaging.  In theory, you can praise God simply by thinking positive thoughts about Him, but you become more involved in that praise if you speak it aloud.  Put it in a poetic form, something with meter, rhyme, alliteration, and it becomes more engaging yet.  Give it a melody, and you become more involved.  Instrumental support, harmonies, other singers, all of this draws the worshipper into the worship.  In a very real sense, your worship is more focused, more intense, when it is sung to an accompaniment.

That suggests another point:  music encourages mutuality.  There is certainly nothing lacking in the glory to God when a hundred people in a room are each individually praising Him, each in his own words and his own way.  However, get that crowd singing the same words to the same music, and suddenly you have a unity, united voices all raising the same praise to God together.  Just as there is power when we agree in prayer, there is power when we agree in praise, and music facilitates that agreement powerfully.

I’m working my way down a list here, but the next point is not insignificant:  music is interesting.  I was a child in what might be termed “light liturgical” churches–people joining in a call to worship, perhaps a responsive reading, an invocation terminating in the Lord’s Prayer, a closing benediction.  I could sleep in those services, probably still today.  That’s not to denigrate the liturgy; for some people it is a great aid to worship.  However, the interesting points really were when we all sang the Doxology, the Gloria Patri, the several hymns.  Music held my attention then, and that matters.  People can easily be lulled into inattention with long prayers and praises, but even if someone else is doing the singing, music is usually interesting.

Finally, I think, music is memorable.  I touch on this in the series on music in ministry previously linked, but the point is that you can close a service with everyone repeating the Aaronic Benediction together, but if instead you close it with everyone singing a worship song, a significant number of people are going to walk out of there still singing their praise to God.  It might even pop back into their head later in the week.  People complain about what are called “earwigs”, that is, songs that get stuck in your head.  What, though, if the song stuck in your head is glorifying God?  Singing our praise now means we are likely to wind up doing so again later.

Thank you, Esther, for the question.  I hope this has been helpful.

Books by the Author

#395: Character Obstacles

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #395, on the subject of Character Obstacles.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first six novels, Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel, Old Verses New, For Better or Verse, Spy Verses, Garden of Versers, and Versers Versus Versers, in serialized form on the web (those links will take you to the table of contents for each book).  Along with each book there was also a series of web log posts looking at the writing process, the decisions and choices that delivered the final product; those posts are indexed with the chapters in the tables of contents pages.  Now as I am posting the seventh, Re Verse All,  I am again offering a set of “behind the writings” insights.  This “behind the writings” look may contain spoilers because it sometimes talks about my expectations for the futures of the characters and stories–although it sometimes raises ideas that were never pursued, as being written partially concurrently with the story it sometimes discusses where I thought it was headed.  You might want to read the referenced chapters before reading this look at them.  Links below (the section headings) will take you to the specific individual chapters being discussed, and there are (or will soon be) links on those pages to bring you back hopefully to the same point here.

There is also a section of the site, Multiverser Novel Support Pages, in which I have begun to place materials related to the novels beginning with character papers for the major characters, giving them at different stages as they move through the books.

This is the nineteenth mark Joseph “young” web log post covering this book, covering chapters 109 through 114.  It was suggested that more shorter posts were a better choice than fewer longer ones, so there will be posts every six chapters, that is, every other week, for this book.  Previous entries were:

  1. #354:  Versers Reorienting, covering chapters 1 through 6;
  2. #355:  Versers Resettling, for chapters 7 through 12.
  3. #357:  Characters Connect, for chapters 13 through 18.
  4. #359:  Characters Engage, for chapters 19 through 24.
  5. #361:  Characters Explore, for chapters 25 through 30.
  6. #364:  Characters Learn, for chapters 31 through 36.
  7. #365:  Characters Travel, for chapters 37 through 42.
  8. #367:  Versers Encounter, for chapters 43 through 48.
  9. #370:  Characters Confront, for chapters 49 through 54.
  10. #373:  Nervous Characters, for chapters 55 through 60.
  11. #376:  Characters Arrive, for chapters 61 through 66.
  12. #379:  Character Conundrums, for chapters 67 through 72.
  13. #381:  World Complications, for chapters 73 through 78.
  14. #383:  Character Departures, for chapters 79 through 84.
  15. #385:  Characters Ascend, for chapters 85 through 90.
  16. #388:  Versers Climb, for chapters 91 through 96.
  17. #390:  World Facilities, for chapters 97 through 102.
  18. #392:  Characters Resting, for chapters 103 through 108.

History of the series, including the reason it started, the origins of character names and details, and many of the ideas, are in earlier posts, and won’t be repeated here.

Chapter 109, Takano 46

I feel like I’m dragging by trying to tell story.  On the other hand, I feel like if I weren’t telling story everything would be the same boring narrative repeated.

Chapter 110, Beam 97

I had an idea for an obstacle, and I needed obstacles to keep the story interesting.  Yet the obstacle as envisioned should mean that there would be a crashed mining mole, so I couldn’t put the obstacle in place until I had the mole, and that became the focus of this chapter.

Chapter 111, Hastings 220

I recognized part of my problem at about this point.  Way back when I started Verse Three, Chapter One, I put Bob Slade in a dungeon crawl, and I realized fairly quickly that it was not easy to write a dungeon crawl and keep it interesting.  Yet in this book I ran Lauren in what was clearly a dungeon crawl, and put Beam in a world in which a dungeon crawl scenario was inevitable, and sort of boxed myself in to bringing Lauren and Tommy into that same world and more dungeon crawl.  So I’m struggling to keep it interesting.  What made the Tiras story interesting was largely the interactions of the characters, but it’s harder to get that here.  Beam’s main characters have all told their stories to this point, and can only really interact with the world; Lauren and Tommy could tell their stories to each other, but those stories have already been told to the reader and the narration says they told them to each other, so there’s not much that can be done there.  So I have to try to create interesting events and encounters along the way, and that’s not really simple in this world.

As I finished the chapter, I was reminded of something I was writing a few decades back intended for a grade school audience about the exploits of a knight (his name will probably return to me).  What reminded me was that it was rather episodic, that he was headed somewhere (and I’m not sure I knew where even then) but with each chapter he encountered someone or something that created a short story before he moved to the next.  I have something of that feel here.

Chapter 112, Beam 98

The mole machine trench was my obstacle, and I’d actually considered whether it was going to prove impassible and floated it to Kyler, who had no real suggestions.  The bridge was the only idea, and I quickly saw that a simple bridge would slip, but by the time I got to it I’d envisioned a better bridge.  The fact that Beam had Bron made a difference.

I had typed the statement that they were going to have to build a bridge, and then stopped and left it open there without closing the chapter overnight.  I had thought to continue, to start work on the bridge, but I liked the cliffhanger despite the fact that the chapter seemed short.  In the morning I decided to go with the cliffhanger, and so marked the beginning of the Takano chapter, even though I was sure what Beam was doing and not at all sure what Tommy was doing.

Chapter 113, Takano 47

As I came to this chapter, I knew in significant detail what I needed to do with Beam, but had no clue where to take Tommy and Lauren next.

The greenhouse was going to be a park, but I decided that it was going to be a bit too hot and humid for comfort, more like a greenhouse garden.  That would keep them moving.

Chapter 114, Beam 99

I had played this through in my mind more than once, but was surprised at how quickly I reached the place to stop.

This has been the nineteenth behind the writings look at Re Verse All.  If there is interest and continued support from readers we will endeavor to continue with another novel and more behind the writings posts for it.

Bible and Theology

#394: Unplanned

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #394, on the subject of Unplanned.

Maybe a couple years back there was a story of a woman who received a note from someone she had known thirty-some years before in high school apologizing that she would not be able to make it to the surprise birthday party her daughters were secretly planning for her.

Singer/Songwriter Matthew West and family.

Yeah, big mistake.  But it calls attention to something.  Surprise parties don’t just happen.  It never is that a bunch of your friends accidentally showed up at the restaurant where you happened to decide to go for dinner, and they all shouted, “surprise” and brought out a cake.  Someone planned it, did a lot of work, and made it happen.  In fact, surprise parties require a lot more planning and work than the ordinary ones, because among the tasks involved are keeping it a secret from the birthday celebrant and ensuring that he or she gets to the right time and place.  It is certainly never an accident.

In fact, I’m inclined to think that there are no accidents in life.  Oh, certainly there are events, many of them from our perspective undesirable, which can be at least in part attributed to our own individual or collective negligence or poor planning.  Yet the number of times people are awakened by they-know-not-what before they drive off the road or over the center line, or managed to find the brake before they collided with the car that cut them off, reminds me that God could prevent these other accidents and for one reason or another chooses not to do so.

In the words of a recent popular song,

Oh I don’t believe in accidents.
Miracles, they don’t just happen by chance.
As long as my God holds the world in his hands.
I know that there’s no such thing as unplanned.

The impetus for writing this is that a friend I know only over the internet, but fairly well for that, very recently realized that she might be pregnant.  She has one child, and horror stories of that pregnancy.  She also has a horrifying medical history that includes (prior to that birth) a grueling miscarriage that had her comatose for several days, of a child who was far enough along that she had already named him, and other medical problems that would make a full-term pregnancy torture, possibly crippling, possibly life-threatening.  She says she cannot have another child, as much as she would want one.  I have no right even to suggest what she should do, and unless you count this article I have not done so; I know that she is in tears over the choice she faces, and the moreso because she is sure her choice will disappoint me.  I doubt she will read this, simply for that reason, and it is possible that by the time I post this the matter will have been, one way or another, resolved.  Yet it is a situation that haunts many women.

I will say that I cannot know what God’s intention is in this event.  Anything more that I might say about it would be unfair and unkind.  However, that song, the title song of Matthew West’s 2019 album, Unplanned, continues:

I thought it was my story’s end,
But now the future’s all I see.
Instead of asking who you might’ve been,
I’m wondering who you’re gonna be.

I pray for wisdom for her, and wish her a positive outcome in this.  I believe in a God who cares for us, each of us, all of us, born and unborn.  I believe in a God who has His hands on all the events we think are accidents.  We suffered five miscarriages; we have five sons.  Pregnancy is never easy, but children are one of the gifts God gives.

Bible and Theology, Music

#393: The Song “Why”

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #393, on the subject of The Song “Why”.

God gave me this song.

I hate those words; I almost never say them.  God gave me gifts, abilities, tools to write songs, and I struggle to forge them from ideas, themes, progressions, concepts.  I work hard on my songs, and sometimes they don’t come out well, and sometimes they are never finished.  God doesn’t “give” me songs; He makes me create them.

But He gave me this one.

Before I tell you about that, I’m going to vent a bit.  I remember a guy I knew in high school who called me up one week to tell me that on Friday night he was baptized in the Holy Spirit, and over the weekend God gave him five hundred songs.  He wanted me to come over and hear them.  I did.  Thing is, he sang very nearly monotone, and he knew only three chords.  The lyrics were, as far as I heard, all direct passages from the Gospels read straight from a modern committee translation with no crafting to make them more poetic, and they would have taken less than a minute each to sing these songs were it not that every maybe two to five syllables he changed chords, and he had to stop playing and singing so he could reposition his fingers when he did so.

O.K., that’s an extreme case–but I’ve heard many songs that people claimed God gave them, and often felt, really?  Couldn’t God have written a better song than that?  (And seriously, is it really more arrogant to claim that God has gifted you with the skills and talents to create songs than it is to claim divine inspiration for them?)  So I have assiduously avoided claiming divine inspiration for any of my songs.

But God gave me this one.

It was the spring of 1977, a private prayer time with my wife in the front room of our apartment in Rockport, Massachusetts, and we had sung a few songs so I was holding a guitar.  I struck a D major chord and started singing, and the song below came out.  As the last strings faded, Jan said something about it being a wonderful song, but it was gone–I could not remember more than that it started on a D chord.

A month later I was alone, and it came back to me, and I wrote it down immediately.

This recording was made in my living room in 2019, with just an acoustic guitar.  My preferences for this song would have included that there would be a lead guitar playing counterpoint to the vocal, and an instrumental verse in which the lead guitar plays both the melody and the counterpoint.  Also, it would segue from the song To the Victor, which Lord willing will be published in six months.  This, though, is the only recording of it of which I’m aware, and it conveys the essence, so it will suffice.  It is also one of the very few worship songs I have ever written.  I ranked it fourteenth for quality of words and music mostly because it’s short (another reason why I would perform it with an instrumental verse), and twenty-second for quality of the performance and recording mostly because it would be much better done with a band; Tristan did not have it on his list.  That placed it as the twenty-fourth song on the list.  (The method is explained in connection with the first song, linked below.)

Why.

So here are the words:

Thank you for Your love,
Love that is so free.
Thank you for your life
Given up for me.

Thank You for Your Word,
Come to make us wise,
By Your precious grace
Giving us the eyes

To see you

Dying on the cross of Calvary.
Yes, You came and died for me.
You gave your life so man would never die.
You came, and that is why
You came, yes, that is why.

I can only hope you benefit from the song in some way.  I will continue with additional songs in the future.

*****

Previous web log song posts:

#301:  The Song “Holocaust” | #307:  The Song “Time Bomb” | #311:  The Song “Passing Through the Portal” | #314:  The Song “Walkin’ In the Woods” | #317:  The Song “That’s When I’ll Believe” | #320:  The Song “Free” | #322:  The Song “Voices” | #326:  The Song “Mountain, Mountain” | #328:  The Song “Still Small Voice” | #334:  The Song “Convinced” | #337:  The Song “Selfish Love” | #340:  The Song “A Man Like Paul” | #341:  The Song “Joined Together” | #346:  The Song “If We Don’t Tell Them” | #349: The Song “I Can’t Resist You’re Love” | #353:  The Song “I Use to Think” | #356:  The Song “God Said It Is Good” | #362:  My Life to You | #366:  The Song “Sometimes” | #372:  The Song “Heavenly Kingdom” | #378:  The Song “A Song of Joy” | #382:  The Song “Not Going to Notice” | #387:  The Song “Our God Is Good”

Next song:  Look Around You

Books by the Author

#392: Characters Resting

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This is mark Joseph “young” blog entry #392, on the subject of Characters Resting.

With permission of Valdron Inc I have previously completed publishing my first six novels, Verse Three, Chapter One:  The First Multiverser Novel, Old Verses New, For Better or Verse, Spy Verses, Garden of Versers, and Versers Versus Versers, in serialized form on the web (those links will take you to the table of contents for each book).  Along with each book there was also a series of web log posts looking at the writing process, the decisions and choices that delivered the final product; those posts are indexed with the chapters in the tables of contents pages.  Now as I am posting the seventh, Re Verse All,  I am again offering a set of “behind the writings” insights.  This “behind the writings” look may contain spoilers because it sometimes talks about my expectations for the futures of the characters and stories–although it sometimes raises ideas that were never pursued, as being written partially concurrently with the story it sometimes discusses where I thought it was headed.  You might want to read the referenced chapters before reading this look at them.  Links below (the section headings) will take you to the specific individual chapters being discussed, and there are (or will soon be) links on those pages to bring you back hopefully to the same point here.

There is also a section of the site, Multiverser Novel Support Pages, in which I have begun to place materials related to the novels beginning with character papers for the major characters, giving them at different stages as they move through the books.

This is the eighteenth mark Joseph “young” web log post covering this book, covering chapters 103 through 108.  It was suggested that more shorter posts were a better choice than fewer longer ones, so there will be posts every six chapters, that is, every other week, for this book.  Previous entries were:

  1. #354:  Versers Reorienting, covering chapters 1 through 6;
  2. #355:  Versers Resettling, for chapters 7 through 12.
  3. #357:  Characters Connect, for chapters 13 through 18.
  4. #359:  Characters Engage, for chapters 19 through 24.
  5. #361:  Characters Explore, for chapters 25 through 30.
  6. #364:  Characters Learn, for chapters 31 through 36.
  7. #365:  Characters Travel, for chapters 37 through 42.
  8. #367:  Versers Encounter, for chapters 43 through 48.
  9. #370:  Characters Confront, for chapters 49 through 54.
  10. #373:  Nervous Characters, for chapters 55 through 60.
  11. #376:  Characters Arrive, for chapters 61 through 66.
  12. #379:  Character Conundrums, for chapters 67 through 72.
  13. #381:  World Complications, for chapters 73 through 78.
  14. #383:  Character Departures, for chapters 79 through 84.
  15. #385:  Characters Ascend, for chapters 85 through 90.
  16. #388:  Versers Climb, for chapters 91 through 96.
  17. #390:  World Facilities, for chapters 97 through 102.

History of the series, including the reason it started, the origins of character names and details, and many of the ideas, are in earlier posts, and won’t be repeated here.

Chapter 103, Hastings 218

I realized that I had only so many kinds of encounters and couldn’t run too many of them, but I had to keep some kind of tension in the story.  Lauren might fight my capybaras (or whatever they are) at some point, but I just had the truck accident (and have not ruled out another) and I don’t know how many chapters it’s going to take for me to bring these two groups together–and there will still be travels after that–so I have to go slowly on the encounters.

I was thinking I needed something besides apartments and retail outlets, and since no one had to work there would be no offices, and since everything was shipped directly from the surface to the distribution points there would be no warehouses.  I thought that if you got far enough away from the built up areas you might come to a more rural setting, country houses of a sort, but I struggled to figure out how they would be different.  Ultimately I decided they would be more like single apartments, and decided to make them multi-story more like houses.  I modeled the entry after my mother’s house.

I debated for quite a while whether someone lived here, and in my debates had envisioned what the initial encounter would look like.  I was so settled on that that I decided to go with it.

Chapter 104, Beam 94

I ran into trouble on the snacks, because I wanted something consistent with what John, on whom Beam is based, might eat.  I was trying to avoid cheesecake, which several of my characters have eaten, and I actually typed baklava before I remembered that John doesn’t eat nuts.  I remembered that he often posts photos of his meals on his Facebook page so I spent half an hour rummaging through and finding dozens of breakfasts (apparently he is in friendly competition with a friend or two who also post photos and descriptions of their breakfasts) until I found myself seriously considering frying a couple eggs.  I came upon a picture of the first time he ever made fudge, but I think it was also the last, and fudge didn’t seem to be the kind of thing he would order.  Then he mentioned cookies, and I remembered that he made a lot of cookies.  Of course, cookies that you buy never measure up to cookies that you make, but I wasn’t likely to find anything else, so I went with those.

Chapter 105, Takano 45

This was a tense situation, but a fight would have been so one-sided as to be ridiculous.  Indeed, the tension really was how Lauren could get out of this without a fight.

Chapter 106, Beam 95

I really was stymied by the breakfast question.  I settled on something which I hope I remember long enough to write.

Chapter 107, Hastings 219

This entire section was unexpected, springing from the encounter with the homeowner.

Chapter 108, Beam 96

In my puzzling over breakfast, I remembered that McDonald’s did a breakfast with pancakes, sausage, eggs, and maybe a hashbrown or a biscuit or something, and I decided I could configure something like that which would be to his liking.  I also decided he would order coffee, but enough of the orange juice and milk that no one had to drink it.

Having ordered the coffee and needing something to do, I came up with a reason why Bron and Sophie would have the coffee, and played with their reactions.

The chapter didn’t get me anywhere, which was a problem I seemed to be having, but then repeated chapters of climbing to another level weren’t going to be more interesting than experimenting with cream and sugar in coffee.

This has been the eighteenth behind the writings look at Re Verse All.  If there is interest and continued support from readers we will endeavor to continue with another novel and more behind the writings posts for it.