Dinosaur Lake by
Kathryn Meyer Griffith
My rating:
1 of 5 stars
I received this book free as an ebook from a giveaway I found on Google+. Now I kinda want my money back.
I somehow made it 164 pages in, after talking myself into continuing several times. I started reading this one over a month ago, and only made it this far into it. That should be an indicator of how much I didn't really want to read it. Usually, I can burn through a book of this length in a matter of two or three days. The poorly written account of the dinosaur attacking the family on Phantom Ship Island put an end to that, though. I should've grabbed a clue from the hokey dialogue earlier in the book, so I can only blame myself for continuing this far into the book.
If you're going to use an actual location for your story, you should write realistically for the geography. Boat tours at Crater Lake don't drop people off at Phantom Ship, because there's no way anyone could walk around on it. And for the love of all things decent, please, please, please, don't string sentence fragment after sentence fragment after sentence fragment together and try to pass it off as writing. If you do that in dialogue, and actually pull it off, I may forgive you. Do it in an attempt to describe what should be an action sequence, and you've lost me.
Yet another book relegated to the Did Not Finish shelf.
Until next time, stay safe, and above all, be true to yourself.
That Aaron Guy
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How many times have I just sat back and watched the world go by, wondering how I fit into it all? Feeling that I had some part to play in it, but having no idea what that part may be? No more will I willingly sit in that place feeling like I have nothing of worth to contribute.
I have been called to write, so here I sit writing. I was never called to be read, yet I write. I wasn't told I would be heard, maybe because I'm supposed to listen and follow, instead. And, of course, write what I've heard and learned, as much for myself as for anyone else.
For too long, I've placed the emphasis of my life on what I have or on what I thought others thought of me. Which is weird, because if people don't really notice me or agree with what I have to say, I'm okay with that. Then, when I have something to say, I'll go ahead and say it. Most times it doesn't agree with what a lot of others are saying, many times because what they're saying makes zero sense to me.
So, I've been told to write, not like I'm a voice calling out in the wilderness, or anything like that. I'm definitely not THAT guy. He was closely related to Jesus. I am, too, of course, but in a totally different way. Yes, I do see the world as a whole as a gaping wilderness where a LOT of people have no idea why they are here. And as every believer, I know it's my duty to help them find the path. The better path. The only path that leads to life.
So, here I sit. My butt in a lawn chair right outside the door of my RV, listening to city traffic seventy feet away, and the piercing whistle of the trains rumbling by every twenty or thirty minutes, pounding out these words that I hope make sense. Words that I pray will convey what they're supposed to convey. I'm just a guy with a keyboard who has lots of words. Hopefully, some of those words are the ones someone needs to hear today. I know things look bad, and that some of them look downright scary, dark, hopeless, and yes, even evil. Trust me, I'm on Facebook, too. WAY more than I should be, I'll admit, because I've been feeling that, too. Like everything is going to hell in a handbasket, and I may just be along for the ride. But I'm not just along for the ride.
I have the conquerer of death itself living inside of me. He wasn't just a challenger who thought He MIGHT be able to conquer death, maybe, someday. He looked death in the face, actually let death take Him, and then kicked the ever living crap out of it. When He came back, He was stronger than ever before because He was no longer bound by an earthly, weak body of mud that was confined by the rules of this fallen world. Instead, He had restored what we were all originally meant to be, fully walking in the blessing, power, protection, love, hope, mercy, grace, and perfection of God's plan for who He wanted us all to be. In fact, He had never been bound by that earthly body of mud, because He had always had perfect relationship with the Father. Remember that time He walked on water. Pretty sure that was completely out of bounds for mere human existence.
So, today, instead of wondering how this thing, or that person's bad decision, or this evil, or that lack, or hunger, or fear, or anger, or hate might affect my day, I'm just going to focus on the Greater One living inside of me. Instead of fearing, I'm going to listen to what He says to that fear, and simply repeat it. Instead of wondering if I'm walking down the path He laid out for my life before He spoke light into existence, I'm going to listen to what He says about me and who I am, and I'm going to tell myself that. Instead of worrying about the world around me crumbling to the ground, which is exactly what it's inevitably going to do at some point in the future, I'm going to listen to what He says about MY day today in THIS place, and believe that.
So, here I sit, writing words that have helped me face my day. I hope they give some measure of hope to you during yours, as well.
Until next time, stay safe, and above all, be true to yourself.
That Aaron Guy
I feel more at peace today than I have in quite some time. It's hard to say if this is due to a full night's sleep, not feeling the imminent demise of Deborah's employment any longer, or because I'm finally embracing my position during this time of my life.
Does it really matter why I feel at peace? I have to answer this question with a hearty "not really". I don't feel even the slightest worry. Not for the future. Not for my finances. Not for whether or not my book is going to sell when I finally get it finished at some point in the (I hope) not too distant future. No, I didn't have some grand revelation from scripture this morning that changed my perspective on life. I read Philippians, which is one of Paul's great letters, but nothing really jumped out at me. Then I read Psalm 80 and the accompanying passage out of Treasury of David, and nothing in particular came out and glowed off the page.
But I don't really need these kinds of things on a daily basis. I just feel more grounded than I have in a while. I'm in Kansas, not in the mountains right next to a river like I was for the past four months. It's like I'm beginning to learn, and I mean really LEARN that my surroundings don't matter. I remember one night when I was leaving work in Fort Mill, South Carolina. I looked up at the moon, which was full that night. I wasn't thinking about anything in particular about the moon, the night sky, or anything like that. I just glanced up at the moon while I was walking across the parking lot toward my truck. And I heard God say, clear as day, "That's the same moon you've looked at for your whole life. It doesn't matter where you are, Aaron, I'm always right there with you." That simple statement really blew me away. In those two short sentences, God affirmed His calling, purpose, and protection and love over my life. What's really cool about that is that the moon I've looked at my whole life is the exact same moon that Abraham looked up at, possibly as he travelled from Ur. And as permanent as that may seem to us, God was around before any of it was spoken into existence, and He was thinking about me and what I'd be thinking and doing at this very moment as I'm writing this before He spoke a word of creation. He was thinking about you, too. And He knew then what you'd be thinking when you read this.
No matter where we are or what we're doing, no matter where our lives take us, God is always right there, and He always knows exactly what we're thinking about, struggling with, worrying about, and hoping for. He's known all of that since before He spoke light into existence. He gave us light to see by before there was even anything physical to see. If He planned that little detail out so well, why would we ever think He'd just leave us to wander around in the darkness by ourselves? Just a random musing this morning in windy Wichita, Kansas.
Until next time, stay safe, and above all, be true to yourself.
That Aaron Guy
I've been making my way through the Psalms over the past several months, and reading through Treasury of David as a commentary to each chapter. This is part of what I read today:
"Ought not pious people more closely to imitate their heavenly Father in caring for those who have been condemned to die? An eminent Christian lady keeps a record of all who have been sentenced to death, so far as she hears of them, and prays for them every day till their end come. Is not such conduct in sympathy with the heart of God!" - William S. Plumer, as quoted in Charles H. Spurgeon's book The Treasury of David in commentary to Psalm 79:11, which says, "Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die."
This entire Psalm is basically a prayer by Asaph asking God to drop his judgement on heathen forces who have ransacked Jerusalem and the temple, and have killed God's followers. They were even leaving the dead bodies in the streets to rot in complete disrespect for who the Jewish people were and everything they believed.
And then, toward the end of the Psalm, verse eleven pops out as a comment about those who are in prison, and have become so resigned to their position and their fate that they can only sigh. Without even the power to say a proper spoken prayer, they sigh in defeat. Asaph asks God to hear even those sighs and to act to deliver them from their prisons where they have been thrown. Judging from the tenor of the rest of the chapter, these imprisonments are completely unjust, their only crime being that they follow the one true God.
Then the commentary by Plumer ratchets the plea up a notch, giving Christian believers a great example of how we are to see all of our fellowman. Even those who can rightly be called the worst of us, those who have been sentenced to death for stealing someone else's life from them. Even they are loved by the creator of the cosmos. Which means they should be loved and cared for by us, as well. Because they still have free will, and they can still use that will to accept everything God did for EVERY inhabitant of the planet, including the worst of us. THIS is compassion. THIS is loving like Jesus loved. THIS is loving our neighbors as ourselves.
I'll be the first to admit that I miss it on this point more often than I get it right. I don't know how often I've said (especially in the past few months), "Those people are idiots, and they deserve whatever comes their way." And usually, I'm not talking merely about prison time for their poor life decisions and criminal behavior.
I think the main thing I need to remember is that confused and deceived people act exactly like confused and deceived people. They honestly do not know any better. Should there be consequences, even severe ones, for their actions? Absolutely, there should. But at the same time, that doesn't give me the right to wish harm or bodily injury on them. If things make me angry, I need to do better at stepping back, taking a breath, and despising the action without despising the individual that's perpetrating the action. Otherwise, I've already kind of become exactly like them, haven't I? If that's the case, I've become less like the person I was created to be. Every time.
Until next time, stay safe, and above all, be true to yourself.
That Aaron Guy
I've been having a hard time lately because I've always worked a job, and now I'm not doing that. I was brought up to work hard and earn a living, but what if there's more to my life than that? If there is, then how do I balance what I've been taught and believed for so long with what I truly feel I'm being called to do at this particular point in my life? How do I fully stop thinking the old way, the only way I've ever known, and embrace this new thing in my life?
Society has such a stranglehold on us all, dictating what "normal" is, and ridiculing or scorning those that no longer fit into their neat little predefined boxes of how things "should" be and how people should behave or live their lives. If society has it so figured out, then why are there so many people walking the line of "normal" who are completely miserable, and don't even want to get up out of bed in the morning? People who can't stand the job they've been faithfully reporting to five or six days a week for the past twenty-five years, who haven't enjoyed that job since a month after they started. I submit that normal is killing us in droves. All in the name of chasing something that doesn't truly exist: normalcy of life.
What if this "normal" isn't something we were ever intended for? What if we were created for something grander? Is it possible that there is something that matters more than despising what we feel we're forced to do for forty or fifty hours week after week and year after year?
I'm writing, and I truly have no idea if anyone besides my family and friends will actually read my words. My wife asked me a very poignant question last night when I finally told her I was concerned about this. "So what? Maybe you should be asking yourself, "What if people actually do read what you write?" Are you writing for someone to read it, or are you writing it for you, because you know it's what you're supposed to be doing right now?"
Yep, she's pretty much a genius. If I'm writing for everyone else, it's going to change how or what I write. Just like if I'm living for everyone else and their expectations, it's going to change how I live. How we live is important, but if we're living for other people and their expectations of who we should be, aren't we dying a little every day? Only one person's opinion of me matters. The opinion of the one who made me to begin with. And I'm pretty sure He's cheering me on, and can't wait to read the next words I put down, even though He's the one that gave them to me in the first place.
Who are you living your life to please today? Why do they get such an important say in what you do? Something to think about. Now, I'm not telling you to go out and knock over an armored truck later this afternoon. There are certain expectations of society that are there for a very good reason, and the distinct possibility of a life in prison is bad any way you look at it. Simply put, pursuit of life: good, pursuit of prison: markedly less than good. But if you've got a burning desire to do that one thing, and every day that passes without you doing it causes a piece of you to die, maybe you should figure out a way that you can do that thing. It's probably the one thing that will allow you to truly live. And isn't that the reason we call this breathing thing "life", anyway?
Until next time, stay safe, and above all, be true to yourself.
That Aaron Guy
