The Open Author

I forgot to blog about the fourth week of #PoetrySummer.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
      Between the crosses, row on row,
   That mark our place; and in the sky
   The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
   Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
         In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
   The torch; be yours to hold it high.
   If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
         In Flanders fields.

I memorized this for two reasons. First, if I ever get around to playing my copy of Paths of Glory, I’ll need a poem that I can quote to throw my opponent off his groove.

The second, is you realize what is in that last stanza, right? “If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep.”

Sounds like a zombie apocalypse to me. And who doesn’t like a good zombie apocalypse?

It’s week three of #SummerPoetry. This week’s poem is If, by Rudyard Kipling.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

I’ve always wanted to memorize this poem, mostly because I have five sons. But as I memorized it, I realized there are several good bits for writers in there.

If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;

Early in my writing career, I met with triumph. I had several teachers–and of course my mother–who said I had a “talent” at writing. I started to believe that I was a born writer. I started to believe I’d have an easy road in my writing career. Work? That was for people who didn’t have talent. And I had talent.

And then of course, I met with disaster. I realized that my writing wasn’t anywhere near where it needed to be if I wanted success. I needed to work at my writing–to master the craft.

I should have met  both triumph and disaster the same. I was/am a writer with strengths and weaknesses. It doesn’t really matter what others say about me, good or bad. I’m the same writer at the end of the day.

And then of course there are these lines:

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools;

If you want to be a writer, the first ten years will be spent watching the “things” you gave so much time to broken. A good critique group will tear them down, not because they are cruel, but because your work will not be good. A successful writer is the one who can bear to watch their work torn apart, and then stoop, and start again with wornout tools.

It should be noted that the “wornout tools” bit especially applies to those who are still using Word Perfect.

I’ve got some ideas for a few other poems to memorize, but if any of you have a favorite, I’m open to suggestions.

Poemtry (pronounced Poem-Tree). That is what my kids called it when I pulled out Shel Silverstein and read to them, back in the day.

Dan Wells is memorizing a poem every week during the summer. He invited other folks to participate. Rob Wells, not to be outdone by his older brother, joined in. That wasn’t enough to push me over the edge, but when Sarah Eden joined the club, I caved. When my two co-hosts on The Appendix are memorizing poems, it’s time for me to suck it up and wade into the mental fray. Otherwise they will mock me during the breaks when we’re recording. You think they are all nice by the way they talk on the podcast, but as soon as the microphone goes off, they start making fun of me. Mostly about my beard. Sometimes Sarah kicks me under the table.

But I digress.

I served an LDS mission. Our particular mission was big on scripture memorization. You had to memorize 30 scriptures before you could drive a car. I struggled with memorizing scriptures. I would read a verse over and over and over to no avail. When I finally did memorize a scripture, I woke up the next day and realized I’d forgotten it all.

But I pressed on. Mostly because I wanted to drive. You won’t pick up girls if you can’t drive the mission Ford Escort station wagon. The more I memorized, the more I found that it came easily. The first few scriptures would take me weeks before I finally got them. Toward the end of my mission, it become much easier. I remember very distinctly writing down a scripture I wanted to memorize. After I finished, I read the whole thing, line by line. I flipped the card over and realized that I could recite it after only one reading (and one writing). It’s the closest I’ve ever come to a photographic memory. By the end of my mission, I had over 300 scriptures (over 500 verses) memorized. I kept them in a box, and would recite each one at least once a month.

I’ve gotten out of the habit, but I’m looking forward to a little exercise. I’m a week behind, but I’ve already memorized my “makeup” poem.

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening – Robert Frost

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Why did I choose this one? I think it’s obvious. It’s a sixteen line poem but . . . THE LAST TWO LINES ARE IDENTICAL! I only had to memorize fifteen lines! I get all the glory of a sixteen line poem, but only had to memorize fifteen lines. I’m laughing all the way to the poem-memorizing glory bank.

For my second poem, I’m choosing a shorter one, but still a favorite. It’s a Shel Silverstein, and the goal is to have it by Sunday.

LISTEN TO THE MUSTN’TS

Listen to the MUSTN’TS child,
Listen to the DON’TS
Listen to the SHOULDN’TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON’TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me–
Anything can happen, child
ANYTHING can be.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. It’s been a crazy spring. More on that later, assuming I ever find the time (right now, it’s not looking good).

However, I had to share this video we had made for TwHistory. It’s a great overview of what TwHistory is, and how it works.

Hope you enjoy.

I don’t think much of lotteries. Study after study has shown that the people who play lotteries are those who can’t afford it–the poor and uneducated. They also spend a larger percentage of their income on tickets, making it a kind of regressive tax.

I was listening to a Freakanomics podcast the other day, and heard what I think is one of the best ideas to come along in a long time. It’s called a prize-linked savings account. It’s changed my mind about ‘lotteries’, and I think it’s time Utah allows this kind of lottery.

Let me explain.

Americans, on average, spend more than they make. We like to put things on our credit card. When bank accounts get drained, many people often become desperate and play the lottery, hoping to strike it rich. And of course, the odds are against them, and they only end up deeper in the hole.

What Americans really need to do is save more. They need to put money away in case it’s needed later. It’s a simple concept, but one that millions just don’t seem to get.

A prize-linked savings (PSL) account could be the answer to this problem. PSL is often called the no-lose lottery. The idea is simple. When you buy a lottery ticket you either win or lose. If you lose, you’ve lost all your money. If you win, you get more than you spent, but the odds are against you.

With a PSL, you put money in a savings account. Every month, the bank picks a handful of lucky winners, and gives them a large sum of money. The banks pay this money from the interest earned on all the accounts. If you didn’t win, no big deal, you haven’t lost a cent. You can either pull your money out, or you can keep it in for a chance to win next month. In other words, the only thing you lose is the interest you would have earned in a regular savings account.

The PSL idea was tried in South Africa with incredible success. Poor people, many of whom never even had a bank account to begin with, suddenly were pouring into the banks and putting money in PSLs. It was so successful, in fact, that the government of South Africa sued the bank, and shut down the program. Why? Because the government of South Africa runs a lottery, and they realized they were losing revenue. That’s right, people stopped playing the lottery, and were saving money. And the government shut the program down.

Here in the states we’re no better. It’s illegal in almost every state to do something like PSL, because it competes with the state run lotteries. States don’t want to lose money. Banks could encourage people to save, and American needs it’s citizens to be more responsible with their money, but it’s illegal because it would hurt State’s bottom line.

Here in Utah, we don’t have a lottery. Many people cross over to Reno, or up into Idaho or Colorado to play the lottery. Why not be trailblazers and allow PSL here in Utah? It would encourage our citizens to save, and it would very likely  keep more money here in the state.

I wouldn’t use PSLs, because I think I can get a better return through careful investing. But for thousands of people who play the lottery, and see it as a wealth building strategy, this would be a much better option. Both for them, and for the rest of society, because they’d be more responsible, and would need to turn to social programs less often. The Legislature is in session. Let’s allow PSLs here in Utah, and see what happens.

By the way, I linked to the Freakonomics article above, I highly recommend reading the whole article, as well as listen to the podcast (15 minutes or so). Michigan is currently experimenting with PSLs, with some intriguing results. Billie June Smith deposited $75, and won $100,000.

And everybody else? Well, their savings accounts are still full.

I happened to be driving my son to scouts, and heard part of President Obama’s speech at the Tucson Memorial. His words were powerful and moving. You can read the entire speech here, but I wanted to especially quote this bit:

When a tragedy like this strikes, it is part of our nature to demand explanations – to try to impose some order on the chaos, and make sense out of that which seems senseless. Already we’ve seen a national conversation commence, not only about the motivations behind these killings, but about everything from the merits of gun safety laws to the adequacy of our mental health systems. Much of this process, of debating what might be done to prevent such tragedies in the future, is an essential ingredient in our exercise of self-government.

But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized – at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do – it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.

Scripture tells us that there is evil in the world, and that terrible things happen for reasons that defy human understanding. In the words of Job, “when I looked for light, then came darkness.” Bad things happen, and we must guard against simple explanations in the aftermath.

For the truth is that none of us can know exactly what triggered this vicious attack. None of us can know with any certainty what might have stopped those shots from being fired, or what thoughts lurked in the inner recesses of a violent man’s mind.

So yes, we must examine all the facts behind this tragedy. We cannot and will not be passive in the face of such violence. We should be willing to challenge old assumptions in order to lessen the prospects of violence in the future.

But what we can’t do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on one another. As we discuss these issues, let each of us do so with a good dose of humility. Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let us use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together.

And then this:

I believe we can be better. Those who died here, those who saved lives here – they help me believe. We may not be able to stop all evil in the world, but I know that how we treat one another is entirely up to us. I believe that for all our imperfections, we are full of decency and goodness, and that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us.

That’s what I believe, in part because that’s what a child like Christina Taylor Green believed. Imagine: here was a young girl who was just becoming aware of our democracy; just beginning to understand the obligations of citizenship; just starting to glimpse the fact that someday she too might play a part in shaping her nation’s future. She had been elected to her student council; she saw public service as something exciting, something hopeful. She was off to meet her congresswoman, someone she was sure was good and important and might be a role model. She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism or vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted.

I want us to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it. All of us – we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations.

Christina was given to us on September 11th, 2001, one of 50 babies born that day to be pictured in a book called “Faces of Hope.” On either side of her photo in that book were simple wishes for a child’s life. “I hope you help those in need,” read one. “I hope you know all of the words to the National Anthem and sing it with your hand over your heart. I hope you jump in rain puddles.”

If there are rain puddles in heaven, Christina is jumping in them today. And here on Earth, we place our hands over our hearts, and commit ourselves as Americans to forging a country that is forever worthy of her gentle, happy spirit.

I’m hopping to have time to blog more next year. But I couldn’t let a Christmas season pass up without one of my favorite Christmas songs.

Merry Christmas.

Found a good article that talks about both sides of the argument that a Kindle can pay for itself. On the one hand this could technically be true. If you buy a lot of brand new hardback books, then the Kindle will eventually save you enough money to pay for itself, since e-books tend to be a few dollars cheaper than their printed cousins.

But several recent surveys have shown that those with e-book readers both read more, as well as buy more. So you might technically be saving money, but you’re also spending more as a result. So it’s kind of like when a spouse tells their partner that they should be happy because they’ve saved lots of money shopping. Technically true, but at the end of the day your wallet is pretty empty.

Great article in the LA times about the a voracious reader making the conversion to e-books. He made the switch and ‘never looked back’. His device of choice? The latest Kindle.

It’s a good article, but one minor point stuck out at me. From the article:

Amazon’s e-books seem rife with typos, odd hyphenations, words run together, as though the developers haven’t invested in proofreaders.

I’ve been reading Sharpe’s Tiger on my Kindle. I’m a sucker for historic fiction in the Napoleonic Era, and Bernard Cornwell always pleases. But I’ve noticed several spelling errors. The word “the” has been converted to “die” about a dozen times. I haven’t been counting, but I bet close to thirty words are misspelled.

It got me thinking; communication between the Kindle and Amazon is two way. In other words, I can pull stuff down from Amazon, but I can also push stuff up. I can’t help but think a neat feature would be the ability for me to mark spelling errors while I read. When enough people tag the same error, proofreaders at Amazon could make the correction and push out new copies of the book to anybody who has it.

Technically I think this would be a pretty easy, although I also understand it would very likely be a PR black eye for Amazon. I can see the blog headlines now, Amazon charges you for error-filled books, then asks you to fix it for them.

Still, this would be a great feature for Public Domain works, many of which have been digitized by volunteers. I think readers wouldn’t mind pitching in to help improve the book, just like they do for Wikipedia. Again, you’d have to have a paid editors at Amazon to actually make the changes, just to make sure a couple of yahoos don’t go and change Oliver Twist’s name to Herman Buckleweather, but I think the concept in theory would work.

Looks like Amazon has a few extra older generation Kindles laying around the warehouse. They’re putting them up for sale on Black Friday for $89. Is that a deal? Well, considering the Kindle 2 uses the same technology as the current Nook, I’d say if you don’t want to shell out the $139 for generation 3, this is a steal.