Recognition: Word Shop Newsletter June 2006

In an autobiography of some actress (I forget who, maybe you can tell me) she wrote of a trip to Israel. She was looking through the fence of the garden of Gethsemane when she saw Jesus in there praying. "Why am I seeing Jesus?" She wondered, "I'm Jewish." Jesus looked up and said to her, "So am I."

The first time I saw Jesus, I was sitting in my livingroom thinking about how I ought to quit smoking. Suddenly there he was standing on my left, smiling at me. There's someone there, I thought, tears rolling down my cheeks. There's someone really there. Years later I told this to a friend and she asked, "How did you know it was Jesus?"

I recognized him.

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Yesterday I got notice that our rent is being raised. This coupled with the decline of new book orders over the past few years has sent me to the Lord looking for creative solutions. An idea has emerged to offer $100 a year sponsorships. As a sponsor, you would not only be supporting the ministry of The Word Shop but could also have free access to any of our used books. Obviously sponsors will have to be approved in order to weed out those who might grab hot books just to re-sell them, the greedy and the addicted. Those of you who live out of town would still have to pay shipping--unless you invite me to bring a book table to a conference or event in your area.

Email me if you think you might be a potential sponsor. If there is enough response, I'll formalize the mechanics--and refrain from giving notice to the rental agency.

"I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library." --Jorge Luis Borges

Folly by Laurie King is about a woman on the edge of sanity who decides to go build a house on the San Juan Islands. She fights panic attacks, paranoia, loneliness--and the lurking possibility that her worst fears aren't all in her mind. In this compelling psychological suspense novel, we see her struggle to build her house, her community, herself. $7 HB.

I snatched William Barrett's The Sudden Strangers and Goudge's The Rosemary Tree out of a big box of old novels. Both of these authors have an endearing sense that character breeds success and that success is bigger than fame or money. Barrett's books always weave together the Church and the arts. Mystic sensibilities and sacramental understandings are presented in a believable, matter of fact way. In this case the story is of a young man trying to figure out what to do with his life. His mother is a successful actress, his unknown father a monk. There is, of course, a girl--two girls in fact. How sweet it is to take refuge in a fictional view of the Church, just when the churches down the street are getting uncomfortably prickly. $7 HB for Sudden Strangers, $4 pb for Goudge.

"It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning." --Bill Watterson

OK! I hereby recant the anti-poetry position of last month's newsletter. I do like poems. I like them best when I know and love the poet. Otherwise, I'm just very picky.

"Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself; I am large, I contain multitudes." --Walt Whitman.

Meanwhile don't forget:
BIG SUR CAMPING AND CRAWDAD SOCIETY the weekend after the 4th of July.
LIFE RULES! First Friday at 1:30 (I'm resisting the urge to close the store and do it in Big Sur.)
FIRST TUESDAY WRITERS which will be Monday the 3rd at 7:15 this month.
FAMILY CAMP July 16-22

and don't forget to respond about being a sponsor.

"All know that the drop merges into the ocean but few know that the ocean merges into the drop." --Kabir

Blessings,
Alliee +