Category: Prose

Short prose

Film – Six Sentence Story

The merely ordinary smeared Simon’s view of reality like a greasy film making him discontent with what he saw. To brighten his spirits he tried all sorts of gimmicks. His current desperate attempt included taking a challenging course in mind over matter levitation where each student was required to either levitate or produce a creative alternative.

One student wrote an essay arguing how going on keto would lead to less matter for the mind to lift. Another painted a self-portrait entitled If God Had Wanted Me to Levitate, He Would Have Made Me More Like This Hot Air Balloon.

When it was all over each of the submitted stories, essays, songs and paintings received an Award of Outstanding Excellence and Simon tried to decide which was worse: dealing head-on with his unsatisfying view of reality or signing up for the second level of the course.

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Denise offers the prompt word “film” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Ancient Roman Tile at Beit Shean, Israel

Club – Six Sentence Story

Believing the best way to deal with someone was not to beat him over the head with a club Brian manipulated George with psychology. George, on the other hand, preferred the club.

Over the years these two friends found lovely brides and got married raising children who had children until Brian died which made George wonder if he should have used the club less often. Without Brian’s subliminal influence George felt the only thing left to do was grow old.

That was when an undeserved miracle gave George a wallop knocking some sense back into him and letting him know he wasn’t quite dead yet. After that the grandchildren longed to hear his tall tales while his own children listened and even his wife respectfully responded to his loving touch which frankly shocked him but not as much as it pleased her like an answered prayer.

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Denise offers the prompt word “club” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Ephesians 5:33 “Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.” (KJV)

Western Wall of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem With Prayers Stuffed in the Cracks

Spark – Six Sentence Story

Jeremy tried to spark some vitality into his life, but reality kept blowing it out.

His dietician suggested replacing the stuff that went into his mouth with other stuff, but he didn’t like that other stuff. The family counselor suggested he forgive his wicked sister Felicity, but that wasn’t going to happen. His anxiety over unlikely disasters wouldn’t leave no matter how many shrinks he paid to worry about them.

Reality refused to repent of its evil ways. Over the years all it did was add to Jeremy’s baggage until he couldn’t get a good night’s sleep even after wicked Felicity preceded him in death.

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Denise offers the word “spark” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Ancient Pavement

Knot – Six Sentence Story

The entrance from the street was locked long ago still George waited for the iron bars to rust away. Perhaps it would turn out as the dark spirits predicted, though everyone knew they were liars, that one day the whole doorway would collapse letting the riff-raff in, but now those crossed bars mirrored a knot of frustration in his throat he couldn’t swallow down.

George remembered how that very door swayed open allowing anyone ready to enter to do so. Unfortunately, that was when he didn’t have much oil in his lamp and his clothes were stained. When the door shut he knocked on it demanding management give him more time to get ready. That was when he got so, ever ever so, demonically annoyed upon hearing a strange voice say “I never knew you” that the iron bars had to be added for his own protection.

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Denise offers the prompt word “knot” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Matthew 7:23 – “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (KJV)

Band – Six Sentence Story

Brian’s cold was a regular part of his seasonal doldrums starting about November and lasting till Spring. The liturgy minister in the church he attended, knowing Brian’s talent with a guitar, wondered if he would like to join the Sunday worship band. Brian told him about his cold even though the cold didn’t stop him from doing anything he really wanted to do.

Without warning the minister put his hand on Brian’s shoulder and prayed out loud while everyone watched that Brian be healed. Embarrassed but courteous Brian accepted the prayer expecting nothing much from it. Three days later the cold was gone and it never returned.

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Denise offers the word “band” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Sunrise with two birds
Sunrise with two or three birds

I am on vacation, but this story occurred to me and so I scheduled it for today without being able to participate in the link party.

Forming Words – Six Sentence Story

Although impoverished Jeff found a ride out of Blislisnis to attend his mother’s funeral held in the rural town that he left decades ago teased by vanity that never bore fruit. A former classmate carrying an oxygen tank with nasal tubing who came to offer his condolences surprised Jeff with how old he himself must now look as did other former companions who proudly told him of their grandchildren.

The pastor asked him if he would care to say a few words in memory of his mother. Standing near the casket with nothing to say he tried to form words, but the only thing people remembered him saying was I’m sorry, momma.

Friends of his mother offered Jeff a place to stay with work to do giving this prodigal son an opportunity, which he accepted, to forget Blislisnis. At the gravesite he silently prayed for the privilege of a few years of usefulness, of blessing not burden to others, before finding a spot of his own somewhere in that churchyard, out of the way perhaps, but hopefully not too far away from his family.

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Denise offers the prompt word “form” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Exploration 108 – Bible Maps

Two resources have helped me get a sense of the geography of the events recorded in the Bible.

The first is William Schlegel’s Satellite Bible Atlas. The second is the Bible Mapper Blog. Besides a blog with pre-made maps they offer software to help you build them yourself. As an example below is the map they created for their recent post Jehu Executes Judgment.

Source: Bible Mapper (permission granted for non-commercial purposes)

Beat – Six Sentence Story

Ever since Walter convinced the city to install electronic voting machines as the Governor recommended he beat all contenders by an overwhelming majority to become, and then stay, the Major of Blislisnis. Knowing that he never came close to winning anything before drove conspiracy theorists nuts.

However, the average citizen had other worries besides caring that Walter got richer and richer without explanation as the years went by. Although few admitted that they themselves voted for him they all assumed a large number of the electorate must have.

Talk went wild when Walter decided to run for Governor in a power-grab that would take out his former ally. One morning the local news reported that Walter had been arrested for voter fraud while computer technicians were busy reconfiguring the voting machines all of which convinced those nutty conspiracy theorists that the Governor would win re-election with more votes coming from Blislisnis than people living there (which he did).

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Denise offers the prompt word “beat” for this week’s Six Sentence Stories.

Exploration 107 – The Origin of Languages

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

Genesis 11:1 King James Version

How did we even get one language let alone the thousands that exist today?

An evolutionary answer might start with a cauldron of silent pond scum, but don’t ask where that pond scum came from. Stir the pot with the magic wand of a gazillion years of random motion until you get some noisy critters. Then keep stirring till the croaks, chirps and growling turn into men and women using language. How this happened, how this even could happen, is the hand-waving that seasons the stew.

What we learn from the Bible is something more reasonable in spite of it being more supernatural. Originally there was only one God-given language, but after God confounded communication at Babel because of disobedience there appeared many others. These were highly complex languages. They simplified over a few thousand years into what we have today.

The following commentary by E. Dane Rogers from the Tacoma Grace Bible Church on Genesis 11 goes into this biblical approach in more detail.

Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Genesis 11:9 (KJV)