By The Reverend Mrs. Silence DoGood<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dear Editor,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I received the letter from Eliot, Eliot & Holden saying that they wanted to publish my book I naively thought that the process would be simple. I had given them a collection of my sermons and Letters to the Editor with a suggested title of \u201cRecipes for Overcoming the Fear of Living and the Fear of Dying.\u201d But that naivet\u00e9 was quickly corrected by my Editor, Ms. Emily Thatcher, a British girl in her early 20\u2019s dressed like Coco Chanel. She told me what I had to do to turn my loose collection of material into a \u201csystematic zeitgeist\u201d or world view. I used to think that having given birth to my two children was the most painful task I would have done in my life but that was before I met Ms. Thatcher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mr. Eliot had introduced me to Ms. Thatcher at our first and only meeting and then he left. It was eminently clear that he had confidence in her. As she and I sat in a small wood-paneled conference room with an oversized chandelier she quickly told me that it was she who convinced Mr. Eliot to work with me. She made it quite clear that my writing career depended on her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My first homework assignment from her was to identify universal themes in my sermons and Letters that could be used in my book to help readers overcome their fears of living and dying. After a great deal of thought I came up with what I thought was a perfect theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Listen to the Wind When the Bells Don\u2019t Ring<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d she asked in a high-pitched British condescending voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is a beautiful phrase. I think it is almost self-evident. Bells are the work of men and women. They are most often rung by churches but they are also rung by other institutions. The wind on the other hand is Nature and everything that is not made by men and women. There is truth and revelation in the wind. It redeems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt sounds to me that you want to tell your readers to find truth outside of church.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWeekly my parishioners spend about an hour and a half in Church. The rest of their lives are spent in the world. At my Church I preach to help my congregation find strength in the world to overcome their fears.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She quickly changed the subject. So I didn\u2019t know then if my universal theme met with her approval or not. I still don\u2019t know. And what I also don\u2019t know is whether she will decide or if she has to discuss it with Mr. Eliot. Maybe over cocktails. Birthing a book is very difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She changed the subject to my new homework assignment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou realize that in our culture there are universally accepted quotations that reference our common human experiences. Some come from speeches, literature, plays and of course movies. I want you to write lines in your book that become a standard quotation in our culture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure I understand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the movie On the Waterfront<\/em> Marlon Brando says \u2018I could\u2019ve had class. I could\u2019ve been a contender. I could\u2019ve been somebody instead of a bum which is what I am.\u2019 People in this country and around the world quote those lines. Especially \u2018I could\u2019ve been a contender.\u2019 I want you to write lines as quotable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aghast! It\u2019s not a word I use very often but I was aghast at her directive. Was it her intention that my book become a best seller by being quotable? Or was it that she wanted to be the editor of a book that was universally quoted so that when she was on the \u201cTalk Shows\u201d she would become famous?<\/p>\n\n\n\n I told her that I understood her request. I also told her that I had to go back to my home in the bucolic-farming hamlet of Halo, Pennsylvania where I would continue my writing. Somehow she and Midtown New York weren\u2019t supporting my creativity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Reverend Mrs. Silence DoGood<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Senior Pastor<\/p>\n\n\n\n Executive Director<\/p>\n\n\n\n President<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chairman<\/p>\n\n\n\n Choir Master (part-time)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The First Church of God\u2019s Love<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By The Reverend Mrs. Silence DoGood Dear Editor, When I received the letter from Eliot, Eliot & Holden saying that they wanted to publish my… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1630,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,33,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","category-mrs-dogood","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodstuffconnections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodstuffconnections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodstuffconnections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodstuffconnections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodstuffconnections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/goodstuffconnections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1648,"href":"https:\/\/goodstuffconnections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions\/1648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodstuffconnections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/goodstuffconnections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodstuffconnections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/goodstuffconnections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}