Your Dying Spouse 523 - Not An Expert, Just Here

I'm no expert.

Not a theologian, nor a philosopher, nor a medical doctor.

I'm just a dude in a place that's become kind of hard.

Today's blog from the Steve Laube Literary Agency (10/2/18) dealt with the subject of needed expertise in writing, as a prerequisite to acceptance by publishers and readers.

This was my comment:

"A lance corporal who has survived one firefight has more authority to write about combat than the most degreed and credentialled civilian professor of military science.

For myself, I have no education in theology; I came to Christianity through the portal of Zen Buddhism, and am still viewed askance by many, as if I’m not quite theologically hygienic.

But like the 19-year-old Marine clutching his M4 as the rosary it becomes, I’m holding to unspeakable pain and dread, and to boundless hope and trust, as I walk the twilight world of terminal cancer and faith.

Here, the words of the experts fade against the roaring from the darkness, and they pale against the Real Light that keeps the monsters at bay.

The terror is too great to be dispelled by Scripture, but Scripture tells the story that makes the faint footprints visible, of the One who walked this path before, showing that it can be done.

I’m no expert. I’m just a writer who happens to be dying, and who happens to be a Christian."

I can lay claim to the expertise of experience, but I'm hesitant to put it into a book. Aside from the fact that I don't have much energy for that sort of thing, the faith that has carried me through is 'uninformed', at least from an academic perspective.

I can write about the Grace that surrounds me and gives me both hope and purpose...but would this fly, spoken from a pulpit? I don't know.

I can write about why bad things happen to sort-of-ok people, but I don't have the rabbinical background of a Harold Kushner to make it stick. (Not to mention his personal experiene, watching his son die of progeria.)

And yet...the Gospels were not written by theologians. Matthew was a tax collector, Luke a physician.

Paul studied under the rabbi Gamaliel, and was broadly educated there in not only Judaism, but also classical tradition and philosophy (his writings show an influence by and something of an affection for the Stoics).

But after his Damascene road conversion, all that was prologue to something new.

I'm no Paul, but maybe what I am living is something new, as well.

Maybe it does belong in a book, because to learn that dying opens the door to living, that might just be worth handing on.

Your thoughts?

Dedicated to our dear, loyal reader Annie from the greatest Republic in the Union, here's Deep In The Heart Of Texas. Watch for the cattle dogs working, near the end. They're having a blast.

Please pardon my slow response to comments. I do my best, and your comments are really precious to me. Barb is answering many of them now. I'm running on fumes, if you don't mind a macho metaphor.

I'm grateful for the energy to have written this. I'm so glad Barbara's stepped in for many of my posts. I'm really not doing well at all.

Thanks to Carol Ashby, Blessed Are The Pure Of Heart is back on Kindle, and will be available in paperback soon.

Friends are everything. I couldn't have done it.

Marley, the canine waif from Afghanistan, whom WE helped save, has a Facebook page! Please drop by to see how happy he is today.

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Below are my recent releases on Kindle -please excuse their presence in the body of the blog. I haven't the energy to get them up as 'buttons' in the sidebar. You can click on the covers to go to the Amazon links.