Timothy's Thoughts

S chool themed movies typically portray the cheerleaders and the jocks as terrible people who are too stuck up to pay attention to anyone. It’s a wonder they get along with themselves, much less anyone else. But the fact is that people like being in the in-crowd. The in-crowd is designated by the uniforms they wear. People want to be part of the group and once they make it they get to wear the same uniform as the others. Although, it isn’t about the uniform. What people want is to be special and the group makes them special. I think that’s part of the reason so many writers cluster around literary agents and editors. It’s also likely that this is the reason so many people prefer the idea of having an agent to self-publishing, even through the probability of success is greater for those who self-publish. There’s something about having someone tell you that you’re part of the group. There’s also something about being able to tell people that you know a person that everyone recognizes.

T his is hilarious, though it shouldn’t be. In Yahoo, Yoga, and Yours Truly , Albert Mohler reports that his inbox is filling up because the Associated Press made people aware of a post he wrote about Yoga. I saw the original article when he wrote it and wondered if he was making too much out of it. Basically, I have the same concerns he does about Yogo itself, but I figured most of the Christians practicing Yoga were actually just “twisting [themselves] into pretzels or grasshoppers” only for the exercise rather than true Yoga. But look at the following e-mail he received: I get more out of yoga and meditation than I ever get out of a sermon in my church. My favorite image I use in yoga is that of Jesus assuming a perfect yoga position in the garden of Gethsemane as he prays. How do we know that the apostles and early Christian guys did not use yoga to commune with Jesus after he left? This woman clearly sees something more to Yoga than simple exercise, leaving me to think that people...

Y esterday, I wrote about a person being split in two. A more realistic situation is that of a person being declared dead, then returning home to find that his wife has married someone else. I would never want that to happen to me, but I like the concept because there’s no clear cut solution that works well for everyone involved. The woman married one man, expecting to grow old with him. She moves on to another man, so when the first returns she’s in love with two men. Of course, neither man wants to give up on his claim to her affections. Stories like these are like a pressure cooker. As the story builds, the pressure grows greater and greater. Eventually, the story will burst. Something will have to happen to release the pressure, but it isn’t clear where that will be. As in real life, the break will occur in the weak spot, but it may take a lot of pressure to find where that spot is. The two equals will face off against each other and the pressure will keep building. That’s exactly...

F or a long time we’ve had this concept of a person duplicating himself. Often we see this on ads, a woman cleaning house divides into several copies of herself and the work gets down, of course that is to illustrate how much easier life would be with whatever product they’re selling. It’s an interesting concept because we wouldn’t mind letting someone else go to work so we can take time off, but it would never work. Can you imagine if you could just divide yourself in two? You would run into problems right away. Which person would do what? If you’re a naturally bossy person, both of you would be telling each other what to do and neither of you would do anything. If you’re a natural follower, both of you would wait for the other to decide what should be down and neither of you would take charge of the lead. (On a side note, I think that is why God designed marriage the way he did.) I’m somewhat fascinated with the concept of one person becoming two because both people would have equa...

T he good of the many outweighs the good of the few, or the one” the line says from Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan . The argument seems valid. If the death of one person can result in saving the lives of a hundred, it seems like a good trade, though none of us want to be that one or for that one to be a close friend. It’s the way wars are fought. A commander doesn’t want to lose men, but sometimes he has to send people into a battle they probably won’t win so that the rest of his men can position themselves for a battle that they will win. Soldiers choose to go to war because they know that even if they die it will make life better for their families back home. But it’s not easy to show an individual’s willingness to sacrifice for the group. With Spock it made sense because he was a very logical character. From seeing him in action before we knew that for him to do what he did he would have thought it out logically and had come to the conclusion that his sacrifice was the logical opti...

P eople like being scared. When we were children, we would hide ourselves away in a dark closest and tell ghost stories. I broke a window one time because of doing that. Some friends were over at the house one day. They, my sister and I had been sitting on the front porch telling ghost stories. We all went around to the back of the house to go inside. Us four had just gotten to the back door, with me leading the way, when the dog barked. I know I jumped, but I kind of think the other three pushed me forward. Whatever happened, my arm slammed into the glass and broke it. It takes more to scare most adults, be people still enjoy being scared. There’s an element of fear in every good story. We build a reader up to expect that certain things will happen, but we also introduce the possibility that it won’t . In suspense, the level of fear is pushed somewhat higher than what you might find in other genres, but every story has to have something to fear. The greatest fear comes from things w...

S in and our attitude toward it is an interesting thing. Not that long ago, divorce taboo. Fornication was also taboo. It’s interesting how different things are today. We’re much more accepting of divorce than we used to be. As for fornication, you can’t hardly watch a television show these days without someone at least implying that he is sleeping with his girlfriend. And for that matter, look at the Tyler Clementi case. I don’t condone what Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei are accused of, but the biggest concern people seem to have right now seems to be how to stop such bullying and no one seems to be concerned about what else was going on in the room at the time. Tyler Clementi is not innocent, but because he died people want to put all the blame on his roommate. First let’s consider the alleged crime of Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei. If I had someone using my dorm room for romantic encounters with a lover—either man or woman—I would be more than a little upset, so I can understand the tempta...