House Health Care Reform Bill Pelosi-edition

The U.S. House of Representatives has just posted a copy of the 1,990 page health care bill.

Here is the link -- http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_ahcaa.pdf

Download and read it. We don't have much time to provide feedback to Washington on this.

My Shirt, My Life, My Spider(bite)

　
Maybe the red stiletto boots hooked me. Maybe the twinkling stars and commanding strips did. Or maybe, just maybe, the gold wrist cuffs were what won my heart.

Forget Indiana Jones. The first person to popularize rope wearing was the ultimate heroine: Wonder Woman. And her rope didn’t whip the baddies; it seduced them into speaking the truth.

Gotta love Wonder Woman!

Yes, I have to admit I have a Wonder Woman tee-shirt. One Person Who Won’t Be Named thought I was loony to wear it to the opening night of the RWA STAR conference. Oh, but that feline lover was so wrong. I’m not a bit loony. I proudly wore the red shirt with Wonder Woman emblazoned across my chest. In fact, I even wore it to church upon more than one occasion.

Although I love Wonder Woman, she’s really not my favorite superhero. Neither are Superman, Supergirl, Aquaman, or the Wonder Twins. (Yes, I am anxiously awaiting the Wonder Twins arrival in Smallville.) Probably my fav is Spiderman. Why? Because he wasn’t born Spiderman. His powers weren’t innate.

One day he was happily walking along in geekdom when a spider bit him. In that nanosecond, his life changed.

Every person who has ever lived has had at least one spider-biting moment.

Huh? you may be thinking.

Well, that’s okay.

Think away.

Every person who has ever lived has a story. They were born, they lived, and they died. Some stories are exciting.

William Wallace. Ghandi. Genghis Khan. Joan of Arc.

Anne Boleyn.

Martin Luther. Thomas Jefferson.

Rosa Parks.

Jesse Owens. Mozart. Liberace.


But some stories aren’t as exciting and no one will find them in any book.

Of course, most of us will never James Frey our lives for recognition, but that doesn’t mean our stories aren’t as valuable or significant.

What is your spider-biting moment? What is that moment in time when your life hit a huge turning point?

For me, it was June 8, 1992.

I’d just graduated with a degree in Communications with an emphasis in Radio/Television and was working at a news radio station. My fiancé was a DJ at a local top-forty radio station. Life was good. Yet, I was miserable. My life had had a small turning point during my senior year of high school. My church youth pastor did something stupid (nothing immoral or anything, just stupid), which ticked me off so I slowly got less and less involved in church.

So by 1992, I had pretty much walked away from practicing my faith, from believing in the significance of being a part of a body of belivers. The guy I was marrying claimed to be a Christian so I justified that as him being a good guy to marry, yet I couldn’t understand why I was so miserable...until I realized that a relationship with a guy wasn’t going to fill the ache in my heart. No man, woman, or child could offer me lasting significance. I need God on a daily basis. I needed to be following His will, His word.

I'd never stopped believing in God. I'd merely sat down in the middle of the race.

After my realization, I ended the engagement and returned to the One True God who could heal my hurts and give me value. The joy that I had been missing consumed me. My life hasn’t been the same since because no matter what struggles, frustrations, or hell that arises, I have a peace and hope in my soul that defies human understanding.

That’s what I call a life-defining moment.

I remember when I was thirteen

I saw a picture on my T.V. screen

The Reverend Billy Graham and the people singing Just As I Am

And it felt like You were talking to me

And the whole world seemed to fade away

Until I heard my mother say "Son, are you okay? Do you wanna pray?"

And that became the hour I first believed

Next thing you know I'm high and flyin'

Next thing you know My heart is in your hands

Next thing you know There's no denyin'

Next thing you know I'm a brand new man

Well, I wish I could say I always stayed right there

And I did until my freshman year

But the world was pulling me a long way from thirteen

And you were calling but I didn't hear

Still I knew there was something more

So, one day my knees hit the dorm room floor

I said, "If you're there, and if you really care,

Come and talk to me like I was thirteen."

Got a picture in my head today of how heaven might look someday

I see the people there, so I pull up a chair

And their stories, they blow me away

'Cause I can see it on every face The evidence of grace

And as I listen it occurs to me

Everybody's got their own thirteen

So, what's your story about His glory?

You gotta find your place in the history of grace

Yeah, what's your story about His glory?

Come on and find your place

~Matthew West, What's Your Story

Every person who has lived as had a life-defining moment, although not all of those moments are personal encounters with God.

When a couple marries, their lives take a new course. Even if they divorce, their lives are forever changed. Having children is a turning point. Losing a parent or loved one and realizing that life is about more than chasing wealth and 15 minutes of fame is a defining moment.

As writers, as women, we all need to examine our lives for spider-bites. What happened that changed you from a self-absorbed person to a giving person? What changed you from loving the man you vowed to love-until-death-do-you-part into wondering what a relationship with that other guy would be like? What changed you from working in a 6-digit job to becoming a stay-at-home mommy? What made you leave Podunkville, USA for a life in the big city? What changed you from being a joyful person to a cynic or a cynic into a joyful person?

Remember those experiences and use them when you write.

Now think about your characters. Do they have life-defining moments? Or are they the same people at the end of the novel as they were at the beginning?

In his book Writing the Breakout Novel, Donald Maass writes, "[A] novel, uniquely among art forms, presents powerful points of view, strong conflicts and a helping of human life that affirms a higher truth. Characters in breakout fiction may seem realistic, even average, but they are bigger than their circumstances. They do not just suffer, but strive. The do not practice patience, but act. They do not merely strive, but endure."

Later in the chapter, he uses the word "rebirth."

I love that word choice. If you’ve ever read The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler, you saw a comedic and earnest rebirth of a character. If you haven’t read it, then read it.

Take a really really good look at your manuscript. Is there a rebirth? If there isn’t, then maybe you need to take your manuscript on a tour of a laboratory that specializes in genetically enhanced spiders.

Make your characters stop being victims of life and start being students of their experiences.

And while they’re at it, why don’t we join them?

Swine Flu Paranoia is Everywhere!