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Published on 02/03/1997 All articles from this issue

From a writer's notebook

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By Mary Cristy

"We are called to write and I feel we will be held responsible at the judgment for people who are hurting that we could have helped but didn't because we didn't write what God laid on our hearts to write." Harold Ivan Smith.

"Writers," says Bruce Jay Friedman, "aren't born that way." The explanation I prefer comes from Chekov whose letters reveal he longed for riches but conceded a million dollars would lead to indolence. "Writers thrive on friction. The serious writer does his best work when he's cornered, not sitting in the sun."

(Nevertheless, writers continue to dream of sunshine and shekels.)

Winston Churchill in "The Gathering Storm" observes:

"Writing a long and substantial book is like having a friend and companion at your side to whom you can turn for comfort and amusement and whose society becomes more attractive as a new and widening field of interest is lighted in the mind."

In a lyrical mood in "Their Finest Hour" England's late, great prime minister muses, "History with its flickering lamps stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days."

A vintage vintner's anecdote on the alleged origins of "Lachryma Christi" has it that, "When Lucifer fell from Heaven he reached out and grasped a piece of it that fell with him and became Naples. When Jesus looked down on it he cried and his tears 'Lachryma Christi' fell on Mt. Etna giving rise to the grape from which that wine is made."

From 2nd century Bishop Ignatius we find:

"To their pride offer your humility, to their arrogance your peace, to their blasphemies your prayers. By never trying to render evil to those who have wronged you show that you are a true disciple of the good." (Author's note: Oh would that I could!)

And from Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre" a passage to kindle a kindred sentiment in her 20th century sisters:

"It is narrow-minded of their more privileged fellow-creatures to say they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them or laugh at them if they seek to do more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex."

A final exhortation from Winston Churchill's "Gathering Storm": "Everyone should do a good day's work and be accountable for some definite task. Then they do not make trouble for trouble's sake or to cut a figure."

Alcalde William Blackburn of the District of Santa Cruz was well-pleased with his work on the case of a vaquero who, while rescuing a pregnant woman from a bull, caused her to fall down and miscarry. The woman's husband sued the vaquero. Blackburn ordered the vaquero to restore the woman to the condition in which he'd found her, and ordered the husband to pay costs of the trial. It says so in "Reminiscences... from l889... "

Happy New Year - and a good day's work to you, my friends!