Well everyone, I hope you all are having a nice day. I have some interesting things to say that are complicated but I am going to try to post about it a little bit because I think it could help other people, and possibly myself while writing it.
Yesterday I reread one of my books, called Revelationaries, and it includes some blog posts from a few of my blogs on different topics. And on one of the blogs, I was talking about how I am often able to truly love and pray for people who have hurt me in lifelong ways, but sometimes can't even conceive of there being in this world any forgiveness for random people in daily life who do something like play bad music in a store. And I suggested that partially that situation is a clue that we all need forgiveness and people don't always know the hurt their actions cause. Well I used the phrase "everyone needs forgiveness." I heard that in a song that one of my college friends named Laura Story wrote. Did I plagiarize her? I don't think I did. I think it is pretty common language. But I also took two theology classes this month and am realizing something that I need to be aware of going forward. For many years now, I have been a creative writer, and a lot of my English background is my own independent reading, though I do have a degree in creative writing and in teaching English. That is my main category of efforts and motivation, and I do know what I am doing and have been a very honest worker with very few lapses in standards. However, I am noticing that in theology settings, and especially in ministry settings, the nuances of how people express certain teaching and theology ideas can actually be where the issue of originality is, so there could be a lot more thought and personal success behind something very straightforward like "everyone needs forgiveness." Someone mastered the plain-speak but also read the social terrain and nailed it.
This realization comes on a day that I also decided to unsubscribe to emails from another Christian writer, who I thought would be my friend but might not want to be in the long run. Which is fine. And speaking of "fine," that is a word that person uses a lot. And I have used it, and felt an influence and comfort from that person, which I am sure is one of their goals as a speaker and writer. But here is where I figure out that I am not going to risk twenty years of creative work and ten thousand original ideas by being a ministry follower and then be accused of plagiarizing because I use the word "fine" in a blog post. Well that happened to be on a well-timed meme from this person, and I can see that maybe there was some real thought work behind that choice. But if people think I am going to start losing vocabulary words because I followed nice people and supported them kindly from my own sense of creative security, then they are part of the reason for my current career status of tragic martyr silenced by the hypocritical socialists. So I think I have to stop following some people as a co-writer. And there is one more thing to mention, which has to do with christian ministry generally having a different goal than creative writing for its own sake. And that has to do with the ministry goal of people embracing your message and living by it. I won't go so far as to say that it creates a simple conflict of interests or something, but I think that really what has happened in both the cases I mentioned, which are just examples and not legal cases and if they are I really will shoot myself on video, but anyway as I was saying, I was a successful recipient of ministry and accepted the influence which was the goal. And that was my role and intent as well, so if I am influenced at all in mood or strength as I write my own posts, then I would say that is fruit of their ministry and not plagiarism from me. But this growing fear I feel of being suspected of copying on levels that by ministry standards are probably above me but by writing standards are not really in my same category of art, is a sign that I have to shut it down with some of these influences and no longer even read any of these people's books. Really, I was just trying to support people and enjoy other people's work that helped keep me company as I wrote poetry and blogs all by myself while surrounded by about a hundred mice in my old apartment.
So that is that, and I think even though I have kind of casually rambled in the same slightly lazy way as my other blog posts, what I have said here is some really interesting material and holds up pretty strongly legally as well.
There is another topic for another post, which I think I am only beginning to understand, which has more to do with the charade that continues where people try to bury writing and art from people like me. Well I have some news for everyone, which is that it doesn't work. People tried to do this with my life, and the truth came out. And my thirty-three relevant books with more than national level quality will be seen for what they are, when they were, as well as God's disgust at my engineered rejection. There is theology behind that, too, and people can point to "actual history," but I will just point them right back to the cross, which is what helps me finally crack the code on whether my whole life and work will be successfully wasted. It will not in any part be wasted, including the timeliness and efficiency that were offered to God in the first place but rejected by fools.
