THAT CHRISTMAS - A VIEW OF EVENTS SURROUNDING 2011 CHRISTMAS PERIOD

                                                             
 Written by Prince Joshua Oyeniyi
 evangprince2008@yahoo.com
 +2348086788484




                                                          THAT CHRISTMAS
                 Once, a roman general brought peace to a rebellious province; by killing all its citizens. Even his fellow Romans were shocked, one of them wrote, “Scer atulunum fasciet, pescent apellant”, which means, “they create desolation and call it peace.” I do not want to tread the path of this general but rather unmuzzle the buccal cavity of truth and permit reality to transmit the lights of freedom. Please, do not have me misconstrued for a sadistic writer simply because I chose to say it as it is. Events unfolding towards the eve of this year’s Christmas leave me with no choice but that of profound objectivity, nay, sharp prognosis of the myriads of maladies and malaise bedeviling this country, Nigeria, unbecoming of such a time as this, indeed of such a time as this Christmas. Does it, therefore, call me to banqueting, wining and dining? Or to take a bold step out of the norm to quieten the thrills and frills of such a pleasurable season so that true peace can be ours and not a masqueraded desolation that, with effrontery, stares us in the face?
            As the Christmas eve rushes in with its characteristic throng of people who, like children, scamper for hampers, gift boxes and their likes, I had embarked on a mini – travel to honour an appointment with a high profile clergyman on the outskirts of Lagos, a metropolis in Nigeria. As I shuttled to the densely populated town of Ipaja. I decided to have a detour, hopefully, to ease the stress of such a tortuous journey. As if to add salt to injury, the threadlike organisms responsible for filtering eaten food in the human sac of food relentlessly bit me with reckless acrimony for depriving them of their breakfast allocation. Little did I know that awaiting me was a gory event with its gargantuan propensity to cause me to forget my personal misery and much more than that, wane the anticipated joys of a Christmas which was just four days away. Pandemonium had broken out, but my fragile heart was pacing with lightening speed like a jackal that had spotted a ready prey atop a far away mountain. Had the worst happened? I could not tell as I witnessed a mammoth crowd of on – lookers with many having both hands on their heads; a sign that a great ill had befallen another son of Adam. I summoned courage to approach the scene of the tragedy but guess my greatest undoing for the day was the elongating of my neck to catch a glance. No sooner had I taken this peep than a series of vibrations and shivers of immeasurable magnitude went down my spine; shaking the entirety of my homo – sapienic being. No! I could not have made a good medical doctor as was advised just before I sat for the university matriculation examinations and consequently admitted into a first choice university. My principal had muttered, “You have it, Josh. Go for medicine" but I had stood my ground like the biblical rock of Gibraltar to study anything but medicine because of my aversion for hospitals and their operations. Back to the tragic drama! Sprouting from the left leg of a middle aged man was the naked length of his femur bone, completely broken from the knee and exposed for all to see! He was a commercial motorcycle rider who had been caught in both his recklessness and that of another commercial bus driver. To put it mildly, he would automatically join the number of amputees if he survives the loss of blood till he gets medical attention. Handicapped for the rest of life just four days from this Christmas! Over the years, this time of the year has consistently witnessed an increased rate of deaths and severe casualties on Nigerian roads, as families travel home en-masse to spend the festive period with loved ones, owing to the poor, dilapidated state of our roads and the confirmed inaction of the government. Motorists and other road users have also contributed immensely to the abrupt termination of lives with their utter recklessness and over speeding. Superstitious as many Nigerians are, we believe these events are machinations of evil spirits who crave human blood for their celebrations but with the killings and bombings in the northern part of the country orchestrated by members of the dreaded Boko – Haram sect, this Christmas is definitely an odd one in recent times. This compels one to muse over the rhetoric, what does ‘this Christmas’ portend?.
                I am obliged to take responsibility for describing our federal government as being almost irredeemably destitute of human milk and sympathy. You may quiz me over this assertion but have you heard of the phrase “conscienceless consciencelessness” or “directionless directionlessness”? You do not require a lexicon to decode these phrases as they are the words of a former member of the Nigeria House of Representatives used in describing the exhibition of gross high handedness by our politicians, no, I prefer to say,  'politricksters'. But terribly appalling is the fact that like a noiseless putrid fart that lingers on, the current nation – wide strike of the academic staff union of universities has crept into ‘this Christmas’ period.
    As I write on this sweltering afternoon, from home, after a disappointed hope of a call – off two weeks into the industrial action, I can not decipher the hand-writing on the wall about the future of my country, but it sure depicts catastrophe. According to the popular maxim, "when two elephants fight, the grass suffers", our undergraduates are the ones caught in this cross fire as the indignant ASUU engages the non – challant federal government in a fight to finish over elongation of active service time of senior academics, improved welfare and standardization of our institutions. This total, comprehensive and indefinite strike action has successfully paralyzed all forms of learning and research in all our tertiary institutions, further allowing the nation’s future to wallow in the mire of uncertainty, dimming, or worse still, putting off the lights of advancement. This quagmire of national shamelessness leaves me wondering what hope is left for the entire black race if the world’s largest black nation suffers intermittent crippling of learning processes in its ivory towers. This thought is sickening enough to erode any bliss associated with 'this Christmas'.
              If you are reading this and you are a citizen of this potentially great country being daily dehumanized by leaders that hate us, I want you to realise that our collective destiny is a function of our present decisions. My objective here is to confute the confusion created by a government that is hell – bent on the removal of oil subsidy without due regards for the feelings and sufferings of a people being pushed to the wall. Permit me to start my discourse from a definitive standpoint and the move on to shed light and bring illumination to this manufactured foggy issue which still generates tons of contentions even as this Christmas dawns. To subsidize is to sell a product below cost of production. Up until now neither the Federal Government nor the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has told us the cost of producing a litre of oil in our Warri, Port – Harcourt and Kaduna refineries, so the nation is not in a position to take an informed stand on whether or not oil is being subsidized. However, according to statistics from the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and the National Bureau of Statistics, getting petrol to Nigerian ports cost N117.74 per litre. And because of deliberated gross inefficiency and ineptitude at the Nigerian ports, an additional cost of N6.25 per litre is incurred. The petrol, which is usually stored at the ports, is not directly transferred from the ships to the trucks and so, the ports charge N3.00 for storage and an administrative cost of N15.00. Other costs include a bridging fund of N3. 95 and then the dealers add their own margin of N1.75 per litre. The transporters add their own margin of N4.60. So the cost of fuel at petrol stations comes to us at N138.19 per litre or approximately N140.00 per litre and because it is sold for N65 per liter, the federal government pays the shortfall of N75.00 or thereabout on every litre of petrol. This extra N75. 00 called subsidy is what the government says will bankrupt the nation if it not stopped forthwith.
    If you have followed my line of argument so far, it will be crystal clear to you that the government is not subsidizing the cost of production of refined oil in the nation. What the government is subsidizing is the alternative cost of importation. Our leaders have allowed their indolence to engulf the entire nation so that we have corporately become a lazy nation. Simply put, due to laziness and lack of diligence, our leaders can not refine enough crude oil for our consumption. Today, the four refineries in Nigerian currently operate at 21% capacity, providing 93, 450 litres daily, while, on average, Nigerians use 294, 000 litres of fuel per day which implies that an additional 200, 550 litres is imported to meet the domestic need. If you multiply that figure of 200, 550 litres by the N75.00 absurdity called subsidy, Nigeria spends N15 million daily to pay for our leadership failure and pathological indolence. The Federal Government has been dangling the carrot of what enormous savings it will make from the withdrawal of the subsidy which it intends to invest in infrastructure development, health care delivery, education, and minimum wage. These half – truths and easy answers are nothing but craftily devised weapons of mass deception as the government cannot save the entirety of the sum being touted for the simple reason that 40% of total fuel consumption is by the government itself. We cannot be made to pay for the kleptomania of government by allowing the removal of subsidy to happen. Like other nations, some less endowed, we have the opportunity to set up our own refineries, refine our products, sell and export refined products and make money. Instead, both the NNPC and the government “explore sleaze, refine roguery and market sharp practices”. The president, in an inflammatory statement, has said the government is ready for mass revolt and well, mass revolt is what he will get even if it means marching out in wild protest on Christmas day itself. This is the least of Christmas packages a government can present to its people: a bag of poverty. We must compel this government to look inwards and not force on us more penury caused by its grossly untamed profligacy.
           After all said and done, this legion of problems that has besieged us, like a malignant cancer which defies the best efforts of chemo-therapists, shall be subdued and I shall sit round the family table to enjoy the thrilling moment and merriment of 'this Christmas' season. I, hereby, exercise these innate gifts of creative ingenuity and intellectual ascendancy, almost bereft of the average undergraduate, like I am, to correct the anomalies that plague our nation with its tendency to depriving us of the true joys and experience of Christmas – the celebration of the birth of Christ, the Saviour of the world. I, hereby, rest my case.

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                                                  STUDENTS AND THE SUBJECT OF INTELLIGENCE

The process of imparting knowledge through classroom teaching is not an easy task. Teachers can tell that students are with varying degrees of perception. They can also confirm that while some students comprehend quite quickly and with ease, others need ample time to grasp what they are taught. Some are even more difficult to deal with as they hardly seem to understand what is being taught--no matter how simple it appears. Many a time, teachers are almost fed up and nearly giving up on a student, concluding that he or she may need a miraculous turn-around to begin to grasp the arts of reading and writing.

Though intelligence is classified as  a hereditary trait, we have had instances where extremely intelligent parents have children who are unimaginably slow in understanding. The reverse is also sometimes the case. What explanations could be given to this non-transfer of intelligence from parents to offspring? Why is there a varying degree of understanding among students who were all born with no in-built mental content?

According to the works of some psychologists and philosophers, man is born mentally blank. According to the theory of Tabula rasa, man is born without any mental content. It emphasises that knowledge is gathered through experience and perception. Ibn Sina, a philosopher, stressed that 'human intellect at birth is like a blank slate and that knowledge is attained through familiarity with objects.' Others submitted that while the brain is 'programmed' to pick up spoken languages, it is not programmed to learn to read and write spontaneously; it must be acquired. Scientists too recognise that the brain is organised to process sensory inputs and that these programmed mechanisms then act to learn and refine the individuals' ability.

From the foregoing arguments and my encounters with students, I have come to conclude that every child in the nursery was born mentally equal, but not as to the rate of perception and acuity. It may not be incorrect to assert that acuity and the varying rates of perception are some of the fundamental factors that contribute to students' varied academic performances.
In schools, there is a category of students who could be best described as fast learners. Some others need greater attention and time to comprehend subjects taught while the third class of students are difficult to teach. Rarely though, the difficult-to-teach students undergo a spontaneous turn-around to become fast learners overnight.

In schools generally, the average and slow learners are in the majority. Slow-learning in a student could be detected at an early age. Such students need special treatments and attention. They should be handled tenderly rather than being punished for not being eggheads. Admittedly, teaching slow learner could be a herculean task, patience should be the watchword in handling such students. They should not be coerced to learn or even denied of  the privileges rightly due to them. In addition too, they should be allowed to play as all work without play could make them even duller. A reward system could be devised to encourage them whenever there is a perceived improvement in their learning. Notwithstanding our society that glorifies certificates at the expense of competence, technical education is also a viable option. Learning is a gradual process and the list of suggestions is inexhaustible.        

                      MAKING A QUICK MOVE AGAINST ANOTHER MASS FAILURE
                
           The alarming rates at which students fail in WAEC, NECO and JAMB-conducted examinations have been blamed on several factors. As usual, the government is always under criticism for its neglect of the pivotal education sector due to the annual abysmally-low budgetary allocation to that sector. Although, majority of us are always quick to castigate the government on national issues such as this, only few critics consider the major players in the middle of the whole drama, that is, the students; as they always almost go unblamed. Though, I do not exonerate the government for its lackadaisical attitude towards the moribund educational system, I do not in anyway too belong to the school of thought that blames the rulers for an individual's failure in personal issues such as passing an external exam.

             It cannot be over-emphasized that a good academic performance can be tied to an enabling learning environment. However, we have failed to realise that even a 90% budgetary allocation to the education sector may not be the ultimate panacea for students' woeful performances in national exams, which without doubt, has reached an endemic stage. It is needless to bore you with the disheartening statistics of how students 'refuse to pass' on yearly basis as this sad news has already been publicised by the various mass media. What is of interest is the way out of this quagmire.

             One of the major factors that lead to students' recurring failure in external exams is the sharp decline in the reading culture of the average Nigerian student. A cursory look at the dailies attests to this as educationists decry the gradual replacement of reading with other trivial and unprofitable engagements that now steal the show.

             In addition too, gainful study hours are now spent on social networks as students prefer to 'twitt' and 'facebook' rather than 'face' their books. They are however always quick to claim that they are surfing the internet in a bid to gather online materials needed to complete their assignments. They also prefer juicy magazines and publications that feature pictures of celebrities and high-profile events to perusing the masterly works of newspapers and magazines' columnists that will not only build their vocabulary banks but will also improve their communication skills too. It is observed too that free mid-night telephone conversations, excessive video game-playing, distracting relationships, inordinate affections for fashion, lack of desire to excel, blurred personal vision, poor parenting and a host of other factors team up to work against the today's students.

            As much as we remain optimistic of a change in this despicable trend, we should not expect an overnight turnaround, except the students personally become dissatisfied with the status quo. No good results will be forthcoming except they make a conscious decision to oust the monster called failure. Students need to manage their time properly, knowing fully well that it is a wasting asset that is irreplaceable once used up.

           More importantly, there is an urgent need to revamp the dying reading culture. Greater time and resources should be devoted to intensive and extensive study. To be candid though, a serious study is a pyschologically-demanding and herculean task, students must therefore approach it with great strength, determination, and focus. Students should focus on the exams rather the examiners (for the average student sees the examiner as an arch-enemy of academic progress). Except the closed books in the bags and those displayed on the library shelves are re-opened, no tangible change from the current trend should be expected.

           In conclusion, though it is arguable in some quaters, I maintain that there is no greater force working against the success of a student in any exam than the student himself. And as long as students, the government and all other stakeholders fail to appreciate the true purpose of formal education, its abuse will remain inevitable. With the next secondary school leaving and higher institution entrance exams in the offing, the ball is still in our courts. The right things could still be put in their right places.

When Are Your Character’s Supernatural Powers “Occult”?

by MIKE DURAN · 

I recently received this letter from a pastor:

I had just read your article “Why Christians Can’t Agree About Christian Fiction” and I thought that it was a great insight into the debate. I am a brand spanking new pastor, and I am already engaged in a divisive discussion with one of my congregants about fiction, particularly the use of “supernaturalism” in fiction. For example, this person believes that when Aslan uses “magic” or does things “supernaturally” like breathing on Mr. Tumnus, and does NOT give glory and honor and credit to Jesus Christ IN THE STORY, that it is occultism, since his power is derived from elsewhere than from the one true God. I think this is a bit, shall I say, crazy. I was just wondering if you have encountered such thought elsewhere, or am I the only one so uniquely blessed!!! And what would you say about the claim that any “powers” that occur in a fictional novel, especially Christian novels, are subtly promoting occultism. Thanks for your work.

This pastor may find solace in the fact that not only is he NOT alone in this debate, but that the position assumed by this congregant is, sadly, all too common among Christian readers.

As much as I’d like to offer a definitive answer to this question — How can we know when “‘powers’ that occur in a fictional novel… are subtly promoting occultism”?— I don’t think there is one. In fact, the more we demand a definitive answer, the more we narrow our fiction, dumb down our readers, and drift into a superstitious, and rather unchristian, worldview.

Nevertheless, I want to attempt a response to this pastor and his concerned congregant. Let me begin with a question:

Does attributing a supernatural incident to God or the devil actually change its power source?

Or to use the example above, if Aslan had stopped and given glory to God, would that have turned his magic from “bad” to “good”? If so, what made the supernaturalism bad in the first place?

To follow this line of reasoning, the real “occultism” resides not in the supernatural event (Aslan breathing upon Mr. Tumnus and bringing the faun back to life), but in the author’s defining of it. Thus, to the puritan reader, the greatest potential “evil” for a Christian writer is to depict ambiguous magic, i.e., supernatural power not directly attributed to God.

Which makes fiction, “magic.”

However, this creates huge problems for authors, the least of which is feeling bound to clarify the source of every character’s supernatural action. Spells, miracles, alchemy, and enchantment are only tolerable in our fiction as long as we’re clear where they are coming from. However, this type of approach not only potentially strips our stories of mystery and nuance, we treat our readers like   auditors who’ll be combing our novels for pesky theological gnats.

The point here is to highlight how our approach to fiction can often be as problematic as the stories themselves. The congregant above who worried over Aslan’s apparent lack of Divine attribution is emblematic of a breed of religious reader who approaches fiction with a rather rigid doctrinal lens. Am I suggesting that we should put down our “theological” guard when we read and be less discerning? Absolutely not. But we need to see fiction as doing something different than simply illustrating and reinforcing Bible doctrine.

About his then-recent viewing of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, C.S. Lewis wrote:

“…[the play] is merely the scaffolding whereby Shakespeare (probably unconsciously) is able to give us an image of the whole idea of resurrection, [and] I was simply overwhelmed. You will say that I am here doing to Shakespeare just what I did to Macdonald… Perhaps I am. I must confess that more and more the value of plays and novels becomes for me dependent on the moments when, by whatever artifice, they succeed in expressing the greatmyths.”

– C.S. Lewis from a letter dated September 5, 1931 (emphasis mine)

Notice that Lewis describes the actual play as simply “scaffolding” for a bigger idea. In fact, it is this big idea (here, the great myths), expressed “by whatever artifice,” that characterize the great tales. Alas, when we become preoccupied with a story’s “scaffolding” and niggle over literary “artifices,” we will inevitably miss the bigger story. But that’s exactly what the congregant above, and the opponents of fictional “magic,” do.

When it comes to our fiction, the easiest (and worst) thing we can do is to embrace a checklist mentality. Rather than cultivating discernment and rendering creative license, we become “scaffold inspectors,” making sure every plank and cross-beam meets standard. No wands. Check. No spells. Check. No ghosts. Check. No vampires. Check. No crystal balls. Check.  No broomsticks. Check. And plenty of explanation. As if this ensures we will never mistakenly promote occultism.

However, in their attempt to maintain theological integrity, many have embraced superstition, a “touch not, taste not” mentality (Col. 2:21) that purports a magic all its own. In other words, we believe there is magic in biblical (?) formulas. As if God was bound by incantations, recipes, rituals, and our personal holiness program.

How is this any different from sorcery?

Yes, Scripture is clear that there can be false prophets and false miracles. The world of occultism, we are warned, is not a plaything. Nevertheless, the Bible is not always clear in defining the source of real magic or the trappings for conjuring it.

Take the case of Moses’ encounter with the Pharaoh’s magicians (Ex. 7). Both sides produced, more or less, the same “magic,” turning staffs into snakes. Question: Is it wrong to turn staffs into snakes? Answer: It can’t be because Moses did it! So the problem wasn’t necessarily with the “magic” (i.e., staff charming), but with the intent, motivations, and allegiances of those who wielded it.

The similar distinction is made in the apostles’ encounter with Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8:9-25). Simon “had practiced sorcery in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria” (vs. 9) with his magic, so much so that he was called “the Great Power of God” (vs. 10). But after Simon “believed and was baptized” (vs. 13), he coveted the power of the Holy Spirit and asked to pay for it (vs. 19). Notice carefully Peter’s response:

Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.” (Acts 8:20-23 NIV)

Interestingly enough, throughout this record Simon’s power is never attributed to Satan. However, he is upbraided “because [his] heart is not right before God.” So what was Simon’s sin? Apparently sorcery wasn’t the big one; his magic was less at issue than his sinful heart.

A case could be made, I think, that supernatural powers (and their fictional depictions) aren’t bad in themselves (see staff charming). It is the hearts and motives of the handlers that is evil.

Not all staff charmers are wicked. Which means staff charming is up for debate.

The concerned congregant above and his kin, the “anti-magic” crowd, go astray when they focus on forms of magic (levitation, incantations, objects, staff charming, breathing upon petrified fauns, etc.), more than the purveyors. It is far easier to make an external checklist — You know your character’s supernatural powers are NOT occult when you _________ (fill in the blank with preferred magic you avoid or attribution you render) — than to allow internal assessment and potential ambiguity.

Either way, no amount of attribution can prevent some readers from misinterpreting you. Heck, even the Bible is misinterpreted to say things it doesn’t. So why should our stories be any different? The truth is, readers can potentially mistake anything I write about as endorsing something I don’t. But just because I fictionalize sex or violence or sorcery or dog fighting or street racing, does not mean I’m an advocate of it.

It’s just the scaffolding.

So when are your character’s supernatural powers occult? Hmm. Probably when you say so.

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WHY WRITERS SHOULD ADOPT THE 'WAKING UP EARLY' SYSTEM!

As a glutton for torture (and as a recent parent, which is kind of the same thing), I’ve been taking advantage of early mornings. My kids wake up at 6:30 or so, and I leave for the day-job at 8:00ish — so if I’ve ever dreamed of getting anything done before I leave (ha ha, I said dreamed), I’d better be doing it early.

I often get asked what my best writing times are. Usually I go on for hours — I’m either the best or worst interview you’ve had, if, you know, you’re an interviewer — but that question is simple. Late at night or early in the morning. Partly, it’s because no one else is around to distract you. Partly, I think, it’s that those are the times that are closest to sleep, when your mind is most open and your memories are all jumbled up and free-associating and fictionalizing themselves. Those are the times I started writing Automatic. It’s a book where a lot of things blend together, the people I grew up with and growing up Jewish and working-class and my best friend dyingand the music that we were listening to as it was all happening.

Those times are when our inhibitions are at their lowest, too. When you can sort of force yourself to write about all those things that you wouldn’t write about otherwise, unless you were drunk or feeling really intense.

Earliness is in our genes. Abraham was an early riser. He used to pray at the moment the sun rises, and there’s still a tradition that, at the moment the sun clears the horizon, the gates of Heaven are open to any prayer sent their way. One of my favorite bits of Jewish historical apocrypha is this: The first minyan of the morning used to be called the “thieves’ minyan,” since they had to be out early to lie in wait for unsuspecting travelers to pass…and even if you were going to be a thief, you still had to pray.

I remember reading that both Michael Chabon and Salman Rushdie work from 10-3. (I also remember thinking, when I read that, really? They’re both amazing writers, and both masters of the craft, but in my too-hardcore-fanboy estimation, both have gotten a little soft and overconfident with their storytelling. The Chabon who wrote the breathtaking, pulse-stopping first scene of Wonder Boys, I don’t think that could ever have happened at 10:30, between cups of coffee. Same with the page-long description of Saleem Sinai’s nose in Midnight’s Children–which, by the way, I strongly feel should be a mission statement for Jewish writers. Or Jews in general.)

I’m probably venting. Also, I have the luxury of having a day-job and a job writing. Normally, it’s an insane balancing act. But it’s that same stress that keeps my passion intact, I hope. The same way TV shows inevitably go downhill once the two forbidden characters consummate their untouchable lust for each other (Moonlighting, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), great writers always seem to write their greatest books before they get discovered.* I’m not claiming to be a great writer (although I think I’m a pretty good one). But I hope that, relative to the stories I’ve written before, I still have some of my best stuff yet to be written.

________
*–Or, admittedly, maybe we just claim those books as great, and when they try something else, we inevitably have to compare it, to the new work’s detriment. But all love has to spring from somewhere.

Matthue Roth‘s newest book is Automatic. He is also the author of three novels and the memoir Yom Kippur a Go-Go, and is an associate editor at MyJewishLearning.com. His screenplay 1/20 is currently in production as a feature film.

This article was reposted from MyJewishLearning and the Jewish Book Council.

10 Great Posts for Writers — 2011

10 Great Posts for Writers — 2011

by MIKE DURAN · 9 COMMENTS

If there’s anything I enjoy more than reading or writing, it’s reading about writing. Here’s 10 writing posts from 2011 that have challenged, informed, angered, inspired, or motivated me. If you have the time, I’d encourage you to follow the links and ponder these helpful posts.

5 Crippling Beliefs That Keep Writers Penniless and Mired in Mediocrity,Jonathan Morrow at CopyBlogger –  The most heinous lie to ever infect the mind of a writer is the belief that your work is all about you. You believe your writing is a form of self-expression, an extension of your mind, a little piece of your soul imbued into the page. To write well, you just need to be authentic, and if the world doesn’t like it, the world can go to hell. Provocative, right? And like all the best lies, it has a grain of truth to it. Yes, authenticity matters, but only to the extent people enjoy what you do.

Naturally Beautiful Novels, Athol Dickson at NovelRocket – IT’S EASIER TO WRITE ABOUT BEAUTY than it is to write beautifully, because the difference between good craftsmanship and beautiful writing is something like the difference between goodness and morality.

Don’t Be Afraid to Fail Aggressively, James Scott Bell at Kill Zone  –  As writers we have to be willing to fail aggressively. If we don’t, if we play it too safe, if we spend too much time worrying about the market and how to chase it down, we will lose that chance to be what the world prizes most—an original.

On Writing, Righting, and Apathy, Kathy Dishman Richards –  …one of the occupational hazards of being a writer is that you’re always writing. Every situation becomes a potential story. But I never want to come to a place where what I put on paper becomes more important than inserting myself into the bigger story of life. Especially if by abandoning my mental pen and notebook I might have a hand in changing a tragedy into a happily ever after, or at least an after.

Publishing in the Brave New World, Rachelle Gardner — Here’s the deal: I don’t like the fact that you have to “build a platform” these days, any more than you do. But I get weary of writers constantly complaining about it. I get frustrated by hearing over and over that publishers are “abandoning writers” and “bringing nothing to the table.” …REALITY CHECK: Publishers did not create this brave new techno-world we live in.

Why Writers Blogging About Writing is Bad, Kristen Lamb –  There are blogs that get millions of visits a year. I guarantee you they ain’t writing blogs. Writing blogs focus on a very small segment of the overall population that is in need of informing or entertaining. The topics that are going to get thousands or tens of thousands or even millions of hits are blogs on subjects most people care about—celebrities, pop culture, soap operas, cooking, pets, travel, etc. The general public capable of buying books care more about Lady Gaga than narrative structure. Sorry. That’s the truth.

5 Ways to Take the Ickiness Out of Marketing Our Books, Jody Hedlund–  Nowadays, authors are searching for THE best ways to get their books noticed. We’re striving for the most creative, the most eye-catching, and the most vocal marketing techniques. But after a while it can begin to feel like we’re standing out on the corner hawking ourselves.

The Myth of Knowing It All, Dean Wesley Smith –  Long term professionals are constantly learning, both in craft and business, since everything always changes so fast. Let me be clear. I don’t just mean keeping up with business. I mean craft issues as well. Just because a writer sold a number of things or a dozen novels doesn’t mean they still don’t have a ton to learn about craft.

How to Get Noticed on Twitter, Carol Tice at Make a Living Writing –  …only about 8 percent of people are yet on Twitter. Those of us who’ve been cranking along on it for a while tend to forget that not everybody understands how Twitter works yet.It’s worth taking the time to do that, because Twitter can be a powerful tool for spreading the word about what you’re doing, and for meeting great, useful new people.

How to Avoid Being Fooled by Bad Writing Advice, Jane Friedman at Writer Unboxed –  Playing to extremes is exceptionally helpful in getting readers. Writing a great blog post or developing a successful online presence is often about knowing how to attract attention, or be bombastic in a charming way. Talking about the gray areas within an issue—parsing through all the intricacies—isn’t known for generating traffic. Boldness is.

And though not directly writing related, I really loved Katherine Coble‘s recent

Top 10 Great Things About Kindle –  …books on Kindle are as much “real books” as those things we grew up with. And like the Velveteen Rabbit, a book is made most real by being loved. I first loved George RR Martin’s books on Kindle and now can’t even imagine trying them in the fifty-pound paper version. They are very real to me, in spite of our electronically-aided first encounters. But there are a lot of plusses to Kindle besides the ubertrendiness.

THE POWER OF YOUR MIND; THINK AHEAD.

 The fact obviously remains indisputable that an effectively planned future if not perfectly, still exhibits great pointers that distinguish a fulfilled life. It is on this note that I wish to speak on this topic; The Power of your Mind, Think Ahead.

  The topic is themed around the fact that the actions we take today would to a very large extent influence the shape of our future. The question now is; how well do you understand the effects of the presence in the shape of your future? How prepared are you to shape your future for good now?

  Over the years, I have come to realize that one of the weak points of man is his failure to plan ahead. We just take life the way it comes, and many times unprepared to make life take us the way we are. This weakness is resultant of our failure to acknowledge the power of our minds.

  Therefore, the power of your mind if allowed has the potential to prepare you for the future. Your mind has the power to envision a future of your desires and also provide you with the driving force to bring into reality the visions and desires created by it..

 The mind is a part of a person that makes a man able to be aware of things, to think and to feel. Simply, your mind is your ability to think or reason. Now, if a man’s mind is his ability to think and reason, then the mind is naturally endowed by God to think, reason, or simply plan for the future. This makes it obligatory that for you to fulfill the whole essence of your state of human hood; you must employ the usage of your mind to plan ahead.

  So many times, I see people towards the end of their lives living their  lives as if the past 30, 40, 50 years of their lives had been a waste. Some of them go as far as saying if they had done this or that, things might have been different. An elderly man was speaking to me sometimes ago, and after everything, he said; ’that was my mistake, and I don’t want you to make that same mistake, so start making plans now’. I was touched by those words of his because I knew deep down within me that deep down within that man, he wished he could go back to the past and get things done the right way. The sad fact for him was that once the past is gone, it is gone forever. !!!

  Here we are, still at the foundation of our lives with a chance to shape our future the way we want. Ever since that day, I decided that I was going to plan the type of man I wanted to grow into, and the type of future I want as an individual.

  We are still youths, at the beginning of the real battles of life! Now is the time we have the ability to prepare for our future! Now is the time when we still have the power and strength to shape our destiny! Now is the time when our spirits can still be invigorated as best as it can, because a time would come when your steps now would start having impacts in our future. We have a chance to do our best and live a life of satisfaction in future, not a life of regret.

  Let us take this example; A football team wanting to go for a match unprepared and intending to play against a prepared team. Most definitely, the prepared team would win the unprepared team. After the match when the coach of the unprepared team comes to the realization of the fact he might have won the match if he prepared his team well, it would have been late….The best such a coach can do is to regret the past and advice others not to make such mistake...The 90 minutes had gone, and gone forever. Here we are, still at the period before our ‘90 minutes match’ with a chance to prepare hard for the task that lies ahead.

  According to Napoleon Hill; ‘We create our future by what we dream, as they are the children of our souls, the blueprint of  our ultimate achievement.!

  How many of us sited here today have ever sat down to say. ‘This is where I see myself in the next 5, 10, 20 years? Have you discovered the man the dwells within you?

  A carpenter would not construct a good furniture without planning, just as a lawyer can not effectively defend a court case without planning, nor can an architect or engineer construct a structure without planning ahead. Neither can you as a man outstandingly scale through the challenges of life without planning.

  Since your mind is the most important tool in planning, The question is that; What do you think with your mind? Do you see yourself as been limited by opportunities? Or, do you see yourself flying high above the limits of the sky?   

  Let me read you this inspirational poem;

         As a Man Thinketh

 If you think you are beaten, you are

 If you think you dare not, you don’t

 If you like to, but you think you can’t, it’s almost certain you won’t

 If you think you’ll loose, you’re lost.

 For success begins with a man’s will

 It’s all in the state of mind.

 You’ve got to think high to rise

 You’ve got to be sure of yourself before

 You can ever win a prize.

 Success don’t always goes to the stronger woman or man

 But sooner or later the one who wins

 Is the man who believes he can..

   Therefore you must empower your mind to see the future now, and plan toward it.

  The most important thing I want us to realize is that we are still at a period of our lives when we have a chance to shape the way our lives would be forever. So many old men and women or adults in the bigger world today are suffering today not because of their environment, but because of the structure of  future they’ve molded for themselves while they were young.

I think the question we should be asking ourselves now should be; how can we make use of our minds to dream/plan the future?

  You can effectively plan for the future through some of these means;

1)      Look into yourself, search and discover your inner man, your hidden passions and your own unique abilities. It is only when you know what you are good at that you can know the direction your life is best suited to go.

 Today, I see many destined great men who live or posses a low standard of living simply because they have failed to reach an agreement between their profession and their potentials.

For example; a poor or unaccomplished musician who is an excellent calculator has a chance to make it in life if only he builds his future around a profession that utilizes his calculating skills. Likewise, an unaccomplished engineer who has a melodious voice has a capacity to make it in life if he moulds his future around a profession that utilizes his melodious voice.

The problem these people have is their failure in reaching an agreement between their profession and potentials. You must ensure that what you do excellently well which is your potential contributes in one way or the other to your profession.

2} Also, work with achievable dreams. Dream high quite alright, but plan your future along the realistic path of achieving them.

    For instance; Nigeria ’s dream to become one of the 20 largest economies in year 2020. We need not just focus on year 2020, rather that dream should have plans in regards to its gradual stages of achievement. We should be able to say by 2013 we would have done this, by 2015 we would have done that, and hopefully by 2020 our dream would become a reality.

   My point here is that when we plan ahead, we should also device achievable procedures for the realization of such dreams

3} Write down your dreams. Writing your dreams down has a way of giving you this sense of commitment and seriousness towards the realization of such dreams. The more you see them, the more you get propelled to work towards them.

4} Believe in yourself. Only when a man believes in himself can he achieve anything in life. Who you become is mostly a product of who you think you are. Therefore, if within you, you doubt your capability, then its going to be difficult for you to achieve your dreams. If you do not believe in you, then who should? Confidence is a key point in the success stories of great men, so be confident and believe in yourself.

5} Also of great importance is the fact that you should build a fertile foundation for your dreams…Read wide now, study hard, read about your aspirations, and build a wide range of knowledge about who you intend to grow into in future

6} Most importantly, put God ahead because he is the all sufficient who knows the past, present and events that would unfold in countless centuries yet to come.

Before I conclude, I want to give these quotes;

>You have to see it before you see it or you will never see it!

>The greatest investment in the future is a godly influence in the presence.

Finally, I would conclude by saying; Successful people were successful because they pursued something. Those who pursue nothing catch nothing, but those who pursue things see many things. You can only possess what you pursue. Those who have no goal go nowhere. Therefore, think and dream big for you are a picture of your future.