Lessons From Octavia.

Many people are completely unaware that one of the greatest writers that ever lived has died recently. Ms. Octavia E. Butler. Known mainly for writing science fiction, she, more accurately, was a writer of social truth. In fact, they should make up a new category just to describe her special brand of "fiction". For no one character in any book has meant more to my life than Lauren Olamina (from Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents). She's real to me. As real as Harriett Tubman, Coretta Scott King and Oprah Winfrey. I'm continually inspired by her struggles and ideals. I think she meant as much to Octavia as well.

In this blog I will continue to explore and examine the words that Lauren "wrote"...the Earthseed verses. I so wish i could have had a chance to talk with Octavia about these and what they meant to her. I wanted to know if she'd ever planned/hoped to publish them seperately. Probably not but you never know. Anyway verse 2:

A gift of God
May sear unready fingers.

what i find interesting about this is that someone who is unready would even be given such a gift. its funny how people love to say that they are never given more than they can handle. I don't think that's always true. I think we often have to be given more than we can handle in order to continue to challenge "how much we can handle".

But in the realm of Earthseed (and i happen to agree), God is Change. And Change generally always comes when we are not ready. Unless we personally initiate the change ourselves. And even then, its often more than we can handle; thus we get 'seared'.

ok wait. Change is a 'gift'? wow. I know that most of the time, i don't see it as one. So maybe THAT is the first thing that needs to change. I'm really tryin...