“Life, like a mirror, never gives back more than we put into it.”
My Dear Vulgarian Miss,
Simply because I display mirrors on the walls of my home I have been accused, over the years, of being vain. My dear, this is blatantly untrue.
Mirrors are useful, indeed necessary, in bringing peace of mind. In your pursuit of a suitable husband, you should not underestimate their value.
Mirrors are the first to reveal the dreaded Wardrobe Malfunction. Without the full length looking glass, I must to rely on my valet’s word that everything is in place. What if a thread is hanging from a seam? Or a Bad Hair Day goes unnoticed? Or one of my coattails has a crease? Disaster! My valet is a hireling. Never expect a hireling to do for money what you will not do for love.
Mirrors regulate behavior. One glace at your disheveled reflection, say during a dinner party, and you gain instant motivation to abstain from more drink! And when a second look reveals the strain of waistcoat buttons, you are happy to skip the dessert. And need I mention bits of food wedged between the teeth? In a pinch, the artful use of the wide blade of a butter knife will give a decent reflection.
Mirrors are your second—and third—pair of eyes. Think of them as a “low tech” security device. Burglars, for instance, cannot creep through a window undetected if there are mirrors on every wall. Those cheating at cards will not be tempted if they can be seen from every angle. You will also notice when someone is gossiping behind your back. Or, when your beloved is casting lustful looks at one of your female friends!
Yes, mirrors are useful in unexpected ways! Of course, if you happen to be attractive, you can’t help being gratified by your own reflection.
Cordially yours in the upward climb,
Sir Walter Elliot, Bart
Sir Walter Elliot shares advice with Vulgarian readers every other Wednesday evening.
This slo-mo video is absolutely bizarre. Skip ahead to the four minute mark and watch uber-calm Alan Rickman totally lose it for nearly three minutes. I guess he noticed that he was being filmed.
I love the Inception music. It makes the blow-up seem almost epic.
On a lighter (pun intended) note, I lost another 1.6 pounds this week for a total of 14.2. I have thirty-seven pounds to go before I reach goal weight. That sounds like a good bit, but four weeks ago, I had fifty-three to lose. Baby steps.
Matthew 5:13-16 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is good for nothing any more, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light a lamp, and put it under the peck measure, but on the lampstand; and it gives light to all who are in the house.
John 8:12 “Again therefore Jesus spoke to them saying, ‘I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life.’”
White light is composed of all of the colors of the spectrum of visible light, as is illustrated by passing white light through a prism. The prism separates the light into all the colors of a rainbow. If those colors are passed through a second prism, the colors recombine to become white light again. The first prism merely separated the colors that were already present. The second prism combined the visible colors of light in the proper proportions to produce the original white light.
The different colors of the rainbow are parts of the spectrum, and when our eyes combine those colors, our brains see white light. Jesus told us that when we follow Him, the Light, we have the light of life. As the unified body of Christ, we are like all those different, beautiful rainbow colors coming together in a prism, the church, to display that brilliant white, pure Light that is Jesus.
White light is reflected off objects when the colors of the spectrum are properly balanced. If one color is present more than any other, that color alone will show. If our church wants to reflect the light of Jesus to the world, all of us need to contribute to that effort. All of the ministries of the church must be balanced with each other; one is no more important than the others.
Heavenly Father, please help us to see that all of us are important in Your plan, and that we must work together as a united body in order to reflect Your Light to the world.
I don’t know why I was worried, but I was. Reviews do that to you.
After all, I can’t expect my books to appeal to everyone, or even to most.
And then there’s the title. My publisher’s decision to add Elizabeth Elliot’s name was supposed to increase sales. Who knew that Austen lovers hated Elizabeth with such thoroughness? And, in consequence, have had no interest in her story? The only reason that the series has continued to sell is because of word-of-mouth from you, my loyal fans!
But Austenprose reviewer Christina Boyd loved the series and posted an enthusiastic review of Mercy’s Embrace: So Rough a Course (Book 1) this morning. I’ve been smiling all day.
Perhaps awful Elizabeth has a chance for success after all?
Now don’t post a comment here. Head over to Austenprose and enter the INTERNATIONAL GIVEAWAY which is running through May 30,2012. Comments to Meet Jane Austen’s “Other Elizabeth” or any of the three reviews (one per Saturday) count as entries. I’m offering one copy of Book 1 to three winners, and a grand prize of all three Mercy’s books to one winner. Might as well be you!
Look, even if you own these books, go for it. You have friends, right?
Which reminds me. There is another INTERNATIONAL GIVEAWAY (one copy of Book 1 for U.S., one copy for worldwide) going on right now at Maria Grazia’s My Jane Austen Dook Club. Be sure to let her know your country of origin when you comment. Giveaway deadline is May 15, 2012.
I just came across this video today. Three months ago, the President sang the Al Green hit, “So In Love With You,” and later, reporters caught up with Al Green himself in New Orleans. Al gave him a B+ and said that he shouldn’t do it again. Actually, I think the President did a good job, and I would fully support his decision should he decide to quit politics and enter the entertainment field.
I just finished reading The Hunger Games Trilogy. I enjoyed it. (Why do I feel strange saying I enjoyed a post-apocalyptic, kill-or-be-killed set of YA novels?) I’m also following Larry Brooks, at Story Fix, as he deconstructs the first volume, The Hunger Games.
In the third volume, the pace changes and Suzanne Collins takes you into a newly born revolution.
The character of Beetee is a tech genius and survivor of two hunger games. He is now designing weapons to exact some revenge for the loss of his partner, Wiress, in the arena. He has shown the heroine, Katness Everdeen, a personalized weapon and she asks how he thought of it. He says: “So, I left the outside simple, and left the inside to my imagination.”
When I read this, I was immediately how this applies to writing. The story should be simple, elegant in it’s first presentation to the reader. This is why cover blurbs are so difficult and people are employed specifically to do this work. When the author tries, they have the entire story bursting in them and trying to reduce it to 50 to 100 words is agony. But when you do it right, it’s like breadcrumbs to the reader, enticing them to follow you inside.
There is a lot more to say, but how about you taking this phrase and elaborating on how simplicity, well-done, hits the mark.
Friends, I’m different, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’ve always been a little weird, and I’ve never really been part of the “in” crowd. In high school, I was a cheerleader, the band captain, the year book editor, and salutatorian. I was on the Homecoming Court twice, but, bless me, I said what I thought, and I thought all the time, so I never won popularity contests. Anyone looking at me would think I was accepted, but I always knew that I really wasn’t. I won beauty contests (the judges loved me in interviews), and I received numerous awards given by the faculty, but not anything voted on by students. Consequently, they elected people they liked, but who would accomplish nothing. In Beta Club, I was not an officer, but the faculty sponsor made up a title for me – projects chairman (of a one-woman board) – so that I could do all the fund-raising and work involved in running the club. I was President of the Drama Club, but everyone in that was strange, so no one cared that I was not like everyone else. It was the same with the Chess Club.
Most of the girls were mean to me; they excluded me whenever they could. So, I always had a boyfriend. I had someone to sit with at lunch, talk to between classes, and take me to the dances and out on dates. I insulated myself against the pain of rejection. Boys were always nicer to me than girls were, and they made better friends.
Folks, there are still mean girls by the water fountain, whispering about their plans and leaving me out of them, but I’m over it. I’m fine with who I am, though I do strive to improve myself (for me, not for them). Whether or not the “popular” girls approve of me no longer really matters in the scheme of things. I’m different, and my writing reflects that difference. Some people cannot accept that I don’t fit their mold, but I would rather not be confined to anyone else’s idea of who I should be or what I should write. I will always upset the status quo without consciously trying to do so. It is not my aim to be different; it’s just the way I am.
I’d rather be a rising star than a setting sun. I hope you feel the same way. Don’t let the naysayers get you down, and never let them see you sweat.
I have come to the conclusion that God loves variety, and that He made me the way I am. He made the elephant, the giraffe, and the duck billed platypus, so I know He has a sense of humor, and He likes things that are different.
Romans 8:31 says, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Yes, friends, today is Tuesday – the day I weigh-in at Weight Watchers, and I have lost 12.6 pounds! Yes, ma’am, that was me in a smaller size. Today, our group leader spoke about motivation. I find success to be the best motivator. I liked getting another 5 pound star as well as a huge star for losing 5% of my body weight, but I don’t think about the stars for very long. However, I step on those scales every day, and I look in that mirror every morning. Seeing that goal on the horizon getting closer and closer keeps me pumped up more than a thousand stars could – unless Colin Firth or Rupert Penry-Jones were there in person presenting the awards. There’s my Darcy, very happy at my achievement.
In a few months, I’ll post a picture of myself looking so good that you’ll ask, “Who is that highly presentable woman?” I want to arrive at the Decatur Book Festival in September at least three sizes smaller. This summer, I want to go to the beach and actually go down to the beach instead of staying in the room reading. I want to wear a top made by Forever 21 instead of Omar the Tent Maker. I want to have an author picture made which doesn’t excite a cringe in me every time I look at it. I have 39 pounds to go before I achieve my goal weight, and I think I can do it. Who’s with me?
Here at JSI, we're celebrating having a mom, being a mom, or just knowing a mom! Wytherngate Press has cut the price of all three volumes of Laura Hile's Mercy's Embrace print editions, and both volumes of Susan Kaye's Frederick Wentworth, Captain at the scorching price of $11!
For modern moms who are digitally minded, the same novels are available on sale for Nook and Kindle at $4.99 each for Mercy's Embrace and $5.99 for The Captain.
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Still making waves! New Library Journal article highlights Fitzwilliam Darcy,Gentleman series wp.me/p1mX14-36Short Thoughts from Pamela Aidan4 months ago
