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Author Topic: Starting Book 2! For real this time!  (Read 3134 times)

HeartShadow

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Starting Book 2! For real this time!
« on: March 27, 2014, 03:02:50 pm »
What I've got is the beginning of the second book.  What I'd love from readers is ideas on what to expect from a book with this opening.  What are you looking for?  What did I not include in the first book that you want?  What does this mean to you?  Anything?  (If I'm making no sense at all, tell me that!)

So.  Essay!

Mirrored People

What do we see, when we look at other people?  It's simple, with strangers.  We just see a stranger.  A grocery clerk, waitstaff, someone passing in another car.  And even here, we see examples of mirroring.  When our mood is bad, people seem to be crankier to us.  When we're cheerful, we see people in a different light.  Same people, but our mood gets reflected on them.  But it's a quick interaction, a small mirror.  What about people we see more?

One of the most critical pieces of seeing ourselves mirrored in others is that we almost never see something we're happy about there.  We enjoy the company of people who share our values, share and discuss and grow from each other, but we don't tend to mirror our good qualities.  We sometimes project an image of who we want someone to be, but that's a different problem.  Projection is about positive things.  Reflection is about the things we deny or fear, about people we remember and are reminded of.

Reflection and memory is normal.  Having bits and pieces of people we have known in the past isn't a problem.  It's when the past overshadows the present, when we react to people that aren't there instead of the people that are, that we end up in trouble.

When community is healthy, we shine brightly and reflect cleanly, and our Flames magnify and burn stronger together than apart.  When community is unhealthy, distortion twists with unhealthy Flames and builds problem onto problem.

We do not live in isolation.  We cannot tend only to ourselves and our Flame and ignore those of others.  We live in communities, and how we shine and what we reflect changes those communities.  And each community becomes its own mirrored flame which reflects against the reflected collections of other communities, distortions combine and interact and reflect off each other.

If we are to improve the world, we need to shine clearly and see clearly.  While distortion may be impossible to eliminate, the more we are aware of it and attempt to minimize it, the better we make the world around us.

See clearly.

IceAngie

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Re: Starting Book 2! For real this time!
« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2014, 05:20:41 pm »
Quote from: HeartShadow;143796
What I've got is the beginning of the second book.  What I'd love from readers is ideas on what to expect from a book with this opening.  What are you looking for?  What did I not include in the first book that you want?  What does this mean to you?  Anything?  (If I'm making no sense at all, tell me that!)

 
Oh! Just yesterday I was trying to get my debit card to work online to buy the first book. It didn't. The page says it's the bank's fault, the bank says it's the page's fault, and nobody can fix the problem. (Since my debit card doesn't work online at all, I'm guessing the problem is in the bank.)

So, I haven't read the other book yet, and I can't comment on it. :/ But congratulations for the start of the new book! I hope I can solve the card problem before you start selling it!
Angeles/IceAngie/Selegna.

Allaya

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Re: Starting Book 2! For real this time!
« Reply #2 on: March 28, 2014, 07:42:18 am »
Quote from: HeartShadow;143796
What I've got is the beginning of the second book.  What I'd love from readers is ideas on what to expect from a book with this opening.  What are you looking for?  What did I not include in the first book that you want?  What does this mean to you?  Anything?  (If I'm making no sense at all, tell me that!)

 
I'm not sure that I am sufficiently steeped in FK to have actual expectations. However, you've got a strong start with that opening.

As for meaning, that opener kinda sparked the realization that all of the things I am cruel or judgmental with myself about (body image, articulation of thoughts, cleanliness of lawns or homes, etc) are exactly the yardsticks I use for judging other people*. Loving myself and loving other people are really the same thing when you get down to it. Being more gentle with others will result in being gentler with myself and vice versa.

Thank you for the lesson, Shad. I am very much looking forward to book 2.


*Well, the asshole part of my brain likes to blurt things out to the rest of my brain and the rest of my brain then scolds it for being a judgmental asshole, tells it why it's wrong, and then fires up the shame factory.
Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.  — Shirley Chisholm
No doubt the truth can be unpleasant, but I am not sure that unpleasantness is the same as the truth.  — Roger Ebert
It is difficult to get a person to understand something when their livelihood depends upon them not understanding it. — Upton Sinclair (adapted)
People cannot be reasoned out of an opinion that they have not reasoned themselves into. — Fisher Ames (adapted)

HeartShadow

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Re: Starting Book 2! For real this time!
« Reply #3 on: March 28, 2014, 08:09:35 am »
Quote from: Allaya;143852
I'm not sure that I am sufficiently steeped in FK to have actual expectations. However, you've got a strong start with that opening.

As for meaning, that opener kinda sparked the realization that all of the things I am cruel or judgmental with myself about (body image, articulation of thoughts, cleanliness of lawns or homes, etc) are exactly the yardsticks I use for judging other people*. Loving myself and loving other people are really the same thing when you get down to it. Being more gentle with others will result in being gentler with myself and vice versa.

Thank you for the lesson, Shad. I am very much looking forward to book 2.


*Well, the asshole part of my brain likes to blurt things out to the rest of my brain and the rest of my brain then scolds it for being a judgmental asshole, tells it why it's wrong, and then fires up the shame factory.

That shame factory sucks.

That said - that you found a lesson even in the intro means I'm on the right path.  Thank you for that, it's the most meaningful flattery I could ask for!  :)

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