The Lifeboat - a Kingdom of God Manifesto

 

Warning Label: This is where I preach!

Some say the grass in the town commons is overgrazed. They say that each shepherd knows that and has rushed to fatten their flocks while there is still grass in the commons. They say that this is the cause of the grass being reduced to dust, and that access to the town commons must be restricted.

The town commons is the sum of all the Earth’s resources, so it follows that being restricted from the town commons means there is no grass for one’s flocks - anywhere.

Some say the Earth is a lifeboat, and they say that humanity has outgrown it. They say there isn’t enough room in the lifeboat for all. They say that empathy and compassion are no longer conducive to human survival. They say we should shoot the refugees in the water lest they climb aboard - that we must take the axe and chop the fingers of those clinging to the side.

“There is only room in the lifeboat for beautiful people like you and me,” they say.

As resources diminish, as the grass is eaten down to the root, the only solution will become obvious to all. Then it will be either the survival of the fittest, or the survival of none.

• [Footnote: Cory Doctorow lets us in on where this thinking came from, and how it’s beginning to creep in: “The Tragedy of the Commons”: how ecofascism was smuggled into mainstream thought]

That is what they say, but not us.

Our allegiance is not to the system that they hope to save, but to the Kingdom of God

Though Kingdom of God is yet to come, it is already here among us, in our midst.

The Kingdom of God is our lifeboat. There is room for all in our lifeboat. Boarding the lifeboat is not restricted to any particular population, nationality or race. Just as five loaves and three fish could feed 5000, so every ethnic group, every national origin, every man, woman and child, will fit if they climb in.

As Jesus Christ, our shepherd, leads His flock into the town commons, the grass is forever green and plentiful and sufficient for all who will follow.

The Kingdom of God is not enforced from the top down like earthly kingdoms, but shared from person to person as those with the life of the Breath of God reach to those around.

The Kingdom of God in our midst, is not based on any nationality, any particular race, colour of skin, or any particular ethnic group, nor political party. The Kingdom of God doesn’t represent any political ideology.

No political philosophy defines us, whether it be conservative, liberal, labour, democrat, republican, nationalist, loyalist, communist, socialist, fascist, libertarian or anarchist. Our lives belong to Christ.

We do render to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, but the rest belongs to God. We honour the king, but not as the defender of our faith, for King Messiah is our defender. Our purpose is not to make any earthly nation “great again”, but the Kingdom of God, which includes every nation, tribe and tongue. Our allegiance is to the Kingdom of God. Wherever there is a conflict of interest, we must obey God rather than man. We therefore do not hold back from helping those in need, feeding the hungry, giving shelter, advocating for justice, and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom, even if human government forbids it.

The Kingdom of God isn’t defined by any movement or denomination of Christianity, whether Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Reformed, Anabaptist, Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Quakers, Moravians, Pentecostal, Messianic, nor Rabbinical Judaism - none of them. Though many movements were inspired by a vision of the Kingdom of God, none have ever seen enough of the whole picture to be able to say their movement defines it. Nor have we seen the whole picture. Inasmuch as those who have gone before were inspired by a vision of the Kingdom of God, we can learn from each.

All who accept the Lordship of Jesus, the Messiah, and who are conformed to His death and resurrection, are a part of this Kingdom, even as they fellowship and labour alongside their fellow congregants of the various movements. And, sadly, many who are members of the movements and denominations, have never submitted to Messiah, the King, and therefore, are not a part of the Kingdom of God.

Our call is, The Kingdom of God is here. Repent and believe this proclamation

The Professor Gets a History Lesson

 

The Sequels to Rats in the Cellar

We’re still talking about my Rats in the Cellar series. So far, we’ve talked mostly about the first book in the series.

The second, third and fourth aren’t just more of the same. They’re not even about the same character. The original Oscar, A.K.A. Francis still makes an appearance, but the second in the series follows the one named Louis, the bad boy. He has developed a fiercely independent outlook, and plays nasty pranks on his doppels once he tires of them. We read about a couple of his nasties in the first book.

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and a link to download my collection of sci-fi stories, The Wrong Time.

Can you imagine being blamed for a very horrible prank that was done by someone who looked exactly like you - whom no one but you two knew existed? That’s how Louis got his kicks.

He has developed the mentality of a typical homeless street kid - except he’s not “homeless” in the way we think of it. He’s always in the same house, but moving on to a different universe when he tires of the old, while burning his bridges after him.

But the cat knows how to deal with him, and he mends his ways, and becomes a lifesaver to another of his doppels, one who takes the name of Blake.

“Doppel”, by the way, is a rarely used word in the English language. You’ve probably heard it as “doppelgänger”, someone who is either exactly like you, maybe a second you, maybe a clone. Louis and Blake end up together as twins, adopted by a different family who happens to own their house in a different universe. That’s a “happily ever after” for them.

We also meet other new characters. Remember, in a previous emailing, I said that the “Gandalf/Dumbledore figure” in this series is the cat? Actually, the cat isn’t the only one. In the second in the series, we’re introduced to another, in the form of a four or five-year-old boy, sort of an angelic creature. Just as the cat still acts like a cat, because, as the little boy describes it, he really is a cat, the boy carries his wisdom with the liveliness and emotions of a five-year-old boy. Then, we meet more creatures of the same order in the third and fourth instalments.

The third in the series is where we meet the scientist, Dr. James McSporrin, who originally built the old house and created the multiverse portal. He had successfully invented a time machine. The initial prototype didn’t actually travel itself, it only sent the person using it, while it stayed put. He tested it, intending to go only two weeks into the past. He took a few things along, intended to hole up in a hotel, and then work on the machine some more when he got back.

It sent him to the 18th century.

We learn of him through an old diary, in which he has recorded the history of his adventures. The diary entries are read by the adoptive father of Louis and Blake, in between further adventures of the Oscar doppels in the present day.

Dr. McSporrin, though an atheist, is impressed by how the abolition movement of 18th and 19th century England is fuelled by Evangelical Christians, who were then referred to then as “Nonconformists”. Back in his own century, he had perceived the Evangelicals as being the biggest hindrance to social change.

He also makes a mistake that he forever regrets, confiding in some of his students that he’s from the future. They had sort of guessed it anyway, and they caught him off guard when they suddenly asked him. With the help of his students he manages to build another time machine, an improved version that will actually travel itself.

But a couple of his unscrupulous students, ones with family connections with the slave trade, steal the machine, and manage to erase the abolition movement from history - at least from that timeline. They murder various ones in their cradles, like William Wilberforce, William Pitt, Thomas Pain, Hannah Moore, and anyone else who rises up to fill their vacuum, until they’ve achieved a timeline that’s totally under their control, a dystopia.

In the pages of that diary, we follow how Dr. McSporrin was tormented by the thought of having doomed his world to such an evil future, and was almost driven to suicide. He also meets others whom we’re pretty sure are our own cat and little boy and the others.

The house with the parallel universe portal was an attempt by Dr. McSporrin and his one good faithful student (a fan of Thomas Pain), to establish a link between the dark dystopian timeline and the other in which they were born.

One of the Oscar doppels stumbles into that bleak dystopian universe. But I’ll stop before any spoilers slip out. I’ll only say that there’s a fifth creature, this one immensely evil, who goes by the name Jack Rippley. There’s some spiritual warfare, which also involves more singing by the Oscar choir.

The fourth book in the series came to me after even I thought the series was finished. The end of the third book didn’t leave room for a sequel. But an idea came anyway; this time, a time travel story. Dr. McSporrin takes an active role in this one, not just from the pages of a dairy.

Dr. McSporrin has been tasked with the shutting down of the multiverse portal, as it has now fulfilled it’s purpose. He solicits the help of one of the Oscars, the same one who had stumbled into the bleak world. Some mix-ups happen, the two are stranded in a dead end universe, and while trying to fix things the universe splits again, and suddenly there’s two Dr McSporrin and two Oscars. But the Dr McSporrin’s do find that two heads are better than one, and they find a way out. On the way home, the two Oscars get lost in Victorian London, and are forced into child labour. It’s the Whitechapel district of London of 1890, where William Booth and his Salvation Army are active, and so is Jack the Ripper. In the end, Oscar finally arrives home as twins. I won’t spoil it any more, except that the ending is very satisfying

Again, you can download the books here…

Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon Canada Amazon Australia.

The Gospel According to the Cat

 

Though, as my bio states, I’m sold out to the Kingdom of God (in other words, Christian), I find that an “in-your-face” approach isn’t always the best way to express it. It’s about presenting the beauty of the message in an inviting way, which hopefully draws them closer to view more of that beauty. That expression may not appear to be Christian at all, simply because it’s done without the traditional trappings and paraphernalia that they’ve come to associate with Christianity - which, to be honest, I also find tiresome at times. The only thing forcing them to stay should be their own fascination with the products of my artistic imagination. Though at some point, they may realise that they’ve been “preached to” without knowing it, it should elicit a response like, “Okay, that’s one way of looking at it,” or something similar. At any time, they should feel that it’s okay to leave without feeling like my religious sensibilities have been hurt – without even a hint of, “You step out that door to a Christless eternity!” They know the invitation is always open to come back later for more. .

For that reason, my books tend to be targeted to secular audiences. Once you get into them, you will detect Biblical themes. Some are more obviously Christian from the start, just not “in-your-face” with the message

C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were both Cristian authors. Lewis was more obvious about it in his narratives, though his style was still not “in-your- face”. Tolkien was more subtle. Reading Tolkien, one comes away with the awareness that the world can be changed by the small and insignificant, and that kindness and compassion are forces more powerful than military might and raw energy. No wonder the Hippy culture of the sixties loved it!

I’m sure both Lewis and Tolkien would love my cat. Now, we don’t have a cat in our house as my wife is allergic to animal hair; I’m talking about the feline character in Rats in the Cellar.

You’d think that putting a cat into a story about rats would indicate a dangerous situation (even if “rats” is only a metaphor). C.S.Lewis threw a lion in with a group of children. By the lions own admission, he wasn’t even a tame one. So, what could go wrong in my story?

Plenty. In the first chapter, the cat gets Oscar lost in the multiverse. Later, the cat leads the boys in and out of places that are definitely not child-safe. Once, he darts across a busy highway at a blind curve, with Oscar following. “Not a safe thing to do unless accompanied by a wise cat.”

Of course, the cat knows what he’s doing. Sometimes the seemingly safest places to be are actually the most dangerous and vice versa.

The cat can also purr. As I said in my previous email, the purring generates a change of mood, and sometimes induces mental images. When the cat curls up next to Oscar at night, Oscar dreams that he can purr. He dreams that he’s purring for his young cousins, who are going through an especially traumatic period, and the purring does for them what the cat’s purr does for him.

But boys can’t purr. That thought crosses his mind the next day when he just happens to find himself with the same young cousins. The four-year-old says, “Mummy tried to kill daddy.” The two boys talk about how Daddy punched Mummy in the nose, and how Mummy went at him with a knife, before the police came and took her away. Then the seven-year-old (the oldest of the four), can’t handle it any more.

“It’ll be alright,” Oscar tries to comfort her.

“No, it won’t!” sobs Becky. “You’re just saying that!”

Oscar knows she’s right. The situation is hopeless, and all he can give are empty words.

Later, as the boys are fighting and things are out of control, he remembers the dream, that he’s purring to the children.

Boys can’t purr. But, they can sing.

Oscar’s favourite school activity, when school isn’t closed, is voice practice. The music instructor, Boz, gives the boys singing lessons, developing their male soprano voices.

Their favourite song is one Boz wrote himself.

Remember what I said about characters named Boz appearing in any of my stories; it’s me making a cameo appearance. However, in this case, the only thing he and I have in common is that we wrote that song.

The song is based on the Beatitudes: Blessed are the poor… etc.

As Oscar is standing in the room with the two boys fighting over the toys, the four-year-old bouncing on the settee, and Becky not on speaking terms with the world, he remembers the song.

He begins singing it, and that begins to make a difference. It actually does have the same effect as the cat’s purring.

Here’s the quote from the book:

As he sang, he knew that so much of it might have sounded like a pipe dream, what with all that was happening, the war, the riots, the actual hunger and poverty, even the state of these kids. But this wasn’t the hollow sounding “It’ll be okay” that he told Becky earlier. Somehow, as he sang, he knew each word was meant to be.

Somehow, so did Becky. So did her younger siblings. The whole mood changed. The cat has bestowed on Oscar the gift of singing. That’s how I portray faith - Kingdom of God faith.

That was just Oscar, singing it solo. Later in the book, the many instances of Oscar make for a whole choir. How much more hope would that bring?

The cat knows that.

The song itself is based on a tune that I composed when I was 17. Though I’m by no means a professional in that field, I did manage to create a Midi file, using Muse-Score, and then I created a YouTube video showing the lyrics as the music plays. If you want to listen to it, you can find it Here

Again, you can download the books here…

 

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

Amazon Australia

 

Nightengale Blues

 He said he was expert in making a nest
But look at the place! It's such a mess! 
Got eggs on the way, I need some rest

     I've got the Nightingale Bluuuuuuues

Rock-a-bye three babies in our treetop
They show me their tonsils whenever I stop
So I'm hunting for worms until I drop

    I've got the Nightingale Bluuuuuuues

Tried to teach the kids to sing real sweet
But our son says “Coo coo” instead of “Tweet tweet”
What the neighbours are saying I won't repeat

    I've got the Nightingale Bluuuuuuuues

I'm not a nurse I'm a nightingale 
And my name's not Florence, but I'll never quail
So that's my life, I've sung you my tale

    I've got the Nightingale Bluuuuuuuues

Experimenting with Multiverse

After I wrote my heart out about the Time Orphan universe, I was plagued by yet another “what if”: What if a little boy wandered into a forbidden part of his house, and got pulled into a parallel universe?

Not a Narnia universe, but more like in Dr. Hugh Everrett’s Many Worlds Theory - a world almost identical to the one you just left.

Thus began my adventures in writing Rats in the Cellar.

At this point, I have to make a vigorous denial: I don’t have an obsession with rats. I don’t own a pet rat, I don’t fantacise about rats - at least I didn’t then, as I wasn’t actually writing about rats.

Had I known that I would later write a series titled The Rat Queen, I would have named this series differently. The Rat Queen is about rats. In Rats in the Cellar, they’re only a metaphor. 

Rats in the Cellar is about nine-year-old boys - or one nine-year-old boy - one nine-year-old boy in multiple universes, therefore, many nine-year-old boys, all named Oscar Wilde Dougherty. 

The thing about nine-year-old boys is, that’s the prime age in which they could just as easily be a whining mama’s boy or a street-wise survivalist. In the many instances of the Dougherty household throughout the multiverse, the Oscar Wilde Doughertys cover the whole spectrum in between. They’re eachother’s best friends, eachother’s worst enemies, they’re a threat to each other's security, and there to give a helping hand. I’m talking about all the different instances of Oscar.

And why are there so many instances of the same boy?

They discover the portal in the forbidden part of the house - actually two, one down in the cellar, and one in the attic. They've been warned to keep away from both places, but it's an easy warning to heed, because both parts of the house send “bad vibes”. Later, we find this is “cosmic static”, caused by the friction of time-lines rubbing against each other. The genius who built it found that he could use the cosmic static as a power source to keep the portals forever switched on. But I’m getting way ahead of myself. 

But the cosmic static makes the two parts of the housefeel feel spooky, so no one ever ventures into the cellar or to the third floor.

Once having gone thorugh a portal, getting back isn’t straightforward. You can’t just turn around and re-enter the world you just left. There is a way to get back, but you have to do it in five steps, in the right order, which isn’t always easy for a nine-year-old. They’s why they’re lost.

As I said, they’re eachother’s best friends or worst enemies. They develop traditions, rules of the game. They pick alternative names to be known by so they don’t get confused (by opening a phone directory and randomly pointing). There’s a room in the cellar where they can sleep in any instance of their house, and they’re sworn to secrecy about that room. And they steal food from the kitchen. That’s why they’re called “Rats in the Cellar”. 

To throw in a bit more fun, it’s a dystopian future. Most western counties are no longer united, there are national borders where there didn’t use to be, some are at war, some have nukes, there’s political unrest, and governments don’t have enough resources to keep the police department going. There are police, but they only protect those that pay a special “police tax”. And the rich are still oppressing the poor.

Yet more fun - or horror - whatever: Oscar’s Uncle Milton is supposed to be in prison, but in some universes, the prison has broken open, and he’s terrorising the family. He’s a sex offender of the worst type, and some instances of him have found their way into the multiverse.

But justice is met in a satisfying way.

Then, there’s the cat. While there are many instances of Oscar, Uncle Milton and others, there’s only one of the cat. It’s a very wise cat. 

In my assessment of various fictional narratives, one type of character is the “Gandalf/Dumbledore” figgure. I probably don’t need to say that’s the wisend, supportive, elder figure who helps move the plot along. In Rats in the Cellar, it’s the cat.

It appears to be just an ordinary cat. It doesn’t talk, but it can generate visual images by its purring. Sometimes the purring just sets the mood. As I said, it’s a very wise cat. There are other wise creatures as well, which appear in the sequels.

But in the first book in the series, the cat has a plan, which leads to the climax of the first installment.

  

Anyway, here’s where you can download the first Rats in the Cellar novella:  

Amazon US

Amazon UK 

Amazon Canada 

Amazon Australia

I may write more about this next time.

 

>

Experimenting with Time Travel

If something was fun to write, I think that means that it should be fun to read as well. 

Orphans of Space-Time was certainly fun to write. 

Actually, I had fun with all my books - or I wouldn’t have managed to complete them.

But in Orphans of Space-Time, I got to try out a few unusual ideas, and attempt to answer a few unique “what if” questions, 

The original idea for the book was, in fact, a question posed by my son as an idea for a story: What if the main character is able to remember it when a time traveller has gone to the past and committed a murder?  That became the premise for the first story in the series.

The book, by the way, is really a set of stories ranging from short stories to novellas, but they fit together as sequels and prequels – a whole series in one cover. 

Each story answers a “what if” question.

One day, after having writen the first couple of stories, I was walking past a road-works near our house, and I got another idea, which went into the story titled, The Murder Victim Who Was Still Alive. 

What if they found a child buried under the pavement that they’re digging up, who has only been dead a few hours? What if you found out that the same child is still alive and well? The detective involved in this case is forced into believing in time-travel, as he realises that this child is about to be murdered. How do you prevent such a murder from happening?

Another question that begs to be asked is, what if a major historical event happened differently, such as Rome never becoming an empire? What would happen to the world that we know, and things like rise and spread of Christianity?

I flip that question on its head, with a rogue time traveller asking instead, “What would happen to the civilised empires of the East, if one of the barbaric nations of the west, say for example Rome, became a major empire that pushed back on the Parthian empire? What if Hannibal's conquering of Rome had not succeeded? What would happen to the spread of Christianity?” Lots of plot twists in that novelette; titled, The Great Time Shift.

Another one is autobiographical, about my 8-year-old self. As usual, I name myself Boz. Boz is one of the narrative points of view, the other is Ben Scully, the name I gave to my best friend. 

Here’s where I have to confess that I was a horrible kid at that age. When under peer pressure, I wasn't beyond bullying, even if I was bullied a few times myself. But the incident that the story is built around (besides the Cuban Missile Crises and the Kennedy assassination) was my deciding to turn against my best friend. I just simply dropped him as a friend!

In the story, Ben Scully was the time perceptive one, and was having trouble getting details sorted out regarding both the missile cries and then the Kennedy assassination a year later (both events involved time travellers}. In real life that I actually remember, he was only an ordinary lad – which would explain why his future self didn't show up to teach me the importance of friendships. 

I wish he had, but of course, this is real life, where I've written that story to atone for my being so horrible. But apart from the last couple of scenes, all the details written from Boz’s point of view are accurate to the best of my memory. As for the setting, the only clue is that the area is well represented on the Monopoly board. That's A Couple of Years in the Early Life of a Time Traveller. 

The final “what if” question is one in which you have to be well versed in the Time Orphan universe to ask or understand. That's why it's at the very end, and isn't released as a stand-alone, even though it's of standard novella length. 

The premise: if you jump from a disconnected timeline, showing up in the new timeline where another instance of yourself already lives quite happily, if the two of you come too close together, you'll merge into one, with the memories of both timelines having equal clarity. 

The question: an unscrupulous, murderous time traveller goes back and murders his mother when his younger self is only 4 years old. The 4-year-old grows up in a very good environment, becomes a strong Christian, is transformed by the Holy Spirit and through good training; and then merges with the evil doppel. What happens? Which personality becomes dominant? 

I had lots of fun writing The Lives of Eoin Murray.

And I hope you'll have fun reading all the above. 

Next time, I'll write about my other time travel series, Rats in the Cellar, based on different premises. 

 

Again, here are the download links:

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M1AIZGS

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M1AIZGS

Amazon Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01M1AIZGS

Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01M1AIZGS

 

The Official Table Of Large Numbers

In case you ever wondered, the following is the list of names for the higher numbers

One

Ten

Hundred

Thousand

Million

Billion

Trillion

Quadrilion

Quintillion

Sextillian

Septillian

Octillian

Neptillion

Dectillian

ByGillian

ARapscallion

NamedMaxmillian

MadeAMillion

OrWasItABillion

PerhapsItWasTrillion

ButHsWasASilly’un

AndWouldntGiveToAnyOne

WhoNeededHelpButAwayHe’dRun

ToBetItAllOnOnFrillyFun

ToBuyTheWorldAndThenBeDone

OnHisYoyoStringTheWorldHeSpun

ButAllTheseNumbersPointToONE

WhenAllWasSaidAndAllWasDone

HeFoundHeHadNoWhereToRun

SoWhatWasHisEndAndHowAndWhy? 

Dunno, NoOne’sEverCountedThatHigh

#poetry #humour #social