As I get older I find myself trying new things. Earlier this year I enrolled in a pottery class. And I’m having a blast. Well…I’m not making stuff that Royal Dalton or Tiffany and Co. would approve. Not yet, anyway. 🙂 And I’m getting old… Yeah, Bette Davis was right: “Old age ain’t no place for sissies.” I’m posting this paragraph at the top of my “Welcome To Always Rejoicing” page just to let you know that I’m running on “slow” but I’m still moving. I’m writing this paragraph on Memorial Day Weekend, 2026. If you sign up, I’ll send you an e-mail when I post something. And I’d love to get a comment from you.
Recently I shared an unfinished essay with my writing group. They suggested I rewrite it as a story. Well…in attempting to do that I discovered how difficult that endeavor can be. I now have much more respect for C. S. Lewis turning his essay The Abolition Of Man into the novel That Hideous Strength.
The story I am now attempting to write follows a young man discovering that math and science do not have all the answers. On that journey he delves into the reality–or nonreality–of negative numbers, Ptolemy’s map of the universe, the square root of negative one and many other postulated ideas. In writing this I find I must, like Lewis, invent a tale.
Writing is just that: inventing or reinventing a tale. In my story, The Fifth Commandment, the Biblical story of David, Jonathan and King Saul is retold. The story does stick to the Biblical narrative, but from Jonathan’s viewpoint. Thus the story is reinvented. We see it fresh. But I didn’t set out to retell that story. Instead, I attempted to tell a story about a young man who struggled with obeying the fifth commandment when his father was rather evil. It could have been the story of the son of a gangster or crooked politician. However, I am unaware of anyone telling Jonathan’s story, so that seemed to be the story to tell.
All this to say that these are my stories. I may be retelling The Three Little Pigs, for example, but the story is mine, it is a retelling, but it is not the story you heard as a child. The basic tale is there, the canon of the story, as I interpret it; but I do try to write new, fresh tales. Some of these tales are totally new, not based on Biblical or ancient fairy tales, but on my own imagination or my personal experience. Seeing Red and Mercy Killing are examples.
Variety, it is said, is the spice of life. However, many of us seek the same thing over and over: we tend to order the same meal in the same restaurant. “Well,” we say, “it’s really good.” And, yes, of course it is. I will always prefer East Carolina Vinegar Sauce on my BBQ pork. There’s a reason for that: I’ve tried Alabama mayonnaise sauce and South Carolina mustard sauce and the standard tomato BBQ sauce you find everywhere. They seem to hide the natural flavor of the smoked meat. The vinegar brings out the sweet and savory flavor of the pork, in my opinion. But the import point is that I have tried them.
In this context I was thinking about the variety of music styles. Some of us get “riled up” over Country Music, Jazz, The Blues, Rock & Roll, Bluegrass, ‘Classical’, Folk, etc. (Yeah, I left out lots of other styles…) Some of us get overly emotional, claiming “our” music is the best. And how many people claim to dislike banjos and bagpipes? But when properly played they produce a marvelous music. Emphasis on “properly played”. Pianos, guitars & violins sound horrible when improperly played. But there is also the fact that an unfamiliar music sounds “off”. Sometimes we need to learn to appreciate the unfamiliar.
Good music is like a good meal: well done, not under-cooked, not over-spiced, but full of the natural flavor. Alabama can produce an excellent “BBQ” entrée. But when I taste it I must put aside my preference for East Carolina BBQ and enjoy the meal that is set before me. Most of us would be rather shocked when served what looks like sweet chocolate ice cream and find it is a bitter espresso flavor. Even if the espresso ice cream is, by other standards, quite excellent.
The same is true of a good story. An adventure story can be boring. But I Love Lucy can be just as entertaining as Star Trek, to use two classical TV shows. I hope what is presented here is “well done, not under-cooked or over-spiced”.
Your favorite genre may appear here, but there are other types of stories too; please don’t let that keep you from reading these stories. Hopefully, they are well prepared. They might not be chocolate…or espresso…but you just might enjoy them.
Currently on Always Rejoicing provides info on the stories or essays recently posted.
One of my favorite stories is The Fifth Commandment. It’s a little long, but I hope you find it worthwhile. The stories vary from the drama of Seeing Red to the satire/comedy of The Three Little Pigs. One of my favorite poems is Alternity While it is more or less a sort of story, it should be read out loud, as a poem, with a sense of urgency and raw reality. Some of the essays (you might think of them as ‘blog posts’) are about fantasy stories. The category “Whistling Dixie” contains a few essays that are odd. One of them compares Darth Vader with Dorothy Gale.
FYI: I built this site myself. More about that here. By the way, like many websites, click on the icon in the upper left corner to return to this page.
For a bit of my personal biography you can click here: About Uisdean
Please scroll down this page to find links to some of the stories. If you click on the banner you will see the stories in that category. Or use the menu at the top of this page. Other pages may have a menu on the side or at the bottom of the page.
So, welcome to AlwaysRejoicing.com. I do hope you enjoy the site.
Rejoice Always!
–Uisdean