The Sage Record

During November, I wrote a little over 10,000 words telling the story of Sage working through the COVID-19 pandemic. 

This week, I’m thankful for the small town I grew up in. Where you or your parents or grandparents, pretty much knew of everybody in town. You shopped in the same stores, knew where everyone went to church, read the same newspaper. We lived on the edge of town, so I know the difference of the in town kids and the country kids. 

I’m thankful growing up with a sense of place that came from my home town shaped my outlook.

Perhaps you grew up hearing family stories from the any of the wars our grandparents and parents time, and what their lives were like in times of repression and depression. 

My adventures to write my book have been sidetracked by life this week. But the delays have opened doors to solutions of several pitfalls in my story. The love interest will be mentioned and make an appearance in the first page of the story. He is going to go back to Austin for a while, but the reader will know of him, his relationship to the main character and the town. This will only support many elements that were already in the story. 

And I discovered the theme that will enable the community to embrace the plans for handling the pandemic. It has a strong Biblical approach that Sage will, after some prayer, fully embrace and the rest of world will think they are crazy. More about this in the future. 

I miss my hometown newspaper. It’s been out of business for about 15 years. It came on Thursdays. It not only was a place of keeping city government accountable, but you could keep up with births, deaths, Obituaries and my favorite the detail descriptions of the wedding party’s outfits and the theme decors. (Especially for the ones you weren’t invited too.)

What do you want to challenge yourself to accomplish in November? Maybe, your are not up to a 50,000 word/book challenge. Maybe you are committed to writing a chapter, an outline, character descriptions. Maybe you have an editing deadline. Maybe a marketing goal. Working on your website. Maybe creating an exercise program to create health and a better mindset. Maybe a month of prayer. Or maybe, you need to organize your work/desk area to be able to concentrate better. Let's use this month to challenge and encourage each other to complete whatever we need to move each of us forward.

I’m going to start my book.

In learning more about enneagrams, I’ve discovered the concept of the ‘common good.’

Working toward the common good is one of the main themes of my current work in progress. 

Working toward the common good is an innate part of my character. It spills out in all I do. 

The common good should be core focus of a community, but sadly, personalities and self-interests often win the day. 

This week, in a Bible Study, I studied Isaiah 25. Verses 2 speak of cities. 

 2 For you have turned the city into a pile of rocks,

I enjoy stories about community. I’m fascinated with people working together to build or maintain society. When I think about my life, I realize that many of the courses I took in college, whether government, history or sociology, reflected themes of cities and communities. In the eighties, I was president of a local group. All of my images and themes that year related to serving in community. When I look at my past, it is not surprising I’ve settled on this concept about writing about community.  It seems like home, to develop my stories around this little town of Sage. 

If you look back on your life, is there a specific theme you see yourself carrying out?

Have you ever experienced a time of such distrust? 

It is hard to find anyone or any group you can trust?

After a holiday weekend and they start of football, it is easy to list the things we miss from before COVID. 

What are you missing the most?

In these days of COVID, one of main jobs the Mayor of Sage is confronted with is balancing for the community fear and encouragement. Although, the community embraced this time knowing they would all take part in this balancing act, and some days would be harder on some more than others, the Mayor needs to always have the right words to pick up any Citzen on any given day.

Residents of Sage, carefully detailed what happened during the Spanish Flu in their community. The heroic actions of the Mayor and many citizens became deeply ingrained in the folklore of the city. Sage holds an Angus McLeash Festival every year to memorialize those who were lost in the days of the Spanish Flu and be reminded of Angus; last words in his journal, “Don’t let this happen to Sage again.”

The leaders of Sage studied news reports from China in December. They saw two things were happening in the community, people were wearing masks and their temperatures were taken every time they entered anywhere. 

The president of the Sage College student body, who is studying Chinese, saw a watch which takes your temperature. 

My heroine is the mayor of Sage and it is the week of Thanksgiving. When the story begins with a phone call, she is researching her contribution to the upcoming Founder’s Cousin Thanksgiving Dinner. A large gathering of almost family members they draw names for the dishes each year. The order of importance is turkey, dressing, gravy and sweet potatoes. She drew sweet potatoes. She wants to create the most amazing sweet potatoes, the group has been so anxious. This isn’t a driving force in the story, but it will show somethings about the actors. 

She’s asking you for your help. They could be baked, made into a casserole, pie, or any way of preparation, as long as it is sweet potatoes. 

Welcome to my first newsletter. 

My current work in progress is a story of how the community of my town, Sage, Texas is responding to the COVID virus.