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(I got mentioned over at Stuff Christians Like today…to find out why, read on)

I grew up in Southeastern MA, as many of you know, and I attended a small little reformed church in Dartmouth, MA called The First Christian Church of Hixville for a good 10 years or so (that’s the actual church pictured on the right). Like any church you’ve ever attended, there’s lots of stuff I could pick on and disagree with about the church. Today’s not the day for that though.

There’s a few things I still love about Hixville. I love many of the people I came to know there. In fact, many of them remain strong influences in my life. I also love the memories that I have. Playing football on the lawn after church, walking to the corner store to buy jolly ranchers after Sunday school despite being told not to, putting kielbasa and dish soap into someone’s coffee cup as a prank, and then realizing it was the wrong cup (sorry Mrs. Gamble!). I could go on and on until the second coming, but I won’t.

Anyway, since today is Halloween, I just HAVE to mention HATCH Night. It was a tradition at Hixville for a handful of years. As kids, instead of trick-or-treating we got HATCH night. You might be wondering why it was called HATCH Night? Well, it’s an acronym of course, and it stood for:

Hixville’s Alternative To Carnal Halloween.

Brilliant. Absolutely Brilliant. Not sure who came up with it, though I think it was one of our elders, Rick. He had all sorts of cleverness in that brain of his (still does, I’m sure). (Ed. Note: My dad said it was our pastor Ken who came up with it. Like Rick, he was pretty clever too.)

HATCH night wasn’t all bad for us kids. We still came home with a bunch of candy. The worst part of it all was explaining to your friends that a) we don’t go trick or treating because it makes the devil happy, b) we go to church instead, and c) I’m dressing up like an old man from the Bible for the 3rd year in a row. (Only biblical costumes allowed at HATCH Night of course.)

I was exchanging emails with my friend Luke yesterday, and we got to talking about HATCH Night since he also grew up at Hixville. The more I thought about HATCH Night, the more I marveled at its brilliance. So on a whim, I shot an email over to my friend Jon who runs the amazingly funny (and wildly popular) Stuff Christians Like blog because I thought he’d get a kick out of it too. He was so amazed by the HATCH Night concept that he included it in his Halloween post today.

I feel so honored. I hope Rick does too (and/or Ken). And for that matter, everyone else who was a part of HATCH Night through the years! Hixville Represent!

(if any of you old Hixville folks read this, I ask, nay, I demand you leave a comment with your favorite HATCH Night memory)

Tags: Halloween, HATCH Night, Stuff Christians Like

Time for a new game called, “Guess the Knees”.

In this game I give you a picture, and you have to guess who’s knees are being shown. Here we go!

Can you guess who’s knees are barely visible in the middle seat?

Tags: Visuals

Harvest Party at church tonight.

Indiana Jones and Ariel will be there.

Tags: Halloween

A few weeks ago publishing agent Rachelle Gardner held a contest on her blog, asking writers to provide examples of paragraphs that “show” instead of “tell”. She provided a few different “telling” statements like ’she was in love’, ‘the meal was delicious’, and ‘the outfit was hideous’. She asked writers to take one of those statements and write a few lines that ’showed’ the emotion as opposed to telling it. Hesitantly, I took the bait.

In total she received 86 entries, and yesterday she announced the 6 finalists in the contest. Honestly, I wasn’t surprised to find my paragraph absent from the list of potential winners. I had only spent about 45 minutes on it, and I wasn’t sure it was any good at all. That’s why I was surprised today when she announced 6 honorable mentions and my entry was among them.

I had chosen the statement “he was in love” and this was what I wrote:

He hated washing the car. Why spend 15 minutes of time and elbow grease cleaning something that would be filthy again tomorrow? But something happened every time he rinsed off the last traces of soapy residue from the hood. As he wiped down the windshield with a towel, he thought of the smile she’d be wearing as she pulled out of the driveway in a pristine vehicle and contentment flooded his heart. What a mystery it was, how her joy could become his joy. On second thought, he loved washing the car.

Here were Rachelle’s thoughts on it:

This one charmed me because of the way it shows a guy in love without too many sappy “feeling” words. It illustrates a specific “male” way of thinking about love and showing love, and shows love in action. When we write about someone being in love, the temptation is to talk about hearts melting and shivery feelings and butterflies in stomachs. It’s refreshing to see is described in a different way.

There’s actually a lot of “telling” here, and I wonder if this paragraph could be workshopped into a primarily “showing” piece. When you use words like he hated, he loved, he thought…” you’re telling the reader things that could possibly be shown. But we’re inside this guy’s mind, and the paragraph does a great job of conveying the main point (he is in love), so I’m going to let it be and just say, I love it.

The funny thing is, if you know anything about me, you know I really do despise washing our cars. And when I was thinking about a way of “showing” that someone loved someone else, it was the first thing I thought of. Not so sure that Erica sees it the same way, but that’s okay. It’s not about earning points, it’s about finding little ways to make her happy. (although truth be told, i probably only wash the car a few times a year. shame on me.)

So yeah, getting positive feedback from a respected agent like Rachelle pretty much made my day.

I know, I know…it doesn’t take much.

Tags: Being In Love, Writing Contest