Truth or Consequences!

Some of you may have noticed that since I started my Realistic Mystic podcast about a month ago, I have less entries here in this blog.  Your observation is correct. Hey, the truth is a girl can only do so much! :)  But don't give up on the writer in me yet.  I will try to keep up with both this blog and the podcast in the New Year, but I won't make it into a resolution just yet.  
Why keep them going?  
Well, I feel called.
I feel propelled. Or is it compelled? Both?
I also feel blessed.

Why the podcast?  Just like many of you, I enjoy reading books by Christians of the past like Teresa of Avila, CS Lewis, Thomas Merton, and others (What an amazing faith history we have!) and each podcast features me reading excerpts from various Christian writers some of whom lived over a thousand years ago.  Their insight is just as relevant and inspiring today as it was back in their time.  I find it a blessing just to read their words and I hope you find it a blessing to listen. 

As for this blog...
As many of you know, I have English teachers for parents so writing is in my blood.  My Dad is currently a college English professor and author, and my Mom, now retired from teaching after her stroke a few years back, is an expert in grammar and American literature.  So rest assured, the writing here will continue.  I can't match my Mom's grammar and my Dad's writing ability, but I can and have to...write.  It's what I've always done.  When I was growing up, the Horner family game night didn't feature Twister, Monopoly or Life. We played "Truth or Consequences" - a story-writing game I think my Dad may have made up - where he directed us to write something down on a piece of paper, fold it over (so others couldn't see what you had written) and then pass it to the person next to you.  Everyone would pass their paper round and round the table and each time it came to you, you would have to write down something - a girls name, fold & pass, then a boy's name, fold & pass, then a setting, fold & pass, then a few lines about what they did for a living, fold & pass, then how many kids they had and their names, fold & pass, then, of course, how they died.  Pass, write, fold, pass - you get the picture.  Then after the final pass, you would unfold the paper like a scroll and read the "story" out loud to the rest of the family which for me meant Mom and Dad and my brother and sister.  The stories were hilarious -  a combination of the people and places we knew and the stuff we came up with in our overblown imaginations.  Each one had the random absurdity of Mad Libs.  We played this game many times at the kitchen table at home and in motels, tents and trailers on the road.  
Most of the stories we created sounded like this:
Rachel 

(My sister.  Somehow, she ended up in a lot of them.  Fate of the middle child?)

Caine 

(Yes, with a "e" on the end.  He was a chubby, rebellious, blond haired kid from our neighborhood who once rode an ATV straight through his backyard fence and into the neighbor's pool...)

Lived in Timbuktu. 

(This just meant somewhere far away. We had no idea where it was.  My parents taught English, not geography!)

Rachel was a Rodeo Drive hairdresser and Caine was a bank robber.

Perfect!

They had 13 children.

(Poor Rachel!) Their names were Cassie, Kip, Sanchez, Billy, Mike, Rico, Bessie, Tom-Tom, Hugh, Tami-Lynn, Butch, Moses and Damien. 

They died riding the Colossus roller coaster at Magic Mountain.  

Evidently, Rachel had grown so large after having 13 children that the lap bar wouldn't come all the way down across her waist.  Caine slipped out from under the bar on the first drop and Rachel soon after.  

Ah, yes, Truth & Consequences.  The game for the family who wants to have fun AND prepare for the SAT at the same time.

All kidding aside, I loved playing T&C.  The stories were wild.  The laughs were sincere.  Whether by the glow of our fake Tiffany lamp over our kitchen table or by Coleman lamp on a weathered picnic table in a campsite, we were writing, sharing, teasing and bonding.  I am sure it helped spur on my creativity and love of writing.  And when you think about it, the game pretty much sums up life, doesn't it?  

2 people, who live in Anytown USA, marry, have babies, work and die. 
Sometimes in that order.  Sometimes a few stages are missing or reversed. It all depends, but you can pretty much count on work and death. Could that be the meaning behind the name of this game -- "Truth and Consequences"?  Truth is - you will WORK.  And the consequences?  DEATH. 

No matter what your life journey looks like in 2013 - no matter the consequences - through the good and the bad, let's all go with God.  The truth is we need Him.  I know I do.  

Happy New Year!

-Hope Horner

Follow on Twitter: @HopeNote

Have you heard the Realistic Mystic podcast? http://hopehorner.podbean.com