Faithfully Thinking: You have to water the plants every day

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Faithfully Thinking10 Comments

In May my dad picked me up this huge, beautiful hanging basket and I couldn’t figure out why.

I kill plants. He knows this. The only thing I could think was that he felt guilty because the only plant I ever kept alive was one I had when I rented out our old house from my parents and right before my wedding my dad put it outside and it got burned in the sun and died. It was a plant I grew from a cut-off from one of my mom’s plants.

After that incident, and many other moments of plant death, I sort of swore off plants. A friend sent me a prayer plant in the mail last winter when I said my house was gloomy and amazingly it’s still living, a couple years later.

Other than that low-maintenance plant, though, I try to stay away from plants. Another downside to indoor plants, besides my killer instinct, is that my one cat always tries to eat them and then inevitably throws up whatever she ate somewhere in the house.

See, here is the thing — I forget to water plants. I forget I even have them half the time until I walk by and see it dead.

I remember to feed my children and my pets and sometimes I remember to feed me, but I don’t remember to feed my plants.

So there sat this plant from my dad on my front with big purple blooms and I freaked out. I just knew I was going to kill it by forgetting about it, forgetting to water it, or move it out of the sun.

The Husband helped water it at first, because it was hanging up too high for me and because he remembers to take care of plants. Then I took the plant down and tried to remember myself.

I did well for a while and then during a hot week, when my husband was super busy with work, I did it. I forgot to water it.

I looked out the front door and the plant was a dried-up, brown husk of its former self. All the purple blooms were gone, the green was shriveling to brown. I had done it. I had killed another plant.

I lamented my murderous ways, or my neglectful manslaughter ways, to The Husband.

“Just start watering again,” he said with a casual wave of his hand because he is much more laid back about such things than I am. “It will come back.”

His words were encouraging and reassuring but I didn’t have much faith.

The plant was dead.

There was some green, yes, but for the most part –— death had set in.

Our spiritual life is like that plant.

If we don’t water our spirit with God’s word, his truth, during the week, our spiritual leaves fall off. We start to dry up and shrivel inside. We begin to feel withered and worn.

Like my pastor said this week, if we sing three songs, listen to a sermon, and walk out the door but don’t plug ourselves in to God throughout the rest of the week, we aren’t going to do very well – just like my poor plant.

Last summer I planted green beans and as I pulled some beans off, I accidentally ripped part of the vine off the main stalk. (See, I even kill vegetable plants! You don’t want me near your garden. I’m the angel of death for plants.) The part of the plant that got pulled off died, while the rest that was still connected to the nurturing soil and the main vine, kept growing and blooming.

As soon as I saw the disconnect of the plants and the brown setting in, I thought about how we become weak if we don’t stay connected to the vine — to Christ and to his followers, to a nurturing church that can help us stay connected to God’s word, to encouraging written or spoken words.

Back to that plant my dad gave me. I began to water it again, each day and then moved it into the rain if we had any. One day I walked out and it was not only green again, but the blooms had also returned. All the plant needed was to be nurtured and have its thirst quenched, similar to how our souls need the taste of the living water that will never leave us thirsty.

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 

 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?  Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 

 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4: 10-14

Ways I stay connected to the truth of God throughout the week:

  • Reading the Bible
  • Devotionals
  • Worship or Christian Music
  • Christian podcasts
  • Praying for and with other Christians
  • A weekly egroup (online Bible study)
  • Church on Sunday (in person or online)

How do you stay connected with God or in tune with his direction for your life throughout the week? How do you keep your spirit watered?

Sunday Bookends: Fall is coming, Summer of Paul continues, and TobyMac

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends10 Comments

Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I ramble about what I’ve been reading, doing, watching, writing and listening to.


What I/we’ve been Reading

I started a Christian Fiction Romance for a review tour and it’s well written, but it uses a trope I absolutely hate so to cleanse my palate by reading a few chapters of that and then reading the sixth book of The Walt Longmire Series by Craig Johnson, Junkyard Dogs.

After that book I am trying something different with High Adventure by Donald Westlake.g

Little Miss and I are reading Anne of Green Gables at night.

I’m not sure if The Boy is still reading War of the Worlds or not, but he will be reading it in two weeks when we start school, or he will choose something for his independent reading.

The Husband is reading Razzmatazz by Christopher Moore.

What’s Been Occurring

Last week was a lay low type of week and that was fine with me.

Honestly, I think most of my days when I am home, are made up of walking to my back door and calling out to see if either of the cats need to come in for a drink of water or a snack, along with letting my dog in and out and telling her “There is nothing out there! Stop barking!”

While at home, recuperating from, well, “lady issues”, I had plenty of time to notice that the leaves are changing quite fast, which I find disconcerting, even though I am not a fan of hot and humid days. The leaves on the two maples in the backyard are slowly turning but a ton of them fell off during a sudden wind and rainstorm one day last week.

It made me a little sad, knowing that our days of swimming at my parents’ and stopping at the ice cream stand are soon going to be over, replaced by chilly days and eventually even — well that stuff that is cold, white, and wet and falls from the sky. I can’t even bear to utter its name.

Dad brought over some of the last veggies from the garden this past week and I enjoyed the cabbage with pork chops earlier in the week and tomato on my wrap later in the week.

At the end of the week, we have to take Zooma The Wonder Dog up 45 minutes away to get groomed. I’m hoping we won’t also have to take her to the vet because as I am writing this, she is laying next to me after limping part of the day. This has happened before and it cleared up in two days with baby aspirin, so I hope it clears up this time too.

What We watched/are Watching

I continued my Summer of Paul this week by watching From the Terrace and then I watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s for the Classic Movie Impressions posts I’ve been doing with Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs.

I’ll be writing a little bit more about From the Terrace later this week, but man, what a gut wrencher. I read some reviews that called it melodramatic garbage and I suppose it was in some ways, but it was also well acted by everyone involved, even the characters I hated. I think I hated them so much because they were so well acted.

I’ll expound more on the movie in a post this week.

I’m not sure I’m looking forward to this week as The Boy has challenged me to watch a couple of The Twilight movies before they go off Amazon Prime. He watched them with a group of girls online a few weeks ago. That sentence sounded odd, I know, but they are friends he’s met while gaming and I’ve talked to at least one of them and they are very nice.

Last night The Husband and I watched McDonald and Dodds, which is a British mystery series we watch through Britbox. Each episode is like a mini movie since they are about 90 minutes long. We watched an episode of Brokenwood Mysteries earlier in the week.

What I’m Writing

I am working on The Shores of Mercy (Mercy’s Shore for blog purposes) and hope to have the first draft complete by the end of September and send it on to a couple of editors. I’m looking at a release date sometime in January.

I am also working on a manuscript called The Devil’s Been Talking, which will be much different than previous books.

What I’m Listening To

This week I listened to TobyMac’s latest album, Life After Death, which is a reflection on Toby rebuilding his life after the death of his 21-year-old son in 2019. The album is very good and so far I like most of the songs.

The Husband also told me about a podcast version of Anthony Bourdain’s show on CNN called Parts Unknown and I hope to try that out this week.

Now it’s your turn

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

Fiction Friday: Mercy’s Shore, Chapter 16

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn fiction, Fiction Friday3 Comments

This is a continuing/serial story. I share a chapter a week and at the end of the story, and after I edit and rewrite, I self-publish it. To catch up with the story click HERE. To read the rest of the books in this series click HERE. Let me know in the comments what you think.

Chapter 16

Ben’s mind was spinning when he reached Amelia’s room. His thoughts had already been jumbled before he’d heard the angry voice coming from Angie’s room.

First, Amelia had invited him up to her room about fifteen minutes after she got back from the hospital, something he was still struggling to process. Now he had to juggle that conundrum — and Angie’s furious expression when he’d taken Amelia’s offered hand — along with whatever was going on with Judi. Whoever had been talking to her had definitely been threatening her. He wondered if that was why she’d come back to Spencer Valley.

Angie had stayed downstairs with her parents. Her boyfriend, or whatever he was, had stayed outside with Angie’s brothers so Ben hadn’t been introduced to him. Not that Angie would have introduced them. She hadn’t even looked at Ben when she’d come back to the house with Amelia. She’d looked at the floor when Amelia had asked Ben to come up and see her room.

Now here Ben sat cross legged in the middle of a hot pink rug while his daughter – who didn’t even know she was his daughter – showed him her dollhouse. Ben knew Adam had built it, along with the bed frame and headboard and canopy scaffolding. He didn’t have to ask. It’s what Adam did after all and why he had a successful furniture making business. A furniture making business he was apparently moving back to Spencer. He’d probably been about to talk to Ben about that when Angie had come back with Amelia.

“Pop-pop says this dolly is like mommy.”

Amelia’s little voice made Ben love her even more and regret even more how much of her life he had missed out on. The doll in her hand was petite and blond and she placed it on a bed in the upstairs.

“And this is William,” the little girl said, sitting a male doll on the couch in the living room.

Ben didn’t even want to ask, but he finally did.

“And who is William?”

“William loves mommy. He told me so.”

Ah. William. So that was Tall-Ginger-And-Handsome’s name.

Ben simply nodded and reached for the stuffed bear he’d given Amelia downstairs. She’d laid it on the bed when they came in and for some reason, he felt like he needed something to squeeze at the moment. Did he really care if Angie had a boyfriend?

He squeezed the bears head with both hands.

Had he expected her to never date again after he’d abandoned her?

He squeezed the bear a little harder.

The answer to both of those questions was yes and he hated it.

He’d tried dating after he’d left Angie, or she’d left him, or — well, it was a mutual decision in some ways. None of the relationships had worked out after the third or fourth date and he’d been fine with that. He wasn’t interested in getting involved with someone again. He’d hurt Angie enough. No need to add more shattered women to the world when he inevitably screwed up again.

“William is a doctor.” Amelia was still talking, but not looking at him. Her attention was consumed with placing little figures into the house. She whirled suddenly and looked him in the eye with such intensity he was mesmerized. “What do you do when you aren’t home, Ben?”

She blinked a few times, her expression much too serious for someone so young.

He cleared his throat nervously, touching a hand to his throat and rubbing there. He’d hoped to loosen his tie, then remembered he wasn’t wearing one. “Uh, I’m a lawyer.”

Her nose wrinkled. “What’s a loyer?”

He laughed softly. “It’s someone who — well, we help people.”

Her face brightened. “You and William both help people.”

 “Yes. That’s right.” He nodded slowly. “We help people.”

Though William probably saved lives and there were days all Ben could seem to do was ruin them.

“Amelia?”

Angie’s voice called from the bottom of the stairs. He was surprised she’d let him up here alone with Amelia this long.

“Yes, mommy?”

“Why don’t you come down and say goodbye to William and your other guests. They’re going to be leaving.”

Amelia ran to the doorway. “Goodbye!” she yelled then ran back to Ben and sat next to him, her little legs folded under her.

Ben grinned. “I don’t think that’s what she meant, kid.” He stood and held out his hand. “Come on. Let’s head downstairs.”

She didn’t take his hand. “But I don’t want to. I want to play dolls.”

Ben heard his father’s voice in his next words. “I know it’s more fun to play dolls, but your mom is calling you. You need to listen to her, okay?”

He kept his hand out to her and she pushed her lower lip out, looked up at him, and shrugged.

“Okay,” she said, standing.

She took his hand, and he held it for a few seconds before turning to leave the room. Who knew when he’d hold this little hand again. He rubbed his thumb across the top of it, over the smooth skin. A hard knot formed in the center of his stomach and he swallowed hard. He’d missed out on so much. He had no right to even be here.

Angie’s words filtered up the stairs from the living room as he started down the stairs, confirming his own belief.

“No, Mom. I am not staying down here any longer. She’s my daughter.”

He paused on the steps but couldn’t hear Leona’s response. He kept walking, slowly, Amelia’s hands in his.

“She’s his daughter biologically only,” Angie snapped as his foot hit the floor off the bottom step.

She turned at the sound of his footstep, her face flushed. Their gazes met for a few seconds and then he turned his attention to Amelia, her hand still in his. “Thank you for showing me your room and dollhouse.”

Amelia smiled, pulled her hand from his and ran toward the patio doors, apparently on her way to bid her guests a farewell.

He kept his gaze off Angie and focused on Leona who was wrapping up food and place it into the fridge. “Judi’s up. We are going to head out shortly.”

“Are you sure? You both look so tired and there’s supposed to be fog tonight.” Leona’s brow crinkled in concern. “We’ve got plenty of room if you two want to stay. The boys got a hotel room.”

“No.” Ben glanced at Angie, felt the heat coming off her even though she was looking at the floor, her arms across her chest as she leaned back against the kitchen island. “Thank you, but we really need to head out tonight. I’ve got court Monday morning and I need to prepare some briefs.”

Angie smirked but didn’t say anything. He wondered what she was thinking, yet really didn’t want to know.

“Well, okay, I understand,” Leona said, disappointment tinging her words. She turned and lifted a container from the fridge. “I thought you might say that, so I packed up some extra food for your trip home. I hope you’ll take it with you.”

Leona and his mom were so similar. “Of course. I’d be glad to.”

The patio door slid open as he started to excuse himself to see if Judi was ready to go. Doctor Handsome stepped into the kitchen, his eyes focusing first on Angie, then on Ben. An awkward silence fell over the room until Leona nudged Angie gently in the side with her elbow.

Angie tilted her eyes upward and sighed. “William this is Ben. Ben this is William.” She lowered her eyes, her gaze drilling into Ben her complete disgust with his presence. “He was just leaving.”

“Ben, hey.” William didn’t seem bothered by Angie’s tone. His smile was still wide, maybe even warm. He held a hand out toward Ben. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Ben took the hand and laughed softly. “Yeah. I’m sure you have.” He shook William’s hand briefly and firmly then let it go, taking a step back toward the staircase. Time to get out of here. “Nice to meet you.” He gestured up the stairs. “I’m just going to make sure Judi’s ready.”

“I am!”

He watched Judi already coming down the stairs, hair combed straight and hanging down across her shoulders and back, makeup freshly applied, bright pink lipstick, smiling as if she hadn’t been shaking twenty-minutes earlier.

Ben stepped out of her way and watched as Leona introduced her to William as his secretary while Angie smirked again. They then filed toward the front door and out it as Ben thanked Leona and Adam for the invitation. Ben was grateful when Angie and William stayed in the kitchen and Matt and Dan stayed in the backyard with Amelia and a few of the stragglers. He was uncomfortable enough and more than anything wanted to get out of there and never look back.

Leona and Adam were still on the porch waving, and the sun was setting, when Judi turned the key in the ignition and the car didn’t start.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Ben growled.

This could not be happening. Could this day get any worse?

“Don’t even ask, Ben.”

“What?” Judi asked.

“Nothing. Just start the car.”

“I’m trying.”

“Try harder. Her brothers are coming out and I don’t want to die today.”

“It’s not going to start.”

Ben growled again. “Apparently good ole’ Evan wasn’t so smart after all. Maybe he was too focused on flirting with you to properly diagnose the issue.”

 Judi sighed instead of fighting back with a smart comment like she usually did, which reminded Ben of what she’d gone through earlier. He cleared his throat. “Sorry. It’s not your fault. I just want to get out of here.”

Judi pushed a hand back through her hair, staring ahead, her demeanor definitely more subdued than usual. “I understand. It’s been a stressful day all around.” She pushed a button under the steering wheel and opened the door. “Let’s see if we can figure this out and get on the road.”

Guilt and frustration were his main emotions as he climbed out of the car, but when he saw Mark and Danny standing on the porch dread overshadowed them both.

“Car troubles again?” Adam called.

Ben nodded. “Yep. Looks like. A guy looked at it on the way down but I guess he didn’t diagnose it right.”

“A mechanic?” Mark asked as he stepped off the porch and walked toward the car.

“A truck driver,” Judi said with a shrug. “You probably know him. Evan McGee. Matt’s younger brother.”

“Yeah, I know Evan,” Mark said. “Good guy. I’m sure he just missed something. Nobody’s perfect.” He smirked and turned to look at Ben. “I’m sure you would agree, right Oliver?”

The two men locked gazes for a few seconds before Ben answered. “Yes, Mark. I would agree. Would you?”

Judi cleared her throat. “Well, anyhow, Evan clearly was wrong and something else is going on.”

Mark leaned over the engine, propping a hand on the edge of the open hood. “I worked part time with Bert Tanner for a few years before we opened the business. Why don’t I take a quick look for you?”

“Thank you,” Judi said.

“Yes,” Ben said with a forced smile. “Thank you.”

While Mark looked retrieved tools from his truck and looked at the engine, Judi and Ben chatted with Adam and Leona as they waited. Mark straightened about fifteen minutes into his inspection and wiped his hand on a rag. He nodded toward the driver’s side. “Looks like you had a corroded connection to the battery. See if it starts. If it does you should be good to go but I’d recommend that you get your engine serviced when you get back to Spencer.”

Judi smiled over her shoulder as she opened the driver side door. “I’ll be sure to look into that as soon as I figure out what serviced means.”

When the car started Judi rolled the window down. “Thank you. Hopefully it holds out until we get back.”

Dan stepped out onto the porch. “You might need to find a different route, though, they’ve shut down part of the highway. Major accident. Tractor trailer overturned. Just saw it online.”

Ben thought about how it was generous of Dan to offer that information to a guy he’d probably rather beat up. The brothers were being polite in front of their parents, but he had a feeling if they were alone with him again the politeness would be gone.

Leona looked concerned as she rubbed her hands across her arms. The move reminded him of his mom when she was stressed or wanted to say something she didn’t think anyone else would want to hear.

Leona bit her lower lip briefly then said quickly, “I think you two should stay until the highway is clear. There is supposed to be even foggier conditions tonight. You two can head out first thing in the morning.”

The woman was nothing if not persistent, but Ben had to resist her. Mark’s previous congenial behavior was fading fast based on the crease in his brow. Next to him, Dan had his hands on his hips, staring Ben down as if challenging Ben to accept the offer. Or maybe he was challenging him to reject the offer and reject yet another female member of the Phillipi family. Right here, in front of everyone. Either way, it wasn’t going to end well for Ben.

Before he could decline the latest offer, though, tiny fingers encircled his.

“Are you going to have a sleepover, Ben?” Amelia asked in a tiny, curious voice.

 Ben glanced up at Angie and William who had stepped out onto the porch to stand next to Dan. It was as if the whole family had come out to watch him make a complete fool out of himself no matter how he answered.

“Um. No. I don’t think that would be a good idea, kid.”

“Why not? You can sleep in my room in my sleeping bag.”

Ben laughed softly. “That’s sweet, kid, but, again, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“We really don’t mind,” Adam said in a sincere tone, laying his hand on Ben’s shoulder. “It would be nice to have a chance to chat since we were interrupted earlier.”

Leona touched her hand to her throat and rubbed the dip there, looking more concerned than before.

“I just hate to think of anything happening to you two out there on the roads tonight. I know I would feel better if you were driving home in the daylight instead of this fog. I’m sure your mother would too.”

Ben took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Leona knew how to twist the knife in deeper, go in for the kill. Invoke the thought of his mother at home, pacing the floor, wringing her hands, waiting for him to call and tell her they’d it made home through the fog. Only his parents didn’t even know he was here. Of course, Leona didn’t know they didn’t know, and he wasn’t about to get into that right now.  

And there was something about the way Adam was looking at him that sent a twinge of dread sliding through him. Why was it so important for Adam to talk to him? He already knew about the move. Was something else going on? Maybe someone in the family actually was sick.

He couldn’t stay, though. The entire situation was incredibly uncomfortable and growing more uncomfortable by the minute. Plus there was Judi. She had to feel out of place. He wasn’t sure how upset she still was by that phone call she’d had earlier either.

He turned slightly to look at her. She shrugged a shoulder, as if to say the decision was his. He’d always been bad at making decisions though so when he agreed to stay, he felt deep in his chest that he’d done it again – made another bad decision he was going to regret.

Wednesday Hodge Podge: A Little Waffling

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings6 Comments

This post is part of Joyce’s blog From This Side of the Pond and her weakly feature Wednesday Hodge Podge. Click over to her blog to find links to more Hodge Podge posts.

  1. August 24th is National Waffle Day…what’s something you’ve ‘waffled’ on recently? 

 I’ve been waffling on how to make extra money to help support our family as costs go up. First I’ll think stock photography is the way to go and then I think promoting my books and by the end of the day my head is just spinning as I go back and forth on it all. I need to choose a direction and go in that direction.

2. Do you like waffles? Make your own or ‘leggo my Eggo? Any favorite toppings or add-ins? Waffles or pancakes-which do you prefer? 

I do like waffles but about ten years ago I dropped all wheat and also found out I am allergic to corn which is in everything so I don’t eat waffles often. I can’t remember the last time I had one but my kids eat them all the time. They will even eat them without syrup and usually have the chocolate chip Eggo waffles. One thing I used to love on waffles was Nutella spread in between two waffles. I also loved waffle cones as a kid. I need to find a waffle maker and some gluten-free, corn-free waffle mix and make some and slather on the Nutella!

I don’t really eat waffles or pancakes but if I did, I like waffles more. Pancakes just seem too…I don’t know. Cakey to me. *wink*

3. Do you have any momentos from this summer (or past summers)? What do you do with them? 

I do not have mementos from this summer and I don’t know if I do from other summers really. We don’t go on a lot of trips and I can’t think what I’d collect if we did. If I did collect momentos they’d go in a drawer or box like other momentos I suppose.

Wow. That was a boring answer.

4. One thing you’d like to do before summer ends?

 

Visit a local swimming hole near us with the kids and watch more Paul Newman movies for my Summer of Paul, which is me watching as many Paul Newman movies I can. I don’t think we will get to that swimming hole, but I can watch more Paul movies. 

5. Life is too short to _______________

stress about likes and comments on social media. 

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Last night my son came into my room at 2 am after he went to see why our dog was barking and told me he looked into our backyard and thought he saw a naked man hunched over but it turned out to be his sister’s plastic side which was faded in the sunlight over the years.

Summer of Paul: Impressions of Cool Hand Luke and Torn Curtain

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings6 Comments

Last week I continued The Summer of Paul (Newman that is) by watching Cool Hand Luke and Torn Curtain. The Summer of Paul is what I am calling my summer challenge to watch as many Paul Newman movies as possible.

I started this project late, so it wasn’t really an entire summer of Paul movies. If you want to get technical about it.

So far this summer I have watched:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Paris Blue

The Long Hot Summer

The Hustler

Sweet Bird of Youth

The Rack

A New Kind of Love

Cool Hand Luke

Torn Curtain

In the past, I have also watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Twilight, The Towering Inferno (good grief…what a silly, crisis movie. Ha!), and Exodus.

I have about two weeks left of summer to finish a few more Paul movies, but I may stretch this movie marathon into the Fall of Paul, because, well, it rhymes, and because I have a few more movies I’d like to watch, as well as the documentary series about Paul and his wife Joan, directed by Ethan Hawke and called The Last Movie Stars.

Movies on tap for this week

The Prize

The Sting

From the Terrace

Movies I hope to fit in next week or this fall:

The Color of Money

Hud

Rachel Rachel

Rally Around the Flag Boys!

Mr. and Mrs. Bridge

And

Somebody Up There Likes Me

Now for my impressions of Cool Hand Luke and Torn Curtain.

Cool Hand Luke

Cool Hand Luke is based on a book of the same title by Donn Pearce. Pearce and writer Frank Pierson wrote the screenplay and the movie was directed by Stuart Rosenberg. The story is about a former veteran, Luke Jackson, (Newman) who is sentenced to two years to a prison camp in the hot South for the petty crime of removing the heads off parking meters.

Kino. Der Unbeugsame, (COOL HAND LUKE) USA, 1966, Regie: Stuart Rosenberg, PAUL NEWMAN, Key: Sträflinge, Zwangsarbeit. (Photo by FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images)

The sentence he receives is ridiculous, honestly.

Luke becomes a figure of strength to the other men in the prison when he stands up to a bully in the camp, refusing to be knocked down during a boxing match. He also stands up to the captain, played by Strother Martin who utters one of the movie’s most famous lines, “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” This is a line, I might add, that my mom likes to quote a lot, but I’m not sure why. Hmmmm.

Anyhow, Luke becomes a hero to the men until he attempts to escape and that’s when things go a bit haywire. Before that attempt, Luke tries to keep the men’s spirits up by doing weird challenges, such as eating 50 hardboiled eggs in an hour, a famous scene that the movie is known for.

Luke becomes like a Christ figure to the men but eventually, he can’t live up to all the pressure and he doesn’t want the pressure. He wasn’t a hardened criminal before he came to the prison. What he was was a misguided man with no direction in life. He came from an abusive home with a mother who was in and out of relationships and didn’t do a great job at raising him.

His petty crime spree wasn’t something that should have left him in a strict prison where the captain of the prison worked hard to break his spirit and bring him into line.

Much of the movie is heartbreaking, but there are some funny moments in between.

The theme of the movie, besides Luke’s need for guidance and something to work toward, seems to be about staying in line and not rocking the boat to keep your life smooth and easy.

Luke rocks the boat and the other prisoners sort of want to rock the boat but they are too stuck in their criminal ways to know how to move beyond crime and become actual, upstanding citizens.

According to the entertainment site, Looper:

“. . . it’s an acting showcase for its star, Paul Newman, maybe the best he ever got. It’s a timeless narrative of the individual’s struggle against heartless authority, and it’s a very timely tale about how that struggle played out in the ’60s. It’s a mythic, universal story, and it’s one filled with gritty specificity. It’s a story about a Christ figure, or maybe it’s about a mortal man wrestling with God.”

Pearce had a very exciting life, much more exciting than what he wrote about in Cool Hand Luke, the article further states..

At the age of 18, Pearce “joined the US Merchant Marines in the aftermath of World War II, before he fell in love with a pregnant Italian reporter and went AWOL.” He eventually traveled all over Europe cracking safes, passing off counterfeit money, and escaping prison. Eventually, though, his misdeeds caught up to him and he spent time on a chain gang in Florida. He began writing after that but only wrote two books, Cool Hand Luke and Nobody Comes Back in 2005.

Writing for Hollywood didn’t work out for him because of his volatile nature so he eventually became a bounty hunter.  Luke Jackson may have been based on someone named Donald Graham Garrison who Pearce may have heard about in prison, but Pearce denied this and said a lot of what Luke did was based on his own life, including eating 50 eggs in an hour on a bet.

Some other cool facts about the movie that you can read more about in the Looper article, or other places online:

The set was a recreation of a real Florida jail;

Jack Lemmon almost played Luke;

Paul, a method actor, toured the South while researching the role;

Some of the sweatiest scenes were filmed in very cold weather;

Paul actually didn’t eat any of the eggs during the actual filming. He put between eight and 12 in his mouth and the rest of the cast ate about 200 during the filming of the scene to get rid of them;

Paul actually learned to play the banjo for the scene where he plays and sings in memory of his mother.

Read More: https://www.looper.com/306866/the-untold-truth-of-cool-hand-luke/?utm_campaign=clip

Torn Curtain

I didn’t like Torn Curtain. There is the bottom line of my impression of the movie.

The plot and the script were honestly all over the place which fits with stories that Alfred Hitchcock hated the final script.

I loved looking at Paul and admiring his blue eyes, but I could not get into the movie and much of it seemed pointless. Not only that but I could not see Julie Andrews in the role opposite Paul, but maybe that’s because I’ve seen The Sound of Music too many times.

To me, Julie was not meant for a serious suspense film and this movie proved it.

Plus, she and Paul had horrible chemistry in the film. They seemed like two buddies instead of lovers. It was odd.

Before I go too much further in this post, here is the plot:

American physicist Michael Armstrong (Paul Newman) shocks his friends and family by defecting to East Germany to work with the Soviets during the height of the Cold War. Even his fiancée (Julie Andrews) is surprised by the move, but when she follows him behind the Iron Curtain, she discovers that her husband-to-be isn’t a spy, but a double agent working to discover Soviet nuclear secrets. As they plot a way to escape back to America, his cover is blown, putting both of their lives in jeopardy.

This is one of the few movies of Paul’s I’ve seen where his personality was horrible. He had no range and watching him act was void of emotion and like watching paint dry. He was like a cardboard cutout of himself. He seemed bored the entire time, which bored me.

I honestly kept wishing the movie would just end so I wouldn’t have to remember Paul this way. Sigh.

Hitchcock apparently hated the film so much he declined to do a trailer with him in it, which was a tradition for other films of his.

According to Imbd, the idea for the movie came from the real-life defections of British diplomats Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean who defected to the Soviet Union in 1951. Hitchcock was especially interested in Maclean who later had his wife and three children move with him.

Paul and Hitchcock didn’t get along because Paul was a method actor who wanted to know what the motivation of his character was. Hitchcock reportedly told Paul his motivation was his salary for the movie and left it at that. That probably explains the lackluster performance.

I mean, look how bored the poor guy looks here! He’s rethinking his whole career up to this point.

Even though Hitchcock didn’t like the movie or the performances of the actors in the lead roles, audiences did. It was the highest-grossing film, at least for Universal Studios, in 1966.

I am hoping the next couple of movies I watch will remove the memory of Torn Curtain.

Sunday Bookends: Smelly books, broken laptop keyboards, and summer is fading

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends3 Comments

Welcome to Sunday Bookends where I ramble about what I’ve been reading, doing, watching, writing and listening to.


What I/we’ve been Reading

You might recall that last week I had a list of books from which to choose from for my reading pleasure but hadn’t decided on which one.

After I posted that post, I chose The Boomerang Clue by Agatha Christie, which I had picked up at a book sale at the local library. It was an old copy, maybe from the 70s and after reading it for a bit I realized it smelled like an old book and that wasn’t a good thing. I started getting a weird headache and coughing so I had to place the book aside. I looked online to see if I could download an ebook copy of it, but lo and behold, much like some of Christie’s other books, this book had been renamed. I’m not sure what was offensive about this one’s name and why it was changed, but I do know why And Then There Was None was changed from its original name. You can look that up if you are curious.

The book was the basis for a mini-series on Britbox which we recently watched so I decided I’d see if the book had been renamed to that and, indeed, it had been renamed at some point in the past, even before the series. Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? was the new name for the book but it was $9.99 on kindle and I’m pretty cheap (aka broke) so I decided I’d see if I could get it at the local library instead since I was already invested and wanted to see if the book was different than the mini-series. I mentioned all this to my husband who said, “Well, good thing I bought that book on a super great Kindle deal a couple of months ago then…”

Needless to say, I am reading the book on the Kindle instead of breathing in all the spores and who knows what else in that old book. I should be done with it today or tomorrow.

I am continuing to read the 80s Rom-Com Club, which is a series of novellas in the evenings, and also hope to start a book by Sean Dietrich who writes Southern stories, both fiction and non-fiction this week.


What’s Been Occurring

Last week I got way too wrapped up in trying to figure out Instagram and how to promote myself not because I want to be rich and famous but because even an extra $50 bucks a month would be such a help right now. In the end, none of it mattered because one day I had 5,000 views on a video and the following day I had three and when I Googled it said my drop in views was probably because I had somehow pissed off the Instagram lords and they were hiding my account.

I don’t have time for those games. School starts in a couple of week, I have a house to try to keep up and clean (though my husband moves faster and does a better job so I am always behind), photos to edit for stock, and just reality to live in. Social media is a putrid toilet right now and I don’t want to be caught up in the downward spiral, especially if it means I have to sell my soul to the Devil just to get a few new followers and maybe a few sales.

Little Miss and I visited my parents Thursday and tried to go swimming but the water was simply too cold, a sign that fall will be upon us too soon. As if the changing leaves weren’t enough to let us know that. Luckily, we were able to get a swim in yesterday instead since the temperature was warmer then and might get one in today.

On Thursday the kids also helped my dad pick some of the collard greens in his garden and we cooked some of them down for freezing and I brought some home to do the same.

On Friday the kids and I drove 45 minutes one way to the town where we used to live to get Zooma The Wonder Dog’s nails trimmed at the vets and also made a stop at a small market across the NY State border for some meats. It is a market we shopped at often when we lived there. We did drive by our old house and it’s always weird to see it and know we don’t live there anymore.

I am having a horrible time with the keys on my laptop. I took them off to clean them because the keys were sticking and now they won’t go back on and I sort of want to cry. This is how my life seems to go lately – something is always failing or falling apart. Because of the broken keys it took me a little longer to write this, but I can at least still hit the keys. Replacing them is apparently not possible and replacing the laptop is definitely not an option, since we can’t even pay our heating oil bill.

This week I will be getting ready for school as well, by cleaning out and straightening my homeschool closet, as well as double checking what we do and don’t have for the upcoming year. I originally wanted to start back on August 31, but we may end up waiting until after Labor Day. We aren’t sure yet.

What We watched/are Watching

I finished Cool Hand Luke yesterday. Man, that is a terribly depressing movie. I have a couple more Paul movies to watch in August as part of my Summer of Paul and hope to find a couple of happier ones before the summer is complete.

The Husband and I watched Torn Curtain last night with Paul and Julie Andrews. It is an Alfred Hitchcock film about a professor who infiltrates East Germany looking for information for a defense weapon which won’t require the use of nuclear weapons. His plans are almost foiled thanks to his poor communication skills, which results in his fiancé (Andrews) following him. This leaves both of them in great danger. I’ll write more about it in a separate post later this week, but it wasn’t one of Hitchcock’s best, probably because he was not happy with Paul and Julie being in the film and hated the script. I don’t blame him for hating the script. The movie was pretty awful really.

We hope to cleanse our pallets with The Sting later in the week. I also plan to watch The Prize, which is supposed to be a comedy.

Earlier in the week, we watched Brokenwood Mysteries.

What I’m Writing

Last week on the blog I shared:

I am also working on Mercy’s Shore and hope to continue this week if my keyboard will continue to work.

What I’m Listening To

This week I plan to listen to TobyMac’s latest album Life After Death which just came out.



Now it’s your turn

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

Fiction Friday: No new chapter

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings6 Comments

Hey to the two people who sometimes read the new chapters on here: There is no new chapter this week. Chapter 16 simply isn’t ready yet, but hopefully it will be by next week. I wasted time on some unimportant things this week instead of writing and I hope to remedy that this next week.

In the meantime, I have caught up on the list of chapters under the Mercy’s Shore tab at the top of the page if you need to catch up on the story.

I look forward to sharing more of the story with you next week.

Classic Movie Impressions: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings9 Comments

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I, have been exchanging classic movie suggestions this summer. This week I am talking about The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which she and her mom suggested for me, and she is talking about His Girl Friday, which I suggested for her.

I am so glad that Erin suggested this one. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would when I first heard about it.

The premise of this 1947 classic is rather simple. A widow, Mrs. Lucy Muir, wants to get away from her in-laws (a sister-in-law and mother-in-law) so she looks for a home to live in with her young daughter, Anna Muir, who is played by Natalie Wood. She finds a house that no one else seems to rent and later finds out it is because people believe that the home is haunted by a sea captain who owned the place and killed himself during a break from the sea.

The sea captain is played by Rex Harrison and the widow is played by Gene Tierney.

Not to give away too much but Lucy meets the ghost, and they form a friendship aimed at allowing Lucy to keep the home and not have to go back to live with her controlling in-laws. It will also allow the ghost, Captain Daniel Gregg (no, not Daniel Craig so no shirtless scenes here), to remain as a spirit around his home and keep it like it was when he was alive.

There are times during the movie that Lucy believes she has imagined the Captain and other times she is sure he is real. Sometimes even we as the viewer wonder if she is imagining him or not.

There is a terrible amount of sexual tension between the two, even though the captain is a ghost and there is no chance for a relationship between them.

I can’t deny that young Rex’s sex appeal just oozes from him as he starts to fall in love with Lucy, who he nicknames Lucia. I’ve always had the older Rex from My Fair Lady and Dr. Doolittle in my mind when I hear his name so to see him so young helps me understand why he became such a sought-after leading man in the 40s and 50s and beyond. I read in one article that he believed his character needed a beard in the movie but the studio fought it because they felt many women would want to see his handsome face. In the end, Rex won the fight.

The lighting and cinematography in the movie are very dramatic and set a romantic and rich mood.

An article on the Turner Classic Movies website describes Lucy and Daniel’s first meeting well:

The pools of lamplight and the soft, deep shadows create a rich atmosphere that evokes ghost story imagery but not menace. Rather, it is oddly welcoming and comforting and Bernard Herrmann’s score (one of his finest) is uneasy but curious rather than spooky. Harrison’s booming voice rises as she challenges him and then drops to a civil, at times admiring tone as they talk. Her courage impresses him and rather than scare her off, he comes to terms with his permanent houseguest: a co-existence that turns into a partnership and even something of an unspoken romance.

The movie does have quite a bit of humor in it but there is also an underlying sadness at times, especially since the Captain is a ghost and can’t truly be close to anyone.

The movie is based on a book by R.A. Dick.

“How unfortunate of a name,” I thought when I read this and after further research saw it was a pseudonym by an author named Josephine Leslie. She was an Irish writer who also wrote a book called The Devil and Mrs. Devine. I guess she had a theme going there with the titles. She did not write a third book in this vein, with her only other book being Light and Shade.

It was published in 1945 and made into a movie that was released in 1947, which is a pretty good turnaround to me.

The book and movie were also the basis for a sitcom, which ran for two years.

I won’t tell you what I thought of the ending, in case you haven’t seen it, but if you have seen it, let me know and maybe I can tell you in private. *wink*

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. It was such a great pic from Erin and her mom. She and I haven’t discussed the next movies we recommend for each other or even if we will, so I’ll keep you posted there. It has been a fun experience either way!

This was a fun behind-the-scenes photo I found online.