I’m now the award winning author of “The Rake”! I’m happy my book was chosen to win the Emerging Literary Arts award by a jury who selected from 8 nominees. Writing a book, like writing a C# program, is a solitary experience. The recognition has encouraged me to create more art. My thanks to all of you who have bought the book, or shared links to my posts about it.

The Mississauga News covered the story and Rogers TV will broadcast the gala

Thanks to my publisher Jessica at Upon A Star Books I had my first interview for The Rake.  You can listen to it here  My section starts 8 minutes, 30 seconds into the recording.

The Rake is nominated for a MARTY award in the Emerging Literary Arts category.  I’m up against 6 other nominees and the winner will be announced May 19.

My story of getting smacked in the face with a rake is meant to teach an ancient lesson that those of use living in modern society can relate to.

In the book of John in the New Testament,  the story of Jesus saving a woman caught in the act of adultery is told.  As a child, I  thought of it as a fairy tale, not of something that actually happened.  In Christian nations stoning is rarely done.  I could not imagine it was something people actually did.

Today, stoning other people to death is still practiced in half a dozen countries with a large Muslim population.  This was the law as handed down from Moses in the Old Testament.    Jesus saved the adulterer by saying “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” and all the people who were prepared to kill her left.  I always thought that Jesus forgave her, but he didn’t.  When I read John 8 again I found that when the two of them were left, Jesus asked her “Has no one condemned you?”  “No one” she replied.  Then “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more”

The way I see it, Jesus did not judge her, did not condemn her and, therefore, there was #Nothing2Forgive

I think in order to forgive, you must first judge and condemn.  What do you think?

 

The 1987 movie “The Untouchables” was based on 9 real life FBI agents who could not be bribed or corrupted by the mafia.  They enforced the law and Al Capone was a major target for them.

Sean Connery plays a fictional Irish cop that delivers this memorable line.

“You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way! And that’s how you get Capone.”

It’s an entertaining movie. I love seeing the good guys win over the bad guys.

It feels right.

However, what if I actually lived my life that way Sean Connery’s character suggests?

What if I responded to every insult by escalating my response?

I think that would be a major step backward that would eventually lead to “honor killing”.

Just 200 years ago in the United States, the Vice President of the USA, Aaron Burr dueled to the death with the secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton because they were each offended about what the other one had said.

I believe that if one of them had turned the other cheek early on in their conflict, both of them would have prospered and died of old age.

Honor killing is still practiced in parts of our world today. If a woman is raped, I see her as a victim of a crime. I believe that there is #NothingToForgive of her. I can understand that her family members might seek out the rapist and castrate him.

That is not how the family of “Rokstan M” saw it. Rokstan was gang raped in Syria and found asylum in Germany. Years laters, her father and 2 brothers are accused of killing her. They felt dishonored by her because she had been raped. It’s suspected that her mother was the instigator of Rokstan’s murder.  The full story is at Gang raped by strangers, murdered by family  Rokstan was one of the hundreds of women who were murdered by family in 2015 for nothing more than being the victim of a crime.

That is the lesson of “The Rake”.

Sometimes there is #NothingToForgive.  Sadly, these families didn’t see it that way.  In my opinion, when you kill for honour you lose your own honour.