butterflies and jesus jokes

I've just finished revising a short story I wrote entitled Mariposa, nearly doubling its length, for a class I am taking with fiction author Whitney Otto. Huzzah! It is now a satisfying 5,902 words total. As I write this, it occurs to me I have no idea at which point a short story ceases to be a short story and becomes a novella. Hmm... a question for my teacher I guess. I am hopeful (rare this time of year) about the productivity of the coming months and the creative projects (including painting!)I have ahead of me. And I'm especially excited about my other class with poet Michele Glazer, exploring the relationship between the written and visual arts and the processes employed by their makers. I don't have much more to say tonight. I put it all into my story.

Part of me wishes to share a bit of it here, and part of me feels strange putting my writing (my real writing) up on the web for anyone to see. I'm not (yet?) published and only recently have made this foray into fiction. Most of what I write is poetry, but I'm proud of both. And though I plan to continue writing until the day I die, though I intend to make a living in a way somehow connected to the craft, I'm uncertain of putting it out there to be judged by strangers. Funny, then, that I keep enrolling in courses which provide me with exactly that opportunity.

On a completely unrelated note, I keep meaning to say something about this post about this page and the related feedback in response to it. This is sheer madness. To begin with (and I'll state upfront I don't think any topic is beyond reproach and firmly hold that humor is one of the best ways to get people to talk about issues that are difficult, painful, and/or mired in a history of conflict), I'm sure that Jesus has a better sense of humor than he's being given credit for and that he's not in need of anyone rushing to his defense, if that's what you'd call this nonsense.

I also can't imagine Jesus, or any other prophet or holy person in any of the world's other religions, being at all pleased with the kind of hateful, ignorant, and spiteful comments that have been made. In fact, Jesus would be appalled by this kind of behavior. So, lighten up folks, and for [holy name omitted to protect myself from flamers]'s sake, practice the love and goodwill towards others that you profess to believe. If people spent more time worrying about their own lives and how they treat others and less time worrying about what everyone else was doing, this would all be a non-issue anyway. And that's all I'm going to say about that.