Nathan Key

"Go Then, There are Other Worlds Than These"

If you're a Stephen King fan, then you know these words. They're from The Gunslinger, the first book in King's Dark Tower Series. And they're uttered by the character Jake just before he's "sacrificed" by Roland in his pursuit of said tower.

I read through The Gunslinger a few years ago and was impressed to find out that King wasn't the slush-novelist I originally thought him to be. I wanted to shove him into the John Grissom/Danielle Steele beach book category. You know- quick reads with a good story, but not a whole lot of literary content.

Now, I doubt that King will go down in history with Shakespeare or Hemingway. He's not THAT good. But as I got further into the Dark Tower, I realized that his genius isn't in crafting specific symbolic or minimalist prose, it's his ability to create volumes of metanarrative.

You see, all of the books King has ever written are actually about one story.

The Dark Tower the linchpin at the center of all his stories, holding the entire thing together. So as you read through each volume, you realize that these bits and pieces of all his stories are pointing toward something bigger.

Characters show up over and over again.

Sometimes they have different names, but if you look closely into the prose you come to find out that Randall Flagg is Raymond Fiegler, Walter o'Dim, Flagg, and just about any other character with the initials R.F.. Likewise, the Crimson King is (probably) IT, and he is mentioned over and over again in a number of books. King even writes himself (or another version of himself) into the Dark Tower.

How postmodern is that?

Anyway, when I was reading through this metanarrative of interconnected story, it made me think about Christianity and how, as a Christ-Follower, I believe that my story and the stories that I read and the lives that I interact with are bigger than what you see at face value. There are deeper meanings and hidden mysteries pointing to other worlds and other lives in the narratives that we live. We all know it, because no one escapes life without trying to figure out what it all means.

Marriage, food, sex, fashion, customs, relationships, parenting, and all the other things that happen aren't simply isolated unto themselves. They all weave in and out of each other, creating a wonderful tapestry that helps us see that we aren't alone- that something wonderful and terrifying is going on in the background.

And not just something, but SomeOne.
You see, all the great stories are about Him.

For the next few days, your daily dose of politics, philosophy, and religion may be a bit intermittent as I'm adapting to a new role as a Sr. Trainer with Liberty Mutual. I'm going to try to keep blogging through it al, but it may not update in the middle of the day as normal?

In the meantime, check out this amazing review that Chris sent my way this afternoon!

Also, be sure to send your submissions this week for the banner space on my site.

I don't really think that humans were created to endure alarm clocks.

When we lived in Seattle I had the wonderful opportunity to work for a company who didn't really care that I was "in the office" at exactly 8:30. They were more concerned with whether or not I was coming up with good ideas within my deadlines. So since I didn't have a bus to catch or the requirement to be at work at a certain time each day, I got into the wonderful habit of sleeping until I woke up rather than according to the alarm clock.

Something amazing happened.

I found out that I usually woke up within 15 to 20 minutes of the same time each day so long as I went to bed around the same time each night. The difference was, sleeping until I needed to wake up rather than being awakened felt more natural.

I felt more rested.

I was on my game.

All this changed again when I began working at Advantor last month.

I didn't want to begin my career by coming in later than the official 8:30am office opening and so I began setting my alarm clock to make sure that I was getting up on time. And even though I began going to bed at a reasonable time, I found that I was much more tired and exhausted because of the artificial wake-up time.

I'm not entirely sure what to do to thwart this, because I obviously can't risk going into work habitually late... but I'd like to go back to my body's needs rather than something external. I just don't know that my new boss is going to be happy if I come in late every once in a while because I'm trying to "go natural."

Anyone have ideas on how we can meet the standards of Western Work Schedules and also trust our own internal clock rather than technology to wake us up?

Our good friend Chris Cocca sent this over to me last night and I laughed so hard that I almost cried.

I'm going to say in all sincerity that I'm glad that it's only going to be up for a week. I'm not sure that I can relive my elementary school photos for much longer than that!

Check out the Banner Contest page for more details on how you can submit your own design.