Christmas In the Margins

Editor’s Note: In celebration of the release of, as Larry Shallenberger puts it, “Burnside writer, sage, and smart aleck” John Blase’s first book, here’s an interview between John and the enigmatic Thomas Marshfield. After you read it, go to Amazon.com or Powells or something and buy the book already.  If we can make John a bunch of money, maybe he’ll write for us more.

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Good morning and welcome to Margins.  I’m your host, Thomas Marshfield, and today we’re happy to have as our guest first-time author John Blase to talk about his new book – Touching Wonder: Recapturing the Awe of Christmas.

Thomas Marshfield: John, welcome to the Margins.

John Blase: Thank you, Thomas.  It’s a pleasure to be here.

TM: Let me be frank, John; I didn’t read your book.  We received an advance copy and my intentions were good, but I started reading Wally Lamb’s Wishin’ and Hopin’ and I just forgot all about you.  Why don’t you tell my listeners what this is all about – s’that fair?

JB: Um, well, alright.   The book is a collection of imaginative reflections on the first two chapters of Luke’s gospel; an attempt to put some meat on the bones of the usual creche suspects: the angel Gabriel, Simeon, Anna, shepherds, and a few others.

TM: Oh, so this is a Jesus book, as in “sweet baby Jesus”?  Don’t you just love it when Ricky Bobby prays to little 8 lb baby Jesus in Talladega Nights?  Shake and bake, John, shake.and.bake.

JB: Yes, I love that scene…Walker and Texas Ranger and…but getting back to the book, my hope is that it gives people, as one endorser put it, “the gift of unhurried time.”  It’s a book to be read slowly, a little at a time.

TM: Are you insinuating that I’m a slow reader?  I hope not, because I might have to go all spider-monkey on you.

JB: No, that’s not what I meant at all.  I was just very intentional in crafting a small book, something very accessible and manageable during these days.  Folks have so much on them already without adding a tome to read.

TM: John, don’t you think we should just give it all the big swollen middle finger, this whole Rankin-Bass fantasy world, and focus instead on the winter solstice?  Tell you what, John, don’t answer; that could easily go rogue on me.  But riddle me this, Batman – what’s the takeaway in your book?  We all know the point is that the reader “gets it” – right?  What do we “get”?

JB: I’m not overly concerned that the reader “gets it.”  I prefer to trust the reader.  But I’m quite invested in telling the story, lofting it just long enough for the words to possibly stir something inside you, remind you of something you once knew but lost along the way.

TM: Grief, son, you are a powderkeg of excitement…just kidding, you’re actually quite boring.  But I’ll give you the last word.  You conclude the book with a phrase – “the arrogance of belonging” – riff on that one time, Mr. Flatline.

JB: I first heard the phrase from the poet David Whyte.  It describes very well what I sensed as I walked back through these narratives.  The well-known line is “it’s not about you…it’s all about God.”  I don’t believe it’s all about you, but it’s got to be a little about you or what’s the point of you?  If you believe there is something purposeful about your life, like I believe these Christmas characters did, then it comes across to others as a sort of arrogance.  But it’s an arrogance of belonging.  Your life matters.  It matters to the people around you – your family, friends, co-workers.  You belong to these days, this time, this earth.  Some people don’t think so, but I believe it can be a little about you and all about God at the same time.  Thanks for having me on the show, Thomas.  And Merry Christmas.

TM: Happy Holidays to you, tiny dancer.  Friends, the book is Touching Wonder: Recapturing the Awe of Christmas. It’s available wherever books are sold and I’m gonna roll the dice and say most major oil and lube shops.  Until next time, I’m Thomas Marshfield, and I’m living in the Margins…

[This interview is pure fiction.  The book, however, really exists, as does the author.  He is quite boring, so this was an attempt to jazz him up a little.  If you are a reader, he really does trust you.]