The Shrinking Woman by Rolynn Anderson

“Billions and Billions,” Carl Sagan would say, with that weird bombastic emphasis on the ‘B’ that we liked to mimic.  I believed him when he told me that the universe was bigger than I could ever imagine.  Even if I didn’t understand the concept of infinity, I got the enormity bit, and I started feeling small.  Tiny.

The other day, I saw a video, a visual representation of a gargantuan universe.  Carl, it turns out, should have been saying ‘Quadzillions’ instead of Billions.  This is a quick video, three amazing minutes, well worth your time.  You may want to look at it before you read on-it helps get your mind around the breadth of the universe.  Turn off the music...you don't need it and it's annoying.
https://www.facebook.com/iReleaseEndorphins/videos/1246708738676586/?theater

Do you see my point?  I have shrunk (in relative importance/meaning) to a size you couldn’t even see with the human eye.  I used to think I was as big as a grain of sand.  Now, I'm smaller than one of the 100 species of insects hanging around our homes…that we never see.  (Creepy that they’re there, huh?  But true.)  This makes Jonathan Swift a terrible under-estimator in Gulliver's Travels!

Relatively, says Hubble, I am less than itsy bitsy in size, and my importance diminishes with every new discovery.  My effect: a lot less than a butterfly winging it.

Usually I rise each morning buoyed by big ideas and tall purpose; we writers live by making comparisons and setting hefty goals.  But I have to admit that size does matter and my ideas and purposes seem whittled down by the ballooning universe.   

So I’m interested.  How are you dealing with the your shrinking importance in the world?  Humor is welcome, of course, whenever we have these crazy existential conversations.  Example: One good outcome-I have lost ‘weight.’  ;-)  

To go with my 'diminished' theme, I’ll trot out FAINT, the third in my Funeral Planner Suspense series.  Here are a couple tweets:

Thoughtful #dog, sweet man with #Alzheimer’s, #blind forensic investigator FAINT-3^rd in series http://amzn.com/B0180LJBRI #suspensest #romance

Criminals challenge brains & relationship of freelance embalmer & blind forensic investigator #suspensest #romance http://amzn.com/B0180LJBRI

Sometimes A Simple Gift Can Change A Life by Vonnie Davis

You've all heard me talk about my grandson, Ryan. How my son raised him alone from the age of 15 months until he was 8 years old, when Mike married Tina, a woman who couldn't have children. Three pieces of a jagged puzzle that snapped together like magnets. Now, Ryan is a senior in high school, sending off his college applications to MIT, Caltech, Georgia Tech, and University of Maryland.


A week or so ago, Ryan sent one of his entrance essays to us to proof-read. I have to share 2 paragraphs, because over the years, we've sent books to all the grandkids as a message of how important reading and learning are. Surprisingly, they reached a point where they would email us a list of books they "really, really wanted," and since we are the stern, strict grandparents we are...wait...I think I hear snickering from the readership.

Okay, so we spoil them. It's our duty!

Here's some of Ryan's paragraphs in answer to the prompt to "Share a Significant Place in your life." Now, mind you, he's been on 5 cruises to various parts of the world and flown back and forth across the States, but this is where he chose.

"Going into high school, I was a huge mathematics enthusiast with just the smallest interest in science. It was not until my sophomore year, when I received a book in the mail from my wonderful grandparents, that my view of science and life would be forever changed. The book was The Universe and Dr. Einstein written by Lincoln Bartlett, setting off a chain reaction of events that did nothing less than change my life. After the first chapter, I was completely engrossed in the book and its concepts. Learning about basic principles of relativity that went against most common sense left me with countless questions. It created a deep hunger to learn more.


Delving deeper into the enticing subject, I read countless scientific literature. By late winter, I had heard a science show would be airing in the next few months hosted by Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson. The show was his rendition of Carl Sagan's “Cosmos Series.” After this show, I became utterly obsessed with the universe. I absorbed articles and books about space. I stayed up late into the night watching podcasts, lectures, and presentations. And to my friends’ and parents’ exasperation, it became practically the only thing I talked about."

As you can see, we didn't have much to correct except for his last paragraph that I won't share here.

He veered from the personal side to the facts and figures side. Even so, one book--a simple gift--that, unbeknownst to us, changed our grandson's life. Who knew? Ryan told me he'd read it 3 times, but never mentioned its effect. I was blown away by his essay.

As a writer, I often wish my books were the type to change a woman's way of thinking. I try to have all my heroines take life's adversities and turn them into advantages, to see their inner strength and their worth as a woman. I hope I succeed in this underlying message.

My third bear shifter book Bearing It All released last month. 

 

BUY LINKS: http://amzn.com/B00TCI2A5E
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bearing-it-all-vonnie-davis/1121772576?ean=9780553394658

Visit my website at www.vonniedavis.com