"If instead of a gem, or
even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving
thought into the heart of a friend,
that would be giving as the angels give." ~~George
MacDonald
Hi all,
With Lent having arrived, I've been in a contemplative mood so
this seemed like a good newsletter to do now. That and
it was one I could write largely during breaks at work without
disruption from certain dogs... ;-)
God bless,
Jenni
Ask a JABB Co-Founder: The Jenni Actually
Uses Her Theology Degree Edition
Do you have any
particular rules for writing Joshua?
Sorta/kinda. First, there's always going to be a
subjective component to him. As much as I try to stick
to the biblical narrative and historical facts about the time in which Yeshua of
Nazareth lived, his character involves a great deal of
interpretation and, as we all know, if you give a Bible verse
to five different people, you're apt to get five different
interpretations. So Joshua is representative of who *I*
believe Jesus to be but I know that I surely can't get
everything right. All I can do is try to maintain some
sort of consistency in how he's represented in my stories.
One thing I try to do is remember that Joshua really doesn't
care what people think about him. Obviously he wants
people to believe in him but if, for example, Joshua was
driving around and saw a prostitute in distress, he would pick
her/him up and take them to wherever they needed to go to get
help. He would never let "Oh but then they might think I
slept with a prostitute" stop him from doing the right
thing. The only times
Joshua cares about his reputation are when he thinks it might
make people feel like they can't approach him. So, for
example, he did everything he could to help Emma see that his
reputation as a stony judge was untrue.
I also think the old "good isn't always nice" sentiment is an
important part of Joshua. The bulk of Joshua's scenes
are with Friends and other people of goodwill so he doesn't
have to be tough very often. However, when he does, I
don't have a problem with him causing pain, emotional or even
physical. He knows that sometimes pain now can stave off
a much greater pain later.
I try to avoid having Joshua, at length, talk about anything I
know virtually nothing about. While we can be sure he
knows every last rule of physics, I certainly don't. As
I wrote above, I know it's possible I could have him pegged
completely wrong on a given moral issue. But no one can
prove that. I would feel pretty foolish if I had him say
something that was or could be proven to be false. So
don't be expecting Joshua to nix the existence of, say,
Bigfoot when it remains possible, however unlikely, that one
could be proven to exist.
Finally, I always try to remember that Joshua's capacity to
love is infinite. I think sometimes TBAA made it seem
like humans were more important to God than angels.
Truth be told, I think a lot of religion suggests the
same. Maybe that's so if real angels don't require love
but I find that hard to imagine. A being with an
infinite capacity to love has no need to form hierarchies in
His affections. Joshua loves Andrew as much as he loves
JenniAnn as much as he loves Belle as much as he loves Lulu...
and, yes, as much as he loves Satan. Joshua may show
that love differently to each but the love he feels for them
is equal in intensity and unconditionality.
So why did you decide to introduce
the idea of angels having anam cara relationships with
humans? That's a pretty big departure from TBAA.
Actually, it's partly owing to unanswered questions I still
had after TBAA ended. Why did Monica seem so drawn to
Mike in "Netherlands"? The Driver used those feelings to
tempt her but I didn't get the impression he was making
something out of nothing. Generally speaking, temptation
only works if the thing being dangled is desirable. For
example, I don't drive and don't
particularly like cars. Therefore, if the Devil tried to
tempt me with a Corvette, he'd get no where. I don't
want a Corvette! So I had to believe that Monica wanted
*something* with Mike. What that was, I wasn't sure and
TBAA never clued us in.
At the same time, there's the whole idea of the Nephilim and
the Watchers and such in the Bible and apocrypha. For a
long time, I wholly discounted it. And then I actually
read the Bible (minus one book which I'm saving cause I'm
weird like that). And, since I'm Catholic, my Bible
contains a book called Tobit. In Tobit, a woman named
Sarah loses a succession of husbands because a demon keeps
slaying them before the marriages can be consummated.
When I read the book, I got the impression that the demon was
straight up obsessed with Sarah. So it was no longer
just a brief passage in Genesis that seemed to imply angels of
the fallen variety had unseemly attachments to humans.
There was desire there of some sort. But what sort?
This brings me to a famous C.S. Lewis quote: "If I find in
myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the
only logical explanation is that I was made for another
world." I've always taken from those words the idea
that, while our desires can be perverted, at root they're
God-given and meant to be fulfilled in a way God takes
pleasure in. So if fallen angels/demons have desires for
humans, that would have to be a perversion of a desire
ordained by God. So what was the desire ordained by God?
My personal answer to that question was: anam cara-ism.
It would be a love that, at its best, would be selfless and
unconditional, never lustful and only romantic in the best
senses. It would never be based on gaining power and the
love shared by the anam caras would spill out and bring joy to
others... say adopted children... and not destruction a la
dead grooms and a race of six-fingered warriors.
Monica's attachment to Mike (aka Arthur) made so much more
sense within this partly biblical narrative, partly personal
reasoning. Monica simply wanted to love this man and be
loved by him and do great, beneficial things together.
She didn't want a husband or lover. She wanted a soul
mate. And if she wanted one... why couldn't Andrew?
Happy bonus: No more writing about JenniAnn's unrequited love!
So do I think any of this could be real? Could angel and
human anam caras exist? Maybe. Maybe not.
But, to me, it makes as much sense, if not more, than the
Nephilim-are-human-angel-hybrids thing.
Why did you decide to expand Dyeland
to include El-Chanan and
its residents?
For starters, I never intended for
Andrew and JenniAnn to wind up as close as they are.
Evidence for that can be seen as late as "Promises
of Someday" with Belle's "Uncle Andrew." But
then when "The
Carpenter" came around and I had to deal with Joshua
as more than the occasional cameo character, I just
couldn't see him being satisfied with that. Why
shouldn't Belle have a father? And if Kelly can be mother to a child, why can't
Andrew be father to one? Why would God allow one and not the other? So
"Uncle Andrew" became Daddy. When you have two people who are already
close raising a child together,
it makes sense that they'd become closer
still. Same thing with Arthur and
Monica. But I
didn't want to make it seem like the Dyelanders and Friends were
some oh-so-special
group without precedent
or like. I didn't want the anam cara
relationships to seem exclusive to this
one clique of humans and angels. By
introducing El-Chanan, I could place
the angel-human
pairings into a much bigger
framework that stretches back to
the Great Flood if not
before.
And by having the El-Chananites
be descendants of the Nephilim
and those who knew
them, it also
anticipated the later
human trafficking
story.
On a less
lofty level, I also
thought El-Chanan
might offer some
infrastructure
that the
Dyelanders will
eventually need
but haven't
had near
enough time to
build.
If you
consider that
El-Chanan
society has
been going on for
thousands of
years then
it makes sense
that they'd
have
hospitals,
colleges,
etc. For
the
Dyelanders,
there would be
occasions
when seeking
medical help
from those who
know
their secrets
might be
necessary.
For example,
what if
Vincent needed
surgery?
They're
certainly not
going to wheel
him into a
Manhattan
hospital and
wait for all
heck to break
out.
Finally,
it was just
plain fun to
start from scratch
with a whole
new world!
A
Brief Survey
And now... I have some questions for
whomever would be willing to answer them. I'm hoping to find some time to build up a store of newsletter material that I can use on weeks I get really busy.
Knowing the following will help me do that. Thanks for any
input!
1. Do you have a favorite JABB newsletter
feature (i.e. top tens, stories, quizzes,
etc.)?
2.
Are there any
features that
aren't
currently part
of the newsletters
that you'd
like to see
here?
3. Is
there anything
you'd be
interested in
contributing
to the newsletter?
4. Apart from
the
newsletter, is there
anything that
you feel would
be helpful to
have on the web site that's
not already
there?
5.
Do you have
any questions
for
any of
the following
features: Ask
a JABB
Co-Founder,
Ask Andrew,
Ask the Angel
of Angels?
6.
What are your
favorite
TBAA episodes
or other John
Dye
projects?
7.
Anything else
you'd like to
share for the
good of the
cause?
Thanks!
This newsletter is dedicated to John Dye
for getting me through obtaining that theology degree!
I became newly obsessed with TBAA as my graduation neared
and I'm sure a lot of it was because of how soothing our
lovely Andrew was.
(Photo
Credits: The photograph used on this
page is from Touched by an Angel
and owned by CBS Productions,
Caroline Productions, and Moon Water
Productions. It is not being
used to seek profit.)