Ignorence is...

Hey,
So I have good news...I'm finished with all of Act I of the book!!! Hooray!! Man, I feel like the story is going somewhere now, and I'm starting to be real happy about where it is going.
You'll see that on the side it says I'm 95% done. The reason for that is that I'm doing a re-read of the entire Act before I move on. Some of the story wrote itself as I was going, so there are inconsistencies that I need to fix here and there. But, I'll let you all know when that is done, after which I will finally move on to Act II. I'm excited for that one. But if you want a copy of all of Act I, you'll have to let me know so I can email it to you. I won't be posting the entire thing on here, only part of it (samples, you could say).

Also, I started a book review section of the blog. I only have one review on there for now, but I'll be adding more as I read more. If you're into that, check it out and leave a comment or two.

So, what is funny about writing is the fact that there's almost no way of writing an interesting story without being faced with having to explain your point of view on different subjects, like politics, ethics, religion, etc. At several instances in the story already, I have had to make myself really think about what it was I wanted to convey. There is no way of making a story purely entertaining. And I wouldn't want it to be that way. If all the book is going to do is entertain and no one will remember a thing about it after a week, then I would feel like I would have failed.
But then what do you put in there?
Well, for me the first challenge was during a conversation between two of my characters on the subject of blind obedience. That's not what they are really talking about in the story, but the subject came up. And I think it's interesting to think about it in relation to the idea of living a satisfied life. Let me explain.
It came to me that, in certain aspects of life, people who are satisfied with the way things are going have a tendency not to care about how things could be different or better. There's a political term for this but I don't remember it and I'm feeling a little lazy in looking it up. But essentially, the point here is that somebody who feels like he's got it as good as he wants it isn't necessarily going to do anything more...'Why should I work more than I have to?' or 'Who cares about what others are going through? They just need to work harder and it'll work out.'
In the same sense, somebody who thinks this way, in my opinion, might not necessarily know what he or she could have. That's one of the things that we learn from the gospel. People who don't know what they could get out of it have no problem living there life without it. It's only once the knowledge of potential blessings come that it is worth striving for. And even then, you need to have faith that those blessings will come before you're likely to put much effort into it. (Not always, obviously. Sometimes it is by obeying that faith comes) But how is everyday life any different?
Janell and I could very well decide that we are just going to stretch out school for 6 more years and wait that entire time before having children. We'll just work part time and make enough to buy what we need and a few things we want, and there it is. We live a good life right now, why not just keep it the way it is? The thing is that Janell and I could never be happy the way we live now for more than a certain amount of time because we know what we want, and we know how and how soon we could have it.
Knowledge changes everything. One cannot blindly fall into the traps of laziness or contentment if he or she has not only a knowledge of something better but also an opportunity for it. 'Ignorance is bliss," they say. Well, ignorance allows an excuse for not doing your best, is all. Ignorance keeps you from potential, and from a chance to have what is really out there for you.