Protest march against the segregation of U.S. schools (photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Two key quotes informed my writing of "The STARLING Series."
The first is the well-known quote from John 15:13 (New International Version):
"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."
The other is a quote from "Strength to Love" by Martin Luther King Jr.
"Success, recognition and conformity are the bywords of the modern world where everyone seems to crave the anesthetizing security of being identified with the majority."
The main theme of "The STARLING Connection" can be best described by putting these two quotes together.
When Jaya Ceyes reaches out to Simon Laramie, she puts her life on the line to be a real friend.
Likewise, when Jaya, Simon and their friends, Flower Wildwind and Peter Arnold, get together to form STARLING, their "underground" SUPERNET profile for free-expression, the young students trade conventional success, recognition and conformity for a more meaningful life.
But one of these high school students is tempted by the powerful forces of the majority and their conventional view of "success," which is drilled into their minds by TEMPLE, PATRIOT SECURITY and the Briarwood Public School System.
You'll have to read the books to find out which student joins the crowd, which falls by the wayside and which one gives up everything in order to share love with other human beings.
What is the true definition of success? Or put another way, what is real success, versus an illusion of "success"? Is "success" what the majority is conditioned (or taught) to desire, more money, status, material possessions, etc.? Or is it something more?
The students' struggles in "The STARLING Series" brings them closer to answering these and other questions.
Part of the reason I wrote the series is because I feel that our Construct, our manufactured "reality," including the "illusion of success," is growing to colossal proportions in our country, disconnecting us further and further from our own humanity. This is a false god that has ensnared far too many of us. I'm also concerned about the economic system of school segregation in which a few young people are educated to be owners under a different system in private schools, while the vast majority is conditioned in a separate and unequal public school system to trade their entire lives/work for "wages."
Our most important question we must all face today is exactly which master this colossus serves and where exactly our massive technological-economic-social construct/illusion is leading humanity.
Many of us, particularly when we're younger, search for heroes or people to look up to. No one is perfect (and we should not attempt to be "perfect"). We may or may not agree with everything one person believes. I continue to feel that all of us should choose our heroes wisely, with great care. While we may respect someone, we should be very careful not to attempt to turn any person or group into a deity (this idea is a spiritual concept going back centuries).
My personal feeling is that if we are to choose someone to consider worthy of respect, then we should choose the person not because it is currently popular to choose him or her, but because he or she meets an important enduring standard.
But what should the standard be?
I strongly believe the standard (which is also the correct way to tell the difference between the Pied Pipers who are in abundance from the very few who are the real deal) is this:
The person we choose to respect has a meaningful body of work which has truly helped other people in concrete ways to achieve greater human rights and human Liberty; and by doing so, that person has with certainty put his or her life on the line and/or paid the ultimate price, the true cost.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born January 15, 1929. He was a key figure in the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. during the 1950s and 1960s, exercising leadership during the Montgomery bus boycott sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks.
Like other human rights activists, King himself was arrested numerous times and often labeled a "criminal" by the so-called "authorities." He was later assassinated April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee at age 39.
This is a standard and a history in which I remain engaged both as a writer and as a human being (imperfect). And these are all reasons why I'm interested in the life, work and times of Martin Luther King Jr. and other human rights activists. It's also why I encourage everyone, particularly young people, to deeply study and deeply think about this background/history.
The key issues are as important as ever.
If you haven't read up on the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, January is a good month to begin. A good starting point is The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change website which has quotes and archives. The 2013 federal Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service is this Monday, January 21.
In respect for everything the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service represents, I'm giving away two of my books in "The STARLING Series" all day January 21 and January 22.
Right now there are five total books in the series (the first four books and the compilation of those books into one volume).
I want to do something a little different this time and make this giveaway a little bit more fun and mysterious than previous ones. To that end, I won't say right now which of the five books I'll be giving away. I'll let it be a surprise during the first two days next week.
So be sure to check back here at theodorewebb.com (or my Facebook page or @STARLINGCONNECT on Twitter) January 21-22 and/or simply type in "Theodore Webb Starling" into Amazon.com's search on Monday and Tuesday to find out which two books you can download with a FREE $0.00 price tag.
Monday and Tuesday is also a great opportunity to do some reading if you have a day off work and/or share "The STARLING Series" with teenagers.
It's an opportunity for all of us to dive deeper into our own examination of the key social, economic, technological, educational and spiritual issues that affect everyone.
The first is the well-known quote from John 15:13 (New International Version):
"Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."
The other is a quote from "Strength to Love" by Martin Luther King Jr.
"Success, recognition and conformity are the bywords of the modern world where everyone seems to crave the anesthetizing security of being identified with the majority."
The main theme of "The STARLING Connection" can be best described by putting these two quotes together.
When Jaya Ceyes reaches out to Simon Laramie, she puts her life on the line to be a real friend.
Likewise, when Jaya, Simon and their friends, Flower Wildwind and Peter Arnold, get together to form STARLING, their "underground" SUPERNET profile for free-expression, the young students trade conventional success, recognition and conformity for a more meaningful life.
But one of these high school students is tempted by the powerful forces of the majority and their conventional view of "success," which is drilled into their minds by TEMPLE, PATRIOT SECURITY and the Briarwood Public School System.
You'll have to read the books to find out which student joins the crowd, which falls by the wayside and which one gives up everything in order to share love with other human beings.
What is the true definition of success? Or put another way, what is real success, versus an illusion of "success"? Is "success" what the majority is conditioned (or taught) to desire, more money, status, material possessions, etc.? Or is it something more?
The students' struggles in "The STARLING Series" brings them closer to answering these and other questions.
Part of the reason I wrote the series is because I feel that our Construct, our manufactured "reality," including the "illusion of success," is growing to colossal proportions in our country, disconnecting us further and further from our own humanity. This is a false god that has ensnared far too many of us. I'm also concerned about the economic system of school segregation in which a few young people are educated to be owners under a different system in private schools, while the vast majority is conditioned in a separate and unequal public school system to trade their entire lives/work for "wages."
Our most important question we must all face today is exactly which master this colossus serves and where exactly our massive technological-economic-social construct/illusion is leading humanity.
Many of us, particularly when we're younger, search for heroes or people to look up to. No one is perfect (and we should not attempt to be "perfect"). We may or may not agree with everything one person believes. I continue to feel that all of us should choose our heroes wisely, with great care. While we may respect someone, we should be very careful not to attempt to turn any person or group into a deity (this idea is a spiritual concept going back centuries).
My personal feeling is that if we are to choose someone to consider worthy of respect, then we should choose the person not because it is currently popular to choose him or her, but because he or she meets an important enduring standard.
But what should the standard be?
I strongly believe the standard (which is also the correct way to tell the difference between the Pied Pipers who are in abundance from the very few who are the real deal) is this:
The person we choose to respect has a meaningful body of work which has truly helped other people in concrete ways to achieve greater human rights and human Liberty; and by doing so, that person has with certainty put his or her life on the line and/or paid the ultimate price, the true cost.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born January 15, 1929. He was a key figure in the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. during the 1950s and 1960s, exercising leadership during the Montgomery bus boycott sparked by the arrest of Rosa Parks.
Like other human rights activists, King himself was arrested numerous times and often labeled a "criminal" by the so-called "authorities." He was later assassinated April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee at age 39.
This is a standard and a history in which I remain engaged both as a writer and as a human being (imperfect). And these are all reasons why I'm interested in the life, work and times of Martin Luther King Jr. and other human rights activists. It's also why I encourage everyone, particularly young people, to deeply study and deeply think about this background/history.
The key issues are as important as ever.
If you haven't read up on the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, January is a good month to begin. A good starting point is The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change website which has quotes and archives. The 2013 federal Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service is this Monday, January 21.
In respect for everything the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service represents, I'm giving away two of my books in "The STARLING Series" all day January 21 and January 22.
Right now there are five total books in the series (the first four books and the compilation of those books into one volume).
I want to do something a little different this time and make this giveaway a little bit more fun and mysterious than previous ones. To that end, I won't say right now which of the five books I'll be giving away. I'll let it be a surprise during the first two days next week.
So be sure to check back here at theodorewebb.com (or my Facebook page or @STARLINGCONNECT on Twitter) January 21-22 and/or simply type in "Theodore Webb Starling" into Amazon.com's search on Monday and Tuesday to find out which two books you can download with a FREE $0.00 price tag.
Monday and Tuesday is also a great opportunity to do some reading if you have a day off work and/or share "The STARLING Series" with teenagers.
It's an opportunity for all of us to dive deeper into our own examination of the key social, economic, technological, educational and spiritual issues that affect everyone.
