"'Twopence' is a strange name for a blog, isn't it? Really, 'twopence' is a strange name for anything that isn't two pennies - and it's a strange name for even that!"
Was I close?
* * *
"Twopence", as a title for this blog, refers to three different ideas:
1) "Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it." - CSL
I like this quote because I have always loved originality. I like ideas and stories that break the mold. When I was in high school, I would sometimes wander in to an empty classroom and write the single most random thing I could think of on the board. (Like, "Ten morbid butterflies sing abreast the palm boat when chuckles eat the blockbuster frame.") When my sister went to that school a few years later, she was approached by a teacher who referred to me as "the king of random". At the time, I was honoured.
The problem is, tricks like that don't work when you're trying to communicate something worth communicating. Usually, when a person tries his very best to be original, it's his very best efforts that foil his aim. I didn't know that until I read this quote. Up to that point, I'd spent years trying to conjure originality and failing. I wasn't until I began to enjoy writing and storytelling as arts to their own, and focused on being good at those things - original or not - that I developed a style and voice of my own. It wasn't until I'd done that that I saw how futile most forced efforts at originality are.
Originality is not manufactured, it's born. It comes about organically, through the unique perspective and personality God gave each of us. It's also born out of truth - whether in principle or fact. The truth is the most odd, original, unpredictable thing we bewildered humans have encountered. So, if we simply tell the truth with the arts we're using, originality will come about on its own.
The title of this blog reminds me of that lesson. It also reminds me that the hipster movement won't really accomplish much.
2) "Twopence" is a fancy old English word for two cents. When I was thinking of a title for this blog, I tried to come up with a non-presumptuous way of saying "These are my thoughts". The issue I had with this task was that I didn't want to come across as saying, by any means, that you should necessarily care what my thoughts are. Then again, that's all I'm offering - a series of thoughts and stories - nothing more useful than that. All you will find in this blog is "Isaac's two cents."
3) As I was closing in on the title "Twopence", I was reminded of this story:
"And [Jesus] sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, 'Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.'”(Mk 12:41-44)
I mentioned in my last post that this blog is my effort toward ministry right now. Compared to six months in Uganda, trips to the Dream Center in LA, missions to Mexico, being a youth pastor or any of the other things God's set me about doing in the past, this isn't much. It feels pathetic, even - like I should be able to do something more practical and helpful. I am at a point in my life where I can promise neither time nor money with consistency; but this passage reminds me that, if I give the best of what I do have, Jesus will count it a great offering.
So, whether it's two copper coins, two cents or "Twopence", it's to God's glory.
-isaac
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