Kathy Brasby Blog
The Bible: motifs
A literary technique that biblical authors use extensively is the motif. A motif is a recurring theme or distinctive feature woven through a literary text. A common motif in the Bible is the barren women. We first encounter this motif in the story of Abraham and Sarah...
Resisting the laundrists
I have a friend who claims to love doing laundry. She’s still my friend, which, I hope, reveals a ton about my tolerance level. Who loves doing laundry? Not me. My children were all instructed in the operation of our washing machine so that, by the time they could...
The Bible: repeated words
Authors learn early to do their best not to repeat words. Repeating words is monotonous in our English literature. Rather than use stairs four times in the paragraph, for example, use stairs and steps and pronouns. If you have to, rewrite to avoid repeats. A useful...
Technology not
In the days before I had much money, I got myself a poor person’s cruise control on my car. In those days, I drove a 5-speed VW Rabbit and so I sweet-talked my brother, the mechanic, into installing a throttle lock. What the system consisted of was a gadget attached...
Mice and bad dreams
The secretary and I were the only two women working in this shop. There’s something about rubbing elbows with a bunch of guys that can give you bad dreams. Let me explain. The secretary was deathly afraid of mice. This was not a good thing to reveal to a bunch of guys...
Power of words
Jeff Goins has a great blog post on the Revolutionary Power of Words. Appropriate for Americans on Independence Day!
The Bible: Jael’s imagery
A woman killing a military hero makes for an unexpected story and Jael’s grisly slaying in the book of Judges contains an striking motif that uses vivid images to make the story spring to life. The account of Jael and Sisera takes place within the story of Deborah, a...
Not supposed to happen
This puppet show was not supposed to happen. After traveling over 1200 miles to work for a small church in Mexico, including preparing a 30-minute puppet performance for their children, I was bedridden with the flu and a 102-degree temperature all week. Fortunately I...
The Bible: working with non-heroes
Although Esther in the Old Testament has a book named after her, the Bible portrays her as a hero who didn’t start out that way. The book of Esther relates how the Jewish people, under a genocide order by a duped Persian king, were saved by insomnia and a reluctant...
