Translating a World on the Edge

Mary’s Mountain, my novelette, is FREE on Kindle from October 26 until October 30–the week before a very important midterm election that will affect our American values for better, or WORSE.  It’s a short read, so I hope you’ll take me up on my offer. Just click on the book cover.

Mary’s Mountain is a story about Tolerance taken to the extreme. It is Paul Dunaway’s struggle to re-shape his affluent but joyless life, as the opposing forces in an out-of-control, politically correct America–that he helped to create–now, threaten to take him down.

A description of the infamous Institute of Tolerance found in the novelette: Today, inside its progenies, rigid rooms are covered in fiddle-faddle flowers and sentimental hearts beating warm and fuzzy pizazz into nearly every state of the union. Outside each building, a neon sign blinks: Tolerance Today, Tolerance Tomorrow, Tolerance Forever! The signs have fingers, virtual reality, to motion the people inside. The signs move. The lights move. And the people inside are moved, to tolerate anything.

Mary’s Mountain is somewhat futuristic, but not entirely. Already, there is an attempt to revise our history, and we accept it. Already, Truth is being debunked, and we swallow it–especially if what is replacing Truth agrees with our personal opinions, or tickles our indulgences.  Already, our religious faith and American values are being challenged. Already, our right to hear the truth on television and social media is being meddled with. Already, our country’s enemies are at our throat, and yes, crossing our border. And some of them actually mean us great harm. This is dangerous!

A feeling of loss fell upon him. Today, there were few churches worshipping an invisible Supreme Being. People worshipped what they could see, with a whipped-up tolerance for anything that pleased them. The People of God, as Irene predicted, had become gods themselves.–Mary’s Mountain

Why don’t we fight back against any of this? Many of us don’t want to be labeled intolerant. Except intolerance has nothing to do with keeping our country safe. Keeping our country safe is called plain Common Sense.

Many of us have become tolerant cowards, we have become tolerant of coarseness, we have become tolerant of laziness, we have become so tolerant that whenever we are fed lies by social media, the entertainment industry, and the fake news, we gobble it all up like a favorite dessert.

We are supposed to be flesh and blood human beings, on the lookout for ourselves and others; but instead we’re becoming sponges, soggy with wrong information– when what we need to be are heroes.

And one vote–one thoughtful vote, stemming from what America was founded to be–can make each one of us a hero.

We once considered wrong as actions against the commandments of God. Now many of those wrongs have been propagandized to seem right. In other words, we are being asked by far left progressive liberals to tolerate the intolerable. And worse, we’d better put up with it, or else be called deplorables, bigots,  racists, or religious zealots; all, while they twist the United States Constitution until it is unrecognizable, and then cut down our American roots, fought for long and hard by our ancestors.

The woman asked Paul. “Who cut down the tree?”

“The tree rotted from within,” he said, catching the attention of a few others still chewing the goodies. “At first, there was no outward sign of its decay. It appeared unusually beautiful and produced an abundance of delicious fruit, so much that the people lay in its shade, stuffing themselves. Still, there were some who knew the tree was decomposing, yet did nothing to heal it.” Paul intended to follow with the truth about himself, but a young priest at the table spoke up first.

“Yes,” the priest said. “They knew; and they did nothing.” –Mary’s Mountain

We can no longer afford to do nothing. Our positive vote matters!!

What is honest tolerance anyway? And what is intolerance?

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen said: “The important point here is this: Tolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons. Tolerance applies to the erring; intolerance to the error…America is suffering not so much from intolerance, which is bigotry, as it is from tolerance, which is indifference to truth and error, and a philosophical nonchalance that has been interpreted as broad-mindedness.”

G.K Chesterton said: “Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.”

Kaye Park Hinckley’s novella “Mary’s Mountain” was so captivating that I read it in one sitting without putting the book down once. It has apocalyptic flavors, much like the “1982” or “Brave New World” or “Animal Farm” type stories from decades prior. But the novelty of Hinckley’s tale is refreshing, because she portrays a society that embraces liberalism in such a way that traditionalists are ostracized and even banned. She foretells what our nation could look like politically, socially, and morally in a frighteningly and chillingly realistic portrayal of how technology plays into the degradation of an entire generation. Hinckley is a fantastic writer who uses vivid imagery through the written word for character and plot development. I was duly impressed with the power of this story in such a short novella. Brilliantly done!–Jeannie Ewing, author of Waiting With Purpose.

And from a recent reader of Mary’s Mountain:  Tolerance – I will never look at the word in the same way again. Kaye, I don’t know where to start in telling you how I am affected by your book. So for the time being, just let me say thank you, while I gather and reflect on what I have learned from you through Mary’s Mountain. Thank you for writing it. I’ll be in touch again.

The question in Mary’s Mountain, is whether Paul Dunaway–someone like you and me– will continue to indulge in his so-called broad-mindedness, or return to his honest convictions, enough to become a white-knight for America.

I hope you’ll read Mary’s Mountain as a warning–BEFORE the midterm election, while this book–and we as Americans–are still FREE.