Len Wilson

Christ follower, Husband and Father, Writer, Publisher, @invite_ministry. Opinions are my own.

[Len Wilson @Len_Wilson]

Congrats @AustinWilson92 for making all-area! What a testament to your power and skill on the field!

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[Wakeland Wolverine Football @WakelandFTball]

https://t.co/lRxDYbjGbB

Congrats to @GraysonMyer & @AustinWilson92 for making the @starlocalmedia All-Area 2nd team!   @DevinHasson, @CAvants_SLM, @MWelchSLM, @WakelandHS, @Friscoisdsports

[Len Wilson @Len_Wilson]

Barbell strategy working like a charm. And I’m not talking gym.

Tech goes up—happy

Tech goes down but consumer cyclical and energy go up—happy

[Len Wilson @Len_Wilson]

So true. More like a nadir.

If fourth turning trends are true than we’re only about fifteen years from the beginning of a new cultural flourishing.

[Paul Anleitner @PaulAnleitner]

This moment in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) was when I knew the postmodern deconstruction of our culture was reaching its apex.

It’s hard to believe now that this was a real scene.

[Len Wilson @Len_Wilson]

@TalbotDavis @jonell_shelby @jhaskinscabrera @juliedavis0628 Writing a sequel?

[Orson Scott Card @orsonscottcard]

You don't need advice from editors on rejected manuscripts. 

My short story “Ender's Game” was rejected by Ben Bova at Analog back when that was the top market for a sci-fi story. Ben gave me feedback. He thought the title should be “Professional Soldier” and he said to “cut it in half.”

But I knew he was wrong on both points and submitted it to Jim Baen at Galaxy. He sat on it for a year, and responded to my query with a rejection. There was some kind of explanation, but I don't remember what it was. I concluded at the time that Baen's comments showed that he had barely glanced at the story.

So ��� I got feedback both times, but it was not helpful. I looked at Ben's rejection again. What was it about the story that made him think it should, let alone COULD, be cut in half?

Apparently it FELT long. What made it feel long? Now, post-Harry Potter, I would call it the quidditch problem. I had too many battles in which the details became tedious. So I cut two battles entirely, merely reporting the outcomes, and shortened another. In retyping the whole manuscript (pre-word-processor, that was the only way to get a clean manuscript), I added new point-of-view material to the point that I had cut only one page in length. So much for “in half.”
But I already knew that my manuscripts did not need cutting — if it wasn't needed, it wouldn't be there in the first place. Even the battles were still there, but instead of showing them, I merely told what happened (so much for the usually asinine advice “show don't tell”), which kept the pace going.

Those changes made, I sent it to Ben again. I did not remind him of what he had advised me to do. I merely told him I liked my title, and said, “I have addressed your other concerns,” which was true. I figured he wouldn't remember what his exact words had been. My answer was a check. That revised story was the basis for my winning the Campbell Award for best new writer.

Did Ben's feedback help? Yes — but his specific advice was not right, and I knew it. On my next two submissions, Ben hated my endings, and I revised as suggested. The fourth submission he rejected outright, and the fifth, and I thought, Am I a one-story writer? I went back to Ender's Game and tried to analyze why it worked. Then, deliberately imitating myself, I wrote “Mikal's Songbird.” Ben bought it, and it received favorable mentions. I was afraid then that I had consigned myself to writing stories about children in jeopardy. But in fact I was writing character stories rather than idea stories. And THAT was how I built a career, not by self-imitation, and not by following editorial suggestions.

I did get wise counsel from David Hartwell on my novel Wyrms, but that was on a book that was already under contract, and it was story feedback, not style. I got wise counsel from Beth Meacham, too, on various books over the years — but again, only on books that were under contract. I also received appallingly stupid advice from the editor of my novel Saints, which temporarily destroyed the book's marketability; after that, I was allowed to go back to my original structure and save the book — now it's one of my best.

Editors don't know more than you about your story. They especially don't know why they decide to accept or reject stories. YOU have to know what your story needs to be, and take only advice that you believe in.

Your best counselor on a story nobody bought is TIME. Let some time pass and then reread the story. Don't even think about why it Didn't Work. Instead, think about what DOES work, and then write it again, a complete rewrite, keeping nothing from the previous draft. Find the right protagonist and begin at the beginning — the point where the protagonist first gets involved with the events of the story. Be inventive — the failed first draft no longer exists, so you're not bound by any of your earlier decisions. THAT is how you resurrect a good idea you did not succeed with on your first try.

[Things From the Past @pastarchive]

This is where “uppercase” and “lowercase” came from. In the early days of printing, capital letters were kept in the upper compartments of the type case, while the smaller letters were placed below for easier access.

[Melissa the Hopeful🏠Homemaker @BiblicalBeauty]

Helen Roseveare, a missionary who faced intense suffering and persecution during her 20 years of service in the Congo, shares one of the times that she saw God answer prayer in a most unexpected way:

"I went to have prayers with our orphanage children as I did every day, and any of the children wanted gathered around me for prayer time, and I'd give them different things to pray about. And this particular day, I told the children of this tiny baby and asked them to pray for the nurses that they would stay awake all night to keep that baby warm. If the baby got cold, it would die. I mentioned that the baby had a 2-year-old sister who was crying because her mommy had died. I mentioned the burst hot water bottle.

During prayer time, different children prayed for different things, and then one little 10-year-old girl, Ruth, she prayed in the usual blunt way of our African children, 'Please, God, send us a hot water bottle. Now, God, it'll be no good tomorrow. Send it this afternoon. Now, if it comes tomorrow, the baby will be dead.'

I'm sort of swallowing hard, and she said, 'While you're about it, God, would you send a dolly for the little 2-year-old sister, so she'll know that Jesus really loves her?'

And that afternoon, the parcel came. It was the first parcel I ever, I've been out there four years, I'd never had a parcel from home. And despite the fact I live on the equator, somebody packing that parcel had been prompted by God to put in a hot water bottle, and a child from my Bible class at home had put in a dolly for a little girl.

And it came that afternoon in answer to a 10 year-old child's prayer, and the amazing thing was, you know, that parcel had been on the way five months to get to us. It had left England in July, and it came that afternoon, cause a child prayed."

[Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh]

🚨 WOW. Artemis II astronaut Reid Wiseman just said that despite not being religious, he broke down in TEARS when he saw the CHRISTIAN CROSS after landing on Earth

Wiseman says he felt compelled to ask for the chaplain:

"I saw the cross on his collar. And I broke down in tears."

"I am not a really religious person. But there was no other avenue for me to explain or experience anything. So I asked for the chaplain on the Navy ship."

"When that man walked in — never met him before in my life — I saw the cross on his collar. I broke down in tears."

"It's very hard to fully grasp what we just went through. And in these short, you just said it's been a week since we've been back, but it's been a week of medical testing, physical testing, doctors, science objectives. I would like, we have not had that decompression."

"We have not had that reflection time. So I'm basing this on what we saw."

"And when the when the sun eclipsed behind the moon, I think all four of us, I turned to Victor and I said, I don't think humanity has evolved to the point of being able to comprehend what we're looking at right now."

[Minh Do @minhsmind]

Such a cool ad! Brilliant concept and execution.

[Len Wilson @Len_Wilson]

@Astro_SEAL Chris Cassidy just told a story of the surreal moment after touching down from space, and a few hours later found himself sitting in Subway with his family. Ha! I love the humor and humility. But when it’s all done, which was more important?

Thx for your service.

[Len Wilson @Len_Wilson]

Is there a relationship between communication theory and Catholicsm?!

[Joe Weisenthal @TheStalwart]

I 100% agree with this take, and also I don't think it's a coincidence that two of the most famous theorists on orality and literacy (Marshall McLuhan and Walter Ong) were devout Catholics

[Joe Weisenthal @TheStalwart]

I 100% agree with this take, and also I don't think it's a coincidence that two of the most famous theorists on orality and literacy (Marshall McLuhan and Walter Ong) were devout Catholics

[M.A. Franklin @FoundationDads]

Without the lingering influence of Christianity in the background, Sorokin argued, the moral collapse would have come much sooner.

The ethics of utilitarianism and hedonism have no foundation of their own. They borrow their moral capital from the ideational system they replaced.

Once that capital is spent, there is nothing underneath. Once the momemtum slows, there is no fuel to churn the engine.

No civilization has ever sustained itself on pleasure and utility alone. Not one. But there's more.

[📸🔭Brandon Berkoff🚀✨ @spacebrandonb]

I’m not asking you, I’m telling you.

Take a moment and listen to this 81 second response from Victor Glover after being asked if he had any thoughts leading up to Easter.

I don’t quite think it can be overstated how perfect this crew is for the job.

[Lucy Biggers @LLBiggers]

Al Gore just said “none of the predictions from the past 20 years have been wrong from climate scientists.”

This inspired me to go back and watch the classic An Inconvenient Truth.

Upon rewatch it was worse than I remember!

[Matt Smethurst @MattSmethurst]

“What would you say to a young Christian who is nervous about the future?”

I love @TimKellerNYC’s answer. I think about it every Easter.

[Len Wilson @Len_Wilson]

@roydenogletree Here’s @AustinWilson92 beating that as a 17-yr old at Baylor college camp last summer. Also squats 708 and benches 405. Looking for athletes? here you go. Right @Jamar51Chaney?

[Hoops @Hoopss]

Everytime I get mad at my sports team for losing, I remind myself of what Giannis said. Arguably my favorite response to a reporter ever.

[Lemma the Optimist @DoctorLemma]

19 years ago, a high school basketball coach put his team manager into a game for the final four minutes. The kid had never played a single minute of competitive basketball in his life. He scored 20 points.

Jason McElwain was diagnosed with severe autism at age two. He didn’t speak until he was five. He couldn’t chew solid food until he was six. He wore a nappy for most of his early childhood. As a baby, he was rigid, wouldn’t make eye contact, and hid in corners away from other children.

He tried out for his school basketball team every year and got cut every time. Too small. Too slight. Barely 5’6 and about 54 kilograms. But he loved the game so much that his mum called the school and asked if there was any way he could be involved. The coach created a team manager role for him. For three years, McElwain showed up to every practice and every game. He wore a shirt and tie on match days. He ran drills, handed out water, kept stats, and cheered every basket like he’d scored it himself.

On 15 February 2006, the last home game of his final school year, the coach let him suit up in a proper jersey and sit on the bench. With four minutes left and a comfortable lead, the coach sent him in.

His first shot missed. His second missed. Then something shifted.

He hit a three-pointer. Then another. Then another. His teammates stopped shooting entirely and just kept passing him the ball. He hit six three-pointers and a two-pointer. 20 points in four minutes. The highest scorer in the game. When the final buzzer went, the entire crowd rushed the court and lifted him onto their shoulders.

His mum tapped the coach on the shoulder, in tears. “This is the nicest gift you could have ever given my son.”

McElwain won the ESPY Award for Best Moment in Sports that year, beating out some of the biggest names in professional sport. He’s 36 now. He works at a local supermarket, coaches basketball, has run 17 marathons including five Boston Marathons, and travels the country speaking about never giving up.

When asked about that night, his coach still gets emotional. “For him to come in and seize the moment like he did was certainly more than I ever expected. I was an emotional wreck.”

[Handre @Handre]

Karl Marx gave humanity its most murderous idea: that human suffering stems not from scarcity and the human condition, but from private property itself. This bearded parasite—who never worked a day in his life and lived off Engels' textile fortune—convinced generations that voluntary exchange was exploitation while violent redistribution was justice.

The body count speaks for itself. Stalin's forced collectivization murdered 6 million Ukrainians through engineered famine. Mao's Great Leap Forward killed 45 million through sheer economic illiteracy. Pol Pot slaughtered a quarter of Cambodia's population. And every single time, the intellectuals proclaimed it "wasn't real socialism." The pattern is identical across continents and centuries: seize private property, centrally plan production, watch millions starve.

But the intellectual foundation was always rotten. Marx's labor theory of value—the notion that labor alone creates value—was already debunked by Austrian economists like Böhm-Bawerk before the ink was dry on Das Kapital. Value is subjective, determined by individual preferences in voluntary exchange. Marx simply couldn't grasp that the capitalist performs the crucial function of time preference—sacrificing present consumption for uncertain future returns.

Even "democratic socialism" in Western Europe required massive wealth transfers from productive individuals to bureaucratic parasites, creating permanent dependency classes and stagnating growth. Venezuela had the world's largest oil reserves and still managed to create toilet paper shortages. Cuba turned a Caribbean paradise into a floating prison where doctors flee on rafts.

Every socialist experiment ends the same way: empty shelves, secret police, and intellectuals explaining why the next attempt will be different.