About
Welcome to The Ebenezer Project, Volume I, Number One.
There’s more to a name than meets the eye.
Take “Ebenezer,” for example.
Yeah, he’s Scrooge in Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, of course.
But what kind of name is Ebenezer?
It actually comes from the Bible.
Following a great victory of the ancient Israelites over their enemies the Philistines, the prophet Samuel erected a stone as a memorial to the victory.
Samuel called the stone “Ebenezer,” saying: “Thus far has the Lord helped us.” You can find the story at I Samuel 7:12
The notes say that “Ebenezer” is actually a contraction of two Hebrew words meaning “stone of help.”
And over the years Ebenezer stones came to be used as reminders of the times God helped his people.
They became encouragements and motivators.
MY EBENEZERS
I discovered my own “Ebenezers” in vignettes from my life that I have been writing down for more than 25 years. I found I could recall them during times of trouble, and be encouraged, empowered to get through whatever it was…and there’ve been many trials, as I’m sure you’ve experienced, too.
Paralleling that, in my career as a corporate communicator, I’ve had the opportunity to write about many colleagues’ accomplishments, trials and experiences – many of them poignant and encouraging, some of them downright amazing.
As that career has wound down – and a new one born — I began to reflect on my “vignettes.” It was astonishing to see how meaningful and influential those stories have been to me and those around me.
So I decided to compile them into a memoir, which is about half-way towards a first draft (and the real work).
My working title is “A Life of Ebenezers.”
And I decided to start blogging about them.
AND HOW ABOUT YOURS?
At the same time – because I’ve been privy to so many encouraging stories from others – I’d like to invite you to share your “Ebenezers,” too. From my experience, I know there are many.
There’s an apocryphal story from the heyday of the daily newspaper business, which is where I started with the story thing: Many papers had a rule that new reporters should write a “feature” a week.
That meant paying attention to the world, finding something that would tap into our curiosity about others, getting the facts, writing the story and then turning it in to some grizzly “city editor” – think Ed Asner’s role on the old Mary Tyler Moore Show – where it would be seriously critiqued and maybe even published.
The story goes there was a cub reporter for the old New York Herald Tribune who was failing to turn in his weekly features.
His editor called him in and asked “Why not?”
“I just can’t seem to find any good stories,” he said.
“Son,” the editor said, “there are eight million people out there. That means there are eight million stories. I just want one a week.”
This will be a place where we can tell our stories.
But this is my first shot at a blog, so it’s going to be a “work-in-progress.”
And I could use your suggestions…and help.
Send me your comments, and let’s start telling stories…and talking about the fast-changing world of publishing, while we’re at it.
Welcome to Step One…
ABOUT ME
I’m “boblue3″ … on Twitter anyway. My real name is Dougald Blue.
I am a writer, media relater, PR counselor and strategic planner.
I am a Virginian, active with the James River Writers organization, and I run my own consultancy, D. L. Blue & Associates, Inc.
You can reach me at 804-798-5832
Or via email — boblue3@live .com
I’d like to hear from you on this story-telling venture. Do you share that interest?
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