ELEVEN REASONS WHY I WROTE
TO DRINK FROM THE SILVER CUP
(in no particular order)
1. I couldn’t help it. My favorite poet Rumi wrote, “There is one thing in this world that you must never forget to do. If you forget everything else and not this, there is nothing to worry about, but if you remember everything else and forget this, then you will have done nothing in your life.” I started trying to write a version of this story when I was nineteen. I kept on trying for nearly fifty years. My inescapable compulsion lends credence to Rumi’s statement.
2. Persistence is central to the story. Maybe a tale of persistence can inspire you to persist in something you are aiming for.
3. In To Drink from the Silver Cup I wanted readers to entertain possibilities—the possibility of returning to anything precious you may have walked away from. I hoped readers would think that things might not have to be the way they’ve always been.
4. I wrote
To Drink from the Silver Cup for my tribe—LGBTQ people who found that suddenly there was no place for us in a faith community we’d always loved, or maybe only a second-class or covert place. I wanted us to know that there are abundant options, if we want them.
5. I wrote for non-LGBTQ church people. I want them to see how some of their decisions and actions cause tremendous pain and damage, not just to LGBTQ people but to other marginalized people. And to themselves.
6. I wrote for you if you’re questioning whether your faith is working for you. Through
To Drink from the Silver Cup, I wanted to be someone who could walk with you, if you'd have me.
7. Maybe you have stayed secure within the religious fold of your childhood without really questioning anything that was offered you. I wrote
To Drink from the Silver Cup to gently challenge you to ask yourself questions you might otherwise not have asked.
8. Writing
To Drink from the Silver Cup helped me. It was instrumental in the completion of a segment of my spiritual journey. Without the writing, I don’t know if I would have stuck with The Experiment. “The Experiment” is Part III of
To Drink from the Silver Cup.
9. I tried many times to find spiritual community before I started writing
To Drink from the Silver Cup. But my attempts were haphazard and episodic. Keeping a log, and using the log to write the book made The Experiment deliberate, which contributed to a satisfying outcome.
10. To write about one’s life is to honor it. Every life is important. In writing
To Drink from the Silver Cup, I acknowledged that my life has been of value, perhaps not only to me but also to a few others.
11. Every day of our lives, we make a difference because every action or inaction we take has a consequence. I want my difference to make the world a better place.
©Anna Redsand 2016 All Rights Reserved
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