" One of the main ideas that led me to write the novel Omari and the People (ShirleyCastle.com)comes from my witnessing the impact of shared suffering on community building. From my experience, nothing brings strangers together more than the experience of shared suffering. When I was a child the Chicago Blizzard of 1967 buried my city - brought it to a halt. I was first impressed with how quickly certain merchants raised their prices to take advantage. Soon thereafter, however, I was more impressed with how strangers who usually ignored each other came to each others rescue. The traumas I experienced of Marine Corps combat training and combat itself formed stronger bonds of family than anything I've seen in civilian life. Many people remember how, for a brief moment, people around the world were united by the horror of the 9/11 attacks.
I began writing Omari and the People right after graduation from Chicago Theological Seminary, and I was excited with what I had learned. The story of a reluctant leader who finds himself guiding a community of strangers from a sort of exile through a desert wilderness is one of those ideas.(less) "
I began writing Omari and the People right after graduation from Chicago Theological Seminary, and I was excited with what I had learned. The story of a reluctant leader who finds himself guiding a community of strangers from a sort of exile through a desert wilderness is one of those ideas.(less) "
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