Rod and Staff: A Story
After the death of his estranged, teenage son, a man returns to the mountain stream of his beloved Wyoming to reconcile with a God he has long since forsaken. This is a story of staggering loss---of the guilt, anguish, and disbelief a parent feels when a wedge is driven between them and their son or daughter. It is a story of the irrevocable profoundness of loss when a child dies. Finally, it is the story of a man who long ago chose to set aside his God in order to make his mark here, in the now, and how many of us find it difficult to reconcile faith when facing head-on the crippling finality of death, the inequities of life, and the absence of answers in the midst of our worst storms.

"And If I touched my rod to the river, and if the water turned to blood, would that be enough to restore faith in a God who would take a young boy from his father and mother before it was time?

When I was young I was enthralled by such magnificent stories, but now I was mostly content to nurture the seeds of disappointment, loss, and shame, seeing to it that the flowers of anger could blossom fully in my soul.

The ghosts, sensing a foothold, breathe life into scarred, inanimate memories, resurrecting them:

A knock at the front door.

Two cops, their countenances betraying an instinctual desire to be anywhere else but where they are, tasked with such unthinkable burden.

Numbness.

The lingering specter of flesh, and bone.

The whiskey-orange comfort of solitary retreat."
1115183113
Rod and Staff: A Story
After the death of his estranged, teenage son, a man returns to the mountain stream of his beloved Wyoming to reconcile with a God he has long since forsaken. This is a story of staggering loss---of the guilt, anguish, and disbelief a parent feels when a wedge is driven between them and their son or daughter. It is a story of the irrevocable profoundness of loss when a child dies. Finally, it is the story of a man who long ago chose to set aside his God in order to make his mark here, in the now, and how many of us find it difficult to reconcile faith when facing head-on the crippling finality of death, the inequities of life, and the absence of answers in the midst of our worst storms.

"And If I touched my rod to the river, and if the water turned to blood, would that be enough to restore faith in a God who would take a young boy from his father and mother before it was time?

When I was young I was enthralled by such magnificent stories, but now I was mostly content to nurture the seeds of disappointment, loss, and shame, seeing to it that the flowers of anger could blossom fully in my soul.

The ghosts, sensing a foothold, breathe life into scarred, inanimate memories, resurrecting them:

A knock at the front door.

Two cops, their countenances betraying an instinctual desire to be anywhere else but where they are, tasked with such unthinkable burden.

Numbness.

The lingering specter of flesh, and bone.

The whiskey-orange comfort of solitary retreat."
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Rod and Staff: A Story

Rod and Staff: A Story

by R.S. Guthrie
Rod and Staff: A Story

Rod and Staff: A Story

by R.S. Guthrie

eBook

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Overview

After the death of his estranged, teenage son, a man returns to the mountain stream of his beloved Wyoming to reconcile with a God he has long since forsaken. This is a story of staggering loss---of the guilt, anguish, and disbelief a parent feels when a wedge is driven between them and their son or daughter. It is a story of the irrevocable profoundness of loss when a child dies. Finally, it is the story of a man who long ago chose to set aside his God in order to make his mark here, in the now, and how many of us find it difficult to reconcile faith when facing head-on the crippling finality of death, the inequities of life, and the absence of answers in the midst of our worst storms.

"And If I touched my rod to the river, and if the water turned to blood, would that be enough to restore faith in a God who would take a young boy from his father and mother before it was time?

When I was young I was enthralled by such magnificent stories, but now I was mostly content to nurture the seeds of disappointment, loss, and shame, seeing to it that the flowers of anger could blossom fully in my soul.

The ghosts, sensing a foothold, breathe life into scarred, inanimate memories, resurrecting them:

A knock at the front door.

Two cops, their countenances betraying an instinctual desire to be anywhere else but where they are, tasked with such unthinkable burden.

Numbness.

The lingering specter of flesh, and bone.

The whiskey-orange comfort of solitary retreat."

Product Details

BN ID: 2940016404943
Publisher: Blu Pencil Publishing, LLC
Publication date: 12/05/2008
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
File size: 965 KB

About the Author

R.S. Guthrie grew up in Iowa and Wyoming. He has been writing fiction, essays, short stories, and lyrics since college. "Black Beast: A Detective Bobby Mac Thriller (Volume 1)" marked Guthrie's first major release and it heralded the first in a series of Detective Bobby Macaulay (Bobby Mac) books. The second in the series (Lost: A Detective Bobby Mac Thriller (Volume 2) hit the Kindle shelves December of 2011. Guthrie's "Blood Land" is the first in the James Pruett Mystery series and represents a project that is close to his heart: it is set in a fictional town in the same Wyoming where he spent much of his childhood and still visits. The sequel, �Money Land� released at the end of 2012 and Guthrie is working on the third in the series, �Honor Land�. Guthrie lives in the Colorado Rockies with his wife, Amy, three young Australian Shepherds, and a Chihuahua who thinks she is a 40-pound Aussie! Readers can catch up with what's new with the author at his official site, , discussions related to writing and other topics at his blog, Rob on Writing (), or at his showcase of authors giving back to causes at the Read A Book Make A Difference (RABMAD) website (
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