21 episodes
Mercy Not Sacrifice - Audiobook Dan Parks
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- Arts
In Gardenstown along the Missouri River the Carman family operates a trucking business. The intertwined stories of Grandpa John, grandson Johnnie, and great grandson Jeffrey link together to form the history of depression in the Carman family men. Johnnie bears the burden of a broken family tree and has held onto the idea of wanting to make his family since his youth. Lore, Johnnie’s shadow self, becomes an unstable refuge in his life. Grandpa John withdrawals from the family after his wife’s death and Jeffrey cuts his wrists in an attempt to flee the sacrifice of keeping his parents together. Johnnie is asked to help Jeffrey with the same issues he fights within himself. Grandpa John meets with the new Priest in town. Uncles Archie and Sam buy Grandpa John out of the trucking business. Johnnie visits his bi-polar alcoholic Mother and turned Baptist preacher Father drowning him under the burden of sacrifice. In response, he heads out in a rig to the Golden Gate Bridge where he thinks mercy will be found. In Gardenstown Jeffrey attempts a final sacrifice and Grandpa John dies with Jeffrey on his mind. Filled with sacrifice, depression, and burden Mercy not Sacrifice bookends it’s drama with the love of family, real life men, and an example of how true healing can occur. Broken family trees can bud new life as Johnnie Carman of Mercy not Sacrifice tells the reader how he did so.
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Mercy Not Sacrifice - Chapter 21
Johnnie is back in St. Michael’s Church for Grandpa John’s funeral. During the homily of Simon the Priest he rises from his seat as Lore appears. On his way out of down the aisle he falls, but is picked back up by an old friend. Once in the lobby he still doesn’t have the escape that he needs and he goes into the church basement and into the bathroom. Behind the closed door he realizes that his hurt has came from himself. Lore’s haunting is his own doing, his cutting is his own action, and his retreat is causing his own harm.
He makes a decision that changes the direction of his life. -
Mercy Not Sacrifice - Chapter 20
Johnnie leaves his truck at Bay Area Paper and makes his way to the Golden Gate Bridge. On his way there he recalls the events that led him to that point.
Inches from death Johnnie is saved by a State Trooper and a phone call from Ian. -
Mercy Not Sacrifice - Chapter 19
The history of depression for the Carman family is linked and ties Grandpa John and Johnnie and Jeffrey together.
Grandpa John’s suicide attempt in the truck is remembered while Jeffrey walks to the Gardenstown Railroad Bridge to attempt his own. -
Mercy Not Sacrifice - Chapter 18
Grandpa John receives a buyout offer from Archie and Sam. Puzzled about what to do he recalls the early years and asks Simon the Priest for council on the matter. After a long conversation and a couple of beers Grandpa John decides that he will give the money to St. Michael’s School.
A storm blows in off the Missouri River and beacons him back home where he falls weak and dies. With his few remaining seconds Jeffrey comes to his mind. -
Mercy Not Sacrifice by Dan Parks - Chapter 17
Jeffrey sits in religion class where Simon the Priest teaches on Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened...”
After his life has become too much for him to bear Jeffrey makes up his mind to do something about it. At the end of the school day he sends his siblings home without him and he walks the opposite way towards what he thinks is mercy at the Gardenstown Bridge. -
Mercy Not Sacrifice Chapter 16
Johnnie drops Jesús off in Carson City and continues on through Nevada and into California. He passes through the small towns that mark the end of Rt. 50 into Sacramento and onto I-80 to the Bay Area. Crossing the two bridges into the city, the time that his parents spent in San Francisco is recalled.
A conversation with Dr. Heiler is remembered when he asked, “What is it you’re holding on to?”
It’s at Bay Area Paper that Johnnie leaves the truck behind with one last thing to do.
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