1. To truly understand the background of "All Hail Sam," you have to know a little bit about my hometown of Griffin, GA. For decades, textile mills were the backbone of the local economy. Around each mill, there sprang up little neighborhoods known as "mill villages," where mill employees could rent dwellings (from the mill) within walking distance of their work. Although this sort of set-up has vanished in reality as the mills have shut down, I wanted to put the character of Sam in that sort of situation.
2. I actually wrote the character of Sam with a real person in mind, a man I once knew whose life had fallen into a rut not unlike Sam's.
3. In sending Sam to an alternate reality, I wanted to emphasize that the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence by taking that message to its extreme. We as human beings want any number of things, and often the things we think we want aren't going to make us happy and may not even be good for us in the first place. Sometimes what we want isn't "bad" per se, but God wants us to wait for His timing. In Jeremiah 29:11, we read, "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." We need to learn to trust in Him and to be thankful for what we have...a hard lesson for us all at times, myself included.
The next installment will be a closer look at "We Serve All Kinds Here." Philippians 4:13.--SMS
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