Sometimes I forget that I actually like reviewing books. I almost always have a lot to say the day or day after I finish a book and after that, the details, emotion and motivation to write about it begin to fade. As you can tell, several books had faded to my own little read-awaiting-review purgatory and I considered not reviewing them at all but just moving on to what I'm reading now.
But, then, tonight, I thought, I'll just write a little bit about each one, catch myself up and then stop feeling guilty for every new book I begin. Isn't that silly? Guilt for not writing a review, as if it matters at all if I do or do not? I can't explain it, but after four years of writing them, they are as much a part of the experience as reading. And it only feels like a chore when I let them build up like that. Hopefully, now that I'm completely caught up, I'll get back into the reviewing for fun camp.
Please excuse any typos or grammar mistakes. I didn't do much editing.
Friday, August 27, 2010
All Caught Up
Book Review - The Day The Falls Stood Still
An interesting story about Niagra Falls. I think you can often times know quite a bit about the author of a story from reading something they've written. After reading this, I'd venture a guess that the author knows how to sew, lives near Niagra Falls and is somewhat of an environmentalist. Her characters and plot felt secondary to the famous falls and sometimes her working in facts and bits or real history felt forced.
I also felt a bit duped after reading the book jacket and realizing that the description only covered the first half of the story. After reinvesting myself for the unknown second half, I found that it was the kind of love story I enjoy.
Book Review - Goodbye, I Love You
I do not love poetry. I do not understand poetry. In almost all cases, I will avoid reading poetry. So, when my mother-in-law lent me an autobiography of an LDS female poet, Carol Pearson, whose marriage to a gay-man ended when he left her and the church to pursue a gay lifestyle but who she eventually cared for as he succumbed to AIDS, it took me a few months to work up the courage to read this book. While it does contain some of her poetry, which includes several things I've read before, it is mostly an easy to follow chronology of her life and how certain things came to be.
It moved me. Pearson, who obviously has a way with words, does a remarkable job evoking sympathy for a man who appears on the surface to be an undeserving of the emotion. Charismatic and full of life, Gerald Pearson is the man Carol falls in love with. When he tells her before they are married that he has had intimate relationships with men, she naively doesn't understand that he is gay. All I can say is that it was during the sixties and that lifestyle was obviously much less talked about and understood than it is today. She reasoned that he had sinned but had repented and by being married, all would be well.
A whole lot of heartbreak later, all is not well, but Carol finds within herself an ability to love Gerald as she believes Heavenly Father loves Gerald and while she never really accepts his lifestyle or approves of it, she always continues to love him.
Written in the eighties, when the AIDS epidemic was at its most terrifying moment, Goodbye, I Love You continues to be relevant as the struggle between the Gay and Lesbian movement and various religions of the world is under more and more scrutiny.
Book Review - Beatrice and Virgil
I hesitate to write much about this book because I read it fully ignorant of any details or reviews and liked it best that way. If that's not something that interests you, read on.
Yann Martel, author of Beatrice and Virgil as well as the bestselling Life of Pi, once again uses animals to tell a story. There are many stories within stories, however, and Beatrice, a donkey, and Virgil, a howler monkey, are not characters in the book but rather characters in a play that the protagonist, Henry, receives in the mail from a local taxidermist. It matters that Henry, a Canadian and an author who has written a wildly successful novel using animals as characters (yes. I think it's autobiographical on purpose. It feels very Jonathan Safran Foer-esque), is living in Germany with his wife to escape the frustration and apathy he felt following the rejection of his next book, a flip book that combines both a novel and essay about the Holocaust. When they ask him, "But, what is it about?" he feels misunderstood and a little bit persecuted.
Martel forces the same question to his readers in this very quirky book. What is it about? Certainly, it is about the Holocaust. But it's more than that. It's the problem with writing about the Holocaust, the motivation to write about the Holocaust and the responsibility to write about the Holocaust. Who should? Who does? Who gets to?
When a writer writes about a writer writing about writing, it can seem very circular, but I think Martel does an effective job to get his many points across. There are times I wished he had been more subtle. Several of his explanations and story-lines felt like being force-fed and I, for one, would have appreciated being given a little more responsibility as a reader to figure things out. But I liked it because it does what good fiction does: it tells the truth by making something up.
Book Review - Classic #17 - The Awakening
Sometimes I feel frustrated when talking to other people about certain books and they don't like the book because a character behaved badly or they didn't like the way the story played out. While I think that many times a book deserves to be disliked for those very reason, some books, and I'm including The Awakening in that category, aren't meant to be liked. Rather, they are meant to expose part of the human condition.
The Awakening tells the story of a young married mother, Edna Pontellier, living a privileged life in Victorian Age New Orleans. She has all the advantages life has to offer: beauty, wealth, hired help, healthy children, devoted husband and an entire summer to vacation at the beach but exists in an emotional fog, neither happy nor unhappy.
When she falls in love with Robert, a man who is not her husband, she "awakens" for the first time. She goes on to act consciously for the first time in her life, choosing to abandon her husband who she does not love, let go of her children who she only seems to remember if she is actually physically looking at them (then she thinks she'll explode from love for them), and eventually commits the ugly act of adultery.
I get that these are not good choices to make but what resonated with me was the way Chopin had her own them. Edna decided that she would rather have a real life than merely a this-is-what-is-expected-of-me one, something all women (and men) must eventually choose between. That does not mean that a real life cannot also be good. This character could just as easily "awakened" and chosen to devote herself to her family in a way that she never really had before, develop a relationship with her husband and run away from the temptations that will cause pain and humiliation to her family. In this case, she doesn't, but I appreciate the author highlighting the need to live a genuine life - fully awake.
Book Review - The Highly Sensitive Child - Helping Our Children Thrive When The World Overwhelms Them
I have a sensitive child who is easily overwhelmed. I have realized that I do not parent him in a way that helps him thrive.
This book did not help me because it told me that for him to thrive, I can never appear to be upset in front of him, never raise my voice, never make him eat anything he doesn't want to, never force him to be in a situation he finds himself uncomfortable in...basically let him live in a totally unrealistic world.
While I found the suggestions to be over-the-top (the author didn't force her son to learn how to drive until he was twenty-six!), I was made aware of how a sensitive child sees the world. Much more so than less sensitive children, HSC (oh, yes. It's an acronym) are cautious and oftentimes timid because they are overwhelmed by stimuli and awareness of possible consequences. Just last weekend, I saw firsthand how my sensitive child was unable to participate in an activity until his younger brother went first, showing it was safe. And it wasn't just that he was unsure or scared for himself. The entire ordeal of watching his brother stressed him out because he was much more aware of all the possible ways it could go wrong. It was really quite something to watch.
I consider myself sensitive, so I do empathize with my son and hope to be a better parent to him. I just wish the suggestions from the author were things I felt I could actually implement. Instead, I feel more discouraged that I am exactly the kind of parent who is going to ruin my child.
Book Review - The Price We Paid - The Extraordinary Story of the Willie and Martin Handcart Pioneers
I've been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints my entire life. I've grown up listening and singing pioneer songs, celebrating the 24th of July and being taught that had it not been for the courage and endurance of those early saints to get to Zion, the church would not be what it is today.
In spite of that lifetime of exposure, I can honestly say that I did not know the story of the Willie and Martin Handcart companies. I knew that they got caught in an early snow storm and I knew that a lot of people died, but I didn't get it. I didn't get the why and, most importantly, the who.
Andrew Olson explains upfront that it is a misconception most people have that the Willie and Martin Handcart companies are one in the same. They are not. Their tragedies were the result of the same early storm and much of the same mistakes in decision making, but they were in two separate places along the trail and had two different experiences and rescues. For that reason, he tells the stories individually, the Willie being the first half of the book and the Martin finishing the second half.
They are similar in that most of the members of the companies had similar backgrounds. Poor European converts and returning missionaries all eager to reach Utah and convinced that their faith will see them there. It was hard for me, emotionally, to finish the Willie story and begin again with the Martin. Instead of interweaving the timeline, he starts and finishes each one to completion. So many names and wretched history after another made it difficult for individual names and experiences to stick. Still, some did. I read this in preparation for a Youth Pioneer Trek and was so much better prepared from doing so. It opened my eyes to why their stories have needed to stay relevant for the past hundred and fifty years. It opened my eyes to be able to understand the current day parallels that motivate wards and stakes to put on these elaborate and painstaking Treks.
There are few books I would classify as life-changing, but, for me, this is one of them. I am humbled and grateful to better know my own history.
Book Review - Shadow Tag
My favorite thing about this book is its title. It's also got a pretty cover, but I've learned from past mistakes not to be fooled by those. I really, really enjoy good, interesting, thoughtful titles. It's just about perfect when that really, really good, interesting and thoughtful title accompanies a good, interesting and thoughtful book but I don't think that is the case with this book. Well written, yes, but also melancholy, dysfunctional and unsatisfying.
A very unhappily married woman realizes her husband is reading her private journal, so starts a pseudo journal to manipulate him into leaving their marriage. She does this to drive him crazy, I suppose because she feels like he, a tortured artist who makes his living painting portraits of her, drives her crazy. Because she is an alcoholic, he manipulates her with drink. It's really messed up.
I didn't enjoy or sympathize with either main character, but did find the occasional reference to the family dogs behavior interesting.
Your life will not be worse off if you skip this book.
Book Review - Mudbound
An excellent book. Grittier than The Help but similar in scope, Mudbound describes the way a Southern woman's eyes are opened after her husband moves the family from their comfortable and sheltered existence to the post World War II Mississippi Delta. There, the rules concerning race, marriage, and honoring your father and mother are challenged when soldiers, one, the son of a racist white farmer (who might possibly be the most unsympathetic character ever written), and the other, the black son of a sharecropper, return from the war and are no longer willing to abide by them.
I can't remember the last time I read a novel that used foreshadowing as skillfully as Hillary Jordan uses it in her book. The narration and chronology both jump around from chapter to chapter, so readers are aware of outcomes and feelings before understanding any whys or hows, but it all works as a powerful engine, driving the conflict to its inevitable crux.
Powerful, but not pleasant.
Book Review - Alias Grace
Margaret Atwood seems to be a genre of her own. I know serious readers seem to love her but I'd never read any of her work before Alias Grace, the story of a woman serving a sentence for a murder committed when she was sixteen years old.
To be fair, I read this really quickly in order to be able to contribute at bookclub and I just haven't retained a lot of the details. I think I liked it but there was something about the structure of the book that made it slightly unlovable. Interesting but not page turning.
It did, however, introduce me to a gifted writer and I'm interested in reading her other material.
Book Review - Treasure Fever
Seth chose this gem for his fourth grade bookclub selection. I was a little embarrassed that it didn't have any deeper themes than goofy kids and teachers trying to find a buried treasure on the school playground, but after listening to his friends all laugh about their favorite parts, I figured not all children's literature needs to be deep.
This would be a good choice if you're looking for something to spur on your third/fourth grader to read.
Book Review - South of Broad
Having read my first Pat Conroy this past year (Prince of Tides) and enjoying his Southern view of things and especially his luscious descriptive writing, I rather excitedly listened to his highly anticipated new release throughout a long road trip. While I can't say the story is good, due to the fact that Conroy misstepped in trying to include social commentary and by so doing turned his entire novel into an hyperbole, it was interesting enough. Familiar even. Almost...Prince of Tides-esque.
Main protagonist who had a nervous breakdown? Check.
Unnaturally cold and ambitious mother? Check.
Beautiful and understanding psychiatrist? Check.
Background high school football story? Check.
supporting character who loses her sanity? check.
Someone who escapes their Southern roots for a big city? Check.
Extremely sympathetically written adultery? Check.
Marriage that stays together in spite of adultery? Check.
Psychopath on the loose who does unspeakable things? Check.
Saving a magical dolphin who has the power to heal all wounds? Check.
I'm sure there are more but as it has been over five months since I listened to this story, some of the details are fuzzy.
Like I said, it had the same elements of Prince of Tides, but then Conroy decided to go BIG this time threw in white trash commentary, civil rights commentary, teenage promiscuity commentary, drug use commentary, AIDS commentary, Catholic Church sex scandal commentary, suicide, natural disasters and on and on and on.
Too much. It's just too much.
On top of all of that he tried to make this about Charleston. I've been to Charleston. It's a lovely, lovely city. But, having only been there once for two days, I could not keep track of his street naming ways. I felt his constant need to map out every scene in an exact Charleston location made his setting too exclusive. It made a confusing and bloated story even more confusing.
Book Review - The Tourist
I like spy fiction. In The Tourist, Steinhauer captures what I thinking being a spy might actually be like. Kind of sucky. Sure, there's the thrill of the chase, the robot-like cool reasoning and lightning fast reflexes, which along with a seemingly perfect aim packs a hard punch, but what about their feelings? What about their inner non-spy self?
Just what I thought - they're miserable, unable to trust (except for the one guy/gal they do who almost always seems to be a backstabbing double agent) and pretty doped up. Forget about a normal love life.
Corrupted governments, bad guys, and travel abroad make it an almost hackneyed spy thriller, but there is just something about Milo Weaver, the ex-CIA agent, and his unique brand of spying that makes it a bit more interesting and realistic than some.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Back To School
Seth and Sam started 5th and 2nd Grade today at their new elementary school. Both were nervous, but Sam surprised me when he walked into my bedroom this morning at 6:00 am fully clothed, shoes on and wearing his ready-to-go backpack. I talked him into taking his shoes off and crawling into bed with me but he never was able to fall back asleep.
Seth had to be woken up at 6:45.
Henry alternated between wearing his own backpack around the house and refusing to get his shoes on because he "NEVER WANTS TO GO TO SCHOOL NOT EVER!" He doesn't even start preschool until Wednesday so that was a lot of drama for nothing.
Things went well. Both boys were happy and confident at the end of the day and I think this year is going to be great. How could it not when you're as good looking as these boys are?
Go get 'em, boys!
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Spending It Wisely
It's over. Summer as it matters to kids and to moms (but not to equinoxes) is over. Today has been spent with our usual Sunday activities but tonight, the emotions were revved up as we labeled shiny new folders with names, filled boxes with complete sets of markers and crayons, scissors, glue sticks and even a fancy new spell checking machine for Seth. It's the night before school starts and we....are.....ready!
The stars must have aligned into some make-Lucy-happy formation because this final weekend found both Jay and Seth released from their work and football commitments. We packed the van full of sleeping bags and camping gear, loaded Jay's dad's truck with boat necessities and headed to the lake to enjoy our beautiful family time together.
The boys must have said it a dozen times throughout our two days together, but it really was the best weekend ever. Our summer has been on the cool side, and hot, sunny days where you crave getting into cool lake water have been hard to find. We were blessed to have two of them in a row, and we have the tans to prove it.
I have mixed feelings about school restarting. At the beginning of the summer, I admit to being a little ashamed that my initial reaction to having my children surrounding me all day wasn't wondrous pleasure. I had mistakenly believed that I was that kind of mom, the kind that can say with a straight face, "I can't wait to get my kids back all day!" because I truly felt that exact sentiment during previous summers. The difference this time was that each of those previous summers meant returning playmates for whichever boy(s) were at home. Needless to say, with Henry in all-day pre-school last year, that wasn't the case for this summer. And that change to the flow of my day, along with the increase in noise, mess and demands for food, was a lot harder to adapt back into than I anticipated.
In spite my early summer misstep as the kind of mom I don't really want to be, the four of us eventually found our summer groove and most days have been delightful. I am honest-to-goodness sad that summer is over and our mostly care-free days have ended. On the other hand, I am a little glad that our care-free days have ended. It will be good for all of us to have a few more responsibilities and I'm hoping some better habits in time-management return. Plus, though faded, I still remember the thrill of child-free days. It's not that the days are less busy, because oddly enough, that isn't the case at all It's just....more....predictable? Controllable? I don't know exactly what but for me and my personality, there is simply less stressful. Not those after-school hours, mind you. Those hours between 3 and 9 are non-stop, which gives me stress, but I begrudge it less because I've had the day to prepare physically and emotionally.
So....it ends and it begins, as it will season after season. The key, I'm learning, is to try and enjoy each season as it comes and to spend whatever moment I'm in wisely.
Handsome guy.
Relieved that none of the bad outcomes he could think of happened.
Then Sam went again, this time doing a 360. Unfortunately, he got turned sideways and hit the water hard.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Getting Over It
- the sound of slurping with a straw. It's gone already, O.K?!?
- Cars behind me in the merge lane that dart out into the traffic lane too early and then make it hard for me to merge into traffic.
- Swim teachers that don't show up.
- having five, yes five, cordless phones around the house and not being able to find a single one when the phone rings.
- Qwest for only giving me three rings in the first place before my voice mail picks up.
- being over half-way done with a scarf and making an ugly mistake I can't figure out how to fix.
- piano lessons during the summer. It's been a total waste because we are so inconsistent.
- Having to be the TV/Wii/Nintendo DS police.
- how flaky I can be sometimes. I forgot about swimming with my friend this morning AND a playdate.
- being in my car all $%&*!@ day.
- cats who won't eat their dry food and beg at my feet for wet food.
- coming up with something for dinner.
- four adult women that set up their towels at the pool way too close to me, then talk so loud that I can't concentrate on my book, even though there was plenty of room elsewhere.
- teenagers and their inappropriate public displays of affection at a park with my young children around. I wished I had my camera again although these young punks weren't even trying to be discreet.
- Plants that need water. Must I take care of everything???
- People who drive under the speed limit. I know it's a speed "limit" but, c'mon!
- Sonic employees who mumble so I don't know how much I owe for my "Happy Hour" drinks. I like to use exact change.
- trying to park on main street during tourist season.
- tourists
- society, in general, with their lack of clothing coverage and inked skin.
- bookstores that don't carry a book I want.
- kids who leave all of their junk, garbage, swimtowels, waterbottles, K'nex in the car. Don't they understand how many hours a day I have to spend in there? I just want to see some carpet!
- K'nex. They are of the devil.
- a husband who calls home to tell me he's on his way home and has had a bad day too....stealing all my grumpy mojo. Because both parents can't be grumpy at the same time. It just doesn't work.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Book Review - Classic #16 - Brave New World
I had two reactions after reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. They don't really follow the same thought, so I'll just explain them separately with no attempt to connect the two.
First, some background. Set in the future when time is measured in AF (After Ford), the inhabitants of the Brave New World are all created in-vitro with a process that creates multiple divisions of a single egg, producing sets of identical people. These groups of embryos are then determined into a class (Alpha-Epsilon) and while gestating in their test tubes, exposed to stimuli that will condition them for their lives. Each group is taught that every class is important to for the society, as a whole, to work. For example, Epsilons, the lowest form of human, are not allowed to fully mentally develop so that they will never challenge their positions doing mundane menial tasks. Alphas, on the other hand, are considered the very best of society, and are developed in order to fill the most most important roles: researchers, lab controllers, songsters, writers etc. In other words, those who live in the Alpha world are conditioned to think and be creative, but only in a manner that is deemed acceptable, as we understand by following the troubled Bernard Marx and Hemholtz Watson, who are both aware of the danger that exists should their unorthodox thinking be discovered.
Promiscuous sex, drug use and euthanasia at 60 is also encouraged in this futuristic utopia.
What I noticed right away was the obvious lack of agency. My own beliefs put a supreme importance on agency, opposition or as John the Savage (the protagonist who was raised outside of "civilized" society) the "right to choose unhappiness." By creating a world where "Everyone is happy" it is easy to see that no one really is. Sure, there is no disease and everyone is beautiful and there is no one who has less or more than they can use or enjoy, but their dependence on soma (apparently a safe hallucinatory drug) to keep things running smoothly indicates a false existence. I kept thinking, "This is Satan's plan!" (which, I have to admit I sometimes think when I hear socialists talk about making things "fair").
As I completed the book, however, I had another disturbing thought. When the citizens make comments that replace "God" with "Ford", I wondered if Huxley had really created a new world or simply replaced our current acceptable morality with a different, more shocking one. Instead of families being the ideal, the idea of a mother actually giving birth, nursing and caring for her young was considered obscene - pornographic really. But...there was still the idea that pornography or obscenity were undesirable and to be shunned. It was just the matter of what was being shunned that had changed. Likewise, the "everybody belongs to everybody else" mantra to encourage promiscuity instead of monogamy is just a flip of what we consider decent. The alternative was considered dangerous and anti-social, but only because different morals were considered the norm.
But, I don't believe we live in an anti-agency society, so Huxley's Brave New World can't really be that similar to our own. I don't think Huxley was satirizing our own moral conditioning so I'm pretty sure I'm wrong about that one.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Book Review - Classic #15 - Mere Christianity
I don't know how to begin this book review. I've probably typed and deleted a dozen sentences already. Why should this be so difficult?
Because, I liked it.
I did.
Except.
No. Even that part, the part he got wrong, I liked.
Which made me wonder.
Who is this book for?
Christians?
Obviously. We love this stuff. Having a smart guy give smart reasons to explain why Christianity makes perfect sense feels...smart. It sits well, if you will. Many, if not most, of his arguments were things I had not previously thought about in terms of why I believe there is a God and why I believe that Christ was our Savior, and to have them explained to me with both his brilliant circular logic and then the helpful and much-easier-to-follow analogy, filled my believer's bucket.
But I don't think Lewis prepared these addresses (Mere Christianity is actually a compilation of radio addresses he delivered on the BBC during the Second World War) in order to simply preach to the choir.
Because Lewis was a former atheist, I believe he felt strongly, especially during such a major conflict as the war which included in its causes a fight against evil, that the world needed to understand where our morality comes from. I think he was motivated to convince the masses that goodness isn't something we choose because it makes the world a better place or because our parents taught us the golden rule but rather, we choose it because God is real. Christ is real. And the possibility to become like them is real.
So, what about the others? How would a non-Christian respond to Lewis?
It's hard for me to say, because, while I think he's very convincing and right quite a lot of the time, there are times throughout the book where I think he's wrong. I think he's wrong because I have been taught something different and I believe that to be truth instead. It's difficult for me to not take that one step further and assume that others who have been taught something else might thing he's wrong in even more places.
This inability for me to claim the book as all right is a stumbling block. I want to be able to say, "Read this. He makes the case for Christianity." But I'd have to add, "However, I think he's a little off about the Godhead." Lewis, himself, frequently cites his own reasoning as guesswork. I admire his ability to say, "I can't be sure but this is how I think it works." If he had done that with the Godhead, I'd probably be a lot more at ease with my reaction to the book but he doesn't. He's pretty firm about how God begat Christ, which makes him his "Son" although they are the same being, just as a cube can be made up of more than one squares but they are not separate from the cube. They are the cube. God is God. All of Him. I'd continue to explain the Holy Ghost but it gets a little confusing. My belief that they are three different beings is so much more clear to me.
Still, it is what it is. A fascinating and articulate justification forChristianity. And read with a proper British voice narrating in my head, it was a delightful and enlightening read.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Sunday Thoughts - What Every Person Yearns To Know
I consider it an honor and privilege to know Jane Payne. After previously becoming acquainted via our blogs, I met her briefly two summers ago when she threw together a pot-luck dinner when the boys and I were passing through her part of the world and have continued to admire her anywhere I may be through my trusty internet connection. Her wisdom, good humor, and virtue are an example to me and to the world.
Last week, her granddaughter was born and lived for less than an hour. When I read the news, I was heartbroken for her, her son and her daughter-in-law.
I am including a link to her blog today, not for the sake of voyeurism, but because there is power in her message. There is truth and beauty and Good News. News that needs to be shared. News that not everyone knows about.
This is The Great Plan of Happiness.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Book Review - Classic #14 - Alice In Wonderland
For a book whose characters are referenced so ubiquitously in the arts and entertainment world, I was surprised that I didn't have a better idea about the plot of Alice In Wonderland. I've never seen the movies (either the old Disney version or the recently released version with a disturbing Johnny Depp on the cover) but I don't live under a rock so I knew Alice as a girl with blond hair who wore a blue and white dress. But, who was this white rabbit that seemed so concerned about being late? Why was Alice constantly getting bigger and smaller? What did the Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts, not to mention TweedleDee and TweedleDum have to do with anything? I really didn't know.
For example, did you know that Alice In Wonderland is not, in fact, a title used for Carroll's story at all? The story, I believe, that most people associate with that title is actually a combination of two stories, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass. After trudging through the first story, I couldn't bear to attempt the sequel (which, apparently introduce the characters Tweedledee and Tweedledum. I am thus still ignorant). There really seemed to be no point.
With only half the tale read, I still have no idea what, if anything, it's all about because this is, by far, the strangest story I have ever read. It's not funny. It's not scary. It's just really, really bizarre. For something classified as children's literature, none of the characters seem to have a purpose, even a simple one such as to entertain. Alice seems confused and a little bit angry most of the time and is constantly trying to leave whatever situation she finds herself in, usually by eating cake to alter her size. I'm sitting here scratching my head wondering for what purpose any adult would even present this story to a child. Don't get me wrong. I'm not anti-quirky or anti-fantastical. I think, oftentimes, those mediums can be wonderful conduits to showcasing the human condition. Not so here. There is nothing to learn and nothing to teach. There is nothing to enjoy. It's absurd frivolity.
Maybe the argument is that it's pure whimsy (shouldn't whimsy be more fun?). Or that it's Lewis Carroll on a drug trip (this gets my vote). Or, for those who are really stretching, that Alice In Wonderland provides an extraordinary example of logic (really???) Any of these, if true, seem unable to support the staying power of this book. Which leaves me to wonder: Why do people like this and how did this book become a classic?
Thursday, August 12, 2010
I Am....
a world traveler who has not been out of the country in a while.
a mother of a four, seven and ten year-old.
a wife who worries, a little, about the middle years.
a recent home owner.
a minivan driver for the sixth year running.
a sister to five siblings and fifteen in-laws.
a daughter to two people who have taught me how to think.
a daughter-in-law to a temple president and matron of the temple.
a person who just bought a really fancy blender from a person wearing a head-mic.
going to come up two books short on my twenty-classics-in-a-year goal.
proud owner of some Pajama Jeans (which, by the way, I would NEVER wear in public)
a woman who struggles with her weight. Still.
a singer thinking about auditioning for the local choir.
a knitter of one hideous pot holder, and two lovely scarves.
a triathlete.
a cubmaster.
a primary chorister.
a So You Think You Can Dance fan.
a snow skier.
blessed to be surrounded by good friends.
thirty-five years old.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Right, Mom?
"(insert any random observation, statement, or comment here)" followed by, "Right, Mom?"
At least a hundred times a day (maybe even a hundred times an hour, but, perhaps that's an exaggeration. It only feels like it.)
For a boy who took his own sweet time to be verbal, he sure seems to be making up for lost time now.
Monday, August 09, 2010
Learning To Love Learning
Jay and I gave our "move into the ward" talks yesterday. Usually, I am a write-out-every-word talk giver. This time, I spoke much more off the cuff so the words below, though written out in most places, are actually just an outline. I had to cut some parts and expounded more on others. I have found that by posting my talks on my blog, I have the best system of organization. I'm sure there are pre-blog talks on some of our old computers, but it is so nice to know I can click on my "talk" label and be sure to find a few. That is why I am posting this unpolished talk. And for my parents, who always appreciate knowing what their children's talks were about.
Because I wasn’t given a topic when asked to speak several weeks ago, my side that likes to choose the path of least resistance considered reusing a previous talk I had given in the past. I re-read through several of them, felt convinced that the doctrines contained in each was still true and thought, “O.K. I’m done!”
Even my sister, who I told of my plan on the phone, concurred that it was a great idea. She defended her support by pointing out that general authorities and high councilmen often reuse talks. Still, an idea to speak about something that wasn’t already saved on my computer kept tugging the back of my mind. I went online to do some research and printed out a half dozen talks and devotional addresses given within the last decade.
I found it ironic that this topic I felt compelled to develop was Knowledge. Even more ironic is the fact that I didn’t notice the irony right away. The motivation for choosing the topic was more along the lines of “Everyone is getting ready to go back to school or send someone back to school. This talk will be a kind of Going-Back-To-School pep rally!”
It wasn’t until I was immersed with the delightful language and insights of our esteemed General Authorities, with the scriptures to support their persuasive arguments as to why gaining knowledge is a Godly characteristic, that it hit me: I am following that commandment right now. Preparing for this talk is giving me knowledge. This led me to consider that my original plan, reusing an old talk, while a lot less work would have left out this important step of gaining knowledge. It made me wonder how many other times I choose to pass over the step of learning something, instead sticking with the things I have already learned or already know.
I’m certainly not saying that reusing an old talk is bad. Having your own archive of gospel study is a wonderful resource and there will no doubt be situations when revisiting previous research will be beneficial to others and yourself as well. No, what that realization did was prompt me to focus less on the subject of knowledge in general and instead concentrate on the step that precedes it – learning to love learning.
In the words of Solomon: “With all thy getting get understanding.”
In the words of Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the twelve apostles, “Learning to love learning is an absolute necessity in the world in which we do now and will yet live, serve and work."
Elder Bednar spoke to BYU students in a devotional where he focused on attaining this love of learning. He told the students, “The overarching purpose of Heavenly Father’s great plan of happiness is to provide His spirit children with opportunities to learn. The Atonement of Jesus Christ and the agency afforded to all of the Father’s children through the Redeemer’s infinite and eternal sacrifice are divinely designed to facilitate our learning.”
The Plan of Salvation is designed to help us learn! Everything we are asked to do, including presenting a sacrament meeting talk, is done to help us learn. This is made clear in section 88 of the Doctrine and Covenants where members of church are commanded to learn: “of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad”
The prophet Joseph Smith further explained the benefits of learning when he said, “a man is saved no faster than he gains knowledge and that whatever principle of intelligence we attain in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.“
Pretty compelling reasons to break out the scriptures and physics text books, right?
Yes, but remember the proverb “With all thy getting get understanding.” We do an awful lot of getting outside of the school and church walls. I believe this wise counsel invites each of us to learn in everything we do. So often, we limit “knowledge” or “understanding” to information delivered to us via something like a book, movie, instruction pamphlet or another person. Of course, each of those things is a means to learning, but they are not exclusive. Let me give you a few examples.
An example: knitting. Talk about learning to knit.
Another example: being a ma and pa on the trek
.
All of our prophets have diligently urged the Saints of the church to get as much knowledge and education as we possibly can.
Brigham Young lived during a time when formal education was much more of a luxury than it is today and only had eleven days where he “formally” went to school, but he was a great lover of learning. Some wonderful quotes:
- The religion embraced by Latter-Day Saints, if only slightly understood, prompts them to search diligently after knowledge. There are no other people in existence more eager to see, hear, learn, and understand truth.
- Put forth your ability to learn as fast as you can, and gather all the strength of mind and principle of faith you possibly can, and then distribute your knowledge to the people.
- This work is a progressive work, this doctrine that is taught the Latter-day Saints in its nature is exalting, increasing, expanding and extending broader and broader until we can know as we are known, see as we are seen.
- We are in the school of mortality and keep learning, and we do not expect to cease learning while we live on earth; and when we pass through the veil, we expect still to continue to learn and increase our fund of information. That may appear a strange idea to some; but it is for the plain and simple reason that we are not capacitated to receive all knowledge at once. We must therefore receive a little here and a little there.
- We might ask, when shall we cease to learn? I will give you my opinion about it: never, never.
Our current prophet, President Monson, and former prophet, President Hinckley, also stressed the responsibility we have to gain knowledge during this earth life. Recognizing the various circumstances and ability to access opportunities to learn, president Hinckley established the Perpetual Education Fund patterned after the Perpetual Emigration Fund used to bring saints to Zion in the early days of the church. Both leaders were and are acutely aware of the necessity of constant learning.
The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that today’s college graduates will have between 10 and 14 different jobs by the time they are 38. Obviously, it’s rarer and rarer that that one thing you love to do, or even the focus of your studies and degree will be all the education you need to achieve financial stability. However, Elder Bednar reminds us that “Learning to love learning equips us for an ever-changing and unpredictable future. Knowing how to learn prepares us to discern and act upon opportunities that others may not readily recognize.”
President Uchtdorf of the first presidency supports this idea with stories from his own childhood. He remembers the difficulty for himself and his family following the Second World War. Although his father was a civil servant by education, he was required due to their existence as war refugees to work as a coal miner, uranium miner, mechanic and truck driver. His mother started a laundry and worked countless hours doing menial labor. President Uchtdorf learned to help the family by delivering the laundry on his bike. He used that experience and recognized further opportunities to learn. He learned about determination and optimism from his parents. He learned that adversity, when confronted with faith, courage, and tenacity, could be overcome. He also learned that those who are unafraid of rolling up their sleeves and losing themselves in the pursuit of worthwhile goals are a blessing to their families, communities, nations and to the Church.
Uchtdorf sums up his experience by saying, “During challenging times, it is even more important to learn. Knowledge does away with darkness, anxiety and doubt; for these cannot exist where knowledge is.”
Brothers and Sisters, we are in the middle of challenging times. This is not the first time nor will it be the last. We would do well to learn and follow the examples in the scriptures, and counsel of our leaders to “get understanding with all our getting” and to develop a love of learning. Even if you aren’t convinced, or don’t feel motivated to study and ponder and learn and do, obeying the commandment Heavenly Father to “do it anyways” will bless you. Elder Dallin H. Oaks explained in a recent conference address that “Obedience and knowledge are mutually reinforcing: knowledge encourages obedience and obedience enhances knowledge.”
Remember when Nephi had to build a ship? Do you think he had the knowledge to build a ship? His is a great example of learning what to do. He was not a sailor. He was raised in an inland city.
It is very unlikely that he had any experience with shipbuilding. Not only that but he had to get this ship, which he didn’t know how to build, to a place he didn’t know how to get to. He might not have had the knowledge but he did have obedience. From the obedience came the knowledge. The Lord promises us, just as he promised Nephi, that “If thou shalt ask, though shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peacable things – that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.”
It is unlikely any of us will ever be commanded to build a ship but each of us will have our spiritual and learning capabilities tested over and over.
We are not alone, however. Brigham Young taught that if we will follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and his Apostles, each of us will be put in possession of the Holy Ghost and we will know things that are, that will be, and that have been. We will understand things in heaven, things on the earth, and things under the earth, things of time, and things of eternity.”
What a promise.
There is a saying that Education is not so much the filling of a bucket as the lighting of a fire. It spreads. It lights the way and it gives off energy. We have so much to learn and do on this life and our Heavenly Father wants and needs us to go out there and learn it and do it. In every area of our lives: at school, at work, at home, at play, as a child, as an adult, as a man or as a woman.
The Glory of God IS intelligence.
Sunday, August 08, 2010
Things I Now Know After Doing a Sprint Triathlon
1. Jay is sneaky. And really, really supportive. It's so easy for me to play the victim and think that all I do is support everyone else in their endeavors. Well...if I don't do anything, then it's pretty hard for the rest of them to be supportive. I was touched and a little bewildered when I saw these fancy schmancy signs waving around throughout the race. Even thinking of Jay going near the craft section of Wal-Mart to find all of this stuff makes me smile.
The boys working on their posters after I had left on Saturday morning.
3. There are all types of swimmers. I was most confident about the swim, so it helped that it was first. When I went to pick up my packet on Friday night, each racer was given a heat assignment and I learned that I was in heat #2. I panicked and asked the people in charge why I was in such an early heat. Not understanding I said, "I'm not fast. I mean, my estimated swim time might not be that slow, but that's my best event and I'm really, really slow at the other two and I shouldn't be in an early heat!" Then, I was calmed down after it was explained to me that the heats were in reverse order, with the slowest people going first. So much better. I was impressed that the really strong swimmers could do it in less than half the time I could and relieved that there were people who were much slower than me. Does that me I like to be average?
I finished my 500 m swim in 12:29.
4. It is cold running outside right after a swim.
5. Transitions are fun and challenging. There is an excitement present when you are trying to hurry to get somewhere else. I was soaking wet and should have practiced getting my biking shorts and shirt over my swimsuit because it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I really did try to hurry, but I think my transition time from swim to bike was over 4 minutes. The winner did it in like 21 seconds. So, that's something I can improve on:)
I was the only participant that had signs made for me. At least I didn't see any others.
They really do help.
7. I really need to work on my biking skills. My philosophy about biking was that I could ride a bike therefore, I could do a triathlon. As biker after biker passed me throughout the thirteen miles, I realized there is a lot more to it than pedaling.
8. I also realized why everything I read said not to do it on a mountain bike. It made the hardest part of the race (for me) even harder. I was on my bike for 1:09. That is a really bad time, if you don't know. I'm not ashamed of it. I'm glad I did it. But that is a really, really slow time.
9. While the transition from swim to bike was tricky due to different gear needs, the transition from bike to run was hardest physically. Those muscles just don't want to go in that direction right away!
10. It's o.k. to walk. But I hope the next time I do a triathlon, I won't have to.
11. Oh yeah...I want to do it again!
Jay and the boys at a park along the 5K route. Jay actually got emotional seeing me at this point. I could tell he was just really, really proud. Something about doing grueling races that speaks his love language, I guess:)
I finished my run in 39 minutes. Don't they say slow and steady wins the prize? Well...not in the case but the slow and steady can finish!
12. I had no idea I could finish in under 2 hours, but I think I could have had my mental game been on. With a little work on everything, I know I can be in the less than two club next time. My over all time was 2:03.
13. I have great friends and family who support me. Thanks for your calls, your messages of support, your pre-race drop-by, your help with training and your tips for doing it better next time.
