The Sheltering Sky(1000 Books to Read)

Excellent writing. Depressing story. 

From the Introduction by Tobias Wolff:

The Sheltering Sky has been called nightmarish. That description lets us off the hook too easily because it implies a fear of the unreal. The power of this novel lies precisely in the reality of what it makes us recognize: the seductive voice in each of us that promises freedom through refusing responsibility.

So true. The whole time I was thinking, "Why is he doing that? Why is she doing that?" But they were both listening to the seductive voice. Chilling and yes, nightmarish!

The title comes from this quote:

This one also mentions it:

The supreme moment, high above the desert, when the two elements blood and excrement, long kept apart, merge. A black star appears, a point of darkness in the night sky's clarity. Point of darkness and gateway to respose. Reach out, pierce the fine fabric of the sheltering sky, take repose. (p. 185)

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

James Mustich

Jul 28, 2018

The Sheltering Sky is the story of a New York married couple, Port and Kit Moresby, who bear some resemblance to Bowles and his brilliant, troubled wife, Jane, whose long physical and mental decline would occupy the author for years. Traveling in the Sahara with a friend, hoping the journey will impart some emotional momentum to their inert relationship, the Moresbys fall further and further away from each other, both losing themselves in a kind of primal surrender. The extremes of detachment and mortification Bowles’s characters pursue and endure give their story the horrific beauty and otherness that other eras might have found in the lives of the saints. His unsaintly couple, neither holy nor blessed, lead our thoughts toward first and last things with an eerie surety.

Bad Mormon

Since I almost became a Mormon in 1977, (I am happy to tell you my story privately) I was intrigued by this title.

It is informative to hear it from someone raised in the culture of this religion. I agree with most of the things she says regarding this. 

This memoir is from her perspective, but she wants to diss her husband at the end (so what if he is frugal and wants to fly Southwest Airlines, really?) when it seems more like incompatibility from the get-go (she was bored on the honeymoon) than how she paints him as the "bad guy" in the relationship and "patriarchal."  That made me sad. Marriage is about compromise, and his giving up because she is just going to do it "her way" anyway reflects poorly on her more than on him. He remains quiet. This is admirable. Is he really such a bad guy when he has not said anything to denigrate her character?

Other than this part, I felt like it was a good and informative read. 

Hillbilly Elegy

No matter what your political pursuaion, this is a good read. It is about "family and culture in crisis," and I love how he weaves his personal story with facts about the state of the family in the strata of society he grew up in. 

Spiritual Conversations with Children

This is the textbook for a class I am taking with the author. I was supervising a group of new directors, and one of the other supervisors of another group asked if any of us had any experience with doing spiritual direction with kids, and I said, "No, but I know someone who does." Then I got curious and saw that Lacy taught a class about it. I thought it was a once shot deal, but it turned out to be 12 lessons over four months. I had to say no to the January-Mary one, but I signed up for the August-December one instead.

It adds more labor to my work, but I LOVE IT! I have a group of kids in one family that I meet with every week. Delightful time. I already have a full load of adults that I meet with both one-on-one and in groups, but it has been a change of pace for me that I have enjoyed. 

I was supposed to read one chapter for each class, but I needed to read the whole thing to learn about different activities with the kids. Next time we meet, I hope to "Pray in Color" (see previous post about the kids and adult version of that book). 

I like the book. 

The Moonstone (1000 Books to Read)

So fast-paced and fun to read! A true page-turner.

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

James Mustich

Jul 31, 2018

While the plot of The Moonstone is compelling, it is the play of its distinctive voices upon our understanding of events that makes the book truly absorbing. Clues are laid out carefully and, in retrospect at least, quite tellingly, but their meaning is obscured as we read by the shifting perspectives and personalities of the narrators. In the same way, the exoticism of the diamond that is the story’s catalyst disguises Collins’s real invention in domesticating the melodrama of the Gothic tale and inviting its titillating energy into recognizable drawing rooms, thus laying the table for Agatha Christie and countless other novelists who would set murderous puzzles close to home. Psychological acuity, formal virtuosity, the social and human amplitude of a Victorian novel, and the narrative pulse of a thriller add up to make The Moonstone the prototype of “the book you can’t put down.”

The Magic Mountain (1000 Books to Read)

This was VERY long, but it had such profound insights into the culture and the condition of Europe at the time of its writing. 

The writing is excellent. It is not for everyone, by the way. It could be called a "slog"! 

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann’s sly, satirical novel of illness and civilization in the years before World War I, is supremely readable; more than any other modern novel of its caliber, it’s a book you can take to bed with you, for its slow unwinding of individual destinies within a communal setting evokes something akin to the feelings you might have watching the most high-minded miniseries ever filmed. Which is not to say it isn’t profound, and funny, too, filled with human foibles of every kind and replete with sexual as well as intellectual passions. All told, its unprecedented fusion of realism and symbolism appeals to the heart as much as the brain. Set almost entirely at a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps, where well-to-do patients from across Europe are recovering from tuberculosis, The Magic Mountain tells the story of Hans Castorp, a young man from Hamburg, who arrives to pay a short visit to his ailing cousin Joachim. Seven years later, he’s still there breathing the mountain air, unable to return to the world below. The disease of Castorp and his fellow patients is Europe’s illness, Mann implies, and, for all its liveliness of character and incident, the novel is an elegy for a culture that the author inferred was approaching its demise
 

Inner Compass

This book has been sitting on my shelf since 2018! I wanted to look at the first chapter because there is a spiritual direction exercise that I was exposed to that is adapted from the first chapter. 

Now that I have read the whole book, I see that the exercise, while great, really doesn't get to the essence of what she is saying in this book. So, I won't put her name on my handout as being "adapted from." Or I might change the exercise to fit what she is really saying. It is that good! 

This book is so good. As a director through the Exercises, I found myself underlining so many things that I would love to pass on to my directees. It is a valuable "take" on Ignatian spirituality!

Why We Can't Wait ("Letter from a Birmingham Jail") by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Everyone should read this. I cannot believe it took me so long. 

I love his philosophy of non-violence. Everyone who volunteered was required to sign a commitment card that read: 

"I hereby pledge myself, my person and body, to the non-violent movement. Therefore, I will keep the following ten commandments:

1. Meditate daily on the teachings and life of Jesus.
2. Remember always that the non-violent movement in Birmingham seeks justice and reconciliation, not victory.
3. Walk and talk in a manner of love, for God is love.
4. Pray daily to be used by God in order that all men might be free.
5. Sacrifice personal wishes in order that all men might be free. 
6. Observe, with both friend and foe, the ordinary rules of courtesy. 
7. Seek to perform regular service for others and for the world.
8. Refrain from the violence of fist, tongue, or heart.
9. Strive to be in good spiritual and bodily health.
10. Follow the directions of the movement and of the captain of the demonstration."

WOW! Such great leadership. Hero in my book. 

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

James Mustich

"Never before have I written so long a letter. I’m afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers?" That’s from the close of “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” the centerpiece of Why We Can’t Wait, and the book’s thematic fulcrum. The audience Martin Luther King Jr. is addressing is a group of eight white clergymen who had published an opinion piece in the Birmingham News describing the nonviolent campaign of protests against segregation led by King and others as the “unwise and untimely” acts of impatient extremists. The rest of Why We Can’t Wait augments its intensity with a more programmatic agenda for a civil rights revolution, an agenda that would bear fruit in landmark legislation in the mid-1960s. Although dated, even this portion of the book seems ever relevant, sadly enough, to our national discourse.

1 - Morning Pages

Since January 1, I have been doing most of my "morning pages in the designated journal from January to April (except when we traveled to Southeast Asia). Then, I used my Kindle Scribe until August 31. It is September 1, and I will write my morning pages on my blog. Julia Cameron says I should WRITE and not type, but she ain't my momma! I want to change it up and experiment with a different mode. I have written freewrites on here for years. Morning pages are similar to freewrites. So, here I go. 

I'll just do it for this month and see how I do.

I had a long talk with God over what has transpired over the last month or so. I cried more in August than I have in any other month in recent years. I took a good look at my summer consolations and desolations, and I realized some things about when I function well and when I falter. I even made columns for consolation and desolations. The good news is that there were three times more consolations than desolations! There were also definite patterns to both.

Consolation Patterns - friendship and connection with my family and friends. We had some gatherings here that were so precious. We spent long and leisurely time talking with friends. I also had such consolation with the spiritual direction of one-on-one directees. Also, walks in beautiful places. Learning new things. Kayaking on new waters (Great Lakes). Learning about a new place (Great Lakes). 

The Great Lakes Collection Cruise was definitely a consolation for me. The nature, learning, food, fun, etc. It was all there. 

The groups that I wrapped up leading/co-leading in May/June were pretty special: 2HC, ABC Supervision, Boller Year One, etc. It was a good year of group leading. 

Desolation patterns revealed that I don't like the pressure of having someone else determine my destiny, decide what I do, dismiss my ideas, deal unfairly, etc. 

It was good to look at this. One desolation was of my own doing: my back pain for the whole month of July. I functioned well on the cruise, but I made a big mistake by canceling my appointment with Dr. Myers because I thought I was better. I also brought it on myself by working too hard on all the documents in preparation for the 19th and 18th Annotations and OMS Retreat. Writing is a CONSOLATION for me but sitting to write them can lead to DESOLATION! Balance!!!!

There is the bell. I might lengthen the time I do this to 30 minutes because 17 was not long enough!