52 in 52 Week 8: Billy Budd by Herman Melville

Billy Budd, Sailor (1891) by Herman Melville

If you want to read the genius of Melville without having to read Moby-Dick (although you probably should do that too), this is a great alternative.

At his death, he left the manuscript of BILLY BUDD, SAILOR. This short novel, first published in 1924 and considered Melville's finest book after MOBY-DICK, is a symbolic story about the clash between innocence and evil, and between social forms and individual liberty.

From THE WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIA © 2007 World Book, Inc. 

From Wikipedia: 

[Nathaniel] Hawthorne's fiction had a profound impact on his friend Herman Melville (1819–1891), who first made a name for himself by turning material from his seafaring days into exotic and sensational sea narrative novels. Inspired by Hawthorne's focus on allegories and dark psychology, Melville went on to write romances replete with philosophical speculation. In Moby-Dick, an adventurous whaling voyage becomes the vehicle for examining such themes as obsession, the nature of evil, and human struggle against the elements. In another fine work, the short novel Billy Budd, Melville dramatizes the conflicting claims of duty and compassion on board a ship in time of war. His more profound books sold poorly, and he had been long forgotten by the time of his death. He was rediscovered in the early decades of the 20th century.Anti-transcendental works from Melville, Hawthorne, and Poe all comprise the Dark Romanticism subgenre of literature popular during this time.

About Dark Romanticism from Wikipedia: 

Dark Romanticism (often conflated with Gothicism or called American Romanticism) is a literary subgenre.^[1] It has been suggested that Dark Romantics present individuals as prone to sin and self-destruction, not as inherently possessing divinity and wisdom. G. R. Thompson describes this disagreement, stating "the Dark Romantics adapted images of anthropomorphized evil in the form of Satan, devils, ghosts, werewolves, vampires, and ghouls."^[2] For these Dark Romantics, the natural world is dark, decaying, and mysterious; when it does reveal truth to man, its revelations are evil and hellish. Finally, whereas Transcendentalists advocatesocial reform when appropriate, works of Dark Romanticism frequently show individuals failing in their attempts to make changes for the better. Thompson sums up the characteristics of the subgenre, writing:

Fallen man's inability fully to comprehend haunting reminders of another, supernatural realm that yet seemed not to exist, the constant perplexity of inexplicable and vastly metaphysical phenomena, a propensity for seemingly perverse or evil moral choices that had no firm or fixed measure or rule, and a sense of nameless guilt combined with a suspicion the external world was a delusive projection of the mind--these were major elements in the vision of man the Dark Romantics opposed to the mainstream of Romantic thought.^[3]

This story took place in the summer of 1797 and followed two mutinies that shook the naval world and greatly influences this novella. Of course, I had to look up the information about them, and you can find that information HERE.


I have read that Billy Budd is a Christ figure too. The moral dilemma in this novella is amazing. I really liked this story.  

52 in 52 Week 8: Hawaii: From Origins to the End of the Monarchy

Hawaii: From Origins to the End of the Monarchy by Brien Kalai Foerster


Above is a video posted by the author that basically has all the pictures and maps in the book. 

As I sat on the beach at Waikiki, I wondered how the United States acquired such a lovely place. My mother-in-law said, "Well, I think we took it!"  So, I found a Kindle book and downloaded and started reading it where the sand meets the sea at Waikiki! 

I guess it is true to its cover that it goes to the end of the monarchy, but I wanted to know more about what happened after the monarchy. It was interesting to read about the ancient peoples, but it got really bogged down at the end with all the myths about Maui and the long names. It is the only book of its kind out there though.

I really think it is stinky that the US just TOOK this lovely group of islands away from their monarchy!  I guess Hawaii is glad to be part of the US though.

52 in 52 Week 8: The Awakening by Kate Chopin

The Awakening by Kate Chopin (1899)


How interesting that this book began and ended at the sea, and I was reading it by the sea! 


This book is considered an early feminist novel and from the Naturalism time period (1890's to 1920's) in American Literature.

. . . in spite of the romantic tradition in which she wrote, Kate Chopin explored naturalistic ideas. This is especially so in THE AWAKENING (1899), in which she expresses through the character Dr. Mandelet the naturalist view that romantic love is an illusion damaging to women's social status since it determines for them the biological role of motherhood. The illusion of love, he says, is "a provision of Nature; a decoy to secure mothers for the race." In spite of this, Chopin's heroine, Edna Pontellier, maintains a romantic view of experience and her suicide, in sharp contrast to that of Crane's Maggie, is a triumphant expression of individual will over circumstance. 

(from:http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americannovel/timeline/naturalism.html)

The main character, Edna, response to Dr. Mandelet's view:

"Yes," she said. "The years that are gone seem like dreams--if one might go on sleeping and dreaming--but to wake up and find--oh! well! perhaps it is better to wake up after all, even to suffer, rather than to remain a dupe to illusions all one's life."  

And that is what 28 year old Edna does, she "awakens" to herself and the possibility that she can be more than a mother and an extension of her husband. He is verbally condescending if not verging on abusive, and she is awakened to other possibilities when a younger man, Robert Lebrun, whose specialty is making female guests at his mother's summer resort feel attractive and cared for, begins to pay attention to her.


This is what I wrote before I looked up anything about the book:

I had no idea what to expect from this book. All I know is that there are numerous questions about it in the "Never-Ending Book Quiz" on Good Reads, and it was on my 100 Great Books list. 

I am sure the feminists love it, but I wanted to puke. What a selfish brat of a woman who “finds” herself when she has two small children to take care of.  

Her husband even seemed willing to explore what was going on and had genuine concern as evidenced by going to the doctor for help and advice, but she just shut him out!  

You make your bed, lady, you lie in it. Life is not all about personal happiness! UGH! The writing was beautiful, but the message STUNK! I think it is in the classics genre because this woman was writing way ahead of her time in the evolution of the women’s liberation movement. YES, men can be jerks sometimes. YES, sometimes we marry so young that we often don’t know what we are getting ourselves into,  but PLEASE! 

I see many women who are “awakening” to who they really are, and they find they might have married the “wrong” man that inhibits their “self-actualization,” and most don’t see the need to fight for their marriages, but my favorite line in the book is from the natural mother, Adele Ratignole, who reminds the protagonist, "Think of the children, Edna. Oh think of the children! Remember them!"   

Apparently, Edna didn't care to think of them because she does what feels good, and what a mess! I read this on the heals of four Shakespearean tragedies hoping for something lighter, but at least Shakespeare has heroes and villains based on morals of good and evil.  

This woman is no heroine.

It is interesting to read about the novelist:

Kate Chopin was never a member of a suffragist group of women, and certainly she wouldn't have labeled herself a feminist. She was a woman with a house full of children--a wife and mother who happened to write. She was, however, a strong and independent woman (probably because her father died and four, and she was raised by strong women); she smoked and defied convention by going out alone--without a male escort--wherever she wished to go in New Orleans. She was, however, aware of women's issues. The leading New Orleans newspaper was edited by a woman and a good many editorials championed women's rights. The notion of feminism was in the air, so Chopin was well aware of the various women's rights movements, even though she was not an activist. Despite the budding women's rights movement, when The Awakening was published the reviewers scathingly condemned the novel. One reviewer wrote that "one would fain beg the gods, in pure cowardice, for sleep unending . . . ." A reviewer in St. Louis, Chopin's hometown, gasped, "one feels that the heroine should pray for deliverance from temptation. . . .This is not a healthy book. . . . It is a morbid book." . . . Chopin, however, humorously trumped all of her male critics by publishing this statement: "Having a group of people at my disposal, I thought that it might be entertaining (to myself) to throw them together and see what would happen. I never dreamed of Mrs. Pontellier making such a mess of things and working out her own damnation as she did. If I had had the slightest intimation of such a thing, I would have excluded her from the company. But when I found out what she was up to, the play was half over, and it was then too late." Today the novel is regarded as a masterpiece of American fiction and is required reading in universities and high schools throughout America. Long after her death, the United States finally awakened to the genius and art of Kate Chopin. (The Book of Great Books: A Guide to 100 World Classics, p. 62). 

It is a morbid book.

Saturday Morning Freewrite

I'm setting the timer for this. Fifteen minutes will do. Then, I am getting some writing in, bake a Bonnie Butter Cake and go to Book Babes at 8 am


I woke up at 4 am with a hot flash. Sometimes when it is that late in the sleep cycle, I can't seem to go back to sleep. So, I got up at 4:30, made some chai tea as I listened to David Copperfield, set the butter to softening for the Bonnie Butter Cake (LOL! Bonnie Butter and Book Babes before breakfast - love alliterations), checked responses to the Downton Abbey finale post on Facebook, and read John 14. I love the Upper Room Discourse.


Now, I am warming up my fingers before I write about John 14. 


I love to write. I was around a lot of writers for many years, and I always felt that they made it clear that they were writers, and I was not. Just as when we got into photography, and some took on the air of being the experts in critiquing other's photos because they had evolved into photographers, and some had not. Who defines that? (I am a photo journalist and not an artsy photographer - their pictures are artistic but didn't tell me a story ,and that left me flat. Plus photoshop always made their photos fake looking to me)


So, I still write everyday and take pictures everyday, and I still don't feel like I am a writer or a photographer; but I had a problem even saying that I was an athlete even though I was a college basketball player (and a pretty good one at that).  What is that about me?  I have learned to force myself to communicate that I am a writer now because people don't believe that I "work."  I also do counseling, and I just go ahead now and tell people that I do counseling even though I don't do it in the traditional way with a sign and a business card.


What defines a title? Is it when we make money for doing what we do?  I just feel like I get up everyday and work to the best of my ability. Sometimes I put in a 13 hour day writing. Thursdays, I counseled with one person for four hours. Really the only day I even "goof off" is Friday afternoon into Saturday. Friday afternoon seems to be the only day where I really give myself total permission to do frivolous things! Most of the time it involves going on a history bent, like the time I researched all the background history behind The Count of Monte Cristo before my book club the next day (what a nerd!).


Yesterday, my goofing off consisted of researching and writing about all the non-Shakesperean tragedies I read. That was fun, but it was very time consuming.


I am supposed to keep on writing in a freewrite even though I desperately want to proofread this before hitting the "publish" button. 


Press. 

Valentine's Day Freewrite

I stayed up and read my book a little bit longer last night so I could wait until the pea soup in the crock pot was done (put it on high to be done by about 11:55 pm. I turned out my light for "just a few minutes," and I was out like a light. I woke up at 3 am to the smell of the pea soup and realized that I hadn't put it away.

So, I got up, and then I couldn't fall back asleep again. So, I got up at 4 am and worked a bit on Bible Book Club and Gospel Harmony Book Club. I also listened to David Copperfield a bit.

I love this book, but it is VERY long. I loved the "short Shakespeares" that I read over the vacation. That and finishing up Tom Sawyer on the plane, the Hawaii history book while there, The Awakening, , Billy Budd (plane back), Daisy Miller (partially on the plane back), The Call of the Wild, and Ethan Frome. It was nice to read "a book a day" for the first 11 days of February, but I realize that at the rate I am going, David Copperfield will take me at least that long to complete!  But alas, it is also quite refreshing to read a book that I know will end happily rather than tragically like all the other ones (excepting Tom Sawyer)!

I am also processing my pictures from Hawaii. I can't get over the Pearl Harbor ones. I am crying through them. I cry even writing this. I hope I never stop crying about it. It is hard because we also took two lovely hikes that day (complete with locals jumping off cliffs), went to Tantalus Drive with amazing views of O'ahu, and got wonderful pictures of our luau! Pearl Harbor deserves its place though. There is no denying that it deserves the honor of being the picture of the day. 

I could not have asked for a better vacation though. The weather was perfect, even the rain during my surfing was great. The company was lovely. I loved having freedom to explore and also spend time with Aunt Dot and my mother-in-law (their picture from the balcony will definitely make my picture of the day that day - so cute!). 

Well, I better get back to work. I want to get a couple days ahead on Gospel Harmony Book Club, and I keep on getting distracted!

52 in 52 Week 7: Shakespearean Tragedy - Romeo and Juliet

I wanted to wait until Valentine's Day to read this, but I couldn't wait. It is during Valentine's Week though!

"My bounty is as boundless as the sea,

My love as deep; the more I give to thee, 

The more I have, for both are infinite.

  - Juliet

Isn't that just beautiful? I read this by the sea in Waikiki and was so moved. What an amazing and tragic love story.

Last month, one of my sons' friends expressed how vehemently he hated having to read this play for one of his classes in high school. Another reason why I think that some classics are best left when a person is older and can truly appreciate it! We all need to "ease into him.  I started my kids in elementary school on the "cereal" of Shakespearean comedy by reading them Lois Burdett's Shakespeare Can Be Fun series. Then, I took them to plays based on those versions put on by our local community college. By the time they were in middle school, I took them to great productions of the comedies, and they were hooked. When I taught it in high school, we read the comedies together and used props. Then, we watched a good movie rendition, complete with fun snacks. But I digress. 

I have never read this play and had only seen the Franco Zeffirelli 1968 movie version (which I didn't particularly care for). The play is so beautiful and so very sad. 

Two young people from two opposing families fall hopelessly in love, and they throw caution to the wind and unite. 

The moral compass in this movie is definitely Friar Lawrence:

"These violent delights have violent ends 

And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, 

Which as they kiss consume: the sweetest honey 

Is loathsome in his own deliciousness 

And in the taste confounds the appetite: 

Therefore love moderately; long love doth so; 

Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow."   

Too bad the Friar's letter did not arrive in time. :(

The Cast:

Romeo – Michael Sheen
Juliet – Kate Beckinsale
Chorus – Philip Madoc
Prince – Norman Rodway
Capulet – David Bradley
Lady Capulet – Frances Barber
Montague – Edward de Souza
Lady Montague – Judy Loe
Nurse – Fiona Shaw
Friar Lawrence – Heathcote Williams
Mercutio – Anton Lesser
Tybalt – Jasper Britton
Paris – Ronan Vibert
Benvolio – Simon Harris
Friar John/Apothecary/Cousin Capulet – Peter Yapp
Balthasar/Servant – John Paul Connolly
Peter/Abram – Jason Cheater
Samson – John Summerfield
Gregory – Hywell Simons

52 in 52 Week 7: Shakespearean Tragedy - King Lear

The weight of this sad time we must obey; 

Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. 

Albany in King Lear

Cordelia is so courageous. What a heroine. I love the moral of this story. Evil lurks in the halls of power. King Lear is loonie! Even though this is a tragedy. Some parts made me laugh. Scofield (A Man for All Seasons) was amazing as King Lear!


This is the only dramatized edition that really wasn't unabridged. So, I followed along with my Kindle version and turned it off to read the small parts that were omitted. It added so much to the reading to have these fantastic actors make it come alive!


Here is what the jacket from the dramatization says: 


The tragedy of King Lear receives an outstanding performance in an all-star cast led by Britain’s senior classical actor, Paul Scofield. He is joined by Alec McCowen as Gloucester, Kenneth Branagh as The Fool, Harriet Walter as Gonerill, Sara Kestelman as Regan and Emilia Fox as Cordelia. This is the ninth recording of Shakespeare plays undertaken by Naxos AudioBooks in conjunction with Cambridge University Press, and is directed by John Tydeman. It was released to mark the eightieth birthday of Paul Scofield in January 2002.

CAST

King Lear – Paul Scofield
Gonerill his eldest daughter – Harriet Walter
Regan his second daughter – Sara Kestelman
Cordelia his youngest daughter – Emilia Fox
Duke of Albany married to Gonerill – Peter Blythe
Duke of Cornwall married to Regan – Jack Klaff
Earl of Gloucester – Alec McCowen
Edgar his elder son and heir – Richard McCabe
Edmond his illegitimate son – Toby Stephens
Earl of Kent (later disguised as Caius) – David Burke
Fool – Kenneth Branagh
King of Burgundy suitor to Cordelia – John McAndrew
King of France suitor to Cordelia – Simon Treves
Oswald Gonerill’s steward – Matthew Morgan
Curan a courtier – Steve Hodson

52 in 52 Week 7: Shakespearean Tragedy - Julius Caesar

"Beware the ides of March."


Did the saying, "It was Greek to me" originate with this play?


I have said it once, and I will say it again: Shakepeare was not meant to be read but experienced dramatically. Since you cannot follow along with a book while you are watching a play, I follow along to a dramatized version. Most of these are unabridged. If they skip anything, I turn it off and read until I get the dramatized version picks up again.

I got this through the Oregon Digital Library, but it is only $3.95 on iTunes! It is part of an educational program put on by LA Theatre Works.  Fantastic!


Richard Dreyfus as Mark Anthony! This is on my 100 Great Books. Shakespeare's tragedies move and stir, but they do not depress. I loved it. Shakespeare took much of this play from Plutarch’s Lives. Since I read Plutarch a few years back, it was fun to get a dramatic rendition of it (although not historically accurate). Brutus is a somewhat sympathetic character in this one, and I am not so sure he was in real life.


The dead center of the drama is the murder of Caesar. The rest of it is the aftermath with the reaction of the different characters. Mark Anthony shines in this part. Brutus makes me sad. 


Amazing, amazing, amazing. 

Cast:
Stacy Keach as Marcus Brutus
John de Lancie as Cassius
Richard Dreyfuss as Marc Antony
Harold Gould as Caesar
Jack Coleman as Casca
JoBeth Williams as Portia
Bonnie Bedelia as Calphurnia
Kelsey Grammer as Murellus
John Randolph as Flavius and Artemidorus
Arye Gross as Octavius
alongside the voices of Paul Winfield, John Vickery, Basil Langton, David Birney, George Murdock, James Morrison, Andrew White, Rudy Hornish, Lee Arenberg, Jon Matthews, Josh Fardon, Paul Mercier, Arthur Hanket and Marnie Mosiman




I found this fantastic study guide for anyone who wants to teach it to their kids or class:

http://www.latw.org/acrobat/julius.pdf

52 in 52 Week 7: Shakespearean Tragedy - Othello

Iago is EVIL! Just sayin'. Iago is the serpent of Genesis 3 in human form.  He is possibly the most evil character of all of literature. Which is why this play is so amazing! 


I saw this performed on stage at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, but this is the first time I have ever read the play. It was good to have the visual picture of the blond haired Iago on the black background of the stage with the big, burly, black Othello contrasted on the white part of the stage, and the shift in the colors and lights when Iago gets a hold of Othello's ear. Chilling. I remember all of us who had attended the play sitting, unnerved at the end. It reaches to your heart . . . and rips it out.


I think Shakespeare was meant to be heard. So, I listened to this unabridged dramatic version while following along on my Kindle. The host of actors in this were superb. 






Here is the cast: 

Othello, The Moor, a general in the service of Venice – Hugh Quarshie
Desdemona, a daughter to Brabantio, and wife to Othello – Emma Fielding
Iago, his ancient, a villain – Anton Lesser
Emilia, wife to Iago – Patience Tomlinson
Cassio, his honourable lieutenant/2nd senator – Roger May
Bianca, a courtesan, in love with Cassio – Alison Pettit
Duke of Venice/2nd Gentleman/Herald – Roy Spencer
Brabantio, senator, father to Desdemona/3rd Gentleman/Gratiano, brother to Brabantio – Peter Yapp
Roderigo, a Venetian gentleman/1st Gentleman/Sailor (I,iii) – John McAndrew
Lodovico, kinsman to Brabantio/1st Musician/1st Senator/Messenger (III) – Stephen Thorne
Montano, Governor of Cyprus before Othello/Messenger (I,iii)/Clown – 
Jonathan Keeble


This story always makes me think of this Ginny Owens song:


This is your life,
And yet somehow,
They decide,
What you're about,
You learn your lines,
And take your cues,
But who are you listening to?

You change your clothes,
And how you speak,
You place your hope,
In what they think,
Before you know
There's no more you,
Who are you listening to-
Have you noticed how much you fear,
All the voices you choose to hear

Who are you listening to?
Who tells you what to do?
Who rules your thoughts at night?
Whose rules define your life?
Oh, you know it's up to you,
So who are you listening to

This is your life,
You have no choice,
You will rely
On someone's voice,
And it's all right
To question who,
Who are you listening to?
Do the words that you believe
Set your soul and spirit free

There's a quiet voice,
Whispering in your heart,
It's been there all along,
It believes in you,
It will tell the truth,
Can't you hear it call? 

Hiking Up Diamond Head (while Japanese tourists hiked down) by carolfoasia at Garmin Connect - Player

Hiking Up Diamond Head (while Japanese tourists hiked down) by carolfoasia at Garmin Connect - Player

Just a Crack Up for Downton Abbey Fans

Make sure you watch the opening credits.

52 in 52 Week 6 : The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

This is on my 100 Great Books List. What a totally delightful book that was an easy read. Once I started, it was impossible for me to stop. Mark Twain is a comedic genius. There is no question in my mind. I finished listening to/reading (did both) it on the plane to Hawaii and laughed out loud several times. 


I WISH that I had read this before I read Huck Finn for The Well-Educated Mind list. Huck Finn is considered the “classic” of the two, but it is really a sequel to Tom Sawyer. So, it would have made Huck Finn easier to read, IMHO. It was Tom's entrance in The Adventures of Huck Finn that made me want to learn more about him. He was a HOOT in that one! 

Loved this book in every way, this Blackstone audio version read by Grover Gardner was superb. I have heard this narrator before (Tozer's The Pursuit of God) and love him. 

Hawaii Travel Journal

Wednesday, February 1 – Travel day, ate at Sunny’s by the pool and Biba’s. Read Tom Sawyer. To bed 8:15. Finished Tom Sawyer

Thursday, February 2 – I was up at 4:00 am, long time with You, orientation breakfast in Banyan Tree Room, Pearl Harbor,  went up Pali Hwy to Kapena Falls, had a nice chat with a local boy, watched them jump off of cliff, got eaten by mosquitoes, went up Tantalas/Round Top Drive for beautiful views of the city, mountains and shore, and went to Pu’u Ualaka’s State Wayside Park for a tremendous overlook! Oh my! Then we went to Manoa Falls after dead ending at EAST Manoa Drive and finding just Moana Drive, luau from 5 – 8:15 pm and fast asleep soon after. Read Othello.

Friday, February 3 – Breakfast ? Took a car ride to the North Shore, stopped at Wimea Valley (nothing much to see and the falls would have cost $30 for the three of us to see), Turtle Bay Resort at Ola’s for the best Veggie Orzo meal with Shrimp, snorkeling in Turtle Bay, shower, Dinner at Koko’s Café with Dot and Mom (Indonesian Chicken Salad), took pictures of fireworks (or tried to). Read Julius Caesar.

Saturday, February 4 – Breakfast buffet with Dot and Mom, morning trip to Leeward O’ahu and Hanauma Bay for snorkeling, got chai tea latte, showered,  sat out at adult pool, and read King Lear. Watched whales from lanai, and had Prime Rib buffet with Dot and Mom. Went for walk along beach from Hale Koa to the Royal Hawaiian and Kalakaua Road back to our hotel. Finished King Lear.

Sunday, February 5 – Breakfast at the Royal Hawaiian, walk through grounds and back to Hotel. Rested and watched the Super Bowl and ate nachos and Hagen Daaz. Then we watched The Voice, and Downton Abbey as I read a book about Hawaii and The Awakening by Kate Chopin and ate seafood salad from the little café.

Monday, February 6 – Am going surfing somewhere. I pray I am in safe hands. Maybe go boogie boarding after that at Ala Moana Park or the Kapahulu Groin. Would love a sunset walk along the beach front too.

Tuesday, February 7 – Early morning walk up Diamond Head. Sunbath by the pool the rest of the day.

Wednesday, February  8 – Pack, check out and fly home.

Now on to John 13 –

This is the beginning of His Upper Room Discourse. So, I have poured over this for years. I may “get it” absorbed into my life someday. I still have character that needs so much honing, but the good news is that I really have seen growth.

Jesus knew that His time had finally come after saying so many times, “My time has not yet come.” “God’s trains are always on time and never miss their connections.”

13:2 – Satan put it in the heart of Judas Iscariot. Satan is a dirty guy. I put on my full armor today that I may resist the evil one. Lord, protect me in the surf today from all sharks and dangers. I am a little scared.

13:3 – The Father had put everything in to the Son’s hands and He was faithful and capable of doing His work. Lord, I trust that You know what You are doing today. I am nervous. I almost wish I hadn’t signed up to go surfing. I would much rather sit by the pool and read a book, but I would like to continue to build upon what I learned in Mexico.

13:4-17– Jesus was a servant and did it to be an example to us.

Lord, I want to be a servant today to George’s mom and aunt.  But how? After we go surfing, maybe we can take them on a ride to the Ala Moana Beach Park while we boogie board. I am already going to be in the water in the morning, why not in the nighttime too?

Wednesday, February 8

Surfing was great. I stood up after the third try and stood up most of the time from then on. I switched to a private lesson on George’s insistence, and we talked about God the whole time. The guy was not a believer, but he was a seeker. So, it was fun to talk to him, and I will pray for him from now on. After surfing,  we came back, and George went and got Subway sandwiches in the rain. We went to the pool for a bit and Geo’s mom and Aunt Dot joined us until it began to rain. So, we put them underneath the covering in the hotel and went to the PEX for snacks and went back to the room to relax. Then we walked to Thai food and walked back along the Hilton Lagoon and beach to our hotel.

Review of Tuesday, February 7 

We got up very early and hiked up Diamond Head. It was very beautiful in the morning. Then we ate the other half of our Subway sands at the picnic area at the bottom. We drove home and got lattes. Then, we walked along the Waikiki walk. With the hike, we walked almost 4 miles.  After that, we came back and showered and went to the Barefoot Bar. We ate lunch. Then George went swimming, and I read Romeo and Juliet. I finished it just as the rain came down again, but I just covered myself with a towel. Then, it got very sunny and hot. I sunbathed until George got back from his walk to scope out dinner options. We came in just in time because there was a downpour of rain which lasted on and off until dinner. So, we all decided to just order something for the room. George went down and got our boarding passes and dinner, and we watched and read in the room. I finished Romeo and Juliet and the book about Hawaii that got very blah, blah, blah at the end with all the talk about “People” who were really mythical creatures.  So, I skimmed that part but still read the book.

Now, I am onto the rest of John 13 and packing to go home.  (You know how I love to pack)

13:18  - I know whom I have chosen. What exactly does that all mean? I think He is talking about the disciples He has chosen to be His apostles.

13:19 – I am He (Who I say I am – the Christ, the Anointed One, the Messaih). 

13:20 – He who receives and welcomes and takes into his heart any messenger of Mine receives Me. Or does this for Me does it for the Father.

13:27 – Satan entered into and took possession of Judas. “Make quick work” of what you plan to do. Now that Jesus’ time had come. It needed to be done quickly. Things progressed so slowly. Now they were moving at lightning speed!

13:31 – NOW is the Son of Man glorified (Now He has achieved His glory, His honor, His exaltation!) And God has been glorified through and in Him.

Wow! Lots of glorify in this whole passage! God will also glorify Him in Himself, and He will glorify Himself at once and not delay. When His time had come, it was done at once and without delay.

Lord, in some way that is encouraging. Because when it is YOUR time for the Cousins in Corvallis, it will happen swiftly.

Well, I am going to get packed, eat breakfast, and hopefully, go for a walk along Waikiki one last time. It has been a phenomenal trip, and I am very thankful and grateful for George’s mom’s generosity in bringing us here as a gift! 

Aloha!

Books Read:

1. Tom Sawyer

This book was totally delightful and easy to read. Mark Twain is a comedic genius. There is no question in my mind. I listened to/read (did both) on the plane and laughed out loud several times. I WISH that I had read this before I read Huck Finn. Huck Finn is considered the “classic” of the two, but it is really a sequel to Tom Sawyer. So, it would have made Huck Finn easier to read, IMHO. I have some quotes I will share soon. Loved this book in every way, and the narrator for this particular audiobook was superb. It was Pat Bottino (check that).

2. Othello

Iago is EVIL. Possibly the most evil character of all of literature. I saw this performed on stage at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, but this is the first time I have ever read the play. It was good to have the visual picture of the blond haired Iago on the black background of the stage with the big, burly, black Othello contrasted on the white part of the state. Iago, much like the serpent of Genesis 3, whispering deceit into Othello’s ear was amazing with the lighting and such. Reading it gave me a whole new appreciation for this amazing Shakespearean tragedy.  The dramatic reading  that I listened to had a host of actors.

3. Julius Caesar

Richard Dreyfus as Mark Anthony! I loved it. Shakespeare took much of this play from Plutarch’s Lives. Since I read this a few years back, it was fun to get a dramatic rendition of it (although not historically accurate). Brutus is a somewhat sympathetic character in this one, and I am not so sure he was in real life. I loved this in every way.

4. King Lear

Crazy King Lear. I knew this story least of all because I have never seen it performed on stage. It was excellent, although this dramatized version cut some lines out, but I follow along on my Kindle and read what was lacking in this version. Loony Lear. Courageous Cordelia. This story has such a good moral to it, but I won’t spoil it by giving it away. The end of the play makes it very clear what that moral is!!

5. The Awakening

I had no idea what to expect from this book. I am sure the feminists love it, but I wanted to puke. What a selfish brat of a woman who “finds” herself when she has two small children to take care of. You make your bed, lady, you lie in it. Life is not all about personal happiness! UGH! The writing was beautiful, but the message STUNK! I think it is in the classics genre because this woman was writing way ahead of her time in the evolution of the women’s liberation movement. YES, men can be jerks sometimes. YES, sometimes we marry so young that we often don’t know what we are getting ourselves into,  but PLEASE!

I see many women who are “awakening” to who they really are, and they find they maybe married the “wrong” man for their “self-actualization,” and most don’t see the need to fight for their marriages, but Madame R saying “think of the children” is very true. Oh, don’t get me started.

6. Romeo and Juliet

It really is a beautiful play. It even has some silly and funny parts to it before it goes so tragic.

7. Hawaii: From Origins to the End of the Monarchy by Brien Kalai Foerster

I guess it is true to its cover that it goes to the end of the monarchy, but I wanted to know more about what happened after the monarchy. It was interesting to read about the ancient peoples, but it got really bogged down at the end with all the myths about Maui and the long names. It is the only book of its kind out there though.

I really think it is stinky that the US just TOOK this lovely group of islands away from their monarchy!  I guess Hawaii is glad to be part of the US though.

8. On the plane: Billy Budd or The Pursuit of God

The Point Where It Hits You

I am sitting here and reading through what I wrote yesterday about Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and it hits me: This wash of peace like a gentle wave, rocking me almost to sleep. I rush over here to write about it. How do you document something like this so that others might believe? I don't know. It is not my goal to make them believe but just to bear witness to what I believe. This "wash" is not measurable scientifically, but it is real, nonetheless. I'm so thankful right now to know what I know because You are knowable. . . if people take the time to search. Like Helen Keller when she first heard about God:

 H. L. Willmington. Willmington's Guide to the Bible.Tyndale House Publishers. Retrieved 2007–10–18. "Sometime after she had progressed to the point that she could engage in conversation, she was told of God and his love in sending Christ to die on the cross. She is said to have responded with joy, "I always knew he was there, but I didn't know his name!""

Finger Freewrite (for warming up)

The kids just left for their college classes, and I am going to do some writing on the BBC and GHBC this morning. I might take a walk first since it is supposed to be a 90% chance of rain today but right now is sunny and warmer than usual.

What am I sitting here for then? Opportunity awaits.

Carol OUT!

52 in 52 Week 5: The Shape of the Eye by George Estreich

The Shape of the Eye: Down Syndrome, Family, and the Stories We Inherit  by George Estreich                                                                 

This book was selected by my "Book Babes" Book Club. The father of the lovely child on the cover is a stay-at-home dad who is also a poet and writer. He paints a beautiful canvas of words across the page. He lives in my town (didn't know that when I first started reading). So, it was fun to have him paint descriptions of this city in the heart of the Willamette Valley of Oregon. He also mentions my old work place, the Eugene Children's Health and Rehabilitation Center, where I learned as a young 21 year old receptionist that having a child with special needs was not the end of the world but the beginning of something beautiful. I saw so many happy families as they waited for their appointments. They were amazing people who adapted and grew from the challenge of raising a child with special needs. 

This book is not only about Down Syndrome but essays about the author's life and relationships. I loved how he spoke of his evolving love for Laura. He thinks deeply about things and writes about them beautifully. About the first year and the challenges of getting his daughter, Laura to eat and develop, he writes:

"That year, in my bitterest moments -- bitterness being the taste of poison, the evolved displeasure that says, Do Not Eat -- I'd think, Great. Another climb out of the canyon, just to get to the plateau where other children are already toddling toward the horizon, hand in hand with happy parents. Our frustration with eating became a species of a general discontent: the longing, wistful and bitter turns, for the normal childhood, the one that was supposed to happen. It is, of course, nostalgia for a projection. It dies hard. Even now, years later, it feels sometimes as if the rest of the world is light enough to walk on clouds and live in cities there, while we have sunk, under the weight of a single chromosome, into a valley of intermittent rain." p. 108

The work is poignant, and I loved his reflections on work and family. He is a first-class writer (he used to teach English and composition at the university level). The biggest downside is that, sometimes, there were many details that did not interest me, but it would definitely interest someone who was the parent or grandparent of a Down Syndrome child or worked with one.

I just saw that he will be coming to our May 19th book club discussion, but I think I am speaking at a retreat that weekend. I would have loved to meet him, but as I look at his picture in the inside of the jacket, I have seen him around town!  I'll have to introduce myself next time. 

52 in 52 Week 4: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

 I listened to the version narrated by Ruby Dee, and I can't imagine reading it any other way! Ruby Dee plays the grandmother in the 2005 TV movie. She is perfect. I had saved this one for my vacation in February, but I needed something to listen to during exercise this week, and once I started, I could not stop. 

I can't believe that this was left off The Well-Educated Mind reading list! The black fiction on that list is excellent, and I learned a ton, but this is by a woman who was ahead of her time in writing from the soul of a black woman. It is exquisitely written. I lingered on some of the words. Beautiful in every way. Here are two quotes by Janie, the main character in the story:

"Love is lak de sea. It's uh movin' thing, 

but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, 

and it's different with every shore."

"two things everbody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. 

They got tuh go tuh God, 

and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves."

I became interested in reading this when I read this in Bold Spirit:Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across America:

The burning of her [Estby's] manuscript recalls how close the writings of others, such as African-American author Zora Neal Hurston, came to being destroyed. Destitute and no longer acclaimed in her old age, Hurston was considered of “little worth” at her death. When county workers came to clean out her house, they started to burn the clutter. One recalled that Zora was once a respected writer and, hoping there might be something of worth to augment county expenses, hosed down the fire just in time to recover her charred papers. 

It took more than fifty years and a seismic shift in appreciating the worth of African-American women writers before her acclaimed book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was republished. Her writings proved pivotal for inspiring the next generation of African-American women writers, such as Alice Walker. Only recently, with the growing publications of multicultural stories available in schools and libraries, are all children in America able to read about the lives of others with their same ethnic heritage.

Hunt, Linda Lawrence (2007-12-18). Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America (Kindle Locations 2558-2565). Anchor. Kindle Edition. 

Below is from:  http://zoranealehurston.com/books/their_eyes_were_watching_god.html 

"One of the greatest writers of our time"
— Toni Morrison

Their Eyes Were Watching God

The epic tale of Janie Crawford, whose quest for identity takes her on a journey during which she learns what love is, experiences life's joys and sorrows, and come home to herself in peace. Her passionate story prompted Alice Walker to say, "There is no book more important to me than this one."

When first published in 1937, this novel about a proud, independent black woman was generally dismissed by male reviewers. Out of print for almost thirty years, but since its reissue in paperback edition by the University of Illinois Press in 1978, Their Eyes Were Watching God has become the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature.

With haunting sympathy and piercing immediacy, Their Eyes Were Watching God tells the story of Janie Crawford's evolving selfhood through three marriages. Light-skinned, long-haired, dreamy as a child, Janie grows up expecting better treatment than she gets until she meets Tea Cake, a younger man who engages her heart and spirit in equal measure and gives her the chance to enjoy life without being a man's mule or adornment. Though Jaine's story does not end happily, it does draw to a satisfying conclusion. Janie is one black woman who doesn't have to live lost in sorrow, bitterness, fear, or foolish romantic dreams, instead Janie proclaims that she has done "two things everbody's got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin' fuh theyselves."

52 in 52 Week 3: The Broke Diaries by Angela Nissel

The Broke Diaries
by Angela Nissel

This was on the Book Babes Book Club books I didn't read.  It is a young adult's struggle to survive when she is a student and has no money. She is a humorous writer, and it was an easy read. It was nothing profound, and some of the language was not my cup of tea.

I certainly had compassion for her. It sounds like she had no help in how to manage her money once she got it. She makes some pretty stupid decisions that cause her to have even more financial problems.

I think she has a bright future ahead of her as a writer or hilarious essayist, much in the spirit of Dave Berry. I am sure she won't be broke for long.

52 in 52 Week 2:Hanna's Daughters by Marianne Fredriksson

Finished January 14

Three generations of Swedish women and the men they loved. Or did they love them?

This is a book that was read before I joined the Book Babes Book Club. So, I am reading all the books I missed over the last 11 1/2 years. I had heard from the original members that it wasn't good. So I was prepared not to like it, but I did. Some of the writing is exquisite:  "These roamings over the years taught me a great deal about the sea, what it sounds like and how it smells in storms or calm, in dull weather, sun or mist. But I know nothing of its intentions, anyhow nothing I can put into words, though occasionally I think it is all-embracing like the presence of God."

It was slow going, but I decided this day to sit down and really savor and read it and loved its poignancy. Hanna, Johanna, and Anna. Johanna was born at the same time as my grandmother in the same area of Sweden too.  It has special meaning as I realized I finished reading it on what would have been my dear Swedish mother's 85th birthday.

As I read on the couch and realized it was my mom's birthday, I also looked straight into the Carl Larsson (famous Swedish painter) painting of his daughter reading. Reading is such a spiritual experience for me sometimes.

52 in 52 Week 1: Animal Farm by George Orwell

I listened to it on audiobook while doing scrapbooking.
 Ralph Cosham is a brilliant narrator!

This is my third foray into Orwellian brilliance (1984 and The Road to Wigan Pier being the first two). A couple of weeks after finishing it, my boys were discussing the stupidity of communism, and I said, "You have got to read  Animal Farm!"

In the spirit of Aesop's Fables, Orwell uses satire to teach a moral lesson with animals as the characters. Communism will always fail because of the animal in all of us. The animals were oppressed, but their system of governance was not a solution to Jones not feeding them. 

It was interesting to read this on the heals of The Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn. Napoleon's control reminded me of totalitarian Stalinism.  That is a book everyone needs to read (I read the abridged version in the picture below).

The version of The Gulag Archipelago is closest to my face.

Animal Farm is so accessible. I am not sure why the woman who set the curriculum for the British Literature class I facilitated did not include this on her list. I'm hoping my kids can listen to the excellently narrated version during their Spring Break!

52 in 52

I am a little late to the party, but I just joined this:  http://www.read52booksin52weeks.com/p/about-52-books.html

I'm joining during week four, but surprisingly, I read two books for weeks 1 and 2, but three and four are together and will probably be finished on week four. This is because I usually listen to an audiobook for exercising/working and one for leisure time. Being that I just had a tooth extraction, I am going to PLOW through the book I have had my nightstand since Christmas (It is a little slow). 

So here goes with a new adventure!

My 600th Post!

I have had this blog a while, but I don't write here very often. I was surprised it was number 600 though!  This doesn't count the blog that I thought I had lost so I started this new one. It disappeared for years. Then, all of a sudden it showed up on my blog dashboard one day: http://tallcarolhomeschool.blogspot.com/ .

I just had a tooth extraction today. SO, it says I must "recline upright" until the evening. I am determined to read a book and not work today, but we will see. I am having so much fun with my new writing project (http://gospelharmonybookclub.blogspot.com/) that it is hard for me to step away. I am SO glad I am doing the Old Testament Bible Book Club concurrently with this because those OT prophets are pretty hard to get through. I was longing to get to Jesus by the end last time we covered them in the BBC! So, Jesus is front and center in my thoughts everyday, and we are looking BACK at those OT prophets!  Very fun and rewarding project.

I love our Kingdom Community gospel reading that is also coinciding with the Gospel Harmony Book Club. It is so cool. This is a GREAT group of people. The community is forming, and I am overjoyed to have it. I am really glad we reduced to 10 from the 19 people we had before. It was just too big for community and also not all the people were ready for what we are covering. YAY God for making that call for us and making it abundantly clear to all of us that it was the right move.

Well, I can feel the pain killers kicking in. I don't like the feel of oxycodone. I almost feel like the pain is better than the way I feel when taking it. So, I am just doing this as my lidocaine wears off to see how it all feels.

By the way, the weather today is GORGEOUS. So nice after all the rain we have had lately. I am enjoying resting here.

Carol OUT

100 Great Books: 50%

THE BOOK OF GREAT BOOKS 100

1. Aeneid – Virgil
2. All Quiet on the Western Front – Remarque
3. All the King’s Men – Warren
4. Animal Farm – Orwell 
5. As I Lay Dying – Faulkner
6. As You Like It – Shakespeare
7. The Awakening – Chopin
8. Beowulf
9. Bill Budd – Melville
10. The Bluest Eyes – Morrison
11. Brave New World – Huxley
12. The Call of the Wild – London
13. Candide – Voltaire
14. The Canterbury Tales – Chaucer
15. Catch22 – Heller
16. The Color Purple – Walker
17. Crime and Punishment – Dostoyevsky
18. The Crucible – Miller
19. Daisy Miller – James
20. David Copperfield – Dickens
21. Death of a Salesman – Miller
22. Diary of a Young Girl – Frank
23. Inferno – Dante
24. Doctor Faustus – Marlowe
25. A Doll’s House – Ibsen
26. Don Quixote – Cervantes
27. Ethan Frome – Wharton
28. Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo – Plato
29. A Farewell to Arms – Hemingway
30. Faust: Parts 1 and 2 – Goethe
31. For Whom the Bell Tolls – Hemingway
32. Frankenstein – Shelly (read)
33. The Glass Menagerie – Williams
34. The Good Earth – Buck
35. The Grapes of Wrath – Steinbeck
36. Great Expectations – Dickens (read)
37. The Great Gatsby – Fitzgerald
38. Gulliver’s Travels – Swift
39. Hamlet – Shakespeare
40. Hard Times – Dickens
41. Heart of Darkness – Conrad
42. Henry IV, Part 1 – Shakespeare
43. House Made of Dawn – Momaday
44. The House of Seven Gables – Hawthorne (read)
45. Huckleberry Finn – Twain
46. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Angelou
47. Iliad – Homer
48. Invisible Man – Ellison
49. Jane Eyre – Bronte 
50. The Joy Luck Club – Tan
51. Julius Caesar – Shakespeare
52. The Jungle – Sinclair
53. King Lear – Shakespeare
54. Light in August – Faulkner
55. Lord Jim – Conrad
56. The Lord of the Flies – Golding
57. The Lord of the Rings – Tolkien
58. Macbeth – Shakespeare
59. Madame Bovary – Flaubert 
60. The Major of Casterbridge – Hardy
61. The Merchant of Venice – Shakespeare
62. A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Shakespeare
63. Moby-Dick – Melville
64. Native Son – Wright
65. 1984 – Orwell (read)
66. Odyssey – Homer
67. The Oedipus Trilogy – Sophocles
68. Of Mice and Men – Steinbeck
69. The Old Man and the Sea – Hemingway
70. Oliver Twist – Dickens
71. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Kesey
72. Othello – Shakespeare
73. Paradise Lost – Milton 
74. The Pearl – Steinbeck
75. The Plague – Camus
76. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – Joyce (read)
77. Pride and Prejudice – Austen (read)
78. The Prince – Machiavelli
79. The Red Badge of Courage – Crane
80. Republic – Plato
81. The Return of the Native – Hardy (read)
82. Richard III – Shakespeare
83. Romeo and Juliet – Shakespeare
84. The Scarlet Letter – Hawthorne
85. A Separate Peace – Knowles
86. Silas Marner – Eliot (read)
87. Sons and Lovers – Lawrence
88. The Sound and the Fury – Faulkner
89. Steppenwolf – Hesse
90. The Stranger – Camus 
91. The Sun Also Rises – Hemingway
92. The Taming of the Shrew – Shakespeare
93. The Tempest – Shakespeare
94. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Hardy
95. Their Eyes Were Watching God – Hurston
96. Tom Sawyer – Twain
97. Treasure Island – Stevenson 
98. Twelfth Night – Shakespeare
99. Waiting for Godot – Beckett
100. Walden – Thoreau

Ugh! Not Feeling Well

I have not felt well since last Sunday! Part of it might be that I have been restricted from going to Pilates for the last 10 days (but whose counting?). It also might be I have a little low-grade thing going on. It isn't anything major, but I wake up every morning feeling sort of yucky.

So, I am getting my fingers warmed up as I meditate and digest the Parable of the Sower and the Seed. I am heading into the Kingdom Parables in my chronological study, and I love it! I realize that when I wrote for the Bible Book Club in 2010 on these, I didn't discuss them so thoroughly, and I am this time. So, I'm praying that I can do them justice because they are so rich and meaningful and wonderful.

On another note, we are flooding, and I wish I felt well enough to go out and nurture my inner photog, but I don't even feel like doing that. I think we might make the news. The governor has declared our county to be in a state of emergency.  A mother and her baby have already died being swept away while stopping in a grocery story parking lot! How freaky is that?

The rain did stop long enough for me to do a little walk/run during Paul's piano lesson with Suz (love her!). I felt good being out, but that is when I started feeling worse afterward. So, I am thinking I wasn't ready for that kind of exercise yet. I loved being out in the elements though!

Patty is locked in her house because of heavy snow in Seattle. She is supposed to be student teaching. So, she was getting cabin fever and we talked for over an hour. Good to catch up with her. I like her.

I was supposed to go to a Graduate Women's Network reception with the university president last night, but I just didn't feel well. So, I got in bed at 5 pm and stayed there until I went to sleep.

I hope I am up for going to Vancouver on Saturday morning though. :(

There was something else I was going to write about, but I can't remember what that would be. Oh well, my fingers are warmed up now. I am off to do some more work.

Groggy Night

I couldn't fall asleep last night. I got into bed at 3 am. Then I was freezing. It turned out that when Kathleen was over last night, and I was cold. I went to turn up the heat and accidentally turned it off. BRRR.

I am in my office right now because Valentina and Peter are cleaning my house. Thankful for that. I am writing for the Gospel Harmony Book Club/Bible Book Club on John 6 which was also my reading for our Kingdom Community. I am very thankful to have time in the Word this year. It seems like my schedule opened up for the special added project of the GHBC! It will make for a much lighter year next year as we are in the New Testament for the BBC.

Well, I am warmed right now by the Bread of Life. Thank You, Jesus.