voting no

This week, I voted "no". For the weather, that is. I don't mind snow, I rather like snow. But driving rain, messy puddles and 40 mile per hour wind gusts? No. Just say no. Especially when waiting for trains or buses, or walking home in the cold and dark.

I did manage to see some books on the T this week, in spite of being distracted and wet. One day, I saw at least four Boston Globes being read at the same time!

Shades of Earl Grey (a Tea Shop Mystery series book)
World War Z by Max Brooks
New York Times
Lots of people reading their cell phones - email?
A couple people working on their Macs
ever present iPods
three Kindles
and most interesting... Notes on a Case of Obsessive Neurosis

Did I ever mention that one day, stopped at a station there was a train stopped headed the opposite direction - and I saw a man sit down on that train and open his book - Webster's Dictionary!

Aside from the lousy commuting weather, it's been a great week. I've heard interesting lectures, been inspired in my work, and am feeling hopeful about future projects. Now, if only I could manage to finish up a couple current projects... :-)

busy days

It's been a busy couple of days, but I knew I had to get back in here and finish cleaning up. The windows need doing! :-) and the author needs to figure out why adding links isn't working in our little bloggy.

Now I have to clean up something else - I have to get off my mind how I'm feeling about the special senate election here in Massachusetts. It stinks. Period. It was just another round of expensive TV ads, all of them nasty and negative. It bothers me that politicians are so willing to rip each other to pieces to win. Politics is all about power. There is no public service in politics. Neither side (not even the independent parties) is willing to put the needs of the people above their own self interests. The so-called "health care reform" that Congress is working on now is not really reform. At its best, it might be expanded coverage. There won't be any reform of health care costs, there won't be any insurance reform. Those are what matters, but they aren't part of the discussion in Washington. I've come down hard on scripture - put not your trust in mortals or princes (Psalm 146:3).

Health care is in my view, a moral imperative. True reform and care for those who cannot care for themselves will only come when people of faith take seriously God's call to care for the orphan and the widow - code words for those who cannot provide for themselves. My family is blessed enough to have insurance and good doctors - but it hasn't always been so, and I'm grateful for good health and good doctors. I never want others to have to live with the fear of not knowing how you'll pay for what you need if you or your children get sick or hurt.

There. I'm done with that now.

It's been a busy week. I left my ID at the security checkpoint in Houston before flying back to Boston. That's a paperwork nightmare to navigate! But I should have it back soon, thanks to the TSA people. My Uncle David died on Wednesday, which is a little sad for my mom. He's not been well, and he's lived a long, happy life. I'm truly grateful to all the people who've worked for his group home over the years. I'll always remember his smile. Uncle David had a sweet, ready smile - especially when the Twins or Vikings were winning!

I'm back in classes, which means I'm riding the T again. I have to say, I LOVE riding the T. I think it's because it makes getting around so stress free. I like driving (how many times have I driven back and forth across Texas?) but driving in Boston is not easy. On top of that, there's precious little parking and it's (as they say up here) wicked expensive. :-)

When I lived north of the city, I'd take the Commuter Rail train and transfer to the subway, which stops right at the university. Now I'm in a western suburb, and I take a bus to a subway stop. Once I'm on the subway train, I study a little or look to see what others are reading. And thus, "Seen Being Read on the T" was born...

Tuesday's Seen Being Read on the T:
Jodie Picoult - Picture Perfect
Boston Globe
Metro (free daily paper)
Sarah Vowell - The Wordy Shipmates
Securities License Exam Study Guide
JM Cotzee - Summertime
Constitutional Law
Barbara Hamilton - The Ninth Daughter

Wednesday's Seen Being Read on the T:
Business Week
New York Times
Metro
Boston Globe
Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion
William Bramley - The Gods of Eden
Rhonda Byrne - The Secret

Thursday's Seen Being Read on the T:
Arthur C. Clarke - 2001: A Space Odyssey
Raising Arizona (screenplay?)
Paul Hattaway - The Heavenly Man

That last book was mine. I had my eyes on my own book, rather than sneaking a peek at other rider's titles. Amazon has been helpful when all I've seen was an author's name or partial title, and some cover art.

twilight, dawn and all that kind of stuff

I have a confession. I don't like Twilight.

Both girls have read the series, Mary Grace is a big fan. James even read Twilight (and I'm not going to question why an adult male would want to read a book with a 17 year old girl as narrator). We went to see the movie as a family. It was entertaining enough.

However...

James left the novel for me to read, so I've been giving it a try. I don't like it. Never mind that this puts me clearly in the minority opinion of this series. Never mind that I can't actually tell the family I don't like it. I simply do not like this book.

I expected the novel to be better than the film, but it hasn't captured my attention. I'm also reading the Harry Potter series for the first time, after having watched the movies with the family as well. I like that series, so it's not fantasy or young adult fiction that I'm opposed to - it's the melodramatic, overstated restrained passions, the delicate fainting female lead, the perfection of the men, the "I'm not good enough" routines.... I can't even write coherently about it, it bothers me so much.

This harks back several years ago, when I took a course in European History from 1815 to 1914, and we read Frankenstein, Dracula and Germinal. I enjoyed Germinal. Hated Frankenstein and Dracula. The lead character in Frankenstein drove me crazy - make a decision and stick with it, stop complaining and moaning about everything! In Dracula, the limp, weak women bothered me no end. Why did all the male characters resist the vampire, but none of the women could?

So here we are, 2009 and another woman falls weakly for the "dazzling" so-called perfection of her male hero. ~sigh~ I sure hope I can find books with smart, decisive, independent women as lead characters and suggest that the girls give those books a try.

Next week I'm back to academic reading, have put in my book orders and they've started to arrive. Twilight and Mr. Potter will have to wait for another day.

Poetry and Writers

One of my favorite things is Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac. http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/

Today is the birthday of Maurice Sendak who wrote Where the Wild Things Are, one of my most favorite books ever. That book is what got me reading to Celia's kindergarten class, and reading to other children as she grew up and didn't need me reading her to sleep any more. One of my favorite sermons is reading Where the Wild Things Are to the congregation, all of them thinking they are adults, but really just children of God, who need to be told the story again... and again.

Bookshelf

One thing that is really hard about having homes in two places (aside from being apart from my husband) is that my books are in two places.

I collect books like other women collect pretty plates or jewelry. I love reading and re-reading my books.

Tonight I went through the ones here in Boston and put them on my "Shelfari". When I get to Houston, I'll add the rest. I own the complete works of Agatha Christie, all of Laura Ingalls Wilder, a bunch of Nancy Drew books, as well as lots of theology. Some of my favorites are what we've kept from when the girls were young enough to be read to each evening. I miss that.

The local high school graduation ceremony is tonight. Celia and I saw the football field preparations when I picked her up from violin lesson. Two years from now, we'll be sitting there watching her graduate. For tonight though, she's off to a friend's house for pizza and Rock Band. Lucky me, she's getting a ride home. I just don't have the energy to be out driving tonight.

The Boston basketball team is in the playoffs or something. My upstairs neighbor watches all the Boston sports teams. Last night's game must have run late and been very exciting, if the expletives and applause are any measure. Just as I dropped off to sleep, something worth cussing or cheering would happen...rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat.

I'm going to cuddle up with one of my books now, and hope that the basketball game is NOT on tonight. Sleep is beckoning, and dreams of Jamie and Claire await......

bookshelf

Found a new feature to put on the blog, a book shelf that looks like a book shelf! What fun.

One of the things I liked best about the MySpace blog was putting up whatever I was listening to or reading at the moment. Now I can share my reading list in a cool way, rather than just a list. Will have to figure out how to take the list off later. Have promised a friend a listing of books, as she's working with the poor and is facing all kinds of questions about povery in America, as well as how easy it is for us in the middle class to feel guilty for a moment and then just go on as usual. Good questions, good struggles. Very much in the tradition of the prophets, I'd say.

I've been reading through Job again recently. It was the first book of the Bible I read through from start to finish when I was nineteen. There's been a lot of life between nineteen and forty-ish. Job reads very differently now. I understand the agony, the bitterness, and the empty words of his friends in a much deeper way now. Having lived through my own agonies and bitterness, I hear Job's distress much clearer. God's answer though, still seems a bit short. Placing Job in the context of the cyclone in Myanmar, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the recent earthquake in China - so many people whose lives are devastated. One brief moment of terror and their lives will never be the same.

I understand that to a degree. Terror, agony, and your life will never be the same. I've lived through hurricanes and tornados but not earthquakes. My home has never been completely destroyed. I understand the loss of loved ones though, and the fear of wondering where to go next, where to put down roots, how will you put down roots again?

God's brief answer to Job and then the restoration of all his family and possessions, doubled over again, that just doesn't seem fair. The families of southern Louisiana and southeast Texas are still struggling to put their lives back together in a minimal way. The families of China who lost their only child will never have their beloved child back. The people in Myanmar are desperate for clean water and a simple meal, never mind a home. How can we say that God will restore?

It's frustrating. And yet, I can't give up hope. I cannot abandon hope in a loving God who will not let us go. It doesn't seem as though life as we know it will ever look like the Job story, but that doesn't mean we have to abandon faith.

I am reminded of a story James told me about the dung beetle he watched while out on patrol one day. Over and over this beetle would push a roll of dung and dirt up a small hill, only to have the roll fall down the hill. The beetle would climb back down and start over again, pushing up the hill.

It seemed an exercise in futility to the outsider. Why bother? But the rolling actually IS part of the dung beetle's existence. Struggling to roll that ball makes a place to store food, and for the females, it can form a place to lay eggs. There is a purpose to the struggle after all.

In our struggles, in our wanderings, in our seeming futility we can find hope and purpose. That's why I refuse to give up on God. The hope and purpose will come clear, in time.