violetismycolor

Blog, reinstated

I went to my book group this morning. I have been a part of this group for at least 15 years! Unbelievable! One of the things that being a part of this group does for me is that it stretches me, in terms of what I read and how I think. So many of the books that we have read would not even have been on my radar. The group is made up of such smart, interesting women. I get to share so much of their lives because, besides discussing the books (which we really do), we also share our stories.

This month's book was Michael Chabon's latest, Moonglow. The book is a cross between memoir and novel. Chabon's prose is always so rich and full of truly masterful metaphors. It is (ostensibly) the tale of his grandfather, a member of Operation Paperclip in WW2, husband of a mentally-ill European refugee, step-father to that woman's daugther, electrical engineer, rocket enthusiast, model builder, anger-management challenged ex-con, and more. The narrative is built by that grandfather telling stories of his life, not in a straight line but meanderingly, as he is dying and under the influence of serious pain-meds.

The way memories are kept and dispensed, the same way I try to eat Christmas treats, slowly and with true savor, was the key to this story. I read it in about 5 days and, when I put it down, I couldn't wait to dive back in. I haven't loved a Chabon book this much since Kavalier and Clay.

 

 

 

Other projects worked on this week include my A-line off-white cardigan, which I am knitting in Swan Island Yarn's Organic DK Washable Wool (color Natural). The yarn is a dream to work with. It is soft and has a lovely hand, and it knits up into a wonderful fabric. I have finished the fronts and the back and am currently knitting the two sleeves (at the same time, with 2 balls of yarn). This way the sleeves will match exactly, with the increases in the same places and the number of rows just the same. I hope to get down with that in the next week and then I will throw another project onto the needles. Stay tuned.

I am just starting a button-front, sleeveless shirt. I have sized the pattern to fit me and cut out the fabric. I will work on fitting adjustments this week and perfect the pattern. I intend to use this for a series of tops for the summer.

 

Ross turned 30 this week. We went out to Masu Sushi, which is owned by a friend of mine. It was our first time there, and all I can say is WOW! The food was amazing. Bonnie and Zerek, John and I, and Ross all just gorged on the delicious sushi and tempura. Ross celebrated with a drink called My Little Kitty, which was a berry puree based cocktail. Delicious! He let me try a sip and I agreed. Ross's favorite cake is Red Velvet, and though he is dieting, he made an exception for a Red Velvet birthday cupcake. We had loads of fun! Too bad Adam and Priya weren't with us!

We also went out to a Blazer game. Our bank treated us to great seats at the Moda Center. Bonnie and Zerek joined John and I and it was a blast. The Blazers were absolutely hot! The Chicago Bulls were terrible. The Bulls couldn't seem to land a basket of any sort in the first quarter and the Blazers couldn't miss one. They earned 50 points in the first quarter and it was a first for ANY franchise. We won, of course. A fun night out was had by all.

 

Shakespeare and words...

I listened to a wonderful edition of RadioLab last week, and it was all about language.

 (http://www.radiolab.org/2010/aug/09/)

   There was a segment on Shakespeare and how he changed English.  I was interested to hear him likened more to a great chef or a great chemist than to a great writer.  It was the way he used words, tossing them together and using the incredible combinations that came out:    

    madcap

    ladybird

    eyedrops

    eyesore

    eyeball

    He was the guy who used "un" like no one else ever had.  Here are a list of some of the words he created with the prefix un-:   

    unnerving 

    unaware

    uncomfortable

    unearthly

    unhand

    undress

    uneducated

    unmitigated

    ungoverned

    unpublished

    unwillingness

    unsolicited

    unswayed 

    unclogged

    unappeased

    unchanging

    unreal  (my personal favorite!)

    These words had never shown up in English before he wrote them into his plays and poetry.  Cool, huh?  

    There's more.  He also could toss words together to make unforgettable phrases, like:

    the truth will out

    what's done is done

    crack of dawn

    dead as a doornail

    a dish fit for the gods

    a dog will have his day

    faint-hearted

    fool's paradise

    forever and a day

    foregone conclusion

    the game is afoot

    the game is up

    greek to me

    in a pickle

    in my heart of hearts

    in my mind's eye

    kill with kindness

    knock, knock, who's there

    what the dickins 

     i could go on and on

    something wicked this way comes

    a sorry sight 

    in stitches

    I have long been a fan of Shakespeare, thanks to my really-cute, freshman-year-in-high-school English teacher at my high school in California...who had us reading and analyzing The Merchant of Venice and who told me about the Oregon Shakespearean Festival.  I vowed to go to Ashland one day and see for myself, which I did while in college at Oregon State.  I have been back many times and have loved it every time .

    Hearing this podcast made me love Mr. Shakespeare even more!

 

 

 

tiger mom...

Apparently, I am not alone in talking/writing about The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom.  I want to put my own position out there.  I think Amy Chua is the kind of mom that drives her kids into therapy.  I think she puts her kids into a one-size-fits-all package.  I think she has been terribly cruel to her children, though I have no doubt that she loves them.  I think her kids may have the idea that her love is conditional on their accomplishing what she wants them to accomplish.

That said, I do think that many parents coddle their children too much in America.  I think that many parents don't have high enough expectations for their children.  

I have three kids of my own.  As anyone with kids knows, every child is different from the other.  My own opinion is that to get the best out of your children, you have to work with that child's individual attributes.  That means spending time really getting to know and understand your child and what makes them tick.  

I am a believer in unconditional love.  I love my kids no matter what.  That doesn't mean that I wouldn't be devastated if they committed a crime or became drug addicts or something like that.  But I believe I would still love them and let them know that I love them.  I think that I would let them know that they were harming themselves and others, and I would try to help them to correct, if they would let me.

I am very lucky in my marriage, my life, and my children, and I know that.  I hope that I have raised my children to be great human beings, great friends, great parents, and great spouses.  I am prouder of them than anyone can possibly imagine and hope that they continue on their (so far) very successful life paths.  

I hope the same for Amy Chua

 

 

Her Fearful Symmetry...

Her Fearful Symmetry

 

The dust jacket says:

 

“An unnerving, unforgettable, and enchating ghost story, a novel about love and identity, secrets and sisterhood and the tenacity of life—even after death.”  I must vehemently disagree.

 

I have to say that I absolutely LOVED the first two-thirds of this book.  I found all the characters engaging, to various degrees.  I read with anticipation, waiting to see where the story led me. 

 

Then the novel suddenly turned one-hundred-and-eighty-degrees and became a ghoulish nightmare, where many of the characters were not the quirky-but-nice folks that I thought they were.  They were cruel, selfish, uncaring monsters.

 

SPOILER ALERT:  plot points exposed…

 

A mother who gives up her children at nine months old and walks away, never to have anything to do with them (while she is alive) again. 

 

A twin who wants to separate herself from her sister but who is too emotionally weak that she cannot, kills herself…never thinking of the pain she will cause her family.  Never ONCE thinking of anyone but herself.

 

A mother who helps her daughter to kill herself and then ghoulishly takes her body so that she can live again.

 

A man that realizes that his ex-lover has participated in the daughter’s death and taken her body, but that lives with her again anyway.

 

A couple that have deceived each other, and their children, with unforgiveable lies.

 

This was NOT the enchanting, quirky, romantic book that The Time Traveler’s Wife was, this is a horror novel.  I HATE horror novels, movies, whatever…

 

I wish I had been forewarned, as I would never have read this book.  And now, I’m actually sorry that I did.

 

Audrey Niffenigger, I am so disappointed.  I will no longer automatically read whatever it is you write. 

 

Horrible.  Horrible.  Horrible.

interlibrary ecstasy...

I am a book addict.  I know it.  If you know me, you know it.  I seem to always have 10 things checked out at the library, but that doesn't stop me from picking up something new at Costco if it is just too irresistible to me.  And then there's Inter-Library Loan. It's an ENABLER!

I recently read The Aviary Gate by Katie Hickman.  This wonderful little gem was about a young woman from 1599 England, kidnapped by corsairs near Constantinople and sold into a harem.  I adored the intelligent writing, the history, the complete ability of the author to make me feel the very suffocating isolation of the women's quarters at the Topkapi Palace.  Enabler!

So, of course, I had to know if Ms. Hickman had written anything else.  She had.  In 1992, she published The Quetzel Summer.  I looked at my library's website.  Nope.  No Quetzel Summer there.  Amazon?  Nope, only a couple of used copies and those were over $20 each for an old paperback.  So, I turned to Inter-Library Loan.  Searching their website, I found that there was only one copy on file in the country...at the University of North Carolina.  So, I asked for it and voila!  Today it arrived.  So, I now have about 5 books that I am reading.  Check out the sidebar where it says:  What is she reading? 

She is reading:

• Dancing to the Precipice, non-fiction

• An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander series)

• The Quetzel Summer by Katie Hickman

• South of Broad by Pat Conroy

• The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville

So many wonderful worlds to enter, so little time!

witchcraft in literature...

     I just finished The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe.  The protagonist is a grad student in Early American History (as is Howe), who ends up being descended from a woman tried as a Salem witch (as is Howe).  Hmmmm....

    I enjoyed the mystery that was the heart of this book, but I had it figured out well in advance of our heroine.  She was searching for Deliverance Dane, whose name she found in key in her Grandmother's house.  (Spoiler alert...)  Deliverance Dane's daughter was named Mercy, Mercy's daughter was named Prudence, then came Patience, then Temperance.  And the heroine's mom is Grace, her grandmother is Sophia, and her name is Connie (which I quite readily figured out came from Constance).  And all these women had only one single child...always a daughter.  She was an only child, as was her mom, as was her grandmother.  Yet it took her forever to glean that this Deliverance Dane that she was searching for was her own ancestor.  Connie goes to Harvard, for God's sake...I thought you had to be smart to go there.

Anyway, besides THAT little bit of silliness, I did enjoy this book.  There was a little more flowery description than I care for, causing me to do a bit of skimming.  But the story was ultimately interesting and satisfying.  I learned some history, too...always a plus.  I expect some other interesting novels to come from this author.

Laura Rider's Masterpiece...

I have always been a big fan of Jane Hamilton's. I loved A Map of the World and The Book of Ruth, but my all-time favorite has to be Disobedience.

I have to say, though, that I have very mixed feelings about her latest book, Laura Rider's Masterpiece.  The story is of a woman who orchestrates her husband's 'friendship' with a local celebrity in order to have material for a book she wants to write.  It's a lab experimet to her.  It is also Jane Hamilton's poke at aspiring writers who go to Writer's Conferences and think they can write a book.  It seems that Jane H is saying that you have to be a born writer, who thinks about nothing else from childhood and works on said writing skills till FINALLY becoming 'an artist'. 

I found the character of Laura Rider odd.  She never really cares that her husband is having or has had an affair.  Don't believe it.

Jenna Faroli, the NPR radio show host, is the character that looks down on aspiring 'artists' that are not serious about their craft.  Didn't like her. 

Has Jane Hamilton never seen the popularity of writers like JK Rowling or Stephenie Meyer?  Maybe it's not high literature but the Harry Potter series and the Twilight series have thousands of people reading books that maybe never would have.  These two writers just got an inspiration and went for it. 

People who attend workshops or MFA programs do become writers. 

So, I neither liked the snootiness of Jenna Faroli or the emotionless natterings of Laura Rider.  Yet something made me go back and pick the book up and read it in just 3 days.  It's very short, an easy read, and maybe just a little like a road accident...I just had to slow down and gawk. 

Yep, I was gawking at the train wreck that happened in this book.  

So, I enjoyed it, but came away feeling very ambiguous about this book.  I will not recommend it to my book group; it seems too light for that.  But I will tell people that they should read it and enjoy the character develop, lovely writing, and look-away-now-if-you-value-your-sanity aspects of the story. 

procrastination...

I am supposed to be reading "The Nine" (about the Supreme Court) for our May book group meeting.  It is coming right up, the first weekend in May, and I haven't even started reading yet.  

I could plead 'guests in town'...My niece, along with husband and baby, were here for the weekend.  We now have a favorite friend visiting from the UK, here till Saturday.  But I still have time during the day.

I could say, but I had to plan John's big birthday bash.  But that happened a couple of weeks ago.

I could say that I have been putting mega-time into cleaning up the garden, which I have been. 

But really, I COULD be spending time reading.  I could.  But I am a procrastinator by nature and I always seem to wait till the last few days to read the book.  I would forget lots of what I read if I read it too early in the month anyway.  That happens alot.

So, I am NOW picking up the book and starting to read.  Wish me luck.

book of the month club...

I belong to a Book Group.  I'm sure I have mentioned this before, but I don't talk about it every month.  This is the most fantastic group of women...I love each and every one of them.  And we read wonderful, challenging books...books that I would not necessarily pick out for myself.  These books s-t-r-e-t-c-h me.  Make me work and think. 

This month, our book was The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.  It is set in WW2 Germany and is narrated by Death.  It is the story of Liesel Memenger, who is left by her mother in the care of foster parents.  Her father had been a Communist and she is being left for her own survival, but it takes her a while to understand this.  The book is peopled by some wonderful Characters, like Rudy (who wants to run as fast as Jesse Owens), and The Mayor's Wife (who has an entire library full of books that Liesel covets), and Max (the Jewish teenager who is hidden by Liesel's new family). It is a story of love and loss, of the Germans who did and didn't support Hitler. 

Interestingly, it is marketed in the U.S. as young adult fiction, though it was originally published in Australia as adult fiction.  The author, Markus Zusak, is an Australian who based his story on the tales his own German-born-and-raised parents told him of their growing up years in Nazi Germany. 

This book has its positives and its negatives, though I liked it more than I didn't.  I loved the idea that Death was just doing his job and was actually horrified at how people could destroy each other.  I loved how Liesel bonded with the new people in her life, and took advantage of all that she was offered.  I disliked that sometimes the prose was overly florid.  I thought Death's narration was sometimes overly intrusive to the storyline.  I thought that the characters were all very balanced and weren't stereotypes.  I was sad at all the loss this little girl experienced. 

Books we are reading in the coming months are:

• Run, by Ann Patchett
• Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
• The Secret Scripture, by Sebastian Barry
• The Nine, Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, by Jeff Toobin
• The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit, by Lucette Lagnado
• Bridge of Sighs, by Richard Russo

Wow, am I looking forward to these!

book...

Even though my library gives me 3 weeks to read a book, I (apparently) am not capable of living within that timeline.  Some books, I just renew over and over and (finally) get through them.  But when the book is on hold by eleventy-hundred other people, they won't let you renew it to your heart's content.  NO renewals at all...  Those party poopers over at the library think that EVERYONE should have a shot at reading that same (MY!) book.

So it was that I found myself with my book already due, and me only 100 pages into it.  Now, I loved this book (The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng).  It was a debut novel, but nominated for the Booker Prize.  It was the story of a young Eurasian man, set in WW2 Penang, Malaysia.  He is trying to both save his family (and family business) and serve his sensei (a Japanese spy, it turns out) by working for the Japanese during the occupation AND betraying them by using the information he has to save many people. It is beautifully written and the characters are very well-drawn.  

Getting back to my point...I spent a couple of days devoting myself to getting the book read, so that I could turn it in with only 2 days worth of fines (= 50 cents).  Cheaper than going out and buying the book and less frustrating than waiting several more months to get the book back from the library.

Well worth it...

Mr. Darcy...

According to the BBC, this watercolor miniature is of the man purported to be Mr. Darcy.  Yes, THAT Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy.  It is expected to fetch 50,000 pounds.

I'm not all that thrilled with the white hair that was so fashionable then, so I photoshopped in some brown hair.  Ah, MUCH better.  He actually looks like a young man, here.

Could this guy have actually been as dreamy as the Mr. Darcy of THE BOOK? 

According to the BBC:  Austen wrote of her sadness, saying: "At length the day is come on which I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy... my tears flow as I write at the melancholy idea."

 

funny?

I am reading Salman Rushdie's newest novel, The Enchantress of Florence.  I have found him funny...let me repeat that:  Salman Rushdie is funny.  This is not what one thinks of an author who has been the recipient of a fatwa by the Ayatollas-that-be of the Middle East.  But he is.  

Examples from chapter one:

For vegetarians there were other, more silent cook-pots; vegetables did not scream.

Now he wanted the most comfortable bed that could be had, and a woman, preferable one without a mustache...

Much funnier than the heating-and-air conditioning technician that told me that I need a new compressor for my 8-year-old air conditioning unit.  No, he wasn't funny at all.

great book...

I read this book last week and it was fabulous. Somebody Knows My Name is the name of the U.S. version; apparently it is called The Book of Negroes in Canada. The year is 1745. It's the story of Aminata Diallo, who attends births with her mother, is spoiled rotten by her father, and then loses both of them and her freedom when she is snatched by black slavers. It follows her through the long march to the sea, her nightmarish voyage to the Carolinas, and her hard landing at an indigo plantation.

The story proceeds through the American Revolution (where Aminata is in the service of the British), to Nova Scotia where supporters of the British are settled, on to Sierra Leone where a new free colony is established, and finally to London where the Abolitionists have enlisted our heroine in their cause. I learned so much history from this book, and the writing was so wonderful.

thirteen moons...

I am racing the clock to finish the book Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier (who wrote Cold Mountain).  It is due back to the library tomorrow.  Okay, okay...so I've HAD three weeks to finish it, but I was reading something else for my book group and I have a puppy to look after, so give me a break.

Back to the book.  In it, we are following young Will, who at age 12 was bound to a merchant to work at an isolated trading post in Cherokee Indian country, circa 1830.  He falls in love with part-Indian Claire Featherstone, who he can't marry for a variety of reasons, including the fact that (in his state) whites are not permitted to marry anyone with even a drop of Indian blood.

The book is a fascinating look at the history of the time.  We meet such real folks as Davy Crockett, Andrew Jackson, and John C. Calhoun. Our young boy becomes a businessman and frontier lawyer, adopted son of an Indian leader named Bear, a lobbyist for his Indian family when the Removals start, and a lonely man forever searching for his Claire.  Some of my favorite lines from the book is:  “When all else is lost and gone forever, there is yearning. One of the few welcome lessons age teaches is that only desire trumps time."  Seems to be a theme with Frazier's writing...

book meme

Tinker has tagged me to do the "Grab the nearest book meme":

1. Grab the book nearest you.

2. Turn to page 123

3. Scroll down to the fifth line.

4. Post the next 3 lines on your blog.

Nearest book:  Mother's Milk by Edward St. Aubyn (on the Booker Prize short list)

Page 123, line 6-9:  He paused at the head of the broad white ladder that led down to the Tahiti Beach.  He could see Robert running back and forth with a bucket, trying to fill a leaking moat. Thomas was lying in his mother's arms, sucking his thumb, holding his raggie and watching Robert with his strange objective gaze.

Hmmm...

Haven't started this book yet but am anxious to.  It is described (in the book jacket) as: An up-to-the-minute dissection of the mores of child-rearing, marriage, adultery, and assisted suicide, Mother's Milk showcases St. Aubyn's luminous and acidic prose--and his masterful ability to combine the most excruciating pain with the driest comedy.

I have challenged myself to read all the Booker Prize shortlisted books.  The six shortlisted books were chosen from a longlist of 19 and are:

Desai, Kiran  The Inheritance of Loss - Hamish Hamilton
Grenville, Kate The Secret River  - Canongate
Hyland, M.J.  Carry Me Down - Canongate
Matar, Hisham  In the Country of Men  - Viking
St Aubyn, Edward Mother’s Milk - Picador
Waters, Sarah The Night Watch - Virago

I have Mother's Milk and The Secret River now...(wow the library was fast!) and am waiting on the rest.  Now I have to get reading!

I love Powell's...

If you've ever been to Portland, you know we have this fabulously cool bookstore called Powell's. It occupies an entire city block and is about 4 stories high.  Their claim to fame is that they carry both new and used books, so you can literally find anything there.

So, I bought several months worth of my book club's books there when we put together our list in January.  I always try to get a used copy from Powell's.  Anyway,  last month's selection was When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro (who won the Booker Prize for Remains of the Day). 

My used copy (from Powell's) was previously owned by someone who had lots to say about what he/she was reading.  It was full of underlinings of important points.  It was also full of comments ("he's in denial!" or "my suspiscion is he's actually insane" or "duh!") and also included smiley and frown-y faces for emphasis.  I felt as though I was reading the novel with a buddy...a buddy with a sense of humor!  I really looked forward to my friend's insertions. 

Now that I am starting this month's book group book, Our Lady of the Forest by David Guterson, I find that I really miss my invisible and anonymous reading companion.  I wish I could find out who he/she is so that I could tell them that I just want to buy their books directly from them. 

Alas, my current book is utterly unlined and un-commented.  :(

Mary Doria Russell...

I went to see Mary Doria Russell, author of The Sparrow, Children of God, and now A Thread of Grace (which is what we are reading for book group this month).

She was so smart, funny, fascinating, and fabulous! She is a paleo-anthropologist by training, and she is the most incredible writer. She was absolutely unafraid to speak frankly, but always with such humor.

One of the funniest moments was when a women in the front row had her cell phone go off for the second time in about 10 minutes. She said, "Let me talk to her..." She took the phone and said, "She can't talk right now. She's at this book signing and a very famous and important writer is talking to the group right now. So, STOP CALLING HER." Everyone in the room (about 60 people or more) were just howling with laughter. She held the phone out to the audience and everyone just cheered. What a laugh!

About 7 of us from book group went and it will give us so much more context for discussion when we meet this Saturday (at my house). And to think I almost didn't go...

memoirs of a geisha...

Margaret was asking me what I thought of the book, Memoirs of a Geisha, which was recently on my book list.  I have very mixed feelings.

I thought it was fairly well-written.  It was certainly a page-turner, at least in the beginning.  But I found myself getting horribly depressed by the story.

First of all, this little girl is about to lose her mother, so her father sells her (and another sister).  She goes to a geisha house; her sister is sold to be a prostitute.  Not very cheery.

Being a geisha is not exactly being a prostitute but more like a personal entertainment 'toy' for men.  She must learn to dance, to play a musical instrument, the 'fine art of conversation' (though none of the conversation was very interesting, certainly not educated or refined),  and how to drink lots of booze.

The girls virginity was sold at about 15, usually to some much older man...always to the highest bidder.  She just had to endure it.  Creepy, if you ask me.

When going out to clubs (excuse me, tea houses) with men, the women wouldn't be allowed to eat with them, only drink with them and entertain them.

Then, the way to really survive well as a geisha, was to get a man to be your sugar daddy. 

All this was disturbing as to what it said about women in Japanese society.

The fact that our heroine, Chiyo (who is renamed Sayuri), is doing all of this to be closer to 'The Director', who she met at age 9 and has been longing to sleep with ever since, is odd and slightly pathetic.  Is this a girl whose father sold her into slavery and is dying for the approval of an older man as a father-substitute?

The Director also has had the hots for her since then, too.  Even creepier.  Oh yeah, and he's married, but don't let that get in your way.  Most of these guys are married...going out with these other women at night while their wives sit home and wait.

Okay, so yes...the charm of the story wore off after the first bit.  I was interested in learning what a geisha was and it was enlightening on that point. 

The fact that this book was written by a man, who is apparently trying to pass off this life as 'glamorous' is a little absurd.  He/she also makes the point that being a geisha is not any different than a Western woman who is married to/lives with a wealthy man...implying that all these women are only in it for the money.  Excuse me?

I was slightly ticked off by this male view of a woman's role. 

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book for the most part.  I liked the character development and the stage set scenery.  But I don't agree that being a geisha is a glamorous life.  I find it sad.  Not that Japanese women of any sort had it that great...

Comments?

the good, the bad, and the ugly...

Wow.

This weekend was a high-to-low rollercoaster.  Dotted with meals involving turkey:  turkey sandwiches, turkey pot pie, turkey and mashed potatoes.

On Saturday morning, John and I went to a memorial service/brunch for our across-the-street neighbor of about 18 years.  He had been suffering from Alzheimer's for the past couple of years, living in an Alzheimer's Care Community.  It was truly a celebration of his life, and so was an uplifting experience for the most part. 

His daughter, Kitty, had recently recovered from a fight with Pancreatic Cancer (probably the deadliest cancer out there).  She was celebrating the fact that she had gone from a 5% chance of surviving for 5 years to an 85% chance of surviving 5 years.  She's a miracle!   We were happy to see all of the family, who live out of state.

NEXT...reading the newspaper, we read about a one-year-old boy who had drowned on Wednesday.  We immediately realized that it was the grandson of friends of ours.  How horrible!  Next Sunday is their annual Christmas Carol Party and we were planning on going.  Now, we're not sure that they will even have one.  The baby's funeral is on Saturday. 

Saturday night, we went out for Indian food (delicious!) and to see the movie, RENT.  Okay, so why was this movie a hit on Broadway for years and years?  It is about a bunch of friends that either:  have AIDS, are heroin addicts, refuse to get real jobs, totally diss anyone who actually is responsible and has a job, hate their parents (for no apparent reason) and on and on.  How do I identify with any of them? 

Sunday was somewhat better.  The kids were doing well when we made our Sunday morning phone calls.  My Mother-in-Law was in good spirits and was able to have good movement of her knee, when we went to visit her.   I finished reading Memoirs of a Geisha and restarted reading the newest Harry Potter.  John and Ross got the Christmas lights up and the house looks cheery and nice.

And now, I am headed into the kitchen to finish up the turkey soup...

buddhism, celibacy? is that right?

I am reading this Scottish book, Buddha Da, and I am truly enjoying it. The main character, a Glasgow housepainter, has just notified his already-upset-at-his-new-religious-tendencies wife that he has decided to be celibate for 'awhile' so that he can be more 'clear'.

Huh?

I think I would react the same way she most understandably does. I would go ballistic.

I have done a bit of studying of Buddhist philosophy and I have not come across this. But let me just say, this seems to be a way to break up a marriage, fast.

Of course, our hero is making a fundamental error here. He is missing the essential key quality of having balance in his life. He is trading in his relationships with his wife, daughter, brother, and friends for some sort of hoped-for spiritual payoff. Have not read the conclusion yet, but if this writer is as good as the reviews have said, I am sure it will be a doozy.

In other news, my mom-in-law is moving into a different apartment at her senior living facility on Monday, and expecting to get phone service next Wednesday. She thought that the phone company would deliver a phone to her. Obviously, the last time she ordered phone service, something was very different. I will be running out and trying to find her a decent phone between now and Wednesday, I guess.