BOOKS: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collings

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

My rating: 3 of 5 stars






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Compelling story (read all 3 books in a day) but completely harsh and brutal. I just don't think I could recommend this to anyone. It was just so terribly disturbing. The idea of young kids killing each other for entertainment was beyond repulsive.  However, it was well-written and had a strong/likeable female main character. I'm torn between rating it a "1" or a "5".
 

BOOKS: The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Very fun and easy read!  I loved how she built such an engaging story around an old fairytale theme. 



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BOOKS: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Excellent book! I'm glad I finally decided to give it a chance. 



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BOOK: The Origins of the British People by Stephen Oppeneimer

The Origins of the British: A Genetic Detective Story by Stephen Oppenheimer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A fascinating look at ancient British history. 



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BOOKS: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars





I was reluctant to read this since it was set as a series of letters.  I'm glad I finally did though.  It was a very sweet story. 



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BOOKS: The Boy Who Harnassed the Wind by William Kamkwamba

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba

My rating: 5 of 5 stars




Favorite Quote:  "If you want to make it, all you have to do is try."



Thoughts:  This was an amazing story about a poor African boy who survived a famine, had to drop out of school for financial reasons and then educated himself through the village's library.  He built a windmill and wired lights in his house with scraps. He eventually accomplished his dream of developing a water pump for his family and his village. His hopeful spirit shines through this book.  



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BOOKS: The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama

The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Sweet and uplifting story.  Promoted values and maintaining strong family ties. Also emphasized the importance of compromise and respect for relationships to succeed.  Loved the main characters and the multicultural Indian setting. Am looking forward to future books!



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BOOKS: Finding Ben by Barbara Lasalle

Finding Ben : A Mother's Journey Through the Maze of Asperger's by Barbara LaSalle

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book was an incredibly honest portrayal of the author's feelings. I can definitely relate to the frustration and disappointment involved with raising a child/adolescent with undiagnosed Asperger's.  It seems like your entire life revolves around the questions:  "What is wrong with my child?" and "What can I do to fix it?". It is even harder when others wonder, sometimes accusingly, why your child acts so different sometimes.

Anyway, the book was very well-written and very honest.  I admire the fact that the author was willing to publish the reality of her shame and disgust.   It's easy to be critical of that.  My daughter was higher functioning and we had an incredible amount of support from various family members and our synagogue.  This really was about her search and desperation to love and appreciate the beauty in her son.   And that was very touching and beautiful.  

I most enjoyed her writing about her visits with Jack and their conversation about the beauty and poetry of people on the out.  That section alone would make this book well worth reading.  



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BOOKS: Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl by Kate McCafferty

Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl by Kate McCafferty

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Interesting Read. Recently discovered that one of my ancestors was kidnapped from Scotland as a young girl and sold into indentured service around 1690. I was astounded by the numbers of people who kidnapped from Ireland and Scotland and forced to become indentured servants.  Almost unbelievable!  Am also planning to read "The Kitchen House" by Kathleen Grissom. It's a similar story that takes place in Virginia and has some excellent reviews.



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BOOKS: A Monk Jumped Over a Wall by Jay Nussbaum

A Monk Jumped over a Wall by Jay Nussbaum

My rating: 4 of 5 stars






I liked the message about trying to find your own path in life by following your own voice instead of the voices of others. 

I also loved the section where J.J.'s realizes that he hasn't heard his own voice for a long time and identifies the voices that have been guiding his path:

         1.  His mother's:  "what are you waiting for, a round of applause?"
         2.  His father's:  "Why was I cursed with this family of losers?"

Then, J.J. finally remembers his old mentor's advice:  "You can spend the rest of your life trying to get even with a memory, or you can just tell him to [****:] off.   It's a little crude but the advice is right on the money.   



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BOOKS: The Way Home by George Pelecanos

The Way Home by George P. Pelecanos

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I was torn on how to rate this book.   I gave it a 2 for the depressing storyline.  I like books that have an inner sense of hope in them.   But it also deserved a 5 for the thought-provoking ideas.  It was an odd story with an interesting perspective on the juvenile prison system.   It reminded me of some stuff I'd read in Foucault's "Discipline and Punish".  I really should read that again.   Anyway, it really does make one wonder about the effectiveness of our current prison system.  But, while it's easy to think "That seems so cruel---we should make the system better", it's not that easy to come up with a workable solution.  Something needs to be done about it, but what?   It's really quite disturbing to think about. 



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BOOKS: Know Your Power by Nancy Pelosi

Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters by Nancy Pelosi

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Interesting bit of light reading.  While I don't care for her political extremism I do consider her to be a brilliant politician.  I enjoyed this book because it seemed to reveal her witty sense of humor about herself. It humanized her for me. 



I only rated it a "2" because it was a very quick, light read and the contents didn't seem to match up with the title.   It was more of a mini-biography.   I liked it but I wish there would have been more to it.



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BOOKS: No Graves as Yet by Anne Perry

No Graves As Yet by Anne Perry

My rating: 3 of 5 stars





I liked her description of the idealism and innocence that was so prevalent before World War 1. It was such a contrast to the pervasive cynicism and devastation during and after the war.  It just seemed like such an unnecessary war.


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BOOKS: A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


 



Main Idea:  In order to write fiction, women must have money and rooms of their own.  This will help give them a bit of time and space to think, dream and write.
 
Favorite Quote:  "I find myself saying briefly and prosaically that it is much more important to be oneself than anything else.  Do not dream of influencing other people, I would say, if I knew how to make it sound exalted.  Think of things in themselves."

Thoughts:  This awesome little book was based on some lectures she gave in 1928.  Wouldn't it have been fun to have been able to attend one?   I wonder:   Was she was as good of a speaker as she was a writer? 

There was a small section that really interested me.   She wrote a bit on the differences in the poetry before and after World War I.   She mentioned that the war tore apart the illusions of the romantic view on life and that the underlying music of everyday life changed forever.  

She wrote, "  The very reason why the poetry excites one to such abandonment, such rapture, is that it celebrates some feeling that one used to have (at luncheon parties before the war perhaps), so that one responds easily, familiarly, without troubling to check the feeling, or to compare it with any that one has now.  But the living poets express a feeling that is actually being made and torn out of us at the moment.  One does not recognize it in the first place; often for the reason one fears it;  one watches it with keenness and compares it jealously and suspiciously with the old feeling that one knew."

Doesn't that just resonate with the before and after of any personal traumatic event?   This vivid description applies to both personal and communal traumatic events.   World War I fascinates me because it completely destroyed a way of life and set in motion the events that led to the modern era.   Romanticism died during the war and a cold, depressing realism took over.  

In this book, Virginia Woolf asks "Shall we lay the blame on the war?"  Then, she has a nifty paragraph asking if "blame" was the right word.  She asks, "Why, if it was an illusion, not praise the catastrophe, whatever it was, that destroyed illusion and put truth in its place?"  Isn't that a good question?  Romanticism may be stirring and fun and invoke powerful feelings of pride and glory.  But Truth comes back to remind one that it is all Illusion.   War is not a glorious adventure.  It is a tremendously horrid tragedy that may be necessary at times.   

There are so many lessons to be learned from the two World Wars. One lesson was about war in general.  War is horrid and should not be entered into lightly. World War I taught us to not be so eager to jump into an unnecessary war.   The death and destruction was overwhelmingly immense.   Yet, World War II taught us to not be so eager to avoid a necessary war.  The death and destruction was even more overwhelming and immense. 

However, the greatest lesson was learning how quickly we can shed civilized behavior and descend into chaos and unimagined brutality.  Decent people became nightmarish savages. Civilization keeps us in check but it can be ripped away so easily.   As Anne Perry wrote:  "We must grasp civilization...., pay any price to keep it for ourselves and those who come after us.  Guard the gates of sanity so madness does not return."   




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BOOKS: A Woman In Charge by Carl Bernstein (on Hillary Clinton)

A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton by Carl Bernstein

My rating: 4 of 5 stars





This was a fascinating look at Hillary Clinton.  The book did a great job of showing her intelligence and strength.   It also showed how her arrogance, mistakes and stubbornness hurt her husband's presidency.  It also showed how she changed over time. She learned from her mistakes.  She grew to appreciate the value of having a favorable relationship with the media.  It's too bad she didn't learn that one earlier.  She offended them so badly and they never really forgave her for it.  They were really quite brutal to her for a long time.  She also learned how to play the Washington Game instead trying to succeed as a pushy outsider. Once again, it was another lesson that was learned too late in her husband's presidency.   Her health care plan may have had better success if she'd had more political savvy back then and been willing to work with people outside the White House.  I also admire her for keeping her religious beliefs private.  She met regularly with a prayer group for support and comfort but didn't try to use that for political gain.     

The book spent a lot of time discussing how she dealt with her husband's womanizing.   She was publicly humiliated for years and still stood by him.  Was that good or bad?  Who knows?  It was her business.  I personally didn't care about the whole Monica Lewinsky thing other than being annoyed by all the fuss over it.   Powerful men are in a setting where it's easy to cheat.  It seems fairly common.  It's not that big a deal to me.  While I don't approve of adultery and would have left his cheating arse in Arkansas, it wasn't my marriage.   She was also from a different generation than me.  It's too bad the country didn't hear more about her fairly traditional values at the time.  The public probably wouldn't have been so harsh on her.  Of course, I think a lot of that came from the media's vicious treatment of her.

It's a bit disturbing how powerful our media is in this country.  I'm all for the freedom of the press. But, it's a little frightening how they can exploit some issues to stir up a public frenzy and yet basically ignore other equally ( or even more) important issues.   I don't like the way they turn on some people and do everything they can to ruin and destroy their lives.   They can turn a minor inquiry into a witchhunt and nobody seems to care.  




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BOOKS: Going Rogue by Sarah Palin

Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This was a fascinating look at a strong lady who has endured a tremendous amount of undeserved bashing from the media. While I disagree with many of her political ideas, I am disappointed that this country's feminists did not stand up and defend her and her daughters against some very vicious sexist attacks. Her personal stories were engaging and sometimes surprising. It was an enjoyable read and I believe it gave me some perspective on a strong and unfortunately polarizing political figure. She has earned my respect and I hope that she keeps on fighting.

Don't get me wrong. I have no desire to see her run for president. We disagree on too many issues. However, I am appalled at the level of poisonous garbage that she was treated with in an effort to utterly destroy her. Why attack her shoes and clothes? Would a male politician be attacked for the type of suit he was wearing? Why put a picture of her in running shorts on the cover of Newsweek? Would they make a male politician resemble a bimbo cheerleader? Why attack her kids, especially her baby with Down Syndrome? Don't make her out to be stupid. She's not. She's bright, witty and obviously connects well with a lot of American conservative women. The attacks were offensive, base, senseless and wrong.

There are plenty of legitimate issues to attack her on. The media doesn't have to go insane and create false or unnecessarily cruel ones. She has little high-level political experience (none at the national level) and probably destroyed any reasonable chance of running for president when she resigned as Alaska's governor. Sure, she had good reasons on why she quit her only major political office. She and her family have my sympathy. I think it's great that she put her family before her job. That doesn't mean I would support her to run for an office I don't believe she could handle. She doesn't have the experience.  She also doesn't seem to have the willingness to set her families' needs aside to accomplish her political goals (not necessarily a bad thing-----I admire her for doing that). I just don't agree with how the media has treated her or her family.



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MOVIES: Freedom Writers

Average of 1,684,428 ratings:

4 stars 

 

This was an inspiring story and an awesome movie. I loved the part where Mrs. Grewell tells Andre "You're not failing.  I see you!"  That reminded me of some stuff from Martin Buber. She didn't see them as dangerous, troubled losers or as lost causes. She also didn't just see them as a group of students in her class. She saw them individually.   She did more than just try to teach a class. She interacted with them as people she liked and respected.   She engaged herself with them and ended up bringing a little bit of healing to a broken part of the world.  That was an amazing thing.

I do wish the movie had done one thing differently though. I wish they wouldn't have portrayed her fellow teachers as as horrible, selfish, hardened people who didn't care about their students. Maybe they were more calloused from teaching there for so long (who wouldn't be?). Yet, they stayed on teaching there while the heroine of the movie leaves after a few years to follow her students to college. It was awesome that she was able to connect with her students like she did. It just seems that the other teachers, especially the long-term ones, deserved more respect than the movie showed. They have a tough job in an environment that I can't even begin to fathom. Wouldn't you have to have some element of caring to stay on in those positions for so long?

Of course these kids deserve more than what they're getting. Every American child should have adequate educational supplies, proper books and a safe school environment that actively encourages them to succeed. We are failing to provide that. There are too many areas of our country where our children are suffering and are being destroyed by their environment. The level of need is so incredibly great that it seems hopeless. But, is that the fault of the teachers who are working in an almost impossible situation? No, it is more than that. It's also more than the system. The sad truth is that it is us. We should care more. Every one of us should be so outraged that we should be demanding more from our government for our children. But we're not. Maybe we're just as indifferent as the teachers they portrayed in the movie. And in the meantime we are failing our kids miserably.

There is a comic strip by Jim Borgman:
It takes a whole village to raise a child.
But the village is on crack.
The village is ruled by gangs.
The village doesn't know it's a village.
And the children aren't children anymore.

QUOTE: Humankind

Humankind: Be Both

This was an awesome bumper sticker quote! I had to get it for my car.

BOOKS: Dreams from My Father by Barak Obama

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a surprisingly good book and one of the best memoirs I've read. The title, "Dreams from my Father" is interesting because his father is remarkably absent from the book. Yet, that absence and his idealized version of his father does seem to have a powerful influence on his life choices. I could be reaching something into it, but i had the sense of someone trying to get a sense on an elusive and distant part of his life. He doesn't discuss his maternal family much. Most of the the book seems centered on his journey to connect with father's family in Kenya. Yet, those of us who have missing or hidden parts of our heritage can relate to the desire to discover that missing part of us.

An underlying theme of anger and bitterness seems to run through the book. It isn't really an acute sense of anger but rather the crippling frustration and bitterness that being powerless can cause. Of course, his experience is about being black in a white-dominated culture. However, he describes so well the mixed feelings of anyone who has had their dignity crushed by the ignorance or mistaken opinions of someone in power.

It is hard enough to be hurt by an individual. It is so much greater when it is the power of the system bringing harm. Along with the hurt, it is agonizing to have your justifiable anger and frustration at the situation being misinterpreted and used against you. It is just another bitter reminder of the overwhelming cruelty of the system. I'm not sure what is worse, the incident itself or the bitter realization that there is nothing you can say or do to help alleviate the situation except to play along with those in power.

There seems to be a deep scarring that never goes away. The pain fades but there is always a sense of unease that remains whenever a reminder of that unjust system is encountered. How can there not be? The trust has been shattered. One can be civil and friendly but never totally relaxed. The littlest thing can trigger a remembrance of the humiliation and frustrating sense of powerlessness. And, I think, the intense depth of this is difficult to understand except for those who have experienced it.









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BOOKS: Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay

Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fun walk through the origins of colors used in dyes, paints, etc. The history and the descriptions of her journeys to the various ancient sources of different colors were fascinating. However, I do question the wisdom of traveling to the saffron fields in Iran, the lapis lazuli mines in Afghanistan, and coastal Lebanon (in search of purple dye from shellfish) considering the current turmoil in those areas.



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BOOKS: A Guide to the Birds of East Africa

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


What a delightful and heart-warming story!  It was filled with likable people, a sweet story line, and bits of Kenyan history.  I also enjoyed the info/descriptions of the various birds of Kenya. The book cover gives and excellent description:  "A beguiling novel that does for contemporary Kenya and its 1000 species of birds what Alexander McCall Smith's Ladies Detectives series does for Botswana".



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BOOK: Terror and Consent by Philip Bobbitt

Terror and Consent : The Battle for the Twenty-first Century by Philip Bobbitt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I started writing this post last year and couldn't find an adequate way to finish it. I just couldn't consolidate my thoughts enough to put it together and show how impressed I was by the ideas presented in it. Since then, as I have watched the changes and discussions taking place in the U.S. and in Europe, I have been even more impressed. I would highly recommend it for anyone who would like some insight into recent political and economic events and also the increasingly bitter and polarizing divisiveness that seems to be tearing our county apart.



It saddens me to see the increasing anxiety and fearfulness about the economy and the future of our country that I see in myself and in others. This seems concerning because historically most countries have not made the wisest choices when their people have been afraid and anxious about their future.



Anyway, it was a fascinating book about how the nature of terrorism has changed in response to the market states beginning to emerge from the current order of constitutional nation states. I also enjoyed his previous book "The Shield of Achilles" (about how the types of legitimate orders of states have changed over time.).



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MOVIES: Shall We Dance?

You rated this movie: 4

Average of 229,072 ratings:

3.8 stars

I just finished watching the original Japanese version of this movie. I enjoyed the American version but the story seemed to make more sense in it's original Japanese setting. Afterwords, I had to wonder what had impressed me so much about the movie (in both versions). The storyline and the acting were "ok" but they weren't anything spectacular. Yet, there was an idea behind it that was somehow captivating.

Perhaps, I enjoyed watching the story of a likable, dedicated and serious man who loves his family but is discontent with his life. There isn't anything specifically wrong except the sense that something is missing. Then, he suddenly finds something that brings him to life. At first, he mistakenly believes another woman can fill the emptiness. Then he explores his passion for dance alone without involving his family and without realizing the effects his distance is having on his family. He is generally more alive but something is still "off" because he has shut his family out of this "shameful" part of his life. He eventually comes to realize that his passion for dance can actually bring his family closer together.

He realized he was wrong about his idea of having to choose between his family and dance. It wasn't about leaving one option in order to find happiness in the other. He discovered he was most fulfilled when he involved his family with his passion for dance. This is when he finally becomes the man he has always wanted to be.

THOUGHTS: Facebook and an Old Friend

What a joy it is to unexpectedly meet up with an old friend! My family lost contact with a dear friend a few years ago (due to various moves along with email and phone changes on both our parts). Every so often we would hopefully ask each other if we've heard from her and we were saddened when we had not. We tried various searches without success.

Then, fairly recently, I joined Facebook on a whim. I had seen our son using the program and had assumed it was mainly for teens and young adults. However, after noticing a few friends at work using the program, I thought I would check it out. It has been awesome! I have been amazed at the number of old friends from high school who have contacted me. Also, it has reunited us with our lost friend/sister. A few days after signing up, I was surprised to see a message from her! Of course, I immediately called my parents. They were so excited that they let their breakfast burn because they were so eager to check their computer for messages. Facebook has been such fun and easy way to keep in contact with people.

BOOKS: The Israelis by Donna Rosenthal

The Israelis: Ordinary People in an Extraordinary Land by Donna Rosenthal

My rating: 3 of 5 stars





This was a great book that gives an overview of different types of Israelis.



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BOOKS: How To Cure A Fanatic by Amos Oz

How to Cure a Fanatic by Amos Oz

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This small book had some great thoughts in it. I liked the descriptions of the fanaticism in both Judaism and Islam. I also liked the advice for resolving the Israeli/Palestinian problem (involving a two-state solution).

He gave a good description of the complexity of the issue and the importance of painful compromises on both sides. I really liked his description of the land of Israel as a house with two families fighting over ownership and that a solution would be painful and complex (similar to a divorce).

He wrote that learning how to have a sense of humor and to be able to imagine the other were important preparations for compromise. He also recommended using literature to learn how to imagine the other's situation. That advice would probably apply in all sorts of life-situations. Anyway, it was an interesting little book.

THINGS I LIKED:
1. The description of the complexity of the issue

2. The section on Jewish and Islamic fanaticism

MAIN IDEAS:

1. The need for a two-state solution

2. The importance of painful compromises for both sides

3. Important preparations for compromise include having a sense of humor and having the ability to imagine "the other".

4. Literature can be used to learn how to imagine the other's situation.

Favorite Quotes:

"The essence of fanaticism lies in the desire to force other people to change."

"And if you promise to take what I'm about to say with a big pinch of salt, I think I have invented the remedy for fanaticism. A sense of humor is a great cure. I have never once in my life seen a fanatic with a sense of humor, nor have I ever seen a person with a sense of humor become a fanatic, unless he or she has lost that sense of humor. Fanatics are often sarcastic. Some of them have a very pointed sense of sarcasm, but no humor. Humor contains the ability to laugh at ourselves. Humor is relativism, humor is the ability to see yourself as others see you, humor is the capacity to realize that no matter how righteous you are and how terribly wronged you have been, there is a certain side to life that is always a bit funny."

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BOOKS: The Blessing of a Skinned Knee by Wendy Mogel

The Blessing of a Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children by Wendy Mogel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



What an interesting book! I wish I would have read this when my children were younger. I love its moderate approach to raising children. However, my favorite quotes were about Jewish living in general.


Quotes:

pg. 34 "The three cornerstone principles of Jewish living are moderation, celebration, and sanctification. Through these principles we can achieve a balanced life, no matter what culture we happen to inhabit. The Jewish way is to continually study, learn, question, and teach these principles."

pg. 34 "The principle of moderation teaches us to do two seemingly incompatible things at once: to passionately embrace the material world that God has created.........while exercising self-discipline."

pg. 34 "We are obliged to embrace God's gifts moderately but enthusiastically; in other words, we are obliged to give thanks and to party."

pg. 38 "What's the most important moment in Jewish history? The giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai? The parting of the Red Sea? No. Right now. This is the most important moment in Jewish history.

pg.59 "Jewish wisdom teaches us not to hold ourselves apart from the community but to use it for support and learning."

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Work Pictures

PRIMARY CHILDREN'S MEDICAL CENTER

I Work on the 4th (top) Floor. It has a gorgeous view of the Salt Lake Valley!

At the Bedside......

MOVIES: Gaza Strip and Paradise Now

These movies were disturbing. It is hard to see people living in those horrible conditions. There is a lack of good jobs, decent housing, safe living conditions, and all those things that give one a sense of dignity. It is sad to see a lack of reasonable hope that things can change for the better. Desperation can drive people to do horrible things in order to bring change. It's just so terribly heart-wrenching.

GAZA STRIP (2002): The children in the movie troubled me the most. The adults would talk about wanting peace but their children are encouraged to fight Israeli soldiers. A few children talked about how their dad's tied them up in their bedrooms to try and keep them safe. They were quite proud of how they went to throw stones anyway. The kids also talked about their dead or injured friends.

It makes me ill to think of children being used as propaganda tools to demonstrate how terrible Israelis are. It is also sad to think that these angry and desperate children from 2002 are just about to turn into angry and desperate adults.

PARADISE NOW (2005): Also disturbing. It is inconceivable how anyone can possibly think that violence can solve the problem. It only adds more misery to a horrific situation.

BOOKS: Entering the High Holy Days by Reuven Hammer

Entering the High Holy Days: A Guide to Origins, Themes, and Prayers by Reuven Hammer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


 


I really enjoyed this book! The High Holy Days always seemed kind of boring and morbid to me. I didn't realize that there was such an emphasis on appreciating life. I liked the idea of using this time to contemplate the previous year and to evaluate ourselves and see what could be changed for the better. That makes sense and doesn't seem morbid at all!

Some quotes from pg. 36:

• "Indeed, life and death are the overriding concerns of these days. Rosh Hashanah emphasizes life and its renewal; Yom Kippur deals with death and renunciation, but only so that we may return to life purified and reinvigorated. Together, these two holy days help us realize that life is God's most precious gift and humankind's most precious possession........"

• "This festival of life resensitizes us and renews our commitment to life."
  

• "These Days of Awe teach us to appreciate the gift of life and to affirm the freedom and responsibility of each human being to conduct his or her life with morality and decency as God has taught us. They confirm for us that what we do or do not do matters, and they make us aware how easily we can stray and how possible it is to change, to improve and remake our lives."
  

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BOOKS: God in Search of Man by Abraham Joshua Heschel

God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism by Abraham Joshua Heschel

My rating: 3 of 5 stars




I had a TON of quotes marked in this book, but here are a few of my favorites:

pg. 423  "Why is our belonging to the Jewish people a sacred relation?.........For us Jews there can be no fellowship with God without the fellowship with the people Israel. Abandoning Israel, we desert God.
Jewish existence is not only the adherence to particular doctrines and observances, but primarily the living in the spiritual order of the Jewish people, the living in the Jews of the past, and with the Jews of the present..........Our share in holiness we acquire by living in the Jewish community. what we do as individuals is a trivial episode, what we attain as Israel causes us to grow into the infinite."

pg. 312  "No one is lonely when doing a mitsvah, for a mitsvah is where God and man meet. We do not meet Him in the way in which we meet things of space. To meet Him means to come upon an inner certainty of His realness, upon an awareness of His will. Such meeting, such presence, we experience in deeds."

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BOOKS: Man is Not Alone by Abraham Joshua Heschel

Man Is Not Alone : A Philosophy of Religion by Abraham Joshua Heschel

My rating: 3 of 5 stars




Some Quotes:

pg. 89  "The greatest obstacle to faith is the inclination to be content with half-truths and half-realities."

pg. 90  "It is not an attitude of detachment from reality, of passive absorption or of self-annihilation, but rather the ability to witness the holy within this world's affairs, and to entertain a feeling of shame and discontent with living without faith, without responsiveness to the holy."

pg. 90  "By foregoing beauty for goodness, power for love, grief for gratitude, by entreating the Lord for help to understand our hopes, for strength to resist our fears, we may receive a gentle sense of the holiness permeating the air like a strangeness that cannot be removed. Our crying out of pitfalls of self-indulgence for purity of devotion will prepare the dawn of faith."

pg. 91  "Responsiveness to God cannot be copied; it must be original with every soul."

pg. 92  "God is not an explanation of the world's enigmas or a guarantee for our salvation. He is an eternal challenge, an urgent demand. He is not a problem to be solved but a question addressed to us as individuals, as nations, as mankind."

pg. 98  "We are driven to know God in order to conform to His ways."

pg. 108  "God cannot be distilled to a well-defined idea. All concepts fade when applied to His essence."

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BOOKS: Jewish with Feeling by Rabbi Zalman Shacter-Shalomi

 Jewish With Feeling: A Guide to Meaningful Jewish Practice by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



 

This was a nice book. I was curious about the Renewal Movement and I'm glad I read this. My favorite parts?

1. WRESTLING WITH BIG QUESTION

pg. 33  "The Jewish path toward answers, as we know, lies in asking more questions. Not just any questions, but the big questions, the ones that are nearest our hearts............Asking important questions is far more important than answering them, and of course no one can ask your questions for you, far less answer them. For the searching soul any answer sooner or later begins to stale anyway. What I will try to do in this book is to suggest ways in which Judaism.....might help you wrestle with your questions---after all, we Jews have been wrestlers since our forefather Jacob took on the angel---and help you, too, to deepen your quest and fill it with joy."

I loved the part about Jacob wrestling with the angel and relating that to our wrestling with questions. That idea really clicked with me. It's kind of validating to know that it's ok to ask questions. It's even to better to think that the questions might be more important than the answers. This next quote is a good follow-up on the first.

pg. 192  "In our daily and democratic grappling with our sacred texts we were never content to leave divine revelation up to heaven; Torah, for us, belongs here on earth. Unlike Islam, which comes from the word for surrender, Jews surrender nothing to God. Our ancestor Jacob received the name Israel because he wrestled with God (Genesis 32:28): that is what yisra-el means."

2. THE SABBATH

pg. 36  ".....if you want to get more Judaism into your life, start with some form of Shabbos practice, maybe just twenty minutes or an hour at first, but ultimately building toward taking a day of rest each week to reconnect to more natural rhythms."

pg. 62  "Spiritual gains should not come at emotional expense. Trying any new activity can rock the family boat at first. Discuss these issues beforehand to prepare the ground, and start small. Go at a pace that everyone can handle. Developing re-ensoulment skills takes time."

I liked the idea in the chapter of slowly making the Sabbath more meaningful to us. I also like the emphasis on the family's well-being, not just an individual's.


3. WHY BE JEWISH?

pg. 196  "The answer we have offered to "Why be Jewish?" then, is that Judaism has many deep teachings to offer that we still need today:

• Judaism reminds us to recalibrate ourselves by nature's clock.
• Judaism teaches us conscious consumption.
• Judaism urges us to maintain a living dialogue with the texts that are the beating heart of our culture.
• Judaism demands here-on-earth spirituality.
• Judaism helps us maintain faith and a connection to God despite powerlessness and uncertainty.

These treasures are the birthright of each and every one of us. For all these reasons, we can be proud of our heritage and feel that it is still something that the world needs."

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CHECK IT OUT! Legally Blonde and Spiritually Buber

I just read a really cool review (by Elisa Albert)!

http://www.jewcy.com/feature/2007-05-17/legally_blonde_and_spiritually_buber


I loved this article. Why?

• I read Buber's I and Thou and was TOTALLY confused by it.
  
• I liked the Legally Blonde movies. Sure--they were unrealistic and a bit goofy--but they were still fun to watch.
  
• The review was interesting, original, funny, and quite insightful.
  

Some cool quotes:

• "Buber's concept of the I/Thou relationship "stresses mutual, holistic existence without qualification or objectification of the other." In simplist terms, this means being a really nice person, giving others the benefit of the doubt, and treating people like the complicated, meaningful beings they invariably are. It means being Elle-like."

• "Giving people what you think they want (based on your classifications of them) is to reduce them to "it". Being fully yourself and offering your full self to unclassifiable others: totally "thou"."

• "At Harvard, Elle faces the specter of yet more I/it. She's mocked and reviled at every turn........Her classmates preen and posture, fulfilling their own odious stereotypes.......But, our Elle guilelessly refuses to reduce her peers to their obvious categorizations (the "it" of them), and relate to them as such. She relates to them firmly in her own self, open to them all, wearing her signature pink..........resolutely unaware of the raging "it" to which she herself is constantly being reduced."

• "Elle Woods ultimately triumphs personally and professionally because she never stops looking at the world through her own eyes, with her own humanity intact, so that what's reflected back at her is yet more actual humanity."
  

CHECK IT OUT! 6 Strategies for Achieving Misery

This article, by Sol Herzig, was very funny and (sadly enough) very true.

http://www.aish.com/jewlariousFeatures/jewlariousFeaturesDefault/Six_Simple_Strategies_for_Achieving_Misery.asp

I think the opening line tells it all: "The sobering fact is that serenity and joy are natural states for us all. Fear not. Practiced regularly, these strategies vastly improve our odds of attaining despair."

POEM: Like the Inner Wall of a House by Yehuda Amichai

I read a poem: Like the Inner Wall of a House by Yehuda Amichai
The first stanza caught me:

"I found myself
Suddenly, and too early in life,
Like the inner wall of a house
Which has become an outside wall after wars and devastations.
I almost forget
How it is to be inside. No pain anymore,
No love. Near and far
Are both at the same distance from me
And equal."

That’s a very striking image that I can relate to. I think anyone who has been hurt badly as a child feels damaged, exposed, and numb. Very numb. And with so little remaining of what used to be.

This is so backwards from how I used to picture this. Before this poem, my own images personal images were different. One involved a pretty room with the window and door bricked over with heavy stone. Another image included a house with burned out, empty rooms but a normal, average-looking exterior. But, an exposed inner wall of a house? This is a new perspective. Yes, I definitely could explore this poem more!

QUOTE: From Shammai

"Say little and do much; and greet everyone cheerfully" by Shammai
(in What is a Jew? by Rabbi Morris Kertzer, pg. 19)

BOOKS: Power, Faith, and Fantasy by Michael Oren

Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present by Michael B. Oren

My rating: 5 of 5 stars






This was a fascinating book! Here are just a few thoughts I had about this incredible book:

1. I was appalled by the Armenian massacres. It was disturbing that the Turks were focused on genocide and their killing methods seemed to be a chilling precursor to the Jewish Holocaust. (such as Armenians packed into railroad boxcars and deported to execution sites). As an ally of Turkey during the First World War, Germany would have known of these things. They also would have witnessed the rest of the western world, while horrified by the brutality of the massacres, refusing to get involved in stopping the killings.

2. I was surprised at the huge amount of interest that Christian missionary thought had over American policies in the Middle East, especially in the State Department. It was also surprising to see how many important people were influenced more by One Thousand and One Arabian Nights than with reality when dealing with the Middle East. It's no wonder our government had so many difficulties in that region!



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My Scooter and Me

I had a lot of fun today learning how to drive my new scooter around the Albertson's parking lot. I was starting to make it up to 15 mph! LOL. We mostly worked on my cornering and braking. My husband has an awful lot of patience sometimes!

MOVIES: The Shoah

You rated this movie: 3

Average of 35,700 ratings:

3.9 stars

I've read a lot of books about the Holocaust since I was a kid. Each book seemed to contribute another small piece of horror to an already overwhelmingly horrible database of knowledge. This film, through the eyewitness accounts, has shown me some things that had really seemed inconceivable to me in the past.

There are two different interview that come to mind. The first involved some Polish farmers around either Chelmo or Treblinka (I've forgotten which one). The second involved some Polish townspeople near one of the extermination camps.

The interview with the Polish farmers was in Part 1. The part of the interview that really disturbed me (besides the horror of the killings that went on there) was the attitudes of a few of the men they interviewed. They talked about how horrible it was, etc. but their facial expressions and general attitudes were happy. They were saying the right things, but they were smiling and laughing with each other as they remembered the trains pulling up with people waiting to be killed. It doesn't seem possible that someone would be able to smile and joke around as they remembered this.


The second interview that disturbed me was one where some Polish townspeople near one of the extermination camps (maybe Chelmo?) where gathered around a survivor who had returned to the area. They were happy to see him and talked about his beautiful singing as a boy and how wonderful it was to see him. Then at the end of that part of the interview, as they are still standing around him, the interviewer asks them why they think the Holocaust happens. Then, as this survivor continues to smile uneasily, the townspeople start going on about how the Jews died in the Holocaust because they had killed Jesus. One man told a "true story" about how a group of Jews were gathered in the village square and while they were waiting for the Nazis to take them away, their rabbi announces that they deserved this because they had taken the blood of the innocent Christ on their heads. This man really believed this story was true. The people really believed the theory behind it was true. And, the whole time that they're talking about this, the survivor is standing and smiling uncomfortably in the middle of them. It is bad enough to read about this stuff and wonder how people can possibly believe some of the ridiculous, yet very dangerous, things about the Jews. It is another thing altogether to actually listen to people spouting off these things that they obviously believe deeply. And all this is after witnessing some of the most horrible things people can witness.

BOOKS: God in Our Relationships by Rabbi Dennis Ross

God in Our Relationships: Spirituality Between People from the Teachings of Martin Buber by Dennis S. Ross

My rating: 4 of 5 stars




I really enjoyed reading this book. I was totally confused by Martin Buber's I and Thou, but this book helped clear up some of the confusion. I really liked the stuff about relationships.

One of my favorite passages starts on pg. 92:
"Maintaining an I-Thou relationship is an ongoing effort, not a final destination." (That seems true for most of the Jewish ideas I've been reading about lately!) "It is a process, not a product; a risky way of living but the only honest life............The only security in I-Thou is in continually accepting the insecurity, making peace with the risk."

The idea that struck me most from reading this book was that I am much more comfortable with an I-It relationship than with an I-Thou one. Anyway, there were a lot of great ideas in this book about relationships and dealing with the Real World that just made a lot of sense. I'm going to have to give some of this stuff a lot more thought. 




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BOOKS: In the Image by Dara Horn

In the Image by Dara Horn

My rating: 3 of 5 stars





This was an intriguing book. The history and the emotional details were absorbing. I liked her theme of some people being tourists in their own lives and that we can stop being tourists by getting involved in relationships with other people. There is a really cool comment on the back flap of the book: "....people are not helplessly defined by their experiences, but ultimately shaped by how they react to them."



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INSIGHT: Life, Pain, and the Accident

The other day I was whining to myself about the pain from my left side. Then I realized something: IT'S BETTER THAN THE ALTERNATIVE! A few years ago, I was hit by a car while walking across a crosswalk. I was lucky. I could have easily died. Maybe I can't use my left side as well as I used to. Maybe the pain from my hip and shoulder is rather excruciating at times. But it's still better than being dead.

You know, just before that car struck me, I heard the engine rev up. In that brief second I was sure I was going to die. That experience changed me. I started to value Life. I had to reevaluate so many different things that I had taken for granted. I also started to value the little moments of time that can be wasted so easily. It's funny. This terrible accident that could have killed me actually made more alive. And while I certainly wish the accident had never happened, it really doesn't do any good to dwell on something that can't be changed. Anyway, in a really weird way, the constant pain is a constant reminder of the preciousness of life.

BOOKS: As A Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg

As a Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg

My rating: 1 of 5 stars




It was hard to write an adequate review.  I was even torn on how many stars to rate it.  On on hand, it was engrossing and hard to put down. The whole struggle to find a solid personal philosophical/spiritual foundation in the middle of conflicting cultures and beliefs was fascinating. However, the book's ending was profoundly disappointing to me. Elisha (the main character) and many of his friends and family all suffer tragically from his decision to explore Greek and Roman philosophy.

Were his explorations wrong? It's hard for me to think that. I read this book a few years ago and have been wrestling with this question ever since. Is it wrong to be driven to search out truth? And yet [New Thought!], maybe it could be. Maybe it is wrong if one is so focused on finding truth that he is blinded to the injustice and oppression going on around him.

Maybe that's the key to the book. Elisha originally turned away from Judaism because he witnessed an act of injustice. Then, after a lifetime of exploring pagan philosophies, he realized that many of the attractive things associated with those philosophies were worthless because they ignored key concepts of justice and mercy. The ideas and truths were more important and more beautiful to those cultures than people were. Maybe it isn't wrong to search out religious truths, but it is wrong to be so focused on the quest for ideas and truths that we ignore the social injustices going on around us.

That reminds me of something else. I read somewhere that we shouldn't search out unanswerable questions about God. Maybe that's because it uses up our precious, limited time that we could be using to study things that we can find answers to. Things that help us to "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before our God".



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BOOKS: The Jew Store by Stella Suberman

The Jew Store by Stella Suberman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This was a very interesting family memoir. I'm glad I read it. I liked her father's quote "Know when you're happy and the rest is easy". This book made me uneasy though, because the family was so unhappy about leaving an area and a lifestyle they loved in order to accomplish some of the mother's religious goals. One of the study questions was about whether or not they should have left Concordia for New York City. That's actually a very hard question. Is it right to make the rest of the family unhappy in order to accomplish one person's religious goals? Even if those goals are considered to be good ones? It's sad that either way, someone was asked to sacrifice something that was very dear to them. One of the hard things about true family histories is that, even in retrospect, it can be very hard to see what should have been done since the issues involved are too complex to justify a simple answer.




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BOOKS: I and Thou by Martin Buber

 I and Thou by Martin Buber

My rating: 4 of 5 stars







Talk about a humbling experience! This book was WAY beyond me. It's been a long time since I've finished a book and knew that I didn't have a clue what the author was trying to say (Probably because I don't know that much about this stuff!) . I really like some of the ideas other writers have pulled from this book, though. I guess I need to start looking for a good study guide! (Anyone know of a "Martin Buber for Kids" version?) Maybe something geared towards ages 3-5?


5/18: I've just ordered a book that looks promising. I'm still looking for a version for kids, though!





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INSIGHT: Living in Park City

It's funny. I LOVE the warm weather here, but I'm finally starting to see Park City as my home. I've spent so many years there longing to move back somewhere with warmer weather. However, the other day I was at the bus-stop talking to some of the other moms about the snow and I mentioned how much I missed living in a warm climate. Afterwards, I started thinking about that and realized that I've been getting used to those awful Park City winters and that I'd probably be miserable moving back to a warm, humid climate. (OK, so its only taken me 9-10 years to partially adjust........) Maybe I am finally starting to feel like Park City is my home instead of a transitory place of residence. Rich will probably be totally shocked by those particular thoughts! I know I am.

BOOKS: Arab and Jew by David Shipler

Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land by David K. Shipler

My rating: 3 of 5 stars





There were a few ideas I wanted to explore further after reading this book.

WHAT IS A JEW?
In the book, an Israeli Arab (I believe) mentions the difference he sees between an Israeli and a Jew. I've forgotten his definition of an Israeli but his definition of a Jew is interesting. He said that a Jew is someone who knows how to ask the right questions and is bothered by the right things.

So, what are the right questions and what are the things that should bother us? It seems like those would be those things that help us to engage in repairing the world.

VICTIMIZATION AND DENIAL
What is it with wanting to be the victim? And why is it so natural to downplay or deny the valid sufferings of other people in order to portray ourselves as the biggest victim? Maybe it gives a sense of moral superiority. But isn't there something twisted in wanting to be seen as a victim? I wonder, if at some level, seeing ourselves as victims makes it easier to excuse our failures. I ask this because I've done the same thing myself from time to time. I can't speak for the Israeli-Arab Situation. That issue is much too complex for me, especially with terrorism being involved in the problem.

However, on a personal level, this whole victim/denial thing is something I need to look at. It's a little hard to "repair the world" when I'm so wrapped up in my own pain that I can't even recognize that other people have suffered too. I'm not saying that people should ignore or deny traumatic events from their past-that's not healthy either. But there is a difference between acknowledging painful stuff and dwelling on it. And there is also a difference between sharing past events in which I've been victimized and in choosing to make "VICTIM" part of my basic identity.



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BOOKS: On Judaism by Martin Buber

On Judaism by Martin Buber

My rating: 2 of 5 stars







MY FAVORITE IDEAS:

1. We are most spiritual when we are involved with the real world. We meet God through our encounters with other people, not from seeking out private ecstatic experiences. This idea is awesome! It's so different from stuff I'd been taught in the past. One of the things I really love about Judaism is the emphasis on our relationships with other people.

2. (pg. 93) "[Spiritual] renewal comes from a religious inner shock." Buber is actually talking about Jewish renewal in this quote, but I applied it to a more generalized spiritual renewal. The wording struck me because it took huge religious shock for me to even begin questioning some of my former beliefs. But, since my former religious foundation was shattered beyond repair, it left me free to explore all sorts of different pathways to God. Anyway, even though it felt pretty traumatic at the time, it ended up being one of the best things that ever happened to me. It seems like severe spiritual inner shocks lead to either of two paths: renewal or destruction. I guess that's about the same as any severe traumatic event. A serious event changes you so much that you can't return to your previous state of normality. So, you're either destroyed by it or built up into something better.

SOMETHING I STRUGGLED TO UNDERSTAND

1. The I/Thou thing (pg. 210). I'm really confused on this part. I think the book was saying that in the Torah, God doesn't talk to us as individuals standing alone, but He talks to us as individuals who are part of a community. But, I have to admit, I'm a bit fuzzy on what that really means. There seems to be a really cool core idea here, but I'm not getting it.

SOMETHING NEW I LEARNED

1. (pg. 21) "What matters for the Jew is not his credo, nor his declared adherence to an idea or movement, but that he absorb his own truth, that he live it, that he purify himself from the dross of foreign rule, and that he find his way from division to unity." There is a lot of stuff in this little quote! 1. Actions over beliefs. 2. Searching out our truths. 3. going from division to unity.

2. (pg. 93) "Genuine religiosity, therefore, has nothing in common with the fancies of romantic hearts, or with the self-pleasure of aestheticizing souls, or with the clever mental exercises of a practiced intellectuality. Genuine religiosity is doing. That's so cool! Real spirituality is focused on doing stuff in the community, not on isolating oneself from humanity.




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BOOKS: To Life! A Celebration of Jewish Being and Thinking by Harold Kushner

To Life: A Celebration of Jewish Being and Thinking by Harold S. Kushner

My rating: 5 of 5 stars






The book was easy to read and I liked the enthusiasm behind the words. There were so many passages where I thought "Yes! Now THAT makes sense!".

FAVORITE PART: These were the ideas I liked the most:

• Judaism is about how to live-not just what to believe.
• Enjoy life in the present instead of waiting for happiness in the world-to-come.
• God cares more about how I treat other people than about my theology.
  

NEW THINGS LEARNED: Wow! Where do I even start? There were tons of ideas that were totally new to me and I could probably write several pages on each topic. Here are a few of the quotes that really struck me:

1. (pg. 38) The Torah is the effort of inspired human beings to say, "We have met God and, as a result, we have to live our lives differently."

2. (pg. 49) Everything we do can be transformed into a Sinai experience, an encounter with the sacred. The goal of Judaism is not to teach us how to escape from the profane world to the cleansing presence of God, but to teach us how to bring God into the world, how to take the ordinary and make it holy.

3. (pg. 113) .....because the goal of secular society is to be happy. But on Rosh HaShanah, we remind ourselves that our real goal is not to strive for happiness, but to strive for goodness. If we do that, happiness will follow.


4, (pg. 207) In Judaism, holiness, sanctification, always refers to the way people relate to each other, never to an act of withdrawing from a sinful world into a life of greater purity.

5. (pg, 210) Jewish prayer is not a matter of informing God as to what we believe and what we need, but of seeking His presence and being transformed by it.

6. (pg. 303) Hillel understood that the essence of Judaism was not just a matter of obeying God or pleasing God, as we may have thought (or been taught) when we were children. This is a child's understanding of being good. Nor is the essence of Judaism a matter of escaping this flawed, material world in search of a better, purer one. The essence of Judaism is creating holiness in the way we relate to this world and to the people in it. God cares more about how we treat the poor than how we treat the Torah, and He cares more for how we relate to the rules of the Torah than how we relate to Him.

7. (pg. 304) We should study; Judaism has always insisted that knowledge has the power not only to make people smart but to make them good. Having studied, we should commit ourselves to live differently as a result of what we have learned. And having resolved to live differently, we should then go forth to bless God's world and sanctify it.

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