I just finished a novel titled The Goldfinch, written by Donna Tartt (imagine being a girl and growing up with that last name...especially in Greenwood, Mississippi, as she did.) She went to Bennington College and Bern thinks Mimi knew her there. Bennington is so small you know everyone there, so maybe Mimi did, I haven't asked her when we've talked lately.
Anyway, as I said to Bern about The Goldfinch, "Jesus, people from Mississippi can write!"
There is, among other things, something Faulknerian about her style--so dense and so complicated and so ironic. But what is truly remarkable is that the first person narrator is male. I'm always amazed when writers can write in the voice of the other gender and get it so right.....And Donna does.
It is a pain-filled read--all 770 pages or so of it--but except for a conceit in the last chapter I don't see why she did, it is compelling, riveting, always surprising, full of information about art, wood working, philosophy, pain and wonder.
I'll take back the "I think" in the title of this blog. I would say, if you're relatively stable, have a good self-image, not addicted to any controlled substances and prepared to be astonished: you should read this book.
It is a challenge, I assure you. But the journey is worth the effort.
Something I always judge a book by is this: when I'm 60 pages from the end, do I want to finish it or not? I read 700 pages in a day and a half--it took me 2 and a half days to read to the end because I didn't want it to be over. I didn't want to lose the characters from my life. I wanted them to stay with me for years and years.
So, using that as a guide, I think everyone should read this confusing, paradoxical, painful, finally joyful (in an ironic way) novel.
Happy sails to you.....
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Monday, May 12, 2014
So bad it is beyond Stupid...it's Evil
I know I recently called Louie Gomes the 'stupidest person' in the world. But what happened the last two days in CT goes far beyond 'stupid' to 'evil'.
As hard as it is to believe, there are people who call themselves 'truthers' who don't believe the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School actually happened--that it was a hoaks designed by people who want to take away guns from everyone who owns them
Two of the 20 playgrounds that have been dedicated around the state to the 20 children who died in the Newtown murders have been vandalized in the last few days and one of the 'truthers' call the mother of one of the dead children to tell her her daughter never existed and she had participated in the frabrication of the whole thing.
He called her on, of all days, Mother's Day.
Stupid is one thing...Evil is another.
There is no ring of hell terrible enough for these people who think Newtown never happened and it is all a government plot to erase the second amendment. I would, had I the power, erase the second amendment from the Constitution and seize all the millions of guns in this country. But to denigrate the 26 deaths at Sandy Hook--20 of whom were children--is beyond any stretch of the imagination, beyond belief....simply and only Evil.
As hard as it is to believe, there are people who call themselves 'truthers' who don't believe the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School actually happened--that it was a hoaks designed by people who want to take away guns from everyone who owns them
Two of the 20 playgrounds that have been dedicated around the state to the 20 children who died in the Newtown murders have been vandalized in the last few days and one of the 'truthers' call the mother of one of the dead children to tell her her daughter never existed and she had participated in the frabrication of the whole thing.
He called her on, of all days, Mother's Day.
Stupid is one thing...Evil is another.
There is no ring of hell terrible enough for these people who think Newtown never happened and it is all a government plot to erase the second amendment. I would, had I the power, erase the second amendment from the Constitution and seize all the millions of guns in this country. But to denigrate the 26 deaths at Sandy Hook--20 of whom were children--is beyond any stretch of the imagination, beyond belief....simply and only Evil.
A poem I found
My little office here on the second floor, south facing in our house, is full of stuff I've written in the past. Every once in a while I come across something I have no memory of at all and doubt that I really wrote it.
This poem is one of those. I should have found it back in December when it was the Feast of the Holy Innocents (Dec. 28) which commemorates the children King Herod slaughtered in an effort to kill the "King" the Magi were seeking.
But I didn't. I found it today.
You can imagine yourself back on that much neglected Holy Day, or just read it in May.
This poem is one of those. I should have found it back in December when it was the Feast of the Holy Innocents (Dec. 28) which commemorates the children King Herod slaughtered in an effort to kill the "King" the Magi were seeking.
But I didn't. I found it today.
You can imagine yourself back on that much neglected Holy Day, or just read it in May.
THE
HOLY INNOCENTS
The
Gospel of Matthew 2.16-18
King
Herod, slumbering by his table wakes,
from
too much wine and dreams of some new King.
His
choice he takes, royal decision makes:
“kill
them all,” he decrees, “to me blood bring”.
That
those children died we too soon forget,
Caught
up, as we are, in the Holy Birth.
Shepherds,
Mother, Child, Angel wings, and yet,
the
innocent ones died...returned to earth.
The
Star swings 'round again, again we gaze
at
the stable rude, the child sleeping there.
While
thousands die, innocent, in our days--
more
than we number, far beyond our care.
Innocent
in life, in death we must face
that
all thing: Known, Unknown are but God's grace.
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Right Wing Christians are like the Jews in 1939 Germany...
OK, here is my nomination for the Stupidest Man in the World--Louie Gomez, member of the House of Representatives from, I think, the second district of Texas. There's lots of competition for the esteemed title of Stupidest Man in the World right there with him in the House. But, yesterday, he ran away from the competition.
On the floor of the House of Representatives (one of the most prestigious deliberative bodies in the world) Louie Gomez yesterday compared Conservative Christians who oppose gay marriage to the Jews in Nazi Germany, I kid you not.....
Louie's point, as abstract and ridiculous as it was, was this: just as the Nazis labeled, vilified and marginalized Jews, Liberals are doing the same to folks who oppose gay marriage and the end of civilization as we know it that will be caused by gay marriage.
He even used psychological language--he said Liberals were "projecting" onto conservative, God fearing Christians, the kind of evil and moral taint that Nazis put on Jews before they started building the gas chambers.
Since members of the House have a limit on how long they can speak, he didn't get around to saying that the GLTB community and the "liberals" had started building gas chambers...but, I'm sure he thinks we have.
Doesn't Rep. Gomez realize that the reason 'liberals', moderates and anyone with a shred of common sense don't respect people like him is that people like him say nonsense like that?
Jews should go beat him up by trivializing the holocaust in such a painfully stupid way.
God help us when people that stupid and irrational can be sitting in the lower house of our national legislature. God help us, indeed....
On the floor of the House of Representatives (one of the most prestigious deliberative bodies in the world) Louie Gomez yesterday compared Conservative Christians who oppose gay marriage to the Jews in Nazi Germany, I kid you not.....
Louie's point, as abstract and ridiculous as it was, was this: just as the Nazis labeled, vilified and marginalized Jews, Liberals are doing the same to folks who oppose gay marriage and the end of civilization as we know it that will be caused by gay marriage.
He even used psychological language--he said Liberals were "projecting" onto conservative, God fearing Christians, the kind of evil and moral taint that Nazis put on Jews before they started building the gas chambers.
Since members of the House have a limit on how long they can speak, he didn't get around to saying that the GLTB community and the "liberals" had started building gas chambers...but, I'm sure he thinks we have.
Doesn't Rep. Gomez realize that the reason 'liberals', moderates and anyone with a shred of common sense don't respect people like him is that people like him say nonsense like that?
Jews should go beat him up by trivializing the holocaust in such a painfully stupid way.
God help us when people that stupid and irrational can be sitting in the lower house of our national legislature. God help us, indeed....
Friday, May 9, 2014
Somethings I can't get my head around....
Just today, for example:
1) Monica Lewinsky: her article in Vanity Fair laments that she hasn't been able to get on with her life because we all still think of her. Well...I didn't 'still think of her' until her article in Vanity Fair. I haven't thought of her for years. And if I did in the last decade plus think of her, it was to momentarily hope she'd been able to get on with her life.
2)All the theories about why Monica wrote the article now. I've heard everything from 'the Clinton's paid her to' so by 2016 we'd have all forgotten her again (no less than Dick Cheney's wife said that on Fox news...there's tape) to the Koch brothers paid her to to derail Hilary in 2016. I just don't care. She wrote that I hadn't forgotten her though I had and in a few months I will have forgotten her again.
3) Benghazi: correct me if I'm wrong (But I'm Not!) hasn't Benghazi had six congressional or senate committees already and haven't we all agreed it was horrible and nasty and not at all handled well by anyone AND that's what happened? (And maybe the Koch brothers are behind it to make Hillary look bad again--and she did look bad and admitted looking bad--before 2016?
4) The Koch brothers: I'm sure Tea Party Folk think about them a lot, but why should I--a left-wing nut--have to as well?
5) The NFL Draft: why is ESPN televising every moment of it? I wanted to know who got picked first and second and third, but now we're down to 81st and 82nd and 83rd and it's still on TV, I notice as I flip around between the Yankee game and the Red Sox being no-hit through the 8th inning.
6) Why am I still a Red Sox Hater and a Yankee Lover...at my age shouldn't I be over all that kind of stuff? I talked to a man today at UConn in Waterbury who thought people over 45 shouldn't be allowed by law to wear team jerseys. He said he was moving toward not allowing anyone who was older than any athlete who was playing in whatever game it was shouldn't be allowed, by law, to wear and college, hockey, football shirt at all--including children not old enough to be involved in whatever game it was. He was very convincing and definitely a socialist, if not a communist since all those shirts aren't about sports at all, but capitalism. I saw a short sleeve tee shirt in the gift shop of UConn-Waterbury today about the double NCAA basketball win by both the men and women's teams for $23.99. That's a tee-shirt, mind you. All that stuff is about money, not being a fan.
There are other things today I couldn't get my head around...quite a few, actually. But then, there are every day. That's what makes me ponder so much, not getting my head around stuff. So, I'm going to stop there for now, if you don't mind....
Tomorrow is another day to encounter even more things I can't get my head around. I look forward to it all.....
1) Monica Lewinsky: her article in Vanity Fair laments that she hasn't been able to get on with her life because we all still think of her. Well...I didn't 'still think of her' until her article in Vanity Fair. I haven't thought of her for years. And if I did in the last decade plus think of her, it was to momentarily hope she'd been able to get on with her life.
2)All the theories about why Monica wrote the article now. I've heard everything from 'the Clinton's paid her to' so by 2016 we'd have all forgotten her again (no less than Dick Cheney's wife said that on Fox news...there's tape) to the Koch brothers paid her to to derail Hilary in 2016. I just don't care. She wrote that I hadn't forgotten her though I had and in a few months I will have forgotten her again.
3) Benghazi: correct me if I'm wrong (But I'm Not!) hasn't Benghazi had six congressional or senate committees already and haven't we all agreed it was horrible and nasty and not at all handled well by anyone AND that's what happened? (And maybe the Koch brothers are behind it to make Hillary look bad again--and she did look bad and admitted looking bad--before 2016?
4) The Koch brothers: I'm sure Tea Party Folk think about them a lot, but why should I--a left-wing nut--have to as well?
5) The NFL Draft: why is ESPN televising every moment of it? I wanted to know who got picked first and second and third, but now we're down to 81st and 82nd and 83rd and it's still on TV, I notice as I flip around between the Yankee game and the Red Sox being no-hit through the 8th inning.
6) Why am I still a Red Sox Hater and a Yankee Lover...at my age shouldn't I be over all that kind of stuff? I talked to a man today at UConn in Waterbury who thought people over 45 shouldn't be allowed by law to wear team jerseys. He said he was moving toward not allowing anyone who was older than any athlete who was playing in whatever game it was shouldn't be allowed, by law, to wear and college, hockey, football shirt at all--including children not old enough to be involved in whatever game it was. He was very convincing and definitely a socialist, if not a communist since all those shirts aren't about sports at all, but capitalism. I saw a short sleeve tee shirt in the gift shop of UConn-Waterbury today about the double NCAA basketball win by both the men and women's teams for $23.99. That's a tee-shirt, mind you. All that stuff is about money, not being a fan.
There are other things today I couldn't get my head around...quite a few, actually. But then, there are every day. That's what makes me ponder so much, not getting my head around stuff. So, I'm going to stop there for now, if you don't mind....
Tomorrow is another day to encounter even more things I can't get my head around. I look forward to it all.....
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Personality Types and Jobs
I listened to a radio show today about personality types and jobs and it was very revealing to me.
I am (in the Meyers/Briggs model) an ENFP.
That means I am and Extrovert, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceptive personality type.
My Extrovert score is just barely higher than my Introvert score. I move easily between social situations and being alone. Either one is fine with me.
All the others (the NFP scores) are off the chart in their direction.
An Intuitive (N) is someone who knows the answer and doesn't know how. The opposite is a Sensate (S) who follows the rules and goes from a to b to c.
A Feeling person (F) vs. a Thinking person (T) listens to their heart instead of the intellect. (Not always a good thing!)
A Perceptive (P) is unlike a Judgmental (J) personality type since a P takes in all options instead of knowing which option is correct and which other options are, by definition, incorrect.
I would have made a terrible trial lawyer. A lawyer needs a strong S and T and P.
Luckily my Extrovert/Introvert scores are always nearly equal since I can function wonderfully in social situations or alone. Being an only child also gave me lots of introvert leanings. I love to be alone and I love to be in a group.
According to the show I was listening to on NPR, the two roles and jobs that would have suited me perfectly were being a college professor and being an Episcopal priest. The Former is what I longed to be, the Latter is what God ended up making me, against my better judgement.
I couldn't, on a bet, as smart as I am (and I am very smart, by the way) have been a physicist or mathematician or scientist of any kind and certainly not a CPA. So Fate and God (depending on which you believe in) led me to be what I was meant to be. And I've never been unhappy about what my work was. Though I would have enjoyed that graduate level class on modern poetry and the one on the novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald. I would have enjoyed all that and been good and happy doing that. But I came down where I was meant to be.
According to the show I heard, I am in the minority. Most people, for some reason, end up doing things that are unsuited to their personality type--hence the general unhappiness with their job...something that I've never understood.
I've been always happy and fulfilled with what I had to do each day. It suited me to a T.
Go ponder that....
I am (in the Meyers/Briggs model) an ENFP.
That means I am and Extrovert, Intuitive, Feeling, Perceptive personality type.
My Extrovert score is just barely higher than my Introvert score. I move easily between social situations and being alone. Either one is fine with me.
All the others (the NFP scores) are off the chart in their direction.
An Intuitive (N) is someone who knows the answer and doesn't know how. The opposite is a Sensate (S) who follows the rules and goes from a to b to c.
A Feeling person (F) vs. a Thinking person (T) listens to their heart instead of the intellect. (Not always a good thing!)
A Perceptive (P) is unlike a Judgmental (J) personality type since a P takes in all options instead of knowing which option is correct and which other options are, by definition, incorrect.
I would have made a terrible trial lawyer. A lawyer needs a strong S and T and P.
Luckily my Extrovert/Introvert scores are always nearly equal since I can function wonderfully in social situations or alone. Being an only child also gave me lots of introvert leanings. I love to be alone and I love to be in a group.
According to the show I was listening to on NPR, the two roles and jobs that would have suited me perfectly were being a college professor and being an Episcopal priest. The Former is what I longed to be, the Latter is what God ended up making me, against my better judgement.
I couldn't, on a bet, as smart as I am (and I am very smart, by the way) have been a physicist or mathematician or scientist of any kind and certainly not a CPA. So Fate and God (depending on which you believe in) led me to be what I was meant to be. And I've never been unhappy about what my work was. Though I would have enjoyed that graduate level class on modern poetry and the one on the novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald. I would have enjoyed all that and been good and happy doing that. But I came down where I was meant to be.
According to the show I heard, I am in the minority. Most people, for some reason, end up doing things that are unsuited to their personality type--hence the general unhappiness with their job...something that I've never understood.
I've been always happy and fulfilled with what I had to do each day. It suited me to a T.
Go ponder that....
A mouse in the house
Bern told me this morning she saw a mouse in the bedroom and put our 12 year old Maine Coon Cat, Lukie, in there and shut the door.
Later I heard her yell and she told me the mouse had been under the little table beside our front door and Lukie had chased it upstairs.
Now, I haven't seen the mouse, but I trust Bern to be honest about such things and Luke has been slinking around all day, stalking, I pray, the mouse.
I have no experience with mice in the house and if Luke is too old to catch it, I have no idea what to do next.
And Bern's reaction (she mostly being nonchalant and calm about all things domestic), has surprised me. She seems a tad freaked out by the mouse in the house. Not up on a chair screaming, but certainly not her normal placid self.
Lukie had better get busy and do his 'mousing-job' or we'll have to take further measures. I just don't have any idea what those are...mouse traps? a fumigator? moving?.....
Later I heard her yell and she told me the mouse had been under the little table beside our front door and Lukie had chased it upstairs.
Now, I haven't seen the mouse, but I trust Bern to be honest about such things and Luke has been slinking around all day, stalking, I pray, the mouse.
I have no experience with mice in the house and if Luke is too old to catch it, I have no idea what to do next.
And Bern's reaction (she mostly being nonchalant and calm about all things domestic), has surprised me. She seems a tad freaked out by the mouse in the house. Not up on a chair screaming, but certainly not her normal placid self.
Lukie had better get busy and do his 'mousing-job' or we'll have to take further measures. I just don't have any idea what those are...mouse traps? a fumigator? moving?.....
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