The story both interesting and compelling as it portrays a community of homeless sex offenders living under a causeway on the coast of Florida. The main character is a young man by the name of Kid. He is befriended by a gentleman who tells Kid he is a professor and who wants to interview him. The professor is interested in the sociology of the homeless and sex offenders or so he tells Kid, who, of course is skeptical. But the Professor persists and helps Kid to organize the ragtag community for the benefit of all of them. But, unfortunately, there is a hurricane.
The novel is pretty much of a piece with no loose ends, with a beginning and ending and even if the Professor's story is a bit murky, Kid's makes more sense. He is a young man convicted of a sex offense, and the story explains how Kid becomes someone wearing an electronic ankle monitor (that he is responsible for keeping charged) and how he ends up with his pet iguana living in this very marginal community. Just a detail like having to charge his monitor is something I would never have thought about or details about dumpster diving or Kid's total acceptance of his emotionally impoverished childhood, one so lacking in nurture. There are novels (and this is one) that can elicit complex feelings about subjects which society mostly ignores unless directly involved, subjects like sex offenders and the daily struggles of homeless people. For instance, Kid cannot live within 2500 feet of any place children gather and in a large city, that is just about nowhere. Thus the congregation beneath the bridge and causeway.
And then there is the Professor, a complicated man with a mysterious and fluid history. What is his real interest here? Who exactly is he?
"The Professor takes hold of the backpack again. This time the Kid doesn't resist. He's remembers that he's an object, a thing, not a human being with a will and a goal, and that he's only capable of reacting not acting. The Professor's the human being here, not the Kid. So he opens the passenger door of the van and gets in."
Naturally a tale set in Florida also has swamps, barrier islands, the ocean, tropical weather, the Everglades and the bustle of development.
Michael Ondaatje says of Russell Banks: "I trust his portrait of America more than any other--the burden of it, the need for it, the hell of it."
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Book: Rough Country by John Sandford
I place this book in what I call my zuzu category of reading, but even a zuzu book has to have some merit form and this certainly did. Rough Country is the second novel by this author that I have read this month. I liked it (the merit) partly because of the setting which is in and north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Several times I have stopped at a wonderful coffee shop in Grand Rapids while driving US 2 across country between Michigan and Montana because there aren't many on this route. Also, of course, much of my life has been associated with Grand Rapids, Michigan, so the name of the town alone makes me more mindful as I drive through and also as I read this story.
It's is a murder mystery, written in Sandford's easy fluent style with good characters who talk and behave as mid-Weterners do. Writing what you know about certainly rings true in this book as the author lives in Minnesota.
Last time I drove through that part of the state, I detoured northwest of Grand Rapids to the Red Lake Indian Reservation and then west from there, basically through the geography of this novel. I remember the trees and lakes and low-key vacation and tourist cabins, and the feeling of being Up North" which is a place where the seasons change in noticeable ways and wood smoke is on the air, the sky is blue and summer is green...evoking the great memories of my childhood vacations on Big Star Lake in Michigan.
There are in fact several murders, but the slightly rogue state criminal investigator, Virgil Flowers, is interrupted while on a fishing trip to investigate the shotgun death of a woman who was spending a week at a lodge and who had paddled out one evening to see an eagle nest. She was the owner of a successful advertising agency in Minneapolis with some tangles in her life but nothing that unusual. It's a good story.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Birds: Winter on Black Lake
Birds on Black Lake and the Holland SP channel...
Lately, Black Lake has had alternating days of open water and ice or partial ice. Waterfowl are present by the 1000s. Yesterday, I watched two tundra swans move from the water where they were swimming and step onto ice, and then I laughed as they slipped and slid, their large black feet not finding purchase. I could see them clearly through my binoculars; they were lovely--all white and feathered with long necks and black bills and still graceful somehow even in their clumsiness on the ice.
And the channel is nearly always a passageway or shelter or playground for a variety of ducks, grebes, mergansers, scoters, loons, gulls.... On very windy days, like today, the huge waves coming in win against the current going out and the movement is west to east. The channel walls constrain the water, the waves increase in amplitude and the waterfowl ride these impressive masses of moving water like slow-moving fluid roller coasters, dipping in and out of sight. The mallards usually crowd against the south wall, but most of the other birds are out in the open.
One day last week, it was very calm and there were tiny ice islands floating west in the channel. Some ducks and gulls were just standing on these pieces and going with the flow so to speak. It was charming to watch them move without exerting themselves.
There is a new boardwalk just east of the channel allowing good viewing as there are often large flocks of waterfowl in the relatively calm waters there. Late yesterday afternoon, there were three White-winged scoters, including a male in full adult plumage. He was coal black with parallelogram-shaped white wing patches, a white "comma" below the eye and a bright red large bill. Somehow, to me, the infraorbital eye marking made him look vaguely malevolent but also such a striking and perfect entity. The westering sun highlighted these scoters which were not especially skittish and stayed close to the boardwalk. They are not that common on the Great Lakes but a few show up every year which makes viewing them a thrill, especially so close up.
Last Sunday, at the end of January, a lot of heavy snow fell throughout the morning. A lot! I went to the channel and spotted a loon from my car so trudged over to try to get a better look, hoping for the Red-throated which had been seen recently. Loons can dive and disappear forever or come up in the next county or such has been my frustrating experience lately, and this one quickly moved down the channel, popping up for a second and diving for much longer. The snow was too deep for me to chase it. However, I spotted what I thought for a second were Long-tailed ducks but soon realized that there were only mallards with snow on their backs and that was cool enough for me to forget about the loon loss.
Lately, Black Lake has had alternating days of open water and ice or partial ice. Waterfowl are present by the 1000s. Yesterday, I watched two tundra swans move from the water where they were swimming and step onto ice, and then I laughed as they slipped and slid, their large black feet not finding purchase. I could see them clearly through my binoculars; they were lovely--all white and feathered with long necks and black bills and still graceful somehow even in their clumsiness on the ice.
And the channel is nearly always a passageway or shelter or playground for a variety of ducks, grebes, mergansers, scoters, loons, gulls.... On very windy days, like today, the huge waves coming in win against the current going out and the movement is west to east. The channel walls constrain the water, the waves increase in amplitude and the waterfowl ride these impressive masses of moving water like slow-moving fluid roller coasters, dipping in and out of sight. The mallards usually crowd against the south wall, but most of the other birds are out in the open.
One day last week, it was very calm and there were tiny ice islands floating west in the channel. Some ducks and gulls were just standing on these pieces and going with the flow so to speak. It was charming to watch them move without exerting themselves.
There is a new boardwalk just east of the channel allowing good viewing as there are often large flocks of waterfowl in the relatively calm waters there. Late yesterday afternoon, there were three White-winged scoters, including a male in full adult plumage. He was coal black with parallelogram-shaped white wing patches, a white "comma" below the eye and a bright red large bill. Somehow, to me, the infraorbital eye marking made him look vaguely malevolent but also such a striking and perfect entity. The westering sun highlighted these scoters which were not especially skittish and stayed close to the boardwalk. They are not that common on the Great Lakes but a few show up every year which makes viewing them a thrill, especially so close up.
Last Sunday, at the end of January, a lot of heavy snow fell throughout the morning. A lot! I went to the channel and spotted a loon from my car so trudged over to try to get a better look, hoping for the Red-throated which had been seen recently. Loons can dive and disappear forever or come up in the next county or such has been my frustrating experience lately, and this one quickly moved down the channel, popping up for a second and diving for much longer. The snow was too deep for me to chase it. However, I spotted what I thought for a second were Long-tailed ducks but soon realized that there were only mallards with snow on their backs and that was cool enough for me to forget about the loon loss.
Monday, January 16, 2012
Book: Bad Blood by John Sandford
I almost didn't stick with this book and then I couldn't put it down. Sandford knows how to tell a story. Maria and Richard recommended this author.
Lee Coakley is the sheriff in a town with three murders on her hands; she asks a state criminal investigator by the name of Virgil Flowers to help her. The plot develops and deepens and draws the reader in, or at least it did me. It is set in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa where there is a community of successful farming families who home-school their children. They have their own church services, keep to themselves and stay out of trouble. They've been in the area for a century and are prosperous, albeit somewhat stand-offish. But as the murder investigation proceeds, there are hints and suggestions of sexual abuse and impropriety involving the children in these families.
The dialogue is smooth, and the descriptions of the small towns are those anyone growing up in the Midwest would recognize and appreciate. The farm country in late fall and winter, the small town cafe, the young kids and adolescents, the reticence to get involved mixed with the curiosity of the townspeople, and the process of law investigation and enforcement are all parts of this novel.
The crimes are horrendous, and the suspense and tension builds as the story gathers momentum. The weird and skewed world of a cult is explored, giving a story like this some merit beyond pure entertainment. I will certainly check out other books by Sandford for those end-of-day times when I don't want to think too much and am ready to lose myself in a well-told tale.
Lee Coakley is the sheriff in a town with three murders on her hands; she asks a state criminal investigator by the name of Virgil Flowers to help her. The plot develops and deepens and draws the reader in, or at least it did me. It is set in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa where there is a community of successful farming families who home-school their children. They have their own church services, keep to themselves and stay out of trouble. They've been in the area for a century and are prosperous, albeit somewhat stand-offish. But as the murder investigation proceeds, there are hints and suggestions of sexual abuse and impropriety involving the children in these families.
The dialogue is smooth, and the descriptions of the small towns are those anyone growing up in the Midwest would recognize and appreciate. The farm country in late fall and winter, the small town cafe, the young kids and adolescents, the reticence to get involved mixed with the curiosity of the townspeople, and the process of law investigation and enforcement are all parts of this novel.
The crimes are horrendous, and the suspense and tension builds as the story gathers momentum. The weird and skewed world of a cult is explored, giving a story like this some merit beyond pure entertainment. I will certainly check out other books by Sandford for those end-of-day times when I don't want to think too much and am ready to lose myself in a well-told tale.
Book: Bossypants by Tina Fey
Tina's story... an autobiography of sorts. She is funny of course as she tells of her childhood, going to Chicago and working on Second City, going to New York and doing Saturday Night Live and now doing 30 Rock, which show means absolutely nothing to me since I've never seen it.
She is a feminist, a wife, a mother, a daughter. The book is a bunch of anecdotes and funny stories, including how much work it is doing what she does, the Sarah Palin deal, with a big question at the end: "Shall I have another baby?"
Would I recommend reading this book? Yeah, I guess, if you are interested in popular culture and really, really like Tina Fey. Otherwise, you can probably choose something else.
She is a feminist, a wife, a mother, a daughter. The book is a bunch of anecdotes and funny stories, including how much work it is doing what she does, the Sarah Palin deal, with a big question at the end: "Shall I have another baby?"
Would I recommend reading this book? Yeah, I guess, if you are interested in popular culture and really, really like Tina Fey. Otherwise, you can probably choose something else.
Book: Gib's Odyssey
A Tale of Faith and Hope on the International Waterway.
Gib Peters had been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease (also known as ALS or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) when he decided to take his boat and two kittens on a trip to New York City and back from his home in Key West, Florida. He traveled through the Intercoastal Waterway. Any trip this long has mishaps mixed with adventure and elation, but Gib's was BEGUN with handicaps that made his doctors cringe. This is his story, told mostly in his own words in the form of the emails he sent to family and friends while on the trip. It is edited by his neurologist, Dr. Walter Bradley. Gib's symptoms were already advanced enough that he had a PEG tube (a feeding tube directly into the stomach) and significant loss of muscle control when he left home. He knew his was a race against time; he knew it was a final journey for him. His courage and humor are humbling and his determination surely a testament to the human spirit.
Gib Peters had been diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease (also known as ALS or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) when he decided to take his boat and two kittens on a trip to New York City and back from his home in Key West, Florida. He traveled through the Intercoastal Waterway. Any trip this long has mishaps mixed with adventure and elation, but Gib's was BEGUN with handicaps that made his doctors cringe. This is his story, told mostly in his own words in the form of the emails he sent to family and friends while on the trip. It is edited by his neurologist, Dr. Walter Bradley. Gib's symptoms were already advanced enough that he had a PEG tube (a feeding tube directly into the stomach) and significant loss of muscle control when he left home. He knew his was a race against time; he knew it was a final journey for him. His courage and humor are humbling and his determination surely a testament to the human spirit.
Book: The Forgotten Affairs of Youth by Alexander McCall Smith
This is another in the author's Isabel Dalhousie series. Isabel is the owner and editor of a small magazine, a philosophical review. She has Charlie, Grace, Cat and Jamie, her son, housekeeper, niece and lover respectively. They live in Edinburgh in Scotland and I love this series. I always know that I am settling into a scene of contemporary gentility with interesting characters, a plot with a beginning and end, always with a few other minor threads running through the story.
In this book, Isabel becomes involved in the life of a visiting scholar from Australia, a woman who asks Isabel to help her find her biologic father. She moves through her days musing about nearly everything, but in a delightful, somewhat distracted way, asking questions we all ask ourselves. After all, she is a philosopher. She has her daily routines and a quiet comforting domesticity, along with whatever the wonderful Mr. Smith imagines for her.
And there is Scotland, specifically Edinburgh....obviously dear to the author, who makes it a place more dear and familiar with each addition to the Isabel Dalhousie series.
In this book, Isabel becomes involved in the life of a visiting scholar from Australia, a woman who asks Isabel to help her find her biologic father. She moves through her days musing about nearly everything, but in a delightful, somewhat distracted way, asking questions we all ask ourselves. After all, she is a philosopher. She has her daily routines and a quiet comforting domesticity, along with whatever the wonderful Mr. Smith imagines for her.
And there is Scotland, specifically Edinburgh....obviously dear to the author, who makes it a place more dear and familiar with each addition to the Isabel Dalhousie series.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Book: Fool Me Twice by Shawn Lawrence Otto
Fighting the Assault on Science in America
I read this book because it is important. It is often fascinating and provocative, usually easy to understand and follow. The author makes a persuasive argument that Americans are discounting the importance of science, and he berates those who refute scientific KNOWLEDGE as just theory or, worse yet, not true. He is passionate about how important it is that the United States is serious about the following:
1. Innovation.
2. Climate Change.
3. Energy.
4. Education.
5. National Security.
6. Pandemics and Biosecurity.
7. Genetics Research
8. Stem Cells.
9. Oceans
10. Health Water.
11. Space.
12. Scientific Integrity.
13. Research.
14. Health.
The author feels postmodernism replaced the acknowledgement of objective truths and scientific facts with a philosophy that held any idea, thought or feeling can be "truth" and that nothing is absolute; all is relative. The author reiterates repeatedly that there IS "objective truth" and we cannot ignore facts without peril.
"Today, serious candidates for Congress and the presidency can openly state views that run counter to all known science and history, and many journalists don't feel it is their role to point out that the emperor has no clothes."
There is the feeling that Obama "administration has really dropped the ball on climate. They should have been out there with a full court educational press, a World War II type mobilization to counter the misinformation and educated the public, and they haven't done it."
Our students are scoring lower and lower in global rankings in science and math. We need science as much--more--than we ever have, but it is not what Americans know or care about. Scientists do not know how to engage the public; politicians obviously do not consider science a priority and, in fact, most most likely have little knowledge of science. Very few members of the current Congress (less than 2%) "have professional backgrounds" in science.
Science is not antithetical to religion. Science deals with facts, knowledge and proofs and science affects all of us every minute of our day. It cannot be ignored or mocked or its truths debated. We need to "get" this as a country.
The author states that: "Given the choice, the majority of people want drama, sex, violence and comedy, the four horsemen of entertainment." He points out how media caters to this, and thus the public receives less and less objective information about anything. If you are at all interested, read Fool Me Twice. Don't be one of the "ideologically malleable electorate" as the author calls us. Keep in mind those 14 areas of concern listed above and think about how important they all are to our future.
I read this book because it is important. It is often fascinating and provocative, usually easy to understand and follow. The author makes a persuasive argument that Americans are discounting the importance of science, and he berates those who refute scientific KNOWLEDGE as just theory or, worse yet, not true. He is passionate about how important it is that the United States is serious about the following:
1. Innovation.
2. Climate Change.
3. Energy.
4. Education.
5. National Security.
6. Pandemics and Biosecurity.
7. Genetics Research
8. Stem Cells.
9. Oceans
10. Health Water.
11. Space.
12. Scientific Integrity.
13. Research.
14. Health.
The author feels postmodernism replaced the acknowledgement of objective truths and scientific facts with a philosophy that held any idea, thought or feeling can be "truth" and that nothing is absolute; all is relative. The author reiterates repeatedly that there IS "objective truth" and we cannot ignore facts without peril.
"Today, serious candidates for Congress and the presidency can openly state views that run counter to all known science and history, and many journalists don't feel it is their role to point out that the emperor has no clothes."
There is the feeling that Obama "administration has really dropped the ball on climate. They should have been out there with a full court educational press, a World War II type mobilization to counter the misinformation and educated the public, and they haven't done it."
Our students are scoring lower and lower in global rankings in science and math. We need science as much--more--than we ever have, but it is not what Americans know or care about. Scientists do not know how to engage the public; politicians obviously do not consider science a priority and, in fact, most most likely have little knowledge of science. Very few members of the current Congress (less than 2%) "have professional backgrounds" in science.
Science is not antithetical to religion. Science deals with facts, knowledge and proofs and science affects all of us every minute of our day. It cannot be ignored or mocked or its truths debated. We need to "get" this as a country.
The author states that: "Given the choice, the majority of people want drama, sex, violence and comedy, the four horsemen of entertainment." He points out how media caters to this, and thus the public receives less and less objective information about anything. If you are at all interested, read Fool Me Twice. Don't be one of the "ideologically malleable electorate" as the author calls us. Keep in mind those 14 areas of concern listed above and think about how important they all are to our future.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Book: Lime Creek by Joe Henry
This is a gem, a lovely little novel set in Wyoming in the mid 20th century. The prose is evocative, lyrical, rich, spare.
It a story of a family working a cattle ranch on the high plains with mountains on the horizons and the huge over-arching sky. They are Spencer, Elizabeth and their three sons. The author chooses seemingly random events in these lives and writes mostly of the two younger boys, and each chapter is of a piece and seems exactly right and satisfying: Luke and Whitney throwing tomatoes at clean sheets on the clothesline; a football game in far-off town requiring a long bus ride; the harsh, deeply cold winters and the consequences of complaining; the birth of a foal at the wrong time of year; the strength and tenderness of love.
"Ever since that day two years ago when he sent off by himself and somehow ended up over in Whiskey Basin which was a long ways away and then showed up at dawn the next morning with a busted hand and broken ribs but still trailing four cows and calves in front of his mare. Whitney always calls him "Whiskey" whenever just plain ol' Luke won't do."
"There were summer evenings I remember coming up from the barn after the long day's haying, Spencer says. And seeing Elizabeth through the trees before she could see me. Her apron still about her waist, sitting on the porch steps, and with the warm wind blowing through that beautiful straw-colored hair of hers as she watched the sky already darkening in the east with that faraway look on her face."
The author has received a National Conservation Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation "for the celebration of the natural world in his work."
It a story of a family working a cattle ranch on the high plains with mountains on the horizons and the huge over-arching sky. They are Spencer, Elizabeth and their three sons. The author chooses seemingly random events in these lives and writes mostly of the two younger boys, and each chapter is of a piece and seems exactly right and satisfying: Luke and Whitney throwing tomatoes at clean sheets on the clothesline; a football game in far-off town requiring a long bus ride; the harsh, deeply cold winters and the consequences of complaining; the birth of a foal at the wrong time of year; the strength and tenderness of love.
"Ever since that day two years ago when he sent off by himself and somehow ended up over in Whiskey Basin which was a long ways away and then showed up at dawn the next morning with a busted hand and broken ribs but still trailing four cows and calves in front of his mare. Whitney always calls him "Whiskey" whenever just plain ol' Luke won't do."
"There were summer evenings I remember coming up from the barn after the long day's haying, Spencer says. And seeing Elizabeth through the trees before she could see me. Her apron still about her waist, sitting on the porch steps, and with the warm wind blowing through that beautiful straw-colored hair of hers as she watched the sky already darkening in the east with that faraway look on her face."
The author has received a National Conservation Achievement Award from the National Wildlife Federation "for the celebration of the natural world in his work."
Monday, January 2, 2012
Book: Low Country by Anne Rivers Siddons
Low Country is an immersion into a South Carolina tidal community and barrier island. A woman with a deep sorrow fights for her special island, both for herself and for the Gullah community on the island. Anne Siddons beautifully evokes the natural world of that place, which was reason enough for me to read it, and the book has a somewhat credible story line: Will the Gullah community become a developed tourist attraction or remain as it has for the last century or two?
It is not great literature but it is a vicarious trip this time of year from snow, cold and ice to warmth and water and beaches. There are the usual love conflicts and bad behaviors and high emotions. But there is also a tenderness when the author is writing of the Gullah people that makes the novel worth reading. I think this is her first book; she has written several. Perhaps some of the later ones are more subtle and therefore not as overblown...with a bit less of throbbing hearts and breathlessness.
Still, I escaped for a few hours and could sense the ocean and tidal marshes, see the wild ponies, hear the scream of a panther at night and be charmed by the rogue men.
I need to look up another of her books: John Chancellor Makes Me Cry.
It is not great literature but it is a vicarious trip this time of year from snow, cold and ice to warmth and water and beaches. There are the usual love conflicts and bad behaviors and high emotions. But there is also a tenderness when the author is writing of the Gullah people that makes the novel worth reading. I think this is her first book; she has written several. Perhaps some of the later ones are more subtle and therefore not as overblown...with a bit less of throbbing hearts and breathlessness.
Still, I escaped for a few hours and could sense the ocean and tidal marshes, see the wild ponies, hear the scream of a panther at night and be charmed by the rogue men.
I need to look up another of her books: John Chancellor Makes Me Cry.
Book: the Price of Stones by Twesigye Jackson Kaguri with Susan Urbanek Linville
Building a School for My Village.
Uganda is one of the countries in the interior of Africa and there is a village in the southwestern corner named Nyakagyezi. Twesigye Jackson lived there with his family and bore the heartbreak of seeing his beloved brother Frank die of what they call slim, what we call HIV/AIDS. He vowed to do something to help his village and this is his story. He built a school for children orphaned by AIDS. The school is Nyaka.
Twesigye had a strong faith and his dream of Nyaka became reality but "Nyaka didn't just happen. Without the vision energy, and single-minded dedication of Twesigye Jackson Kaguri, the children of Nyaka would be destined to live with shattered dreams, malnutrition, illiteracy and continued cycles of poverty. Thus, Nyaka is also proof that one person can still make a hugely positive difference in this world. And as Twesigye Jackson will be the first to tell you: the potential to do the same lies within all of us." (Lucy Steinitz, PhD ~ Family Health Internations in Windhoek, Namibia).
"By 1991, 15% of Ugandan adults were thought to have this disease. In cities, 30% of the pregnant women were infected."
When one or both parents die of AIDS, the orphaned children live with relatives, if they are lucky; many just fend for themselves. The Nyaka school grew to accommodate these children in all areas of their marginal lives: besides education, a clean water system was installed; they were fed nutritious meals at school, encouraged, taught self-respect and self-confidence, given warm clothing, given hope. Over time, people heard or read of Nyaka and sent what monies they could; others donated time and services. Twesigye never gave up and by the time the first class graduated from Nyaka primary school, there was money for them to continue in secondary schools. Of course, this is a dynamic story; it has a beginning but not an end. The challenges continue, but this book is one way to educate and inform all of us. The power of one....yet again.
www.nyakaschool.org or www.thepriceofstones. com
Uganda is one of the countries in the interior of Africa and there is a village in the southwestern corner named Nyakagyezi. Twesigye Jackson lived there with his family and bore the heartbreak of seeing his beloved brother Frank die of what they call slim, what we call HIV/AIDS. He vowed to do something to help his village and this is his story. He built a school for children orphaned by AIDS. The school is Nyaka.
Twesigye had a strong faith and his dream of Nyaka became reality but "Nyaka didn't just happen. Without the vision energy, and single-minded dedication of Twesigye Jackson Kaguri, the children of Nyaka would be destined to live with shattered dreams, malnutrition, illiteracy and continued cycles of poverty. Thus, Nyaka is also proof that one person can still make a hugely positive difference in this world. And as Twesigye Jackson will be the first to tell you: the potential to do the same lies within all of us." (Lucy Steinitz, PhD ~ Family Health Internations in Windhoek, Namibia).
"By 1991, 15% of Ugandan adults were thought to have this disease. In cities, 30% of the pregnant women were infected."
When one or both parents die of AIDS, the orphaned children live with relatives, if they are lucky; many just fend for themselves. The Nyaka school grew to accommodate these children in all areas of their marginal lives: besides education, a clean water system was installed; they were fed nutritious meals at school, encouraged, taught self-respect and self-confidence, given warm clothing, given hope. Over time, people heard or read of Nyaka and sent what monies they could; others donated time and services. Twesigye never gave up and by the time the first class graduated from Nyaka primary school, there was money for them to continue in secondary schools. Of course, this is a dynamic story; it has a beginning but not an end. The challenges continue, but this book is one way to educate and inform all of us. The power of one....yet again.
www.nyakaschool.org or www.thepriceofstones. com
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Book: My Wounded Heart - The Life of Lilli Jahn, 1900-1944 ~ edited by Martin Doerry
The Story of a Jewish Mother and Her Children in Hitler's Germany
Lilli Schluchterer and her sister Elsa were raised by their Jewish parents, Josef and Paula, in Cologne. Lilli eventually became a physician and married Ernst, also a physician but not Jewish. They have five children, a son Gerhard, and daughters Ilse, Johanna, Eva and Dorothea. Martin Doerry is Lilli's grandson and edits this book in which he makes uses of hundreds of letters written by Lilli, her friends and her daughters, mainly her oldest, who always signed off as " your Ilse Mouse."
Anti-Semitism creeps into their lives but they cannot conceive of a future that, in retrospect, probably no sane person could have foreseen. They continue to live upper middle class lives but slowly the war intrudes and, insidiously, because Lilli is a Jewess, much more than war's usual horrors interrupts their lives. For the most part, they are staunch and endure each new insult and deprivation. But Ernst, whom Lilli adores and defends always, divorces her and marries Rita Schmidt, a young physician who first arrived to help Ernst in his medical practice. No doubt he was encouraged to do this by the Nazis, and Lilli and Rita maintain a tenuous connection. Still, it seems Lilli's heart was broken.
And then she is arrested one day. She had omitted to add "Sara" to her name as the Nazis ordered all Jewish women to do. The Gestapo searched her apartment when alerted to this peccadillo, and she was arrested on August 30, 1943. She never returned home and died in Auschwitz-Birkenau only 10 months later in June of 1944. At first it seemed she would soon be released, but hope slowly eroded. Her eldest daughter Ilse, who was just 15 years old, becomes the parent to her younger sisters, struggling to maintain the standards to which the family is accustomed: schools, clothing, traditions, food, lessons, love..... She gets sporadic help from Rita, and occasionally from their father, although Ernst gets conscripted as a medical officer and is not often available.
This is an intimate story of one Jewish woman and how it was for her in Nazi Germany. For many, it was too unbelievable in a civilized society to comprehend the trajectory of Hitler's evil, although there were some fortunate enough to have the means and prescience to immigrate, among them, Lilli's sister and mother.
This tale is specific, only briefly touching on the bigger political and military happenings. Little is known about Lilli's life in the camps. Her letters try hard to minimize the horrors for the sake of her children.
"And I meet with a great deal of friendliness and affection and kindness, even here. Today someone actually gave me a little Advent wreath, and when we're all together again I'll tell you lots more about this place. If only it could be soon!"
In March of 1944, she writes: "In the past few days I've envied the famlies who were all taken away together. On second thoughts, though, it's easier for me, in spite of my profound longing for you , and the pain of separation, to know that you lead settled lives and are spared the sight of all that's objectionable and unpleasant....And now goodbye again, all of you--Gerhard, Ilse Mouse, Hannele Child littel Eva, and my precious Dorle! May God protect you! The bonds between us are indissoluble..... Mummy."
Two months later she was dead. "To this day, Lilli's daughters have no idea how their mother died. "Of debility and disease, or in the gas chamber?....On September 25, 1962, Dorothea's twenty-second birthday, Gerhard planted two trees in memory of his mother in the Martyrs' Grove at the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem."
Lilli Schluchterer and her sister Elsa were raised by their Jewish parents, Josef and Paula, in Cologne. Lilli eventually became a physician and married Ernst, also a physician but not Jewish. They have five children, a son Gerhard, and daughters Ilse, Johanna, Eva and Dorothea. Martin Doerry is Lilli's grandson and edits this book in which he makes uses of hundreds of letters written by Lilli, her friends and her daughters, mainly her oldest, who always signed off as " your Ilse Mouse."
Anti-Semitism creeps into their lives but they cannot conceive of a future that, in retrospect, probably no sane person could have foreseen. They continue to live upper middle class lives but slowly the war intrudes and, insidiously, because Lilli is a Jewess, much more than war's usual horrors interrupts their lives. For the most part, they are staunch and endure each new insult and deprivation. But Ernst, whom Lilli adores and defends always, divorces her and marries Rita Schmidt, a young physician who first arrived to help Ernst in his medical practice. No doubt he was encouraged to do this by the Nazis, and Lilli and Rita maintain a tenuous connection. Still, it seems Lilli's heart was broken.
And then she is arrested one day. She had omitted to add "Sara" to her name as the Nazis ordered all Jewish women to do. The Gestapo searched her apartment when alerted to this peccadillo, and she was arrested on August 30, 1943. She never returned home and died in Auschwitz-Birkenau only 10 months later in June of 1944. At first it seemed she would soon be released, but hope slowly eroded. Her eldest daughter Ilse, who was just 15 years old, becomes the parent to her younger sisters, struggling to maintain the standards to which the family is accustomed: schools, clothing, traditions, food, lessons, love..... She gets sporadic help from Rita, and occasionally from their father, although Ernst gets conscripted as a medical officer and is not often available.
This is an intimate story of one Jewish woman and how it was for her in Nazi Germany. For many, it was too unbelievable in a civilized society to comprehend the trajectory of Hitler's evil, although there were some fortunate enough to have the means and prescience to immigrate, among them, Lilli's sister and mother.
This tale is specific, only briefly touching on the bigger political and military happenings. Little is known about Lilli's life in the camps. Her letters try hard to minimize the horrors for the sake of her children.
"And I meet with a great deal of friendliness and affection and kindness, even here. Today someone actually gave me a little Advent wreath, and when we're all together again I'll tell you lots more about this place. If only it could be soon!"
In March of 1944, she writes: "In the past few days I've envied the famlies who were all taken away together. On second thoughts, though, it's easier for me, in spite of my profound longing for you , and the pain of separation, to know that you lead settled lives and are spared the sight of all that's objectionable and unpleasant....And now goodbye again, all of you--Gerhard, Ilse Mouse, Hannele Child littel Eva, and my precious Dorle! May God protect you! The bonds between us are indissoluble..... Mummy."
Two months later she was dead. "To this day, Lilli's daughters have no idea how their mother died. "Of debility and disease, or in the gas chamber?....On September 25, 1962, Dorothea's twenty-second birthday, Gerhard planted two trees in memory of his mother in the Martyrs' Grove at the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem."
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