Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Diminished Art of Letter Writing

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Technology always offers trade-offs.  It is wondrous, still awesomely amazing that we can hear daily from loved ones on the other side of the globe.  Long-distance grand-parenting is palatable with a telephone and an online connection.  Mamas of soldiers are relieved each time the inbox holds a letter from their child. 

But!

We miss the archives, those bundles of letters wrapped in a ribbon, letters which have been read and re-read,  kissed and kept.  I have a dozen books of collections of letters on my shelf.  More precious yet, thanks to my brother Jim (the doctor, artist, travel expert, gentleman farmer, and the dear one who taught me how to tie my shoelaces-Happy Birthday, btw) who made copies of every letter, I have the correspondence of my mom to my dad during the three years they were separated by work circumstances. 

Now that I have just signed up for the 100-Species-Challenge, after I have been re-juiced about Fine Art Friday, am gaining some regularity in walking, in addition to adding a 40 hour work schedule for the next two weeks, and remembering my vow to finish my ironing pile, a most wonderful blogging idea has struck me brain:

Re-read my mom’s letters and quote excerpts on the blog.

I will fall in love all over again with the most marvelous woman I ever knew.

A mother of seven, functioning as a single mom, scraping the bottom of the barrel with a laugh on her lips, while her husband teaches at a college two hours away.  Some stuff simply amazes me:  I believe they owned about five junker cars with never more than two working at one time.  The letters report which car my dad would need to repair on his next trip home.  She was articulate and full of grace, and the anecdotes about the kids’ shenanigans are always related with wry humor.

Will it translate to today?  Will her words build up?  Will it make me cry?  Will it inspire me–to trust God more, to work harder, to laugh louder?  Will it be a gift to my grandchildren?  Will it make me thankful?

A thousand times yes…

 

 

To Kenya

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Do you like my new laptop tote? 
It’s kind of cute, eh?

It (and contents) is on its way to Kenya. 
My heart, a huge chunk of it, is on its way to Kenya. 

Katie, a family member by love instead of blood,
(meaning we’ve adopted each other as family)
is going to Kenya to work as support staff
at a Trauma Healing Conference.

Representatives from more than 15 African countries
will get training to help those who have been through
war, natural disasters and other traumas.

Katie spent her childhood in Zimbabwe.
She has been back to Africa multiple times.

Go well, my friend.

100 Species Challenge

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Quote from Homeschooling the Doctorate:

Someone I was recently reading (I cannot remember who–Berry? Wirzba?)
lamented the decline of local knowledge among modern westerners. “Most
people,” whoever-it-was said, “cannot recognize even a hundred plant
species within a mile of their home.”

Can you recognize a hundred plant species that are living within a mile of your home?  Sarah has designed The 100 Species Challenge and it has got my juices going.  As I said in her comments section, I am tired of responding to inquiries about plants with, “I don’t know…I’m just not any good at remembering names of plants.”  This is a great way to grow in knowledge of my locality. 

And since I have a plant specialist living one mile away (my daughter-in-law) I have no excuse.  I love the pace Sarah is planning: two new species a week.  Oh, people, I am getting EXCITED! 

Here are the rules:

The 100-Species Challenge

1. Participants should include a copy of these rules and a link to this entry in their initial blog post about the challenge. I [Sarah] will make a sidebar list of anyone who notifies me that they are participating in the Challenge.

2. Participants
should keep a list of all plant species they can name, either by common
or scientific name, that are living within walking distance of the
participant’s home. The list should be numbered, and should appear in
every blog entry about the challenge, or in a sidebar.

3. Participants
are encouraged to give detailed information about the plants they can
name in the first post in which that plant appears. My [Sarah’s] format
will be as follows: the numbered list, with plants making their first
appearance on the list in bold; each plant making its first appearance
will then have a photograph taken by me, where possible, a list of
information I already knew about the plant, and a list of information I
learned subsequent to starting this challenge, and a list of
information I’d like to know. (See below for an example.) This format
is not obligatory, however, and participants can adapt this portion of
the challenge to their needs and desires.

4. Participants are encouraged to make it possible for visitors to their blog to find easily all 100-Species-Challenge blog posts.
This can be done either by tagging these posts, by ending every post on
the challenge with a link to your previous post on the challenge, or by
some method which surpasses my technological ability and creativity.

5. Participants
may post pictures of plants they are unable to identify, or are unable
to identify with precision. They should not include these plants in the
numbered list until they are able to identify it with relative
precision. Each participant shall determine the level of precision that
is acceptable to her; however, being able to distinguish between plants
that have different common names should be a bare minimum.

6. Different
varieties of the same species shall not count as different entries
(e.g., Celebrity Tomato and Roma Tomato should not be separate
entries); however, different species which share a common name be
separate if the participant is able to distinguish between them (e.g., camillia japonica and camillia sassanqua if the participant can distinguish the two–“camillia” if not).

7. Participants may take as long as they like to complete the challenge.  You
can make it as quick or as detailed a project as you like.  I’m
planning to blog a minimum of two plants per week, complete with
pictures and descriptions as below, which could take me up to a year. 
But you can do it in whatever level of detail you like.

I know it is wicked of me to bring a plant topic around to books, but those of you that have stuck around MagistraMater know how big a fan I am of Wendell Berry.  And you can guess how delighted I am to be reminded of Norman Wirzba.  His book on the Sabbath is on my wish list at PBS. 

You know, don’t let the number 100 frighten you.  Can you name twenty species?  Wouldn’t ten be a good start?

Oh, yay! 

**Addendum**

In another of those lovely intersections of interest, I read “The Life of Trees” in the current online edition of Books and Culture.  Alan Jacobs cites Garrison Keillor: “he came to see that his ignorance of trees was emblematic of  his difficulties [in writing a novel]”.  GK’s characters “leaned against vague vegetation.”   Ayup.

In this short essay on books about trees are some fascinating new discoveries by scientists at Humboldt State (my husband’s alma mater) who have climbed to the top of the redwoods to study the ecosystem of the canopies.  I learned three forms of arbor  (arboreal, arboriphile and arboriphobic) and was introduced to a froe (a tool for cleaving wood by splitting it along the grain).   I recommend this article.

The Moment That Changed Our Marriage

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At twenty, I was a young bride.  Granted, early loss and later family friction forced me to grow up in certain ways.  I had been financially independent for three years.  Nevertheless, one of the tacit agreements in our relationship was that my first-born husband would take care of me and I, the youngest in my family, would be taken care of.  Curt was only nine months older than me, but I was younger in many, many ways.  Thus ends the setting of my story.

One Sunday morning [isn’t it always Sunday morning?], three months into our marriage, we had an argument.  Who knows the whys or the wherefores.  We disagreed on some decision, and I was adamant in wanting my own way.  As our little white Toyota pickup drove down Olehanson Road I burst into tears.  Not tears of grief, but tears of thwarted desire.   By the time we turned onto Old Highway 101, Curt had relented, capitulated, backed-off, reversed.

I had hardly finished wiping my face and blowing my nose when I took a few slow, deep breaths. An incipient smile began shaping itself on my face.  Something between a giggle and a chuckle came out of my mouth. What made me say the next words?  Where was the governor of my mouth that moment? 

“I can make you do anything I want.”

The words hung, suspended in the cab of the truck, for an eternity.  We were both shocked. 

It was a silent, sober and subdued young couple that arrived at church that morning.

I didn’t see myself as a manipulative wench.  I thought I was a loving wife.  But the words said something entirely different.  Curt didn’t recognize the pattern that had been developing until it smacked him in his eardrums.  

It was God’s mercy, Kyrie Eleison, that turned the filter off, and let those words tumble out the instant they came into my head.  From that moment, we both knew that things would be different.  I apologized, crying tears of grief this time–grief at my selfish pigheadedness. 

In the thirty years of our marriage, we have probably had half a dozen decisions where we strongly disagreed.  We have hashed out our arguments, talked through the issues, supported our positions.  But we have always agreed that the last word was Curt’s, that he, as my husband, was the head.  Several key decisions in our marriage that were initially very painful for me have turned out to be “hallelujahs” in my life, occasions to be thankful for the wisdom of a godly husband.  He didn’t turn out to be a tyrant.  But, thank God, he is not a pansy.

Happy Anniversary, Babe.  You are The Best!
     


How To Be a Poet

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I found this poem at the Poetry Foundation site. 

How To Be A Poet
by Wendell Berry

(to remind myself)

i

Make a place to sit down.
Sit down. Be quiet.
You must depend upon
affection, reading, knowledge,
skill–more of each
than you have–inspiration,
work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity.  Any readers
who like your poems,
doubt their judgment.

ii

Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensioned life;
stay away from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.

iii

Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.

Her Answer – Fine Art Friday

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Yes, 1877

No!


Yes or No

Last week I highlighted Sir John Everett Millais’ print The Boyhood of Raleigh.  To my great delight Sir John Everett Millais keeps popping up on my horizon.  I just finished Anthony Trollope’s book The Small House at Allington; Millais illustrated the book when it was first published serially in a magazine, but it is difficult to find a book with all of Millais’ illustrations. 

Trollope’s words about Millais’ illustrations, from his Autobiography:

Writers of novels know well–and so ought readers of novels to have learned–that there are two modes of illustrating, either of which may be adopted equally by a bad and by a good artist.  To which class Mr. Millais belongs I need not say; but, as a good artist, it was open to him simply to make a pretty picture, or to study the work of the author from whose writing he was bound to take his subject. 

I have too often found that the former alternative has been thought to be the better, as it certainly is the easier method.  An artist will frequently dislike to subordinate his ideas to those of any author, and will sometimes be too idle to find out what those ideas are.  But this artist was neither proud nor idle.  In every figure that he drew it was his object to promote the views of the writer whose work he had undertaken to illustrate, and he never spared himself any pains in studying that work, so as to enable himself to do so.

Lingering

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Last night was like a perfectly
balanced algebra equation. 

We had eaten (a simple, scrumptious
meal of salad, bread and wine) and prayed (for Zimbabwe, for Family Camp this
weekend, for healing, for the neighborhood of the new church, for a struggling
single mom, giving thanks for new babies safely born)  and were sitting in the
solarium on the back of our friends’ house, relaxing, laughing, bantering,
reminiscing.  Jo was home from college, Tim just graduated from high school, the
good father had arrived home  after another day practicing medicine. 

We sat there
enjoying one another. 

Two hummingbirds frequented the feeder, flowers winked at
us, eyes sparkled and danced, and we devoured the visual feast before our eyes. 

Curt and I took turns murmuring our
need to go, but we made no move to leave.  We were settled and at peace. We
lingered, soaking in the goodness of a friendship that spanned many years.  It
was a moment full of grace, full of suspended beauty.  But the glorious melody
of the moment moved forward to the coda, a coda which would bring us to the end of the day. 
Reluctantly, we rose and took our leave.

Outside, daylight was hovering,
peeking over the mountain ridge.  We drove a hundred yards and watched a herd of
50-60 elk move through the tall grass.  They had been crossing the road, but ran
back when we pulled over to watch.  Have you ever seen elk run?
 Their elegance seems impossible with their bulk.  Mama elk
called to their calves; Collin and Curt imitated the calls, but no calves came
running toward us.  We gazed at the groups, multiple parabolas, merging,
dividing, curving, gathering. 

The sweet scent of freshly mown hay wafted from the
adjoining field.  A passing car occasionally interrupted the stillness.  Dusk
descended; distant lights twinkled.  Curt started the car, and we drove home in
companionable silence.  It had been a fine day. 

Maybe I am getting old, but I see
these moments as treasures to cherish. 

It was ordinary prayer group and yet it
was precious.  Our batteries were re-charging, preparing for energy required in
days to come.  We reconnected and agreed that it was very good.  I wanted to
write it down, to keep the memory from dissolving into the air.  I want to
remember this day and to give thanks for it.

He whose heart is
kind beyond all measure

Gives unto each day
what He deems best,

Lovingly its part of
pain and pleasure,

Mingling toil with
peace and rest.

 ~ Lina
Sandell


* photo from another evening of lingering in York, England

In Praise of PaperBackSwap

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It’s been almost a year since I joined PaperBackSwap.  In that year I have culled my bookshelves, mailed out 134 books and made room for the 141 books I have received.   Some people say I’m obsessed with books.

They tell me that I’ve saved $634.50, based on a used book price of $4.50.  If you buy a used book on Amazon for $0.01 and add $3.99 shipping, you spend at least $4.00.

Here’s how it works:  initially you must post ten books which you are willing to make available to other members.  You receive two free book credits.  When someone wants your book, you receive an email, print out a “wrapper” and send the book to them.  You pay postage to send out books, but the books you request are sent to you free. 

What I’ve learned:

~  Since I don’t like wrapping books in 8 x 11, 20 pound copy paper, I’ve come up with the most frugal substitutes I can find.  I re-use every padded mailer that comes to my house.  I use the large blank newspaper bottoms that come with my son’s paper route.  I buy 10 x 13 manila envelopes (and strapping tape) at Costco ; most books fit in sideways and I fold the envelope down to size.

~ Regardless of the name of the club, hardback books are also swapped.  Audio books too. 

~  Books with the same ISBN (International Standard Book Number) can have different covers.  Don’t send off a grumpy message to the sender when the cover is not what you expected, ahem…

~  I use my Wish List whenever I read an intriguing book review, have a book recommended, read “best of” lists, read an author interview, etc.  The Wish List is limited to 200 books and my list is full.  When someone posts a book on my Wish List, and I am first in line to receive it (not a daily or even weekly occurrence) PBS sends me an email that the book I wanted is available and held for me for 48 hours.

~  The Reminder List is my spillover from the Wish List.  PBS takes no action on Reminder Lists. When my Wish List goes down, I move a book over from the Reminder List.

~  I don’t waste time browsing “books posted today”.  My tastes are not what anyone would call “popular”.  I use the search engine to look for authors and titles.  Over 2 million books are available. 

~  Patience is a necessary ingredient.  You are given five days to mail the book, using Media Mail, a slower class of mail.  If you need a book in two days, order from Amazon.  Although, I got Rick Steves’ Great Britain 2008 book a week before we left on our trip by asking the other member to send it First Class.

~  My small town post office is a mile away.  They all know me by name.  It works well for me to swing by there on the way to get groceries, see my grandson, etc.  There is a Printable Postage option with PBS, but I don’t want to pay the extra 43¢.

~  A small sample of books I’ve scored:

Four books by the historian Barbara Tuchman
Half a dozen books by Anthony Trollope
Kristin Lavransdatter, both translations
Five books by the social historian, Witold Rybcznski
All New Good Housekeeping Cookbook (I love this cookbook)
From Dawn to Decadence, Jacques Barzun, hardcover!
Books by Zinsser, L’Engle, Luci Shaw, Dostoevsky, Stegner, P.D. James, Barbara Pym
Quite a few “Great Books” for my son’s education

~  Most books have been in pretty good condition.  Some are disappointingly ratty; others have obviously never been read (uncut pages).  The only requirement for books is that they are not ARCs (advance reading copy), written in or highlighted (flyleaf is okay).  You can make conditional requests (no smoking environment) and I have received and sent a few books with light highlighting with the other member’s permission.

~  I’m so far out of the mainstream that I’m bone dry.  “1/1” Books on my Wish List (I’m the only one in PBS requesting  this book, the first one to get this book when it enters the system…if that ever happens!):  [3 years later updated news in red]

Blind Harry’s Wallace, William Hamilton   received!
Christianity and Classical Culture, Charles Norris Cochrane
The Claverings, Anthony Trollope
The Creative Ordeal: The Story of Raytheon, Otto J. Scott  received
The Dancing Floor, John Buchan
Dove Descending: A Journey into T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, Thomas Howard (Elisabeth Elliot’s Catholic brother) received
Evelyn Underhill: Essential Writings
An Eye for An Eye, Anthony Trollope
From Gileskirk to Greyfriars, Walter Scott
From Glencoe to Stirling, Walter Scott
From Montrose to Culloden, Walter Scott
The Gibson Upright, Booth Tarkington
The Golden Lion of Granpere, Anthony Trollope
The Hand on My Scalpel, David C. Thompson   received
Hilaire Belloc, A. N. Wilson
The Moviegoer, Walker Percy
Poetry and Mathematics, S. Buchanan
The Practice of Reading, Denis Donoghue  received
Reader’s Companion to Ireland  received
Reading Rooms, Susan Allen Toth  received
Redeeming the Time, Russell Kirk
Romantic Scotland, Charles Maclean
Solzhenitsyn, Joseph Pearce
The Southern Tradition at Bay, Richard Weaver  received
Speak: A Short History of Languages, Tore Janson  received
Speaking of Beauty, Denis Donoghue  received
The Story of San Michele, Axel Munthe  received
Thomas Chalmers: Enthusiast for Mission, John Roxborogh
Uncle’s Dream and Other Stories, Dostoyevsky
Willie and Dwike: An American Profile, William Zinsser  received
Winslow Homer: The Nature of Observation, Elizabeth Johns
Winter Notes on Summer Impressions, Dostoyevsky

Shameless Appeal:
If you decide to give PBS a try,
would you click on the icon above
so I get a free book credit? heh heh…
I am listed under Carol B. and my “nickname” is ilovetolearn.
Thanks.

If any of you would like to be buddies,
feel free to invite me.
Buddies can look at each other’s bookshelfs
(books available to swap) and wish lists.

PaperBackSwap.  A good thing.
IMHO

Simple Pleasures in June

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The simple pleasures below are all someone else’s joys.
They share them with me.  I share them with you.
Vicarious pleasure.
My specialty.


My daughter-in-law filled this vintage piece
(a wooden milk carrier?) with flowers for a dear friend.
No one does flowers like Jessie.

~  Iris and rose from my mother-in-law’s garden
**when I read this, I can’t help humming
My Wild Iris(silent h) / Rose!**

~  Sunrise on the Columbia River
My son, Chris, went on a fishing trip.

People!  This is a ten foot sturgeon,
caught and released by my son’s friend.

Any vicarious thrills in your life?

Another Wonderful Opportunity

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The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want for good stuff to listen to.  There are sermons online (does anyone else like to listen to sermons in their free time?), Librivox for free audio books in the public domain, conference CDs, audio books from the library… 

But!  I discovered a new source and I am delighting in it!  I just drove three hours to pick up my friend at the airport and realized at the last minute that I didn’t have an audio book available.  In with my bills to pay was a handbill for Library2Go (an Oregon system) from our library’s circulation desk.  Library2Go uses the services of OverDrive.   I include this link because you may be able to find your library within the system.  Click on Find Free Downloads button and search for your library by country or by state. 

Without leaving your home, you can download professionally read audio books for a ten-day checkout period.  If a book isn’t available at the moment, you can place a hold on that book, and receive an email when it is available. 

I downloaded The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope, burned it to CDs and have been happily caught up in the drama of Lily Dale and Johnny Eames while driving, deep-cleaning my bedroom, making meals, etc.

Pros:  Large selection of books and videos, professionally done.  I love Librivox, the free-ness of it, and have my favorite readers, KayRay being one; however, some readers are more difficult to listen to and detract from the text.  Convenient to browse and download.  No books to return to library.

Cons:  Not all titles on the site are immediately available.  Like books in the library, if someone else in your library system has checked it out, you must wait in line.  Sadly, OverDrive does not support iPod/Mac users.  Ten days is ample for small books, but a squeeze for longer books.  (Small House took 20 CDs, but I could have listened straight from my computer.)  The tracks are long tracks, divided by chapters, usually about 20 minutes. 

It’s a wonderful opportunity that is probably available to most of you.

~   ~   ~

I have a deep-cleaning question for you. 

What do you intend to do with obsolete media? 

I’m speaking, of course, of VHS videos and cassette tapes.   I (uh) am (er) thinking of (clearing throat) pitching, as in throwing away, all the boxes of tapes I have.  (gasp)  A shelf in our closet is occupied with boxes of cassettes: sermons, conferences, homeschooling.  Stuff we listened to once or twice, appreciated it, but doubt we will go back to again.  The medium does make a difference.  All the minimum, we will cull our collection.  Perhaps offer it tapes for free at a garage sale. 

What about you?  What will you do?