Only 4 books? I’ve been doing other unimportant things, like my latest obsession, Paint with Diamonds. Sweet Girl and I are together nonstop, sometimes doing our own thing, sometimes playing games or doing art projects together. She is having so much fun right now that I’m worried the child will never leave the house again. She’s baking, learning how to edit videos (we are very impressed with what she can do), and developing some new sewing skills. She’s watched every episode available of several shows too, is reading the Harry Potter series, and calling a couple of friends several times a day. She also does two math mini-lessons a day as assigned by her middle school.
I’ve spent time studying Mussar and facilitating groups, which has been a good way to stay mindful during this crazy, insane time. I don’t remember when the last time was that I actually left the house! I’m working on a canvas for a friend’s house too, which is on version 3 because I’m a tough critic.
I’m sure I would be reading more if I weren’t always cooking, cleaning, or making snacks. On a brighter note, Mr. B and I are on a weight loss kick and it’s working! He has been wanting to get healthier for a long time, but for me, I’d put it on the back burner for a couple of years now, ever since Harvey I’d guess, although I’ve exercised rather regularly. I just couldn’t spend any mental bandwidth on food and making good choices. It’s not an excuse, but moving 3 times and building a house really knocked me out for most other projects.
We are simply counting calories and making good choices, and 3.5 weeks in, I have lost 7.8 pounds. 38 to go!! (That makes it sound like an uphill battle, doesn’t it?)
Here’s my embarrassing story of how I found the motivation to finally do this. I’d been focusing more and more on how this added weight is slowing me down and causing my joints to ache. Mr. B was talking about starting a special diet. I saw an ad on Facebook for some sort of magic pill that forces your body into a ketogenic state so you burn fat without having to do anything!! I was so convinced that I bought it. I started imaging how good I’d feel when I lost this weight, how I will fit into my clothes again, etc.
Then the pills came and Mr. B showed me an article about how they cause all sorts of problems in your body. I threw them away after I couldn’t figure out how to return them. But… the original excitement for losing weight got me to decide to do it the hard way. So I’m actually thankful for that scam because it motivated me when nothing else was working.
OK… on to the books!
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry
“The 1918 pandemic reached an extreme of virulence unknown in any other widespread influenza outbreak in history.” Not only is this a cultural history of our country at the beginning of the 20th century, but it’s full of the history and personalities of medical science at the time. This book is so well-written that at times I thought I was reading fiction, though the descriptions of crowded barracks in WWI brought realism right back to mind. We learn about the establishment of Johns Hopkins and how America caught up with Europe in scientific rigor and accomplishment. This book is fascinating on so many levels. The scientists that Barry profiles changed the nature of medicine.
“The greatest challenge of science, its art, lies in asking an important question and framing it in a way that allows it to be broken into manageable pieces, into experiments that can be conducted that ultimately lead to answers. To do this requires a certain kind of genius, one that probes vertically and sees horizontally. Horizontal vision allows someone to assimilate and weave together seemingly unconnected bits of information. It allows an investigator to see what others do not see, and to make leaps of connectivity and creativity. Probing vertically, going deeper and deeper into something, creates new information. Sometimes what one finds will shine brilliantly enough to illuminate the whole world.”
Afterward, written in 2017: “In 1918, the world population was 1.8 billion, and the pandemic probably killed 50 to 100 million people, with the lowest credible modern estimate at 35 million. Today the world population is 7.6 billion. A comparable death toll today would range from roughly 150 to 425 million.”
The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson
I really needed a light read while I was reading Samantha Power’s memoir and The Great Influenza, so this was my mental break from those. It’s full of literary clues to solve a family drama/mystery, which I enjoyed, and it’s set in a bookstore, which is the best!
“Maybe we couldn’t return to what we always were to each other because we’d never been as close as I’d assumed we were. My mother knew everything about me. I hardly knew anything about her at all.”
Nothing Is Wrong and Here Is Why: Essays by Alexandra Petri
“Before, for instance, there were certain things that we could not imagine a president would say. There were certain things, for instance, that we could not imagine a president would do. There were certain people, for instance, that we could not imagine would be placed in charge of anything, let alone the government of the United States of America. But no longer!”
It’s refreshing to read some smart, ironic essays about the insanity that is politics right now. My favorite is a short example of how the purchase of a congressman’s office furniture could have totaled almost one million dollars. The book got a little repetitive after awhile, for me, and I skimmed through the last half.
“It has been sixty years and you have barely crossed the span from Monday until Tuesday. You entered the week comparatively young and spry and now you are a withered and wretched crone, demanding ointment, and things that you could swear happened yesterday were simultaneously three hundred years ago and never. This is normal. This is how time works now. Friday is both twice a week and not at all. Each Friday lasts six years. Tuesdays are only sometimes. If you pause to look down at your phone in the middle of a routine activity, you will look up and see a barren, unfamiliar landscape and your hands will be covered in cobwebs. You are now three hundred years older than you were and you remember things no one else does and speak in a language that has been all but forgotten. Do not panic. This is quite common.”
The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir by Samantha Power
I admire Samantha Power and wish I could be her. 🙂 Former US UN Ambassador, Pulitzer Prize winner, and social justice warrior representing our country on the world stage, she does what I wish I could do in the broader world. Her frustration and outrage echoes mine, and I didn’t know much about any of the topics she wrote about (global human rights issues and events, her view from inside the Obama administration, and her personal struggles and background). She takes personal moral responsibility for doing her part in a world gone mad. Highly recommend.
“Each member of our delegation had taken personal risks by traveling to Cameroon, Chad, and Nigeria, and had done so out of a conviction that our fates were somehow linked to those of people thousands of miles away. Every day, while nobody was watching, young boys and girls were dying in the countries we visited because of malnutrition, disease, military violence, and terrorism. We visited because we were determined to help in a way that we knew no other country would.”
