Update on The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

The book arrived yesterday from Amazon, along with The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I'm in that heavenly place of having an enjoyable book to read and one I'm pretty certain I'll enjoy, to follow it.

The heroine, Flavia de Luce is eleven, the year is 1950, the setting is an English family manse called Buckshaw. Flavia has two sisters: Ophelia, whom she calls Feely, and Daphne, nicknamed Daffy. Her father, Colonel de Luce, is attentive only to his stamp collection, so Flavia is able to be a free spirit. A self-taught chemist and natural investigator, Flavia is in her element when she finds a dying man in the cucumber patch of her family's kitchen garden.

I'm on Chapter 10, page 115, and life is good. Even going to my (new) doctor's appointment later this morning is easier knowing I have a really good book to read. Even the physical appearance of the book is different; no dust cover, for one thing, and the dimensions - in round numbers- 5"x8". I don't think I'll even be able to loan this one out. I'll have to buy another copy for that.

The author is pretty cool too. First point going for him is that he's Canadian, the province of Ontario, no less. He's 72 years old and this is his first novel. He's written children's books, short stories, and co-authored Ms. Holmes of Baker Street, and a memoir The Shoebox Bible. He's won awards. Mr. Bradley and his wife now live in Kelowna, British Columbia, where the back cover of the book assures me "He is at work on the second Flavia de Luce novel." This next book in Bradley’s new series, The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag, will be published in 2010. Thank God.

Lyrics for I Dreamed a Dream from the musical Les Miserables

I'm leaving out the first verse and starting where Susan Boyle does.
...
I dreamed a dream in time gone by
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that love would never die
I dreamed that God would be forgiving
Then I was young and unafraid
And dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no ransom to be paid
No song unsung, no wine untasted
But the tigers come at night
With their voices soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
And they turn your dream to shame
He slept a summer by my side
He filled my days with endless wonder
He took my childhood in his stride
But he was gone when autumn came
And still I dream he'll come to me
That we will live the years together
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather
I had a dream my life would be
So different from this hell I'm living
So different now from what it seemed
Now life has killed the dream I dreamed

Canadian Author Alan Bradley

Publisher release date: April 28, 2009

My daughter, Sharon, has found this treasure for us:

A brilliant first novel, a murder mystery no less, by 72-year-old Canadian author Alan Bradley.

Heroine is eleven-year-old Flavia who finds a man dying in the cucumber patch; set in 1950; English manor house. There are four more Flavia mysteries under contract with the author.

Banker to the Poor - Muhammad Yunus

I have become a fan, more than that maybe, a cheerleader for Muhammad Yunus and all his people. I checked this title out of the library and am almost finished. I came across this example of one of the women who benefited from the Grameen Bank's Micro-Lending program. Murshida was featured in a PBS documentary in 1998. I quote from the book.

"Murshida was born into a poor family of eight children. Neither her father nor grandfather owned any farmland. At fifteen she was married to a man from a nearby village who worked as an unskilled laborer in a factory. The first few years of the marriage went relatively well, but things turned sour when Murshida began having children. Just as their family expenses went up, her husband started bringing home less and less money. Finally it became clear that he was a compulsive gambler. During the 1974 famine, he was given a company bonus of 1,800 taka. He lost it all gambling. When Murshida complained her husband beat her.

"To earn some extra money, Murshida took up spinning raw cotton into yarn. She worked on contract for other people and was paid very little, sometimes no more than a handful of broken rice. Still, the work prevented her from starving. She considered other options - working as a domestic servant for a rich family or begging. But what would happen to her children?

"One day Murshida's husband came home after a week's absence and complained that there was not enough food for him. Murshida had cooked up something modest and had not eaten the entire day. Angry, her husband beat her and then left, saying he would return later in the morning. That day there was a thunderstorm, and as her husband had sold the roof of their house to pay gambling debts, Murshida and her three children were soaked. At that moment Murshida decided that something had to change. When her husband returned at midnight, Murshida confronted him.

"You have only brought a small quantity of flattened rice for your daughter," she remembers saying, "but nothing for me. Yet everyone in the village says you earn a lot of money." Her husband flew into a rage and beat her. Then he divorced her on the spot and told her to leave the house.

"What about the children?" Murshida asked.

"You can throw them into the river and let them drown, for all I care," he responded.

"Murshida sent word to her brother, who offered to take her into his home. Once she had moved in, Murshida found some more work spinning on contract. She heard about the Grameen Bank when it came to her village. ...

"At first Murshida borrowed 1,000 taka to purchase a goat and she paid off the loan in six months with the profits from selling the mild. She was left with a goat, a kid, and no debt. Encouraged, she borrowed 2,000 taka, bought raw cotton and a spinning wheel, and began manufacturing lady's scarves. She now sells her scarves wholesale for 100 taka with tassels and 50 taka without. Murshida's business has grown so much that during peak periods she employs as many as twenty-five women in her village to manufacture scarves. In addition, she has bought an acre of farmland with her profits, built a house with a Grameen Bank housing loan, and set up her brothers in businesses that include saari trading and raw cotton trading. Murshida has also emerged as a leader in her center. She was elected center chief several times.

Excerpt from a "Yes" interview with Mohammad Yunus

Reporter Sarah: From what I understand, the work you're doing leads to changes in people's lives that go beyond their immediate economic well-being. These are changes that enhance people's capacity, strengthen community, affect their relationships, outlook on life, and perhaps even their spiritual experience. Can you talk a little bit about the changes you see?
Yunus: This work is not just about loaning money, paying it back, and hoping that things will change. We also engage the people who borrow from us in discussions about the social problems that they face in their lives and the kind of solutions they imagine for themselves.
Something we call "The 16 Decisions" emerged out of thousands and thousands of these sessions. For example, one of the 16 Decisions says, "We shall grow vegetables all year round, eat plenty of them, and sell the surplus." This decision helps to overcome malnutrition; a lot of children have night blindness due to vitamin A deficiency. Another one is, "We shall send our children to school so that they can become educated."

Studies show that Grameen families adopt family planning practices at twice the rate of the national average.

Review of "Borderline" by Nevada Barr 2009

Barr's writing just keeps getting better and better. Her character, Anna Pidgeon, gets more and more complex. She takes her usual beating, and then some, in this adventure. But listen to a description of the attraction in a relationship: "Charles came along with his literary allusions and superb table manners. [He] saw it as a kind of Scarlett/Ashley thing." Or this, as a description of one of the main characters: "Even when she was a tiny little thing she never wanted to play at being a princess. She always played at being queen." Or this nature description: "The sky was huge and deep, on the horizon towers of cumulonimbus clouds rose in great columns exploring every shade of white."

There's no shortage of side stories going on either. There's the one about the longhorn cow, named Easter, who got stranded on a rim of land above the Rio Grande and a rescue is attempted by the rafting crew - Anna, her husband, their guide and fellow rafters; and the politically ambitious lady mayor; and Anna's own struggle to understand her feelings after her previous traumatic adventure in Isle Royale.

Page 309 references the title: "When every bell rang a false note, one had to move on, or cross from borderline to genuine parnoid."

Eckhart Tolle on The Way of the Cross

caption for the photo - A down comforter on a cold Easter

from: The Power of Now

"... there is a growing number of humans alive today whose consciousness is sufficiently evolved not to need any more suffering before the realization of enlightenment. You may be one of them.
" Enlightenment through suffering - the way of the cross - means to be forced into the kingdom of heaven kicking and screaming. You finally surrender because you can't stand the pain anymore, but the pain could go on for a long time until this happens. Enlightenment, consciously chosen, means to relinquish your attachment to past and future and to make the Now the main focus of your life. It means choosing to dwell in the state of presence rather than in time. It means saying yes to what is. You then don't need pain anymore. How much more time do you think you will need before you are able to say "I will create no more pain, no more suffering?" How muh more pain do you need b efore you can make that choice?
"If you think that you need more time, you will get more time - and more pain. Time and pain are inseparable."

I want to believe this. I do believe it. When I get it to work and I'm not in pain anymore, I'll be sure to let you know. Good luck to us all.

Video of Muhammad Yunus

Poem - again - This one is for Glenn. We used to say every other line to each other when we were on tour back in 1976

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you

But make allowance for their doubting too,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

*

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,

If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

*
If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

*
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much,

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!

*

Rudyard Kipling

[Image is of Kipling]

Remember this? I ran across a copy of it and wanted to share.

The Desiderata

by

Max Ehrmann

Go placidly amid the noise and haste

and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,

be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly;

and listen to others,

even to the dull and ignorant;

they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons;

they are vexatious to your spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,

you may become vain or bitter,

for always there will be greater and lesser persons

than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;

it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,

for the world is full of trickery.

But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;

many persons strive for high ideals and everywhere

life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.

Neither be cynical about love;

for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,

it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,

gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nuture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.

But do not distress yourselves with dark imaginings.

Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars;

you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you,

no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,

whatever you conceive that to be.

And whatever your labors and aspirations,

in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams,

it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy.

March BCSL Book Club Notes

Small group this month: Bonnie, Mary and myself. Bonnie brought her Corelight assigned book Power vs. Force by David Hawkins. Bonnie mentioned that Ann Cowles had talked about this book with enthusiasm and several of us at the Center have read it. I talked about the author Barbara Cleverly, a British writer of mystery stories, who gives me, as reader,the reward of her knowledge in ancient times and beliefs, especially concerning goddesses, saints, and other powerful women leaders. Current title: Bright Hair Against the Bone.

Mary had the book: Creating a World Without Poverty. She says it reads a little dry, as you might expect, but has the most wonderful ideas for changing the world; with micro loans to women and the whole movement of Social Business. Mary read certain parts of the book to us, like the 16 points the borrowers must agree to. I got excited hearing these quotes (I have a copy of the book ordered) and Bonnie was moved to tears.