On Veiling and Hair and Paul

I have a relatively new Facebook friend and she's Jewish - my first Jewish friend! I met her on a HuffPo link. I liked one of her comments, and she requested me as a friend just like that!  I'm not sure how she'd label herself (if she would), but she told me that as a married woman she doesn't wear "trousers," but wears skirts that cover her knees, blouses that cover the elbows and she covers her hair in public.  She said single women don't cover their hair, but married women do in her community.  She also pointed out that her husband does modest things for her like not swimming in gender-mixed places.

I say all that because I was reading Paul Among the People by Sarah Ruden. She said she really did not like Paul because he sounded so misogynistic and homophobic, but as a scholar in classical languages, she started reading Paul in light of his contemporaries.  The book is "the apostle reinterpreted and reimagined in his own time."  She quotes Bible passages attributed to Paul, and compares them to other literature and known historical contexts of Paul's time.

One thing that really took my attention was about hair. It made me think, "Oh wow, the Middle East really hasn't evolved much from this thinking," and I don't mean that in a derogatory way because, likely, they have evolved, but they just still hold onto the traditions. That's more what I mean. I recall hearing people talk how in some places in, say, the Levant tribes do what they have done for centuries. And in many ways, I find that wonderful because there is something to be said for holding onto your culture and not letting social media or all this dang stuff available in the world make you lose something precious.

(I'm probably not saying that right, but I know what I mean in my own mind.)

So the subject was women's hair. More specifically she was talking about that passage concerning women in church covering their heads. From time to time I see a Christian group that practices this here, but despite my rather strict upbringing, it's one thing we never did in the Baptist churches I'm familiar with.  (Women didn't even have to have particularly long hair thankfully, since mine really doesn't grow long without growing into a shrub).  I have heard Muslims declare "See, you all are supposed to do what our women do...you just cherrypick that out and don't obey. You should be wearing hijab as well."  (Have you heard this, too?)

So I was going to write what she said about the veil, but figured first I'd ask for interpretations that you have heard regarding this passage. The main one I recall is that it was cultural and that our hair is our natural covering so we don't have to worry about veiling in the 20th century.

Instead of writing her thoughts on the veil, here is what she said about hair:

"Paul does not write of 'nature' (verse 14) by accident. The ancients believed that it was female hair's nature to inflame men, almost like breasts or genitals: men experienced women's hair as powerfully, inescapably erotic, in a way that makes our hair-care product companies look like an accounting textbook."  (pg. 88)

Then she quotes erotic passages from Ovid and Apuleius about hair and continues, "Notice the implicit association between hair on display and actual nakedness. This wouldn't make much sense unless both signaled sexual availability and both were thought of as automatically bringing on male desire."  (pg. 91)

What are your thoughts on hair, veiling, Paul's words on the subject, interpretations you've heard, what your church teaches on this matter, the fact that I added a new friend on Facebook based on a HuffPo link comment?  Anything?

January Books

Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes by E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O'Brien  -- I really enjoyed this book because I love cultural stuff. This book points out areas where we as people living in the West may have "cultural blinders" which make us misunderstand parts of the Bible.  Or maybe not understand the verses in the ways the people living back then did.

They deal with such things as race and ethnicity, languages, individualism, honor/shame, time, rules, relationships, virtue and vice and everything being all about me.  Good stuff! Challenging stuff!  I want to read this one again to soak it all in.



1000 Years of Annoying the French by Stephen Clarke -- I saw this book nearly a year ago at a train station in Germany. I guess I forgot how long it was, but I put it on my Amazon Wishlist and received it for Christmas.  It was a rather interesting and amusing way of learning/reviewing/reading new stuff about the French and English conflicts (or should I say annoyances?) over the centuries. The author looks at people, events, places, food with interesting twists and humor.  I think I learned quite a bit.



And God Said by Dr. Joel M. Hoffman - I put this one on my Amazon Wishlist because I read something on HuffPo Religion about how shepherds (think Psalm 23) didn't convey today what they did back then.  And the Ten Commandments were not translated quite right (kill is more like murder and covet more like taking). Also the Song of Songs "my sister, my beloved" - that's not an incest thing, but a sign of equality in the relationship. Also the Hebrew levav incorporates emotions and rationality together.  So loving the Lord your God with all your heart includes both emotion and rational thinking.  So I saw a post online about this author and got the book. It was more technical than I thought, but not in a bad way.  Just a bit deeper and more into linguistics and translating than I might have thought. 



In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language by Joel Hoffman -- another book by the same author, this book was a bit more technical and while I enjoyed some of it, I realized I am not all that interested in how the pronunciation of ancient languages may have changed.  I did like the chapters about the Jews' magic letters - the consonants they used also as vowels - and the information about the Dead Sea Scrolls and reviving the Hebrew language in modern Israel.



Grace for the Good Girl by Emily P. Freeman -- the author "invites you to release your tight hold on that familiar, try-hard life and lean your weight heavy into the love of Jesus"


In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom by Qanta A. Ahmed, MD -- After reading this, I wondered if one of my favorite bloggers who writes about Saudi Arabia had read it, and found this interview from a few years ago.  Apparently I'd seen it back then, but I reread it since I just finished the book last night.  The author tells about her impressions of the people in Saudi Arabia. At times I was giggling at her descriptions. Not necessarily that the people were so funny, but her word choices were amusing. Who describes someone's beauty this way?  "I studied her for a long time, searching for the source of familiarity in my attraction to ineluctable good looks. After a few moments I found it: the squared-off jaw leading to a subtly cleft chin; the perfect symmetrical nasolabial folds, deep lines stretched across full, high cheeks flanking the wide, warm smile; and finally, the endearing yet slightly imperfect alignment between her incisors peeping between wide bow-shaped lips were all very familiar. She was the Saudi Gloria Steinem."  (pg. 372)

I was sad during parts of this book especially the chapter on the lost boys: those the author claims are products of polygamous families and don't know quite where they fit because they often are sons of second, third or fourth wives.  Many of these came to her hospital intoxicated or with arms showing their drug usage. My heart went out to them.  I enjoyed reading about her hajj experience. The way she felt absolved of her sins from performing these rituals made me think of people who feel similar when they come to Jesus.



Dear Zari: The Secret Lives of the Women of Afghanistan by Zarghuna Kargar -- I'm not sure how this book ended up on my Amazon Wishlist, but I received it for Christmas and really enjoyed it.  Whenever I'm tempted to complain about my life, I should recall the truly awful reality for many women in this world. Not every story had a tragic ending, but most did. In this book you can read about a woman (a girl of 9 in reality) given to a family to settle her brother's gambling debt. She was badly mistreated and when she started her period, she was given to one of the son's as a vessel to produce his babies. Another lady was married to a man who was known in the village as a homosexual. Her marriage to him was only to give some respectability to the family, and she was sorely mistreated in this culture that dislikes homosexuality.  Another woman grew up as a boy - and this continued through adulthood so that she had no chance for marriage and having a family of her own. Instead she was mocked as a eunuch.  Throughout the book Zari speaks of her own life and I found this interview online just now if you are curious to learn more about her.  In the epilogue she wrote how the radio show was useful in helping women in Afghanistan so I was sad to read that the British government no longer funded the Afghan Women's Hour.  Apparently the show empowered women and gave information to them that was turning the tide.  Here is more about the book.



The Souvenir: A Daughter Discovers Her Father's War by Louise Steinman -- I like reading about history this way. The author discovers a Japanese flag that her father sent home from his time in World War II.  After an acquaintance translates the writing on it, the author decides to find the man or his family and return it. This takes her to Japan where she met the man's family, and later to the Philippines where she saw where her father had served.  I especially enjoyed her recollection of visiting Hiroshima and the peace museum there. Also it was interesting "seeing" Japan and the Philippines through her eyes.



Whose Land? Whose Promise? by Gary M. Burge -- "what Christians are not being told about Israel and the Palestinians" -- I enjoyed this book as the author identified the background to the problem, the Old Testament and the land, the New Testament and the land, and introduced us to several Palestinian Christians and evangelical Christian groups working for justice in Israel/Palestine.  I really wish many people I know would read this book because too many have a very lopsided view and stance on their nearly unconditional support for Israel. I understand why they support Israel, but willful ignorance is not a good reason.  Not when you can read books, search online for news and talk to people who have been there and can share the realities of life there.


Enemies of the People: My Family's Journey to America by Kati Marton -- Can you imagine receiving a file from the State where you glean more about your childhood than your parents ever told you? This was the "gift" left for the author when the Hungarian government made her parents' files eligible for her to receive.  The stories are told by informers to the State. A rather interesting book if you enjoy this sort of thing. I liked reading more of Hungary during the Communist rule and how this brave couple defied their government to realize their dream of living in the United States.


Sacrilege: Finding Life in the Unorthodox Ways of Jesus by Hugh Halter -- This unorthodox pastor gives tips on how to be Jesus to the world. I enjoyed many things he said especially entering into people's pain although I don't always like the commitment that takes.  Challenging book.



Our Brother's Keeper: My Family's Journey through Vietnam to Hell and Back by Jedwin Smith -- the author tells the story of his family, his childhood memories and his brother's death in Vietnam. He shares of his eventual meeting with his brother's fellow soldiers and takes a trip to see where his brother died. I got this from the library - good book overall


In My Brother's Shadow: A Life and Death in the SS by Uwe Timm -- a German man reveals his thoughts and research as he reads his brother's diary. I enjoyed this look into a German family's life during the war. It was especially interesting hearing his thoughts about the silence of the German people: did they really not know what was happening to the Jewish people?; also see this post



Coming Home to Jerusalem by Wendy Orange -- The author, a Jewish American, decides to visit Israel, falls in love with it so much that she decides to move there with her young daughter. This book describes her first days and weeks, first winter there (which she hates).  Later she meets many Palestinians, traveling for her work as a journalist to the West Bank and Gaza and East Jerusalem.  Many things stood out to me in this book: how Israelis fear, the racist banter that flows freely, the sense of community, the fact that the Sephardim are looked down upon by the Ashekenazim.   I understood a little how she felt. Just reading the book made me want to move there..and I've never even wanted to visit Israel!  Really though it made me remember my days in Syria. And how I missed it so much even though I was only there for twelve days. I wanted to move there if I could.  (By the way, we left four years ago today - January 28 - for Damascus.)  Wendy was in Israel when the IDF left Gaza, when Arafat returned, she reported on Jordanian and Israeli leaders signing a peace accord, she talked to settlers, men in Hamas, and many many others. (I only wish I could have sat in on some of those conversations!) 

She quoted both a Jewish woman and an Arab man telling how Palestinians are the Jews of the Arab world.  (pgs. 59 & 169)  I found that interesting, but it makes sense now that I consider how Palestinians have been treated by other Arab countries.

I like the story of how she and another leftist Jew were invited to present the Israeli viewpoint on a (then) recent PBS documentary.  She knows the two Palestinians asked to join the panel and all during lunch, the four of them are agreeable and having fun while the host tries to create divisions in order to make the upcoming discussion more... well, whatever TV people look for in panels.  She was amazed that once they started talking about the documentary, how those divisions came up. They'd just been together laughing and talking and being so agreeable - what happened? Upon reviewing it, she realized what was "minor for Jews leapt out as central for the Palestinians, and vice versa. ... I hear Charles and myself as sounding exactly like right-wing Jews."  (pg. 220)

Also interesting was Bibi Netanyahu's election - and how the Sephardim (who tend to be the working, poorer, darker, from-Arab-countries Israelis) were elated that "their guy" won! I never would have guessed that. Of course this book was about things in the 1990s...perhaps this has changed.

Blind Spots

In the book In My Brother's Shadow: A Life and Death in the SS, Uwe Timm reflects on the diary his brother kept for almost six months in 1943. The entries are short

14 February
We expect action any time now. On the alert from nine-thirty.

15 February
Danger over, waiting

14 March
Airplanes. Ivans attacking. My looted Fahr machine gun, too heavy, shoots like a mad thing I can hardly hold it steady, a couple of hits

Stuff like that though the author is troubled over a few, such as

21 March
Donez
Bridgehead on the Donez. 75 m away Ivan smoking cigarettes, fodder for my MG.

But a note home is what prompted me to post.  His brother, fighting for the Nazis in the Ukraine, writes home:

"I'm worried about everyone at home, we hear reports of air raids by the English every day. If only they'd stop that filthy business. It's not war, it's the murder of women and children - it's inhumane."  (pg. 84)

The author is troubled by his brother's inability (or unwillingness) to see the parallels to what the English are doing in Hamburg with what he, Karl-Heinz, and his fellow Nazis are doing in the Ukraine and beyond.

How often do we see the bad in what others are doing, but don't apply those same standards to ourselves? I think of 9/11 and all the innocents who died. Yet many who protest those murders seem little troubled by those in other countries who are killed by our wars and our drones. You know, that collateral damage.

I'm sure I could think of other examples.  Can you? Do you think we have blind spots to our own faults yet clearly see the faults of others? How can we remedy this?

On the sin of eloping and guessing on a multiple-choice exam

HAPPY NEW YEAR!


Two stories from the current book I'm reading, Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible by E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O'Brien. 


One of the authors talks about a conversation he had with some elders in a village on an island near Borneo. They'd asked his opinion about "a thorny church issue."  A young couple had lived among them for several years after leaving their home village after committing a "grievous sin."  The couple had attended their church for a decade and lived godly lives.  Now they wanted to join the church.

"Should we let them?" asked the obviously troubled elders.

Attempting to avoid the question, I replied, "Well, what grievous sin did they commit?"

The elders were reluctant to air the village's dirty laundry before a guest, but finally one of them replied, "They married on the run."

In America, we call that eloping. 

"That's it?" I blurted out. "What was the sin?"

Quite shocked, they stared at this young (and foolish) missionary and asked, "Have you never read Paul?"

I certainly thought I had. My Ph.D. was in Paul.

They reminded me that Paul told believers to obey their parents (Eph. 6:1). They were willing to admit that everyone makes mistakes. We don't always obey. But surely one should obey in what is likely the most important decision of his or her life: choosing a spouse.

I suddenly found myself wondering if I had, in fact, ever really read Paul. My "American Paul" clearly did not expect his command to include adult children deciding whom to marry. Moreover, it was clear that my reading (or misreading?) had implications for how I counseled church leaders committed to faithful and obedient discipleship."  (pg. 18)

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Here's another cultural thing I found amusing


Randy was grading a multiple-choice exam in Indonesia. He couldn't believe some people left answers blank.

"Why didn't you select an answer on question number three?"

The student looked up and said, "I didn't know the answer."

"You should have at least guessed," I replied.

He looked at me, appalled.  "What if I accidentally guessed the correct answer? I would be implying that I knew the answer when I didn't. That would be lying!"

I opened my mouth to respond, but then realized I was about to argue him to a lower standard!  I shut my mouth.  My American pragmatism had been winning out over my Christian standard of honesty. What was worse was that I hadn't even noticed until a non-Western person pointed it out. What I have found equally interesting is that my Christian students in the United States don't enjoy this story - because they still want to guess answers.  Nonetheless, the challenges of reading with others' eyes should not deter us. We can learn so much from each other."  (pg. 20)

Do you have any similar stories to share about cultural misunderstandings or differences in understanding Scripture (or anything really)? By the way, I absolutely love this book so far!

A book about Jesus

First of all, Merry Christmas! 

Between me and Andrew, we got sixteen books this month!  I started reading Encounters with Jesus by Gary M. Burge this morning.  It says "Uncover the ancient culture, discover hidden meanings." Well, I love stuff like that.  A few observations so far. Sorry for the disconnected nature of this, but I wanted to note a few things that took my attention.

INDIVIDUALISM FOR ALL

Western society is individualistic, and that has translated to our faiths.  The author notes the ways "every community of Christians has framed its understanding of spiritual life within the context of its own culture."   He says, "Even the way we understand 'faith in Christ' is to some degree shaped by these cultural forces.  For instance, in the last three hundred years, Western Christians have abandoned seeing faith as a chiefly communal exercise .... Among the many endowments of the European Enlightenment, individualism reigns supreme: Christian faith is a personal, private endeavor. We prefer to say, 'I have accepted Christ,' rather than define ourselves through a community that follows Christ.  Likewise (again, thanks to the Enlightenment), we have elevated rationalism as a premier value.  Among many Christians faith is a construct of the mind, an effort at knowledge gained through study, an assent to a set of theological propositions. Sometimes knowing what you believe trumps belief itself."  (pg. 7-8)


UNCLEANNESS ABOUNDS

This book seeks to help us understand the encounters of Jesus in a more cultural context.  As I was reading I noticed how often Jesus didn't seem to mind being unclean in the religious, ritualistic ways of the Jewish people. Remember the story of Jesus visiting the demon-possessed man who lived among the tombs?  He ended up sending demons into a herd of pigs.  First of all

1. Gentile territory is unclean (or many Jews believe it so)
2. Tombs (unclean)
3. Pigs (unclean)
4. Demon-possessed man (surely this was unclean)

Then if you continue the chapter in Mark, Jesus is headed to a synagogue leader's house because his daughter was near death (dead bodies are unclean).  On the way, the bleeding woman touches his garment.  Granted, she made Jesus unclean by doing this, but he didn't scold her for it.  Jesus regularly interacted with the sick, those with oozing sores and other diseases that many of us might shy away from. Jews, who tried to avoid uncleanness, would likely shy away even quicker. 

Something I thought about as I read this: doctors must have been really unclean individuals.  They dealt with bleeding, oozing people, and, well, some of them died while they were tending them surely.

Actually all of society must be often unclean if you think about it. How easy is it to avoid monthly menstrual cycles, childbirth, other bodily fluids and so forth? How else do you have children without first becoming unclean?



HOW POWERFUL IS THE FLOW

The author provides this view of menstruation from Pliny the Elder in book 28 of Natural History.

"According to him, contact with the monthly 'flow' of women turns new wine sour, makes crops wither, kills skin grafts, dries seeds in gardens, causes the fruit of trees to fall off, dims the bright surface of mirrors, dulls the edge of steel and the gleam of ivory, kills bees, and rusts iron and bronze. Dogs that come near become insane and their bite becomes poisonous. A thread from an infected dress is sufficient to do all this. If linen that is being washed and boiled is touched by such a woman, it will turn black. A woman who is menstruating can drive away hailstorms and whirlwinds if she shows herself (unclothed) when lightening flashes. Pliny refers to Metrodorus of Scepsos in Cappadocia, who discovered that if a menstruating woman walks through a field while holding the hem of her toga above her belt, 'caterpillars, worms, beetles, and other vermin will fall from off the ears of corn.' But, he warns, don't do this at sunrise or the crops themselves will die."  (pg. 45)

He wanted to demonstrate the "superstition" surrounding menstruating women that may have influenced the region at this time.  I just found it interesting...seems a pretty powerful thing, huh?



Any surprises?  Thoughts?

November Books

These books on Europe make me want to go back. I've never been to France or Italy. Maybe 2013 will be the year to visit one or the other, hmmm?  At least I can visit them in books.  Seriously, when I read books I often feel I'm there. Especially when places, people and food are described in such detail as this first one.




On Rue Tatin: Living and Cooking in a French Town by Susan Herrman Loomis -- An American couple moves to France, buys a house (a really cool house from the sound of it) and fixes it up.  But this is also about a lady who writes books on cooking. So this book is a nice mix of life in France with talk of French people, French quirks, fixing up an old French house, French cooking, buying school supplies for her son, her son's school experience, buying a stove and visiting Paris (and more).  Curious what the house looks like?  Here's a slideshow and article about it.

I enjoyed the bit on "tuyau," a system "vaguely comparable to bypassing authorities." It ranges from being part of a group who orders, say, wine in order to get a discount from the vintner to things which seem much more like cheating. But it's the way of life there - and a way to bypass the very high taxes in France. Apparently, it's just part of the culture.  (see pg. 76)

Other interesting bits:

The time the author held a dinner party and invited all sorts of friends only later to be called by her best French friend informing her that that particular grouping would never happen if a French person were planning the invitation list. Why? French friend's husband is a centrist politician whereas teachers - of whom the author invited a couple - were known to be left of the left and the two always felt so much at odds with the other, they didn't mix! (pg. 125)

French teachers yell at their students, and parents in general yell at their children more. In fact the author had a hard time coming to grips with French parenting styles: leaving their children in their bedrooms to cry it out and so forth

The French simply didn't understand the reason for baby showers in the American sense.  Apparently if you are middle class or lower, you got a sum from the government to purchase needed baby items. 



At Any Price by Patricia Roush -- an American woman works to get her daughters back after her Saudi ex-husband takes them from the United States to Saudi Arabia; this book disgusted me on so many levels



Out of the Garden: Women Writers of the Bible  by various authors (nearly thirty) -- see more in this post and this one on Hannah



Amarcord by Marcella Hazan  -- "the remarkable life story of the woman who started out teaching science in a small town in Italy, but ended up teaching Americans how to cook Italian" -- Actually Marcella seemed to teach not just Americans, but people from all over the world how to cook Italian food. I enjoyed reading Marcella's story of growing up in Italy and later her life in the United States and abroad.



Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen -- the author discusses the biased slant of most of our high school textbooks and gives us a fuller picture of Columbus, the first Thanksgiving, racism, the war in Vietnam, and more.


"History is not a set of fact but a series of arguments, issues, and controversies."  (pg. 41)


"Columbus is not a hero in Mexico, even though Mexico is much more Spanish in culture than the United States and might be expected to take pride in this hero of Spanish history.  Why not?  Because Mexico is also much more Indian than the United States, and Mexicans perceive Columbus as white and European.  'No sensible Indian person,' wrote George P. Horse Capture, 'can celebrate the arrival of Columbus.'  Cherishing Columbus is a characteristic of white history, not American history."  (pg. 64)

"It is painful to advert to these things. But our forefathers, though wise, pious, and sincere, were nevertheless, in respect to Christian charity, under a cloud; and, in history, truth should be held sacred, at whatever cost . . . especially against the narrow and futile patriotism, which, instead of pressing forward in pursuit of truth, takes pride in walking backwards to cover the slightest nakedness of our forefathers." —COL. THOMAS ASPINWALL  (pg. 70)

see more quotes and commentary in this post

On America and Textbooks

So I have a friend from school who is now an assistant professor at one of the UNC schools. Her field is Social Studies, and she recommended a book she knew I'd enjoy, Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Loewen. I found it at my local library and have been posting bits from it on Facebook the last several days.

Stuff like this:

For all the talk about SC being for states' rights, did you realize they opposed states' rights when it came to free states not wanting to enforce the Fugitive Slave Clause? It was "an increasing hostility on the part of the non-slaveholding States to the institution of slavery" which "led to a disregard of their obligations" that South Carolinians complained about. They wanted people in free states to capture and return slaves. How is that for imposing your will on states?  (pg. 139)

 
and this: 


Anyone surprised that when our nation had a chance to help the "second independent nation in the hemisphere" the President's status as slave owner (or not) seemed to determine whether or not we helped Haiti in its quest for freedom or funnel money to France as they continued dominating the small country? Washington and Jefferson - both slave owners - helped France suppress its slaves in Haiti. John Adams, a non slave owner, lent the Haitians support.   (pg. 150)

and this:


"Indian history is the antidote to the pious ethnocentrism of American exceptionalism, the notion that European Americans are God's chosen people.  Indian history reveals that the United States and its predecessor British colonies have wrought great harm in the world. We must not forget this - not to wallow in our wrongdoing, but to understand and to learn, that we might not wreak harm again. We must temper our national pride with critical self-knowledge...'The study of our contact with Indians, the envisioning of our dark American selves, can instill such a strengthening doubt.'  History through red eyes offers our children a deeper understanding than comes from encountering the past as a story of inevitable triumph of the good guys."  (pg. 134)

I've even read parts to Andrew, and he asked yesterday, "Does this guy say anything nice about America or does he hate it?"

Oy!  Apparently I was reading most of the negative things. Well to be sure, the book would likely be labeled "negative towards America" if one grew up on high school history textbooks which overwhelmingly seem to support America as the peace-loving hero of the world with very few flaws.  Andrew tends to view it that way. Or did. Maybe. I remember when I first met Samer and started learning about my country and telling Andrew this non-American point of view. He warned, "Don't let him turn you against America now!" 

Ah, my sweet, innocent Andrew. :)

Well, today I read this statement and it seemed perfect. 

"By taking the government's side, textbooks encourage students to conclude that criticism is incompatible with citizenship.  And by presenting government actions in a vacuum, rather than as responses to such institutions as multinational corporations and civil rights organizations, textbooks mystify the creative tension between the people and their leaders. All this encourages students to throw up their hands in the belief that the government determines everything anyway, so why bother, especially if its actions are usually so benign. Thus, our American history textbooks minimize the potential power of the people and, despite their best patriotic efforts, take a stance that is overtly antidemocratic."  (pg. 243)


It explains the apathy with voting among some groups, the lack of interest many take in politics, even that view that if you criticize the US, you are somehow less patriotic.  Funny how that works because many people criticize Presidential administrations when their party is not in power.  Yet, if you dare tell the truth about the US's involvement in assassinations or vote tampering or torture or unjust wars or even its origins where all men are created equal as long as you were white, it's somehow not very patriotic.

I have increasingly had my American bubble burst the last several years. I realize we aren't all that special. We are made up of men and women just as depraved - and just as good - as the rest of humanity. 

Culture and Proper Manners

Ladies, did you grow up thinking properly-mannered men would open doors for you and allow you to proceed first from buildings and elevators?   Or did you conclude that this is traditional garbage that needs to go the way of thinking women are property of their husbands and fathers?

Just this week I finished a memoir, Amarcord, by an Italian lady Marcella Hazan who apparently is famous for writing cookbooks and teaching classical Italian cooking.  She tells of a visit to Japan in 1969 where she'd been "told of Japanese women's deference toward men, but my romantic Italian mentality, formed by tales of the age of chivalry and gallant knights, had refused to take it in."  Yet she saw it firsthand as her husband was served first in restaurants and where "waitresses fawned over Victor."  Even when she approached a door at the same time as a Japanese man, he "would rush past me to spare me the embarrassment of preceding him through it." 

Marcella remembers a time when she and her husband were in a hotel elevator in Tokyo, and "a big American man entered."  At the next floor two Japanese women in kimonos came in. Can you guess what happened when they reached the lobby?

"The Japanese women stood aside, with a smile and a hint of a bow, waiting for the man to exit first.  The tall American smiled back and waited for the ladies to go.  We were stuck in the back.  Nobody moved, the doors closed, and the elevator, with all its passengers still in place, rose to the uppermost floor again."

(pg. 118-119)


Marcella said she still giggles about this, and it is quite funny to visualize! 


So, culturally speaking, what is proper where you are from?  Do you tend to grab doors for ladies? Offer seats to older men and women? Defer to men?  What is proper where you live? It's good to know what is expected in other places so we won't all be riding the hotel elevator up and down all day, right?

Additional question: what is something you've had to do differently in another culture when you were visiting another country or even another group within your own country?  I remember when we went to Syria the only thing Samer told us not to do (because I asked about this prior to our traveling there) was not to offer to shake hands with guys (for me) or ladies (for Andrew) unless that person offered his/her hand first.

One of his friends "complained" that I didn't shake his hand, and "blamed" Samer for this!  He taught us well!  :)



(So, I read a book about a lady famous for cooking and post about a cultural tidbit... you see what interests me.)

Opinions Wanted: American Involvement

My sister is taking an American culture something something class at the local community college. It's basically an online class of essays and papers. Her latest topic made me curious about your opinions because I've heard both sides. You don't have to write a paper, but which way do you tend to be and why?

I'd love to hear your opinion whether or not you are an American or have ever lived here. In fact, I'd enjoy the opinion of nonAmericans about this topic.

Here is what her teacher gave them ... 


"America should just forget the rest of the world. When we try to help, they take advantage of us. When we try to do what we have to in order to defend ourselves, we are viewed as evil. Well, if they don't appreciate us, fine. If they don't like us, fine. We should just stay at home, keep our money here, and if the rest of the world wants to go to heck in a hand basket, fine by me!" Either agree or disagree with this sentiment and defend your answer.

Breaking and Confirming Stereotypes

I can't even remember how we got on the subject now.  All I know is that Samer and I were talking the other day, and the subject of Americans came up.  Maybe we were talking about stereotypes because the next thing I know, I'm jotting down notes as he lists ways I broke his stereotype of people from the United States, and things I confirmed about it.

Oh, I may have mentioned Malik's post about differences in US thoughts of dogs compared to Arab Muslims' thoughts of dogs. And also Amber's comment about her thinking Southern culture was in some ways similar to Arab culture.  I think we were talking about those topics as they tend to be some of my favorite.

Anyway, here is what I noted:

WAYS I BROKE THE STEREOTYPE:  According to Samer,

* I am emotional, therefore, not the "cold Westerner" type he sees in Germany.

* I have a love for foreign stuff. I easily warm up to foreigners and am open to other points of view.

* I am not stubborn - meaning I am OK with changing my mind about things if I see that I've been wrong

* I am not brainwashed by the media

*  I don't watch a lot of TV, movies, and am not overly-concerned with following celebrities.

* I am not hardheaded re: US patriotism and foreign policy


WAYS I CONFIRMED THE STEREOTYPE:  According to Samer,

* I am easy-going

* I am friendly

* I like jokes

* I have an American accent


I would qualify most of these because I am not always easy-going or friendly, and sometimes I am very much stubborn. But I am thankful that Samer sees me in a good light most days.

(Good thing this topic didn't come up the day I was ranting about Patricia Roush's daughters being stolen by her Saudi ex-husband because I wasn't very nice about men, Arabs, Muslims, the idea that children belong to their fathers, or mixed-cultural relationships that day.  Thankfully Samer is forgiving ... )


Have you ever had a foreign friend who shared how you either confirmed or broke stereotypes he or she had of people from the United States (or where ever you are from)? What was on your list?  What things do you believe most foreigners have right about your people? Wrong? 

October Books

I don't think I'll finish another book before tomorrow, and tomorrow will be busy with Halloween so here's the list for this month.  Are you dressing up for Halloween?  Having a party? Hope you have a good one!  :)



Ciao, America! by Beppe Severgnini  -- an Italian living in the United States for a year offers his insights to life here;  see previous post


Those Crazy Germans! by Steven Somers -- Ever wondered about the various tents at Oktoberfest, and what they offered, and how hard they were to get into?  The red light districts near the train stations? How regulated the prostitution industry is in Germany?  The names of German cities? What's up with all the nude people in parks?  The spa life? Bicycling? Politics? The love of news? The work week? Holiday customs?  If so, you may enjoy this "light-hearted guide to Germany" by a self-proclaimed Germanophile. The chapters are short, easy-to-read, and informative. I certainly learned some new things, then again, I really didn't know that much about Germany since it was never a country I adored. 


Facing the Lion: Growing Up Maasai on the African Savanna by Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton -- I picked this book up at the library and read it all in just a couple of hours (and I took a Facebook break or two during those hours.)  I got it mainly because it reminded me of Andrew's trip to Kenya last year. The Maasai, the Samburu, even South Horr was mentioned at some point. I enjoyed reading of Lemasolai's growing-up years, the reason he went to school (the Kenyan government required one child per family to go and he was selected) and certain customs among his people (like the circumcision ceremonies - Andrew attended one.)



The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway -- I found this book at the book warehouse and enjoyed reading about Jill's life in the outback of Australia and how they moved to the city and she went to school and university there.  Both parts were quite interesting to me as she learned to adjust to a new life - she never had a female playmate until she left the outback. Her thoughts on life fascinated me so I've already looked to see if any of her other books are available at my local library.  They are!  Yay.



My Forbidden Face: Growing Up Under the Taliban: A Young Woman's Story by Latifa -- a story that takes place in the years preceding 9/11 and the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.  This book reminds me again why the Taliban and any religious fundamentalists who impose their will on others are so awful.



The First Urban Christians: The Social World of the Apostle Paul by Wayne A. Meeks -- A book from my wishlist. It was a bit more technical and deeper than I expected. That's not all bad, just maybe I would have enjoyed it if the author dumbed it down for me.  :) This book discussed the urban environment of Pauline Christianity, the social level of Pauline Christians (were they all poor, mostly rich, middle class?), the formation of the ekklesia, governance, rituals, and patterns of belief and life.



Even After All This Time: A Story of Love, Revolution, and Leaving Iran by Afschineh Latifi -- I'm not sure how my library got so many memoirs of Iranian ladies who grew up in Iran, but it seems I've found a few of them the last couple of years. And they've been some of my favorite books!  This was no exception as I was moved to tears reading of the Latifi's father and the struggle of the family after his execution.  The author made everything seem so real, yet she has a marvelous sense of humor.  If you are interested in stories surrounding the Iranian revolution and families moving abroad, you may enjoy this book as well.  Without exception these families tend to be what I would give as examples of "secular Muslims."

I enjoyed reading about the Latifi sisters schooling in Vienna (especially since I was there not eight weeks ago) and Virginia. Also the author attended law school in nearby Winston-Salem, NC at Wake Forest.  Really interesting book!





Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain  -- I enjoyed reading about myself in this book. I'd seen this lady's TED talk so when I saw the book at the library, I grabbed it!


"Finland is a famously introverted nation.  Finnish joke: How can you tell if a Finn likes you?  He's staring at your shoes instead of his own."  (pg. 14)


"America has shifted from ... a Culture of Character to a Culture of Personality."  In the former, "the ideal self was serious, disciplined, and honorable. What counted was not so much the impression one made in public as how one behaved in private.  The word personality didn't exist in English until the eighteenth century, and the idea of 'having a good personality' was not widespread until the twentieth.

But when they embraced the Culture of Personality, Americans started to focus on how others perceived them. They became captivated by people who were bold and entertaining.  'The social role demanded of all in the new Culture of Personality was that of a performer,'...'Every American was to become a performing self.'"

"By 1920, popular self-help guides had changed their focus from inner virtue to outer charm...'To create a personality is power,' advised [one]." 

Culture of Character guides emphasized: "citizenship, duty, work, golden deeds, honor, reputation, morals, manners, integrity"

Culture of Personality guides celebrated qualities: "magnetic, fascinating, stunning, attractive, glowing, dominant, forceful, energetic"

"It was no coincidence that in the 1920s and the 1930s, Americans became obsessed with movie stars."


(pg 21-24)



I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoui -- a story about a young Yemeni woman's life and how she fought for a divorce



Walking the Trail: One Man's Journey Along the Cherokee Trail of Tears by Jerry Ellis -- I found this at the local library; the author traveled from Oklahoma back home to Alabama all the while talking to people he met along the trail



Three Weeks with My Brother by Nicholas and Micah Sparks -- I thought this was going to be more of a journal of a trip, and it had that of course, but it was so much more.  In between telling of his adventure to Easter Island, the Outback, the Taj Mahal, Norway and various other places, this book is a memoir of Nicholas' growing up mostly in California. It was quite interesting to me, and made me very sad at times. I love the devotion of these brothers to each other - very inspirational.  I loved Micah's sense of devotion to his family, the way he took care of them in typical older-child fashion. I admired the optimism of Dana, the youngest member of the family and the only sister.  A really emotional books for me - both awe and wonder and laughter and disbelief to hurting for them.

And so odd to me, what are the chances that my AAA Carolinas magazine this month focused on a couple of the places mentioned in this book?  I read both within a day of each other, and the timing was weird. But I notice that a LOT lately... too much.  Is there something in the air? Hmmm  :)

Foreign Impressions

I often find it interesting to hear of people's experiences in other countries.***  A friend told me of two German coworkers who visited the US (San Mateo, CA) for the first time recently.  Their impressions:


Americans are louder, much more open and friendlier. A waiter or waitress thinks nothing of telling you about his day or her family. (Apparently small talk amongst strangers doesn't happen much in Germany!)  Also the younger guy said no one smokes. In fact when he did light up in a parking lot, someone threatened to call the police!  He noted our love of ice - we 'overwhelm' them with the stuff. And they were surprised by the huge amount of Coke served with their meals.  (In Austria and Germany on our recent trip it was about 3 euros for a small bottle - cold, but no ice, no free refills.) And also the people here are fatter.  Maybe because we drink too much Coke and don't smoke..hmmm?


I was reading Ciao, America! by Beppe Severgnini and he made many similar observations. He lived with his wife in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C. for a year.  He noted the ice (he really felt strongly about it. Why are ice cubes so offensive? Because they crunch?), the frigid air conditioning, the differences in Mass, the bureaucracy involved in getting services (piece of cake compared to Italy), and the talkativeness of random strangers.  I was especially laughing at the bit about waiters and waitresses telling about their lives and running to serve when they (Beppe's family) just wanted to be left in peace to eat.  It wasn't all negative. In fact it was mostly just observations and reactions to life here.  I found it amusing. And these I shared on Facebook as a sample.



"Relationships are good with the rest of the neighbors and conversation comes easily. Americans tell you more about themselves in an hour than the British do in ten years. The main thing is not to mistake this cordiality for friendship. It's more a sort of cosmetic to perk up everyday life, and should be treated as such." (pg. 98)


"There's always a note of alarm in American weather forecasts. TV weatherpeople have glassily inexpressive eyes. Even when they're making one of their little jokes, they give the impression that they're keeping back some tragic piece of news. There's an entire channel (the Weather Channel) that deals exclusively with the subject.  In fact, it ferrets out disasters in every corner of the Union. Hurricanes, floods, storms, downpours, eclipses, landslides - any calamity will do.  It's the meteorological version of a horror film, and we foreigners are unaccustomed to the concept. ... During the summer it is not sufficient to communicate infernal temperatures. There's also a comfort index, calculated from the combination of heat and humidity.  And winter is not just a question of bitter cold. There is also the windchill factor, ... Knowing the exact quantity of discomfort - being able to say exactly how badly you feel and why - is the first step toward the goal of every U.S. citizen: to feel good."  (pg. 64-65)



Earlier today I was in downtown Graham running errands. Walking them really. And a little girl saw me.

"Where's your car?" 

Me:  "Around the corner and up the street.  I parked at the library."

"Ohhhh. I like your blue bag"  (I was carrying some things I'd found for Zach at Little Blessings, and the bags *are* a pretty color.)

Me:  "Thank you. I hope you have a good day, sweetie" I said as I smiled and started to walk away.

I hear floating after me:  "I looooove you" 

Sweet Stranger Moments.

And, yes, I did wonder what Beppe would have thought if he'd encountered such an outgoing little girl during his time in the United States.   :)



My apologies to those who are Facebook friends and have already read much of this. 


***  This is why one of my favorite places on the web is Malik's blog. He's from Jordan and lives in Missouri.  I love when he writes posts dealing with differences in Arab and American culture or what he finds picture-worthy.  Sadly, Samer doesn't blog because he has some good stories of life in Germany, and I enjoy hearing what he has to say about the differences in his experiences in Germany and Damascus.  Thankfully he gives me full permission to share them. I got the German coworker impressions from him. Bet you never would have guessed that, huh?

September Books

So this month I ended up reading two books dealing with China, and two memoirs about people leaving their faiths.  I didn't know the two latter books would delve so much into childhood sexual abuse when I started them.  I was thoroughly disgusted at how two powerful churches (one for sure; the other maybe was falsely accused) have used their money and clout to cover abuse for the sake of their churches' reputations!  Children be damned as long as the faith is protected?  Horrible!  And even though these two churches are not my own, I condemn any who cover abuse for the sake of their reputations. How about some character, people...not hypocrisy!   And I would dare to speak for God and say He is thoroughly disgusted by this as well.  Yes, your church might go through bad publicity - as it should!  And it IS shameful.  And it IS a horrible testimony. And it DOES cause unbelievers to blaspheme God in many cases (see II Samuel 12).  But these things must be dealt with. You can't expect sin to stay hidden, that you will always be able to protect the guilty. God knows what is going on. He's not giving you a free pass.  Sorry, I had to get this out. I see my precious nephews. One is ten and a half, the other almost 17 months old, and I cannot stand the thought of anyone abusing them and getting by with it because some church doesn't want bad publicity.  And don't get me started on churches that know of sexual predators and reassign them to other posts where they can prey on a new batch of children. Grrrrr.

Boy, I rarely get this testy when doing my monthly book reports, huh?




Among the Righteous: Lost Stories From the Holocaust's Long Reach Into Arab Lands by Robert Satloff -- This Jewish man researches the stories of Arab treatment of Jews in North Africa.  I enjoyed the story of Khaled Abdul-Wahab and the author's attempt to get him accepted as the first Arab remembered by Yad Vashem for his role in saving Jews during the Holocaust. He comes across many roadblocks as more recent politics play into whether Arabs want to be known for helping Jews. Also Jews sometimes deny the Holocaust's reach into the Arab countries.





Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang  -- I didn't realize this book was so long when I picked it up, but over 500 pages later, I must say that I enjoyed learning the story of these three women. The author shared about her grandmother who was a concubine to a general and later married to a much older doctor.  The family dynamics of her coming into this family made me appreciate the simplicity of marriage in my own culture.  (Her new husband's oldest son ended up shooting himself in a fit of rage because of this proposed marriage. He died.)  This story involved the author's mother and father, and their commitment to the Communist Party. I enjoyed the examples of life in China at this time and during the reign of Mao and the Cultural Revolution.  I had to smile when she told of how "eat all your food because there are poor capitalists in the West who are starving and would love to have the food you are eating" was used on them as children.  (I've heard a similar version growing up.)  I was struck by the patriarchy of this traditional society and how Communism declared women and men more equal. I got to wondering just how far back patriarchy goes and where did repressing women and elevating men begin? 

I just thought this was interesting.

"Following the custom, my great-grandfather was married young, at fourteen, to a woman six years his senior.  It was considered one of the duties of a wife to help bring up her husband."  (pg. 22)


With some exceptions like books on Mao's writings and "revolutionary operas," among the many things banned or seen as too "bourgeois" during the Cultural Revolution in China -- books, paintings, musical instruments, sports, cards, chess, teahouses, bars, flowers, grass (yes, grass was pulled up as if it were an enemy!), films, plays, concerts, long hair for women...  (pg. 332)


"To me, the ultimate proof of freedom in the West was that there seemed to be so many people there attacking the West and praising China.  Almost every other day the front page of Reference, the newspaper which carried foreign press items, would feature some eulogy of Mao and the Cultural Revolution. At first I was angered by these, but they soon made me see how tolerant another society could be.  I realized that this was the kind of society I wanted to live in: where people were allowed to hold different, even outrageous views. I began to see that it was the very tolerance of opposition, of protestors, that kept the West progressing."  (pg. 472)



The Lost Daughters of China by Karin Evans - a friend sent me this book thinking I'd like it and I did!  The author and her husband adopted a little girl from China (two actually),and she tells some of their story and also bits of stories from others. She explores the reasons women would give up their daughters, the hardship of life in China, orphanage life and adjusting to life in the US among other things. I shed a few tears for the innocent ones who are abandoned and left behind in orphanages as well as the ones who never have a chance at life because they are either aborted or killed upon delivery. Also I cried for those women who would have chosen to keep their children, but could not for the sake of society.  I can't imagine how difficult that must be.

Here is one excerpt I wanted to share.

Re: the only-children of China being spoiled:  "'Many parents of the nineties,'...'were part of the lost generation of the Cultural Revolution. After suffering so much themselves, they were determined not to deprive their only child. Beijing's biggest toy store was always jammed with parents buying toddler-sized fake fur coats, imported baby shampoo and red Porsche pedal cars.'

Yet she saw good things coming out of the situation. 'Many people thought that a country populated with Little Emperors was headed for disaster. I disagreed.  Granted it might be unpleasant to live in a nation of me-first onlies, yet I saw a social revolution in the making. For generations, Chinese society had emphasized the family, the clan, the collective over the individual. Now, for the first time in four thousand years of history, the relationship was reversed. Where the Mao generation failed, the Me generation just might succeed.' She quoted a British friend, Michael Crook, 'If you have a population of Little Emperors, you can't have little slaves. Everyone will want to tell everyone else what to do. You'll have democracy.'"  (pg. 234)




Losing My Religion by William Lobdell - I found this at the local Friends of the Library book sale; a reporter talks about his faith in Christ, how he got a job reporting religious news for a newspaper and eventually lost his faith.  The book was very respectful, really, but made me sad because he admits he saw very little difference in the majority of Christians' lives compared to the general population.  I don't think it's supposed to work like that!

"So what has taken the place of God in my life? A tremendous sense of gratitude. I sense how fortunate I am to be alive in this thin sliver of time in the history of the universe. This gives me a renewed sense of urgency to live this short life well. I don't have eternity to fall back on, so my focus on the present has sharpened.   I find myself being more grateful for each day and more quickly making corrections in my life to avoid wasted time.  I've tightened my circle of friends, wanting to maximize time with people I love and enjoy the most. I've become more true to myself because I'm not as worried about what others think of me. ... That's what losing God has done for me. Permanent death - I don't think I have the escape hatch to heaven anymore - now sits squarely in front of me, unmoving as I rapidly approach.  And you know what? My breakfast does taste better. I feel the love of my family and friends more deeply. And my dreams for my life have an urgency to them that won't allow me to put them off any longer. I can no longer slog through each day, knowing that if my time on Earth isn't used to its fullest potential, it's no big thing, that I have eternity with God ahead of me."  (pg. 278-279)



Leaving the Saints by Martha Beck -- I've often been driven to tears and disgust and anger and laughter and joy, but I don't think a nonfiction book has creeped me out until I read this book. Really it wasn't that creepy, but I just so happened to read a part (about Danites if you must know) right before bed and it must have upped the "creep factor" in my mind.  Like I told someone else, I take most leaving the faith stories with a huge dose of salt (as opposed to a mere grain) because I realize sometimes people won't present their former faiths in the best lights due to their own personal experiences. For others, the faith is a hugely wonderful thing partly because they haven't experienced those awful things. So, that said, I enjoyed this book and some of the talk of sealing in the temple (she didn't go into great detail because she knows it's sacred), wards (I often wondered what those were pg. 54), heavenly mothers (yes, plural, since God is a polygamist, too pg. 75), BYU (pg. 77), the Mormon view of heaven and its levels (pg. 87), the Egyptian papyri that early Mormons bought from a traveling guy who showed the papyri for a living (pg. 155), more talk on polygamy and how women and men viewed it (pg. 177), the victimization of the Saints in history (pg. 181) and much more. I stopped noting it after awhile.

By the way, this lady came out as sexually abused by her father, apparently a well-known Mormon apologist. I decided to look him up.

This is her father, Hugh Nibley

A Q&A with her after the Mormon Church responded and a sampling of some of the responses she's received by email.  It's sad how many others have been sexually abused.

A collection of sites about this book - not sure how fair these are, but there are a number of links.

And when I mentioned this book to a Mormon blogger, she said she'd read the book, it did not ring true and she wasn't the only one who thought this way.

August Books

American Nations by Colin Woodard  -- Do you ever wonder why Americans seem so divided?  In this book the author tells about the eleven nations that make up North America. He argues that the reason we have divisions now is because we've always had divisions.  From New England which had a more communal Puritan base to the Deep South settled first by the sons of English slavelords who lived in Barbados, to the more libertarian Far West and the Scots-Irish throughout Appalachia -- this book covered the beginnings of each nation, what they fought for and against and how their influences linger even today.

These were some things I shared as trivia questions on Facebook. I'll include them in my notes here since they are already typed.


In the early 1600s the Netherlands was the most modern and sophisticated country on Earth, producing art, laws, business practices, and institutions that became standards for the rest of the world. They invented modern banking, creating at [their bank] the first clearinghouse for the disparate coins and currencies of the world, all exchangeable for [their money], which became the preferred medium of international exchange.  (pg. 67)



"Rather than trying to produce cash crops for export, the Borderlanders embraced a woodland subsistence economy...Life in Britain had taught them not to invest too much time and wealth in fixed property, which was easily destroyed in time of war. Instead, they stored their wealth in a very mobile form: herds of pigs, cattle, and sheep. When they did need cash, they distilled corn into a more portable, storable, and valuable product: whiskey, which would remain the de facto currency of Appalachia for the next two centuries."  (pg. 104)


In South Carolina the backcountry made up three-quarters of the colony’s white population but had only two of forty-eight seats in the provincial assembly; this arrangement led one agitator to denounce the planters for keeping “half their subjects in a state of slavery,” by whom he meant not blacks but Borderlanders like himself. Here few “loyalists” cared about Britain, but they aligned themselves with the king simply because he was fighting their lowland enemies.  (pg. 137)


"When confederal and federal authorities started trying to collect taxes and seize property, the Borderlanders took up arms and tried to leave the union they now thoroughly disapproved of.  This Appalachian resistance movement raged for more than a decade ... It began in 1784, when people in the western territories of North Carolina (now eastern Tennessee) became disgusted with Tidewater control. Their solution was pure Borderlander: they created their own sovereign State of Franklin on nobody's permission but their own. They drafted a constitution that prohibited lawyers, clergy, and doctors from running for office, set up a government in the village of Greeneville, and passed laws making apple brandy, animal skins, and tobacco legal tender. They even applied for membership in the Continental Congress and were supported by seven states; opposition from Tidewater and the Deep South delegates denied them the necessary two-thirds majority."  (pg. 160)



Peace Meals: Candy-Wrapped Kalashnikovs and Other War Stories by Anna Badkhen -- I found this book at a dollar store for $1 and it was very much worth it.  This Soviet-born journalist shared stories from war zones and places of famine all the while telling stories about life back home in Russia and friends she'd met along the way. Each chapter talked about food shared in these places and she includes recipes.  And they are often written with funny things thrown in there.  Like when she boils a lobster for the first time and is glad her sons didn't get to see it because it was a bit more traumatic than she thought. And when she talks about caviar, she doesn't bother with a recipe, but writes "wait! you have caviar? Can I come over?"  I enjoyed her sense of humor even though much of the book was about sad things. These were just two bits from it that I shared on Facebook.


"In preying on the women of a vanquished nation, the fighters continued a millennia-old tradition that proliferates in all wars.  Japanese troops raped Chinese women in Nanking in 1937 and early 1938; Allied troops raped all the women they could lay their hands on in defeated Nazi Germany in 1945; Hutu men raped Tutsi women in Rwanda in 1994.  In this century, Somali nomads called the Janjaweed raped women farmers in Darfur. In Iraq, I have interviewed Sunni and Shiite Muslims, Christians and Sabean women who had been raped by men of other sects or religions. Rape is a common front line of war, a front line that often remains hidden because of the stigma attached to sexual violence by many societies, and because in many societies, the targets - women and girls - are considered less important than men, the fighters." (pg. 90)


In speaking about reporting across the Middle East, the author says "the Jewish state is a country That-Must-Not-Be-Named, and that the very mention of the I-word is bound to rile someone.  This is why Western reporters in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, and the Gulf States refer to Israel among each other as 'Dixie' - as in, 'Justin Sullivan from Getty Images and I worked together in Dixie in 2002.'"  (pg. 140)



In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson  -- Travel journalist talks about his days exploring Australia. I enjoyed the tidbits of information about places to visit and the people, sights and so forth. His humor was an added bonus.

Many non-native animals were introduced to Australia and "the consequences for native species have often been devastating. About 130 mammals in Australia are threatened. Sixteen have gone extinct - more than in any other continent.  And guess what is the mightiest killer of all? According to the National Parks and Wildlife Service, it is the common cat."  (pg. 137)

June Books

Half the year is almost over! Hope you are enjoying your summer. Here are the books I finished in June.



The Chosen Peoples by Todd Gitlin and Liel Leibovitz -- The authors discuss the idea of chosenness - especially related to the Jews of old, America and the state of Israel - and how it has shaped world events.  They also touched on the "unchosen" or people other than these who believe they are also Chosen (e.g., Muslims).

"The idea of chosenness by a single God, having shaken a polytheistic world millennia ago, set off aftershocks that continue to shake the ground well into our own day.  And there is, in principle, no limit to the violence that can be justified against a people who were, after all, stamped long ago with the mark of Cain." (pg. 173)




A Short History of the Jewish People by Raymond P. Scheindlin  -- a very readable, and somewhat interesting look at the Jewish people from ancient to modern times.  I had these two things on Facebook at one point.

On September 1, 1939 Poland was the country with the highest concentration of Jews in the world and was the main center of Jewish religious and cultural life.

How crowded was the Warsaw ghetto? When all 400,000 of its Jews were required to live within the 840 acre ghetto and then an additional 150,000 refugees were crammed into that space, the density reached THIRTEEN PERSONS PER ROOM, and homeless people were dying of exposure, hunger and disease in the streets.

From Plato to NATO by David Gress  -- the big book I started on my birthday and finished on June 8 (my goal was to finish it by the end of August)

A few things of note:



A Roman "peculiarity" -- "To a Roman, as to a Greek, the most basic freedom was freedom from slavery, or, as in Herodotus, from foreign occupation. But Roman freedom included another aspect that related more directly to later Western notions. This was the idea of freedom as the right of the citizen not to be abused by the government, the freedom that implied equality before the law, and that was guaranteed by time-hallowed and solemn laws and by designated officials. Roman libertas in this sense had little to do with the Greek idea that the mark of the free citizen was that he participated equally in political decisions. The government of the Roman Republic was elected by a small number of rich and influential people and the republic was always an oligarchy. So in Rome, to be free meant that however insignificant the citizen, there were certain things the government could not do to him, because he was protected by laws that stood above any government."  (pg. 99)


"Americans prided themselves on being innovators and free of the past; Europeans, including the revolutionaries of France, prided themselves on continuity. Even the sign of the eagle changed character after its migration. In an amazing feat of symbolic transformation, Americans succeeded in defining their eagle as a bird of freedom and defiance, rather than symbolizing military conquest and the power of an authoritarian state." (pg. 125)


I found this cute:  "In 269, in an ominous precedent, Gothic hordes invaded Greece. Their king told his men not to burn the libraries of Athens, because as long as the Greeks could study, they would not fight."  (pg. 146)



"Many people in the West, including many in the liberal Anglo-Saxon democracies, believed that war was a test of national manhood and that periodic wars were necessary to purge the nation of degeneracy, which tended to spread if peace lasted too long. Angell recognized these ideas, but assumed they would die out and become unacceptable, just as, for example, the slave trade had become unacceptable to Europeans in the space of a single generation at the end of the eighteenth century.  In the past, values had changed, sometimes quickly, and in modern society, value change was coming quicker still. Therefore, those who spoke of 'unchangeable human nature' and insisted that war was a permanent fact of life were - according to Angell - mistaken." (pg. 340)


"The praise of toil in the Georgics was unusual and subversive in antiquity. Greeks and Romans considered earning your bread by the sweat of your brow dishonorable; not having to work was the mark of the full citizen. In such a culture, Virgil's praise of the iustissima tellus, the most just earth, which yielded its fruits only to hard human labor, was original.  Virgil's message in the Georgics, that all human life depended on the soil and therefore on labor, was, with Christianity, one of the reasons the later West turned the classical order of social and economic values upside down. Thus, where antiquity despised the man who had to work to buy his leisure time, the West, and especially America, regarded such a man more highly than the rentier, the 'man of leisure.' Work, in the West, ennobled the worker; in antiquity, it degraded him and made him unfit for the highest civic callings."  (pg. 366)


"Pity and compassion, to the Greeks, were comprehensible only if they served pride and the drive for fame.  To ancient philosophers, from Plato ... to Marcus Aurelius..., gratuitous pity 'was a defect of character unworthy of the wise and excusable only in those who have not yet grown up. It was an impulsive response based on ignorance. Plato had removed the problem of beggars from his ideal state by dumping them over the borders.'"  (pg. 79)



"The Third Empire was a political and theological category and was not easily compatible with Hitler's own program, which is why he disliked and in 1939 forbade the phrase to be used." (pg. 385)


"Relativism, Gellner concluded, was 'an affectation, specially attractive amongst the more naive provincials in privileged cultures,' by which he meant American academics. It was popular among those who could afford it, who derived some moralistic and masochistic satisfaction from it, and who mistakenly believed that they were doing the rest of the world a favor by adopting it. But they were not; the poor countries did not want Western postmodernism but Western science and technology, and in particular the methods by which science and technology became prosperity.  'Precariously modernizing societies, with an uncertain grip on the new benefits, are perhaps a little less likely to indulge in an orgy of science-bashing. ... But a really rich industrial country,' like the United States, 'can and does afford the luxury of denouncing and renouncing it all.' It was therefore in America, where the liberal synthesis had worked best of all and was therefore taken for granted, that relativism found the most fertile ground."  (pg. 511)




Iran:Empire of the Mind by Michael Axworthy  -- This book explores Iranian history from Zoroaster to the present day (or 2007 since this is when it was published)

I found this interesting:  "Since the 1979 revolution, Iranian women are subject to one of the most restrictive dress codes in the Islamic world, yet partly in consequence Iranian families have released their daughters to study and work in unprecedented numbers, such that over 60 per cent of university students are female and many women (even married women) have professional jobs."  (xiv)

This was a pretty good book, covered a wide variety of topics and helped me better understand the Iranians and what shaped them.  I must admit I struggled somewhat in following all the names, but I think I learned something so that's good!



The Call to Seriousness: The Evangelical Impact on the Victorians by Ian Bradley -- I can't even remember why I put this book on my Amazon Wishlist. I must have seen it recommended in another book sometime last year. It's not even a new book - as in, it came from a library. Likely they threw it out as too old to interest anyone.  But, it was really quite interesting to me!  These are Evangelicals of the Church of England sort. They greatly influenced the Victorian Age and, wow, about half the time I was really disliking these people when the author would share good things about them and I'd find myself admiring them.  I could relate to much of this as it sounds like things I remember growing up. Things I may not have been taught, but practices that were from my grandparents' generation. Such as playing cards being a bad thing. We did it although we never gambled (a no-no in my circles).  Attending the theater, reading novels, fairytales, dancing - all taboo amongst these Evangelicals. I guess the name of the book would tell you this: they wanted to be serious about life so amusements were frowned upon!  Drinking alcohol in moderation was OK, however. This is different from how I grew up where alcohol was a terrible thing best avoided.

The Evangelicals showed how people could influence society by getting involved in politics.  They wanted to impose their standards on the rest of society -- and not all of it was bad. Apparently English society was pretty rotten then and even many nonEvangelicals apparently liked some of the cleaning up of society that they legislated.  While I might disagree with some of their stances - such as their desire to make people attend church on Sundays - on the grounds of individual freedom, I like some others as they were hugely involved in abolishing slavery and animals fights and working for better factory conditions for workers.  They also contributed three-fours of the charity work in England and the author credits them with the volunteerism and charitableness of English people even today (or as of this book's writing anyway; it was published in 1976).

This is what I noted on Facebook about it:

I'm reading a book about the Evangelicals in England and their impact on the Victorians.  They liked legislating morality and had their own policing tactics that makes me think of a mix between Communist regimes where neighbors spy and tattle on rule breakers and present-day Saudi Arabia and Iran.  One guy was so into people observing the Sabbath that he introduced a bill which "included the closure of markets on both Saturdays and Mondays to prevent the necessity for Sunday travel"!  Can you imagine? Thankfully the bill never passed and the guy was not re-elected, but still!

On the benefits of the bubonic plague

A few weeks ago on NCIS: LA, a doctor was captured who wanted to reinfect much of the world with small pox! (Thank goodness agents Hanna and Callen got her in time!) Her thinking?  The planet was overcrowded and needed to be saved. By getting rid of horrible diseases which killed lots of people, we were tampering with nature and allowing the earth to get too crowded.  It took thousands of years to reach a billion people and then within only a few short years (comparatively), another billion, then another and another. Now I am wondering how many others out there think like this doctor and believe diseases should be free to run rampant and kill people in order to save the planet. Maybe wars and infanticide can be good things so the earth doesn't get too crowded. Um, I don't think so, but perhaps some do.

Later in May as I was reading From Plato to NATO the author, David Gress, states that in "1348, bubonic plague arrived from south Asia, killing around a third of the population in its first visitation, and thereafter returning every generation  or so to cull those who had been born since the last epidemic.  ...The plague solved the food crises, and for survivors, reversed the balance of economic power between peasants and landlords. Until the famine that began in 1315, the population of western Europe had been growing probably somewhat more rapidly than the food supply. Europe around 1300 was full of landless laborers willing to work for a pittance.  Peasants were increasingly tenants, not owners, and at the mercy of landlords who could evict them and find more docile tenants without difficulty.

The plague changed this.  Surviving peasants found themselves fewer and more in demand. Landlords suffered losses when their tenants died and, unable to meet their obligations, were willing to pay more to have their land tilled and rents paid. Peasants who received better conditions were more often able to buy their land."  (pg. 234-235)

So there ya go again.  Plagues' benefits.  I guess, too, there are wars and abortion and infanticide (humanity's ways) and earthquakes, tsunamis and famines (nature's way) of controlling the population.  And homosexuals. They can't have children. Well, they can, thanks to technology.  Same with infertile couples. What do you think? Are we tampering too much with nature by finding cures for diseases and allowing infertile couples to conceive whether it be by IVF or some other means?

If only we could find a way to harness those hurricanes and stop those shifting plates underground ... or maybe not.

Thoughts?

I wonder if Earth would think differently than we do.

Talkin' Tradition

I tend to think of stuff like this Cherokee (NC) war dance as more cultural/traditional than anything in my life

Have you ever had people ask what your region is famous for or to tell them about your culture and drawn a blank? I have.  Well, I could maybe figure out a food* that is well-liked in this area, and perhaps tell you North Carolina grows a lot of tobacco, but I can't always find something that seems "traditional" and "cultural" that distinguishes my area from others.   Likely I'm just blind to those things or assume most people do that so how can that be cultural/traditional if it's normal?  Should I even be using those terms together like that?  Let me look them up ...

This was in South Horr, Kenya when Andrew went December 2011 - time for a wedding

OK, here is culture as defined by Dictionary.com

1.the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc.

2.that which is excellent in the arts, manners, etc.

3.a particular form or stage of civilization, as that of a certain nation or period: Greek culture.

4.development or improvement of the mind by education or training.

5.the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group: the youth culture; the drug culture.

and tradition

1.the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, information, etc., from generation to generation, especially by word of mouth or by practice: a story that has come down to us by popular tradition.

2.something that is handed down: the traditions of the Eskimos.

3. a long-established or inherited way of thinking or acting: The rebellious students wanted to break with tradition.

4. a continuing pattern of culture beliefs or practices.

5. a customary or characteristic method or manner: The winner took a victory lap in the usual track tradition.

So I guess tradition is more the things that influence or make up culture? I don't know.  

Anyway, I read this in From Plato to NATO by David Gress, and wanted to see what you thought about the West not losing, but rejecting tradition.

"What Eliot saw was that the West was becoming a world, an outlook, and a culture that no longer wanted or needed tradition***.  The West by 1920 was not a civilization that had lost its traditional moorings, which one could perhaps restore or at least rediscover or describe. It was a civilization that rejected moorings of any sort. The essence of the modern West was that it had no essence, no heritage, no tradition. Tradition had become not the missing center of culture, but something that the culture increasingly regarded as its enemy."  (pg. 163)

***For Eliot this apparently meant "Western civilization needed both the church and the literary tradition of antiquity" and "the West was dying because it had forgotten its own tradition, one of myth and the hidden traces of the sacred." 
 
 

 Do you agree with Eliot's thoughts on the West's view of tradition?  Do you consider tradition as an enemy?  How could it be?  And how would you answer someone wanting to know about the cultural and/or traditional aspects of your area of the world?  What is it famous for? What do y'all do that distinguishes you from others?

*  We were asked this while in Syria and Andrew told them our region was (locally anyway) famous for its barbeque.  Yes, that's BBQ as a noun and it means THIS although, thankfully, I mostly only see it on sandwiches or plates.   That's better. Well, maybe not for a Muslim. Alas, we are neither Muslim nor Jew nor vegetarian.  And although the one asking never treated us any differently in the slightest, I was a little embarrassed/shy that Andrew said this in a culture that considers pork unclean.  Makes me feel like a dirty Christian ...