Sunday Salon, Nov. 22, 2015

Weather:  Cold, but clear, with blue skies. It was a very stormy week, however. We had a windy, rainy storm on Tuesday that brought down trees and power lines, took out power to homes and businesses. It was a mess around here for a day. Apparently, some homes are still without power.

How Great Thou Art: My favorite hymn for the Thanksgiving season. Cue the music (The Piano Guys) and listen while you read this blog post today.

Thought for the day: "Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it." -William Arthur Ward

The Withing Project: We attended the most profound musical/theater/dance experience last night: The Withing Project, described as theater of entanglement. My second cousin was in the choir and expressly invited us to attend because she knew we would be touched by it, and we were.  "A one-of-a-kind theatrical collage about quantum consciousness. A cancer patient, her palliative care physician, and a neuroscientist - played by three actors, three dancers and three singers, accompanied by a 20-voice choir and a quartet of violin, cello, piano and saxophone."

UW researchers and scientists across the country are exploring how stimuli experienced by one human subject appear echoed in the brain responses of others at a distance, indicating some kind of “with-ing” or shared quantum consciousness. “This hybrid of theatre, new music, contemporary dance and science celebrates our growing understanding of how we’re entangled with one another,” says Hope Wechkin, MD. “The longer I practice medicine and make music, the more I find that our experience of connecting with one another is greater than either art or science can express by itself. That’s why The Withing Project explores an artistic dialogue between researchers, performance artists and medical providers to share a deeper understanding of something both familiar and mysterious.”---From the website.

Induction: Monday night GK Honor Society inducted 62 new members in a lovely service at the high school. The work leading up to the evening, the event, and recovery from the event seemed to take all my energy. Apparently I have a finite amount of energy and if I expend a lot at once I am left with very little afterwards.  I dragged around for the rest of the week. Ha!

Adventures in getting to book club: This past Tuesday was the day of the storm AND the date of our monthly book club. Because of the rain, many streets were closed due to water. Other roads were closed due to downed trees and power lines. Some of the traffic lights were dark, making traffic back up behind them.  What should have been a short 15 minute trip to the hostess' house took us over 45 minutes. Everyone was late and wanted to leave early. That was a pity because we were discussing a favorite book, The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd.

Hilarious number of audiobooks currently checked out: Right now I have six audiobooks on loan from the library and Overdrive. That is a ridiculous number since the circulation period for all of them is three weeks and it usually takes me at least two weeks to finish one book. I seem to have this happen to me more often than not. I order a bunch of audiobooks, all somewhere on the spectrum of no waiting to months of waiting and then they all arrive at once.  I have decided to focus on the two book club selections first, The People of the Book and The Nightingale. One nonfiction selection, Dead Wake by Erik Larson, has been on my listening list all year so I will request it again from the library in a month or so. The other three may or may not get listened to. Oh well.

Books read this week:

• I Remember Beirut by Zeina Abirached---a graphic biography by illustrator Abirached and translated into English. I read it as part of Nonfiction November, week three had an emphasis on alternative types of nonfiction.
• The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow---a YA dystopian title and quite a good little story.

Currently reading:

• The Emperor of Any Place by Tim Wynne-Jones---I didn't make much progress on this book this week. Progress 33%.
• The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks---audiobook, a book club selection. Progress 10%.

Travelling south: This year we travel south to Oregon to spend Thanksgiving with family. I am focusing on a spirit of gratitude and thankfulness this week.

I am thankful for you, dear readers. I appreciate that you have taken the time out of your busy schedule to read my blog and to make comments, which keep me going! Have a wonderful week.