"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Friday, July 30, 2021

Review and quotes: STITCHES


Title:
Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope, and Repair by Anne Lamott

Book Beginnings quote:

It can be too sad here. We so often lose our way.

Friday56 quote: 

Only together do we somehow keep coming through unsurvivable loss, the stress of never knowing how things will shake down, to the biggest miracle of all, that against all odds we come through the end of the world, again and again -- changed but intact (more or less).

Summary: In this book Anne Lamott explores how we find meaning and peace in times of upheaval and despair and how we start again after personal and public devastation. She addresses how we can recapture our wholeness after loss and ways we can collect all the ripped and shredded aspects of our lives and sew them back together, one stitch at a time.

Review: I am the "librarian" of my little church library. I was new to the job, just two months on "duty" when COVID hit and our church, like everything else in life, went into lock down. Right before lock down I had just purchased a few new books for the church and the week before everything closed I held an open house for members to check out a new book and to see the improvements to our precious space. Stitches by Anne Lamott was one of those new books. When no one else took it home that day, I decided I would, since I have always enjoyed her writing. Little did I know that the book, published in 2013, was perfect for our time, for the circumstances we've been living through this past year and a half. 

As we start to emerge from our long isolation, or as we are force to return to some more restrictions due to the Delta variant it is good to be reminded that together we can stitch our lives back together... that we don't need to live in the despair and the loneliness it has caused.

This was also a perfect "transition" book. Having completed two really good novels I needed some space in my head before I launched into another demanding book. This one, at 96 pages, did the trick. It provided the space for a clearing of my head and like a salve on a burn it provided solace to frayed nerves caused by the pandemic.

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City ReaderShare the opening quote from current book.
Th
e Friday56 is hosted at Freda's VoiceFind a quote from page 56 to share. 

Visit these two websites to participate. Click on links to read quotes from books other people are reading. It is a great way to make blog friends and to get suggestions for new reading material.   
   

Challenges:

  • 20-Book Summer Challenge: 13th book

 

-Anne

Monday, July 26, 2021

TTT: Good Books to Read AFTER a Favorite Book



Top Ten Tuesday: Good books to read AFTER completely a favorite or an excellent book.

Recently I finished two excellent books in a row. Both captured my imagination and I wanted to savor the stories before moving on to another book which would demand my attention. I found a little inspirational book that helped my transition and gave me space and time before moving on.

This is a list of books which have served this purpose, as transition books (far right). 




-Anne


Sunday, July 25, 2021

Won't You Be My Neighbor? Sermon notes.

Mr. Rogers' ministry was directed toward children but is applicable to all people.

 
Today I was guest preacher for our church service. The current sermon series is on modern stories and characters who can inform us about the kingdom of God. These are my sermon notes.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Let us pray:Let some word that is heard today be thine.” Amen

When John asked me to preach while he was out of town, he gave me a list of the books/authors he was considering for his series. I jumped at the chance to talk about Mr. Rogers, having recently read two books by/about him. But unlike the characters John has highlighted: Marvel, Harry Potter, Mr. Rogers was himself on and off the screen.

Today I’ll be talking about Mr. Rogers’ ministry to children and how he calls us all to be good neighbors.

Mr. Rogers began his career in broadcasting in the late 1950s but finally landed on PBS with Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood in 1968.

·       By that time I was a young teenager/preteen. My friends and I, who never watched the show, made fun of it, thinking it was corny and old-fashioned.

·       It wasn’t until I was a mother with young children that I actually watched it myself and discovered that the irrepressible charm of the show was its simplicity and its loving message of inclusion.

·       Often I would find myself weeping as the girls watched the show for the sweetness, simplicity, and respectfulness of his message.

Did you know that Mr. Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister and his work on television was his ministry?  (I wonder how many committees had to meet to approve that?)

·       Here’s another fun fact: He never once mentioned God on his show, yet ALL of his words and actions spoke of his great love for mankind, especially children.

·       His actions and consistent messages spoke more of God’s love than the words of most Christians today.

·       His television neighborhood gave him a way of sharing God’s love to children across America.

·       “The underlying message of the Neighborhood,” Rogers once said, “is that if somebody cares about you, it’s possible that you’ll care about others. ‘You are special, and so is your neighbor’—that part is essential: that you’re not the only special person in the world. The person you happen to be with at the moment is loved, too.”

o   Imagine what the world would be like if we all embraced that philosophy. I am special but so are you.

o   I’m going to return to this thought later.

·       Mr. Rogers prayed before each day of filming the simple prayer I opened with today: “Let some word that is heard be thine.”

Scripture:

As I was contemplating what scripture I’d like to pair with my message, the obvious choice seemed to be from Matthew 19:14:

·       “But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” (KJV)

·       Did I really just quote the KJV that says “Suffer little children?”

·       Mr. Rogers would never have used such confusing terms. Let me try again.

·       But Jesus said, Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”” (NASB)

o   This scripture is so perfectly aligned with Mr. Rogers’ ministry, it hardly needs a sermon to expand on the theme.

o   I think the disciples weren’t being mean about children, they just thought that Jesus’s message was meant for adults, and only adults could understand it.

§  Children deserve to hear about God’s great love for them, too.

§  In fact, what a great place to start, at the beginning of life to learn about God and Jesus and their great love for mankind. All mankind.

o   Unlike most adults, Mr. Rogers never shied away from tough subjects when talking to children.

§  He talked about death and loneliness, divorce, and disabilities.

§  In fact, when the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Centers occurred, producers on PBS brought Mr. Rogers back out of retirement to speak to the children of this country to help sooth their anxieties and fears.

§  He addressed the topic of helpers. He asked children to notice how many people there were that were helping in the recovery efforts. This was a topic or theme he often repeated “Notice the helpers.”

§  Thinking about the disciples wanting to shoo away the children and Jesus wanting them to stay, reminds me of a song Mr. Rogers introduced in 1984 called: “I like to BeTold”.

§  I can imagine Jesus singing this Mr. Rogers song about why children should be allowed to hear his message.

JuJust think about those lyrics in relationship to the scripture. Children like to know about things and when we tell them accurate information it teaches them to trust us (and God more.)

·       Mr. Rogers has a song for just about every concept he was trying to model during the episodes. In fact he sang one of the songs in front of the US Senate sub-committee that was considering axing funding for PBS. The song was about expressing feelings.

·       I imagine if Mr. Rogers were alive today, health specialists would want him to come out of retirement again to help sooth our worries and fears about COVID and vaccines. Can’t you imagine him saying or singing, “Trust the helpers” on this one?

I realized, however, that scripture wasn’t exactly the point. I wanted to make today. So what other scriptures do you think of related to Mr. Rogers?

Who is my neighbor?

Luke 10:25-37  NASB

25 And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 And He said to him, “What is written in the Law?  How does it read to you?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” 29 But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

You know the rest of the story. The Good Samaritan story where Jesus used a parable to make a point about neighbors and loving kindness.

(For just a moment I’m going to digress.

Jesus was asked lots of times why he spoke in parables rather than straight up. His answers were always about his message being available for those who have ears to hear.

I believe that stories have a way of speaking to us so that we can make changes.

In a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Overstory, one character Adam, a psychology grad student, is asked if resistance efforts can make a difference in saving trees and in the environmental movement. He says, “The best arguments in the world won't change a person's mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.” Powers, the author, clearly believes that in order to change to consciousness of the peoples of the world we have to employ different techniques of persuasion.

There is power in a good story to change the hearts and minds of a people. Jesus knew this, too.)

But let’s go back to the scripture.

The man asks, “Who is my neighbor?”

But what is he really asking? Who do I need to love? In other words he is saying, I’m willing to love him if

  • ·       He looks like me,
  • ·       talks like me,
  • ·       worships like me,
  • ·       loves like me,
  • ·       is in the same socio-economic class as me

Gandhi famously said: I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

·       I don’t know about you, but I feel this way all the time when I hear of Christians behaving in very unloving, judgmental ways.

·       There seems to be no room in their hearts for anyone other than those people who are exactly like them.

·       How are we supposed to attract people to Christ when our actions actually repel people?

Let’s go back and relate this idea of neighbor to Mr. Rogers and his ministry to children (and their parents).

In the book Peaceful Neighbor: Discovering the Countercultural Mister Rogers, the author Michael Long points out that

·       Mr. Rogers’ work for the greater good did not take the form of marching, rallying, or picketing.

·       Mostly he did his work in and through his own context. Mr. Rogers didn’t march against Jim Crow; he cast black actors on his program.

·       He didn’t travel to Birmingham or Selma in support of integration; he set up a pool and invited Officer Clemmons (played by black, gay actor) to soak his feet and share his towel.

·       Mr. Rogers’ life reminds us that we can work for the well-being of the most vulnerable wherever we may be, in whatever work we do. In other words, “There are many ways to say ‘I love you.”

·       And we don’t have to trail the trappings of religiosity behind us to do it. Remember he never once mentioned God on his TV show, but everything about his being spoke of love and respect.

·       “You don’t need to speak about religion overtly to get a message across,” Mr. Rogers once said.

When Jesus asks us to love our neighbors. What does he mean?

-Mister Rogers didn’t call us “acquaintances” or “friends”; he didn’t call us “boys and girls” or “ladies and gentlemen.” He called us neighbors.

-“Neighbor” is biblical language. Jesus reminds the lawyer trying to ensnare him of this with the Good Samaritan story when he asks him, “Which one of these three was a neighbor?”

The lawyer answers: “The one who demonstrated mercy toward him.”

-By calling us NEIGHBORS Mister Rogers was calling us out of old ways and our desire for sameness, into lives of mercy and care for one another, for everyone: no matter their differences

-Admittedly, maybe he was overly optimistic.

·       Maybe he was calling us something better than we actually were.

·       But maybe he believed that if he got to us while we were young, if he told us, again and again, that we were good, that we were lovable, and that we could extend mercy, maybe we could grow into real neighbors to one another.

·       I think Jesus was saying the same thing to the young lawyer and to his disciples. A neighbor is a person who shows mercy and kindness to everyone and when better to learn how to be neighborly than when we are children?

Lastly- I wanted to come back to that opening prayer:

Let some word that is heard today be thine.”

·       People can’t hear the good news of the gospel if we speak in an unneighborly way.

·       Or our actions are not those of loving kindness.

·       Three ways to ultimate success: “Be Kind. Be Kind. Be Kind.” –Mr. Rogers.

Let’s go out and be real neighbors today…and tomorrow, and the next day…

Sing together: Won't You Be My Neighbor

Benediction:

Jesus reminds us to follow these rules:  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."

Mr. Rogers reminds us to BE KIND and NEIGHBORLY.

Let's go out and live that way!

 

AMEN


 

Friday, July 23, 2021

Review and quotes: WE ARE NOT FREE


Title
: We Are Not Free by Traci Chee

Book Beginnings quote:


Friday56 quote:


Summary: 14 teenagers and friends who live with their families in Japantown in San Francisco in 1942 tell their stories of what life was like for them when the Exclusion Order comes down from the government to place all people of Japanese descent living on the West Coast into Internment Camps for the duration of the war. We follow these teens as they lose everything their family owned, were transported to the camps, loss of their freedom, and then being asked to sign a loyalty pledge to the country that had just imprisoned them.

Review: I put this YA novel onto my reading list because it won a Printz Honor this year for being one of the best YA books of the year. I've read many books about Japanese Internment but none from the point-of-view exclusively of teenagers. I was struck by how normal these fourteen teens really were. They wanted to do and be the same things that all teens want -- to have friends; to be popular; to look good; to fall in love; to fell safe; to not be bothered by younger siblings; to have a sense of community; and to belong.

In the first part of the book the teens all live in the same area of Japantown, a section of San Francisco. Some are harassed by whites and told to 'go home' or are accused of being traitors. Their Chinese-American neighbors put up signs saying 'We are Chinese' so that they, too, won't be harassed. Then as the evacuation order comes down families are forced to sell everything on very short notice before they were taken to detention/processing places nearby like Camp Harmony in my town which was really the Western Washington Fairgrounds. Families lived in horse stalls and pig pens as their paperwork was processed before they were moved to newly erected "camps" where the families were imprisoned and under guard. Yet life for these teens continued. They still got crushes on each other, and looked forward to social events like dances where they would fill up their dance cards before the day of the dance. They formed softball and baseball leagues and even played games against schools from nearby communities. Then they were all asked to fill out the government pledge claiming their loyalty to America and disavowing fealty to Emperor. They had to answer yes-yes or no-no. They couldn't split their answer. This angered the Japanese community greatly. What a horrible bind they were in. Those who answered no-no were sent to more restrictive camps like Manzanar. Some of those who answered yes-yes were allowed to move out and locate somewhere on the East Coast or Midwest. Eventually the war ended and families were free to go home. But where was home and what would they have when they got there?

Traci Chee's relatives had to live through this trauma and her author's notes at the end of the book are very enlightening and moving. I learned so much and am grateful to have an additional point-of-view to consider as I think about history. For example Chee explains how the terminology that was used makes 'internment' not sound like what it was -- 'incarceration'. And the terms 'forced removal' should be used instead of 'evacuation', which makes the action seem like something that was helpful and good. Words matter. 

In the words of Redress hero Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga, “words can lie or clarify.”  When we use language that distorts the past, we lose our ability to recognize patterns of repeating history. But language that imparts truth and understanding can help us avoid repeating those same mistakes today. (Densho).

I highly recommend this book. I consumed it in the audio format which was so well done using a whole cast of different voice actors to represent all fourteen of the main characters. But I missed our on the illustrations and other visuals. So maybe use both print and audio! And, as a side note, don't you just love the cover? I do.

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City ReaderShare the opening quote from current book.
Th
e Friday56 is hosted at Freda's VoiceFind a quote from page 56 to share. 

Visit these two websites to participate. Click on links to read quotes from books other people are reading. It is a great way to make blog friends and to get suggestions for new reading material.   
   

Challenges:

  • Big Book Summer Challenge: 4th book, 401 pages
  • Audiobook Challenge: 20th audiobook  
  • 20-Book Summer Challenge: 9th book

-Anne