books

Summer Vacation, Day 5: Big To-Do

/ J. Thorp / 1 Comment

Today was not like yesterday. No photo shoots. Today I shoveled rocks – the odd-shaped, slate-colored rocks that surround our house as “landscaping” and attract and show all manner of debris – dried leaves, stray grass clippings, acorns, you name it. They are impossible to clean, and so we’ve decided to remove them in favor of flower beds and shrubbery. Because flowers and shrubbery are far lower-maintenance.

And since Jodi, in her wisdom, pointed out truthfully that summer was not the time for reading challenges, I must devote my time to these appropriate summer chores … which means I’m still reading Don Quixote, a delightful, if overlong, tale, which vexes me because, although I’d like to rush headlong for the end, when I read quickly I miss much of the wit and humor. Coach finished it a week ago and will begin her third novel shortly, if she hasn’t already. At the pace I set for myself, I should’ve finished yesterday. I did not.

Thankfully I have a couple short novels on my list that may enable me to catch up with my peers. Ah, well. The ache in my shoulders and back may also serve to keep me awake, so perhaps I’ll read on tonight (and be oh-so-awake for work in the morning).

Here’s my list for 15 weeks:

  1. Don Quixote by Cervantes
  2. The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald
  3. East of Eden by Steinbeck
  4. Moby Dick by Melville
  5. Pride & Prejudice by Austen
  6. Slaughterhouse-Five by Vonnegut
  7. Blood Meridian by McCarthy
  8. Anna Karenina by Tolstoy
  9. The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway
  10. The Odyssey by Homer
  11. Ulysses by Joyce
  12. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Wilde
  13. As I Lay Dying by Faulkner
  14. The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky
  15. The Violent Bear It Away by O’Connor

If I can knock out Fitzgerald in a couple of days, I may be able to get back on pace … but soccer starts for Gabe and Emma tomorrow, running the same days as Bren’s baseball. So, yeah. Whose bright idea was this?

Summer Vacation, Day 4: Kung Fu & Old Books

/ J. Thorp / 3 Comments

Took the older boys to taiji (or tai chi) classes this morning at Dark Raven Studios in St. Paul. Jodi and I and the little kids ran a few errands, then picked the boys up and grabbed lunch. We picked up some landscaping supplies, then stopped by Midway Used & Rare Books,* before returning to Dark Raven for … get this! … a kung-fu photo shoot!

I’ve been working with Dark Raven shih-fu José Figueroa for a few years now on various articles and publicity pieces pertaining to his school; his particular art, the relatively rare and explosive Chen style taiji; and Chinese martial arts in general. The latest article, and the one I’m most proud of, is a piece on José’s unique Chen curriculum for children. This article, and photos shot professionally today, will appear in Inside Kung Fu magazine this summer or fall. Bren and Gabe will be instant kung-fu legends, no doubt!

Of course, in Chen village, lots of kids learn this stuff. Search YouTube using the words “taiji Chen Pengfei” to see the young son of Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang tearing it up. He’s cute as a three- or four-year-old, but the video of him as a “tween” (date-stamped August 2000) shows the slow grace of taiji, and later, the explosiveness of Chen style. Beautiful.

*Midway’s site only appears to show the rare books. They have three floors of used books and comics. I picked up Ulysses, East of Eden and Pride and Prejudice for Coach’s Remedial English Lit Summer Project.

The Spirit Is Willing …

/ J. Thorp / 3 Comments

I’ve been stewing on a question for some time now – especially since this post got me to thinking about a conversation several months ago with Jinglebob regarding the war in Iraq. This question, however, can also be applied to political campaigns, labor disputes, and public disagreements of all kinds. The question is this:

At what point do good people make the choice
to fight dirty in order to win?

I remember the point at which, during the 2000 Republican Primary season, McCain started to get dirty, and the Straight Talk Express began to veer. I remember pundits saying, just a few months ago, that Obama needed to “get tough” to combat Clinton’s negative attacks. I’ve worked in communications for more than a decade now, and I’ve seen the daily headline wars won again and again by simplistic, and generally negative, messages – sometimes with little to no basis in fact. And I’ve heard friends and family advocate extreme measures to combat terrorists with no qualms at all about committing the worst sorts of atrocities against innocent people.

When confronted with such an adversary, it seems there is little room for negotiation, nuance, rules or truth. The faithful are often admonished to turn the other cheek – but once both cheeks are battered and bruised … then what?

This is the point at which the idealist in me says, Then you lose on principle. Die with honor.

But the body rebels. The mind justifies. The ego says, No way I’m going out without a fight. The gloves are coming off!

In Man’s Search for Meaning, Jewish psychologist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl touches briefly on the lives of Jewish capos – prisoners who, in many cases, decided to survive the concentration camps by any means necessary. These prisoners acted as camp trustees on behalf of the Nazi SS and, Frankl says, sometimes became more brutal that the Nazi guards in their treatment of fellow prisoners. Frankl argues that these men sacrificed something more precious than life – their personal values. They were accorded special privileges and survived the camps, but many never recovered their humanity.

Public policy is rarely life-and-death, so this comparison is not exact. But the same questions apply to both arenas: Where is the line, and when should we cross?

Intriguing Little Book

/ J. Thorp / 6 Comments

Last night I read a book in a single sitting. That almost never happens.

Last night marked the fortuitous intersection of a quiet evening alone, the completion of a book on Mongol history, and the call of small book from 1928 called Mr. Blue. It was sent to me unprompted by a friend who has known about the book for years, and according to people better-read than me, is an account of a 20th-century St. Francis figure. OK – I’m late to the Catholic Church and poorly educated regarding the saints. At a glance, the online reviews of the book appear to fluctuate between loving Blue and his attempts to live his understanding of his Catholic faith authentically, and hating Blue for flawed and feel-good notions of Christianity.

Whichever. The more compelling figure, to me, is the narrator, who is admiring and incredulous, who sees wisdom and folly in Blue, who badgers him to make something of himself and yet finds himself almost irresistibly drawn to Blue’s ideas and lifestyle.

I wrote my friend afterward: “blue is what the jim-in-my-head aspires to be; the narrator’s back-and-forth (“blue’s so wrong! blue’s so right!”) is why i’m not more that man. (that, and jodi’s desire not to live in a shipping crate.)

I should say that I don’t literally aspire to be Mr. Blue. I don’t wish to live in a shipping crate, any more than Jodi does. But, like the narrator, I can admire a man whose vision and convictions guide him more than the expectations and norms of society, and who manages to live, more or less happily, beyond worldly concerns like stuff and money.

(Sure it’s a simplistic reading. But I’ve got enough complexity in my world right now.)

I also dig a story about people who try to follow “a Way” in a world that has apparently moved on. Perhaps that’s why (in a very different way) one of my favorite movies as a younger man was Ghost Dog. The faithful, the mafia, and the samurai all have their “Ways” to follow. The world doesn’t always understand or agree with those Ways. And sometimes, people die along the Way.

Good People, a Friend!

/ J. Thorp / 3 Comments

Yeah, so I’m plugging another blogger. Just found out my children’s author friend and coach Jacqui Robbins (mentioned in a another post last fall) is now blogging in public where we can see it and observe her madness firsthand.

Excellent.

Two things: one, her blog sounds just like she does, which makes me pretty happy, because we don’t cross paths that often, and two, I predict that some of you folks (Ephelba, Minnie … Jinglebob, even) will really enjoy it. Read the May 13th entry first. I’m still laughing.

So take a minute to visit Jacqui’s Room, right next door to Hubba’s House in the menu at the right. And go ahead and comment. It’s great fun. Really!