Today is the 120th birthday of T.S. Eliot, poet of twentieth century angst and twentieth century faith. I liked this poem because I remember one time long ago laughing hysterically and concentrating on one thing to calm myself.
HYSTERIA
by: T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)
As she laughed I was aware of becoming involved
in her laughter and being part of it, until her
teeth were only accidental stars with a talent
for squad-drill. I was drawn in by short gasps,
inhaled at each momentary recovery, lost finally
in the dark caverns of her throat, bruised by
the ripple of unseen muscles. An elderly waiter
with trembling hands was hurriedly spreading
a pink and white checked cloth over the rusty
green iron table, saying: “If the lady and
gentleman wish to take their tea in the garden,
if the lady and gentleman wish to take their
tea in the garden …” I decided that if the
shaking of her breasts could be stopped, some of
the fragments of the afternoon might be collected,
and I concentrated my attention with careful
subtlety to this end.
“Hysteria” was originally printed in Catholic Anthology, November 1915.
Mr. Eliot might have enjoyed this picture by Niccolo Frangipane since it combines the laughter of the poem with a cat. Eliot was rather fond of cats.
Ezra Pound on T.S. Eliot: “Mr Eliot is at times an excellent poet and has arrived at the supreme Eminence among English critics largely through disguising himself as a corpse.”
Corpse or hysterical? I suppose it all depended on what mood he was experiencing at the time.
I got an email about this idea, and I think it’s a good one:
“The 10 Day Give is a challenge that is designed to help us get our minds off of ourselves and start thinking about how we can help others.
The thing is, I think most people really want to make other people’s lives better, but with everything going on all around us all hours of the day, we just don’t get a chance. This is an opportunity to choose, on purpose, to give of ourselves. There really are hundreds of opportunities that we overlook each day. My goal is to just grab hold of one of them each day.
For some people that means giving money, for others time is far more precious than money, and for others it may mean their expertise in an area. But, no matter who you are, we all have something to give.
It could be taking someone out to lunch, it could be babysitting for an overworked mom, it can as simple as giving your precious time by taking your mom to the park to talk. There are no rules, no judges, and no right or wrong ways of completing the challenge.
But, I encourage you to sign up for the challenge and decide to give whatever you can – it’s only for 10 days. And who knows, maybe it will become a habit.”
So I signed up, and I encourage you to do the same. I’m going to further make the commitment to try to give anonymously, and then tell you guys about my giving here on the blog. I know that seems contradictory. However, I doubt that the people to whom I’ll be giving read this blog, so I can tell you all as an encouragement to creative giving and still be anonymous to those who need something.
1) This economic crisis and all the bad loans and everything is Bush’s fault —and somehow, by extension, it’s McCain’s fault.
2) Congress bears absolutely no responsibility for the crisis, and we’re not going to anything to resolve it. (That’s almost a direct quote.) Except McCain. Even though he’s a member of Congress, the same Congress that is not responsible for this problem, it’s his fault, and he should have done something to stop it.
3) I don’t know what to do. I didn’t know this crisis was coming. And it’s certainly not my fault. Nobody told me what was going on. I am ignorant and totally not responsible.
4) We Democrats will sit back and watch the country go to h— in a handbasket before we will work with the present administration or with Republicans in Congress to do anything. We might vote for something if you tell us what to do and then give us the credit if it works.
And now McCain is suspending his campaign to go to Washington to try to work with these people who have no interest in working out anything. I think it’s the right thing for him to do, but if The Anchoress is right, it’s also a bad move politically.
I don’t know if the decision is good politics or even if McCain can do anything with such obstructionists as Ms. Pelosi. But I admire him more than I ever did. I think he’s doing what he thinks is right for the country. And Obama says, “Call if you need me.”
I just listened to President Bush’s address to the nation, and here’s my interpretation of that:
1) I know you don’t want to give a lot of money to banks and rich Wall Street tycoons, and neither do I. But people who know stuff about banks and the economy told me that we have to do it.
2) So I’m reading this stuff about how all this economic crisis stuff happened, and I don’t understand it either. But I’m reading it anyway.
3) If we don’t pump seven hundred mumble, mumble dollars into the economy, then very bad things are going to happen. You might not be able to borrow money, even if you have a good credit rating, and your employer might not be able to borrow money, and you might lose your job.
4) So we, the people, in the form of your elected government, are going to buy all these bad loans that people aren’t paying because they don’t have enough money, and we’re going to hold them until the people do have enough money. Then, we’ll all get our money back, and everyone will live happily ever after.
I read two books this month about U.S. attempts to establish democracy in a conquered/freed nation. A Bell for Adano by John Hersey won the Pulitzer Prize in 1945. It’s about Major Victor Joppolo, an Italian American officer in the U.S. army who was “more or less the American mayor after our invasion” of Adano a small village in Sicily. Sunrise Over Fallujah is a contemporary young adult novel by Walter Dean Myers about young American soldier, Robin Perry, and his tour of duty in Iraq as a member of a Civil Affairs unit, a sort of put-out-the-fires public relations unit that’s called on to smooth relations with the Iraqi people in special, sometimes ticklish, situations.
The two books, although dealing with similar situations, had completely different atmospheres and a completely different take on war and its aftermath. Operation Iraqi Freedom versus Allied Miitary Government Occupied Territory (AMGOT). In one war, the Americans and their allies are invading an enemy’s country to conquer the fascists and establish democracy, no doubts that democracy is best or that it will work, just confidence and determination to finish a tough job no matter what the obstacles. Maor Joppolo must deal with army bureaucracy and with Italian obfuscation, but he is, as the author tells us from the beginning, “good.” In fact, again according to Mr. Hersey, “there were probably not any really bad men in Amgot, but there were some stupid ones.” Hersey’s American soldiers are more or less well-meaning, sometimes drunk, sometimes selfish, but bumbling toward a trustful relationship with the Italian people who are under their temporary rule in spite of mistakes and because of their essential good nature.
In the other war, the soldiers are confused about their mission, circumscribed and limited in their ability to do anything meaningful, worried about seeming too “gung-ho” and worried about not doing enough, afraid for their lives as they see roadside bombs kill comrades, and finally deceived and betrayed by their own commanders into participating in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse. The Iraqis themselves are very minor characters in Sunrise Over Fallujah; one Iraqi who works for the soldiers at their base is asked what he thinks about the Americans being in his country, but his answer is ambiguous and noncommittal as befits some one who is being paid to work for the U.S. military.
All the Italians, even the “enemy” fascists, in Hersey’s book are somewhat comical and clownish; there’s not much to fear from the former mayor of Adano who can’t even decide if he wants to escape and run to the Germans or stay and be “reconstructed.” And Hersey’s good guys and bad guys are easily distinguished. Myers’ Iraqis are much more shadowy figures, and Robin can’t decide who the enemy is half the time. The issue of trust and whom you can trust in such a foreign land is a continuing problem in in Sunrise. Finally, the soldiers in Iraq in Sunrise Over Fallujah find that they can only trust their buddies, and sometimes not even everyone in their own unit.
In both books a child dies, by accident, at the hands of the Americans. But in A Bell for Adano the accidental death of an Italian child run over by an American military truck results in a new policy for ensuring the safety of the children who run beside the trucks to beg for candy from the AMerican GI’s. Major Joppolo says that the accident is a result of the Americans’ generosity:
“Sometimes generosity is a fault with Americans, sometimes it does harm. It has brought high prices here, and it has brought you misery. But it is the best thing we Americans can bring with us to Europe. So please do not hate the Americans.”
Throughout the book, Major Joppolo is sure that, in spite of mistakes and tragedies, the Americans are in Italy to do good, to defeat the bad guys and lead the Italian civilians to a better life. And the Italians, for the most part, go along with the major’s view of things. They see the AMericans as liberators, and even when mistakes are made, the Italian protest is muted and more mournful than angry.
In Sunrise Over Fallujah, children die as a result of “collateral damage” from an American bombing run, and the protagonist, Robin Perry, also holds a dying Iraqi child in his arms. (I don’t remember the exact circumstances, and I’ve already returned the book to the library.) No one talks about the good intentions of the Americans or tries to explain the tragedies as misplaced American generosity. No one is ever sure that what the Americans are doing or trying to do in Iraq is good or right or better for the Iraqi people.
I tend to believe that war and reconstruction are always much more Fallujah-like (confusing and dangerous) than Adano-like (good-natured and bumbling), but maybe the difference is one of attitude and a crisis of confidence. Was the American military governance of Sicily really more of a farce than a tragedy because the Americans of that generation believed in what they were doing and so made others believe in it, too, even their erstwhile enemies? Can we do the same thing, win hearts and minds, establish democracy, in Fallujah and in Iraq, or are the people of Iraq too foreign, too Muslim, too different, and too dangerous? I’m not there, and I don’t know, but reading these two books in conjunction with one another has made me think. We do live in different world now than my grandparents lived in after WW II, but we are engaged in much the same task as Major Joppolo was in A Bell for Adano. Surely, if we could win Italian hearts and minds in 1945, we can win Iraqi hearts and mind in 2008. It’s just going to take a bunch of Major Joppolos and a great deal of wisdom and restraint on the part of some very young soldiers like Robin Perry.
While reading Mr. Clements’ middle grade fiction title about a school in New Hampshire that has a program called “A Week in the Woods” where all the fifth graders in the school spend a week camping and studying in the wild, I found myself thinking, “Wow! Wouldn’t it be great if homeschoolers could participate in a program like this one! Karate Kid could learn so much from a week in the woods. Yeah, that’s one of the drawbacks to homeschooling. The kids don’t get to take advantage of neat programs like this one.”
Then, I realized how utterly stupid my thoughts were. My kids have been camping numerous times, with Engineer Husband. (I’m not a camping type person.) They studied wildlife and botany with Dad out in the wild of a state park. Because my urchins are homeschooled, Karate Kid takes canoeing on Tuesday mornings. He collected plant specimens all year last year and pressed them into a notebook. He can identify most of the plants along the bayou in Dickinson. (I can’t.) And, as far as I know the school district I live in doesn’t even have a week-in-the-woods program, anyway.
There are no perfect homeschool families. There are no perfect home school mothers. There isn’t a perfect method or curriculum. But there is a perfect God, who takes all this imperfection and somehow turns it into something good. To God be the glory.
I would add that there is no perfect and wonderful public school program that all of us homeschoolers are missing out on. There are just people trying to teach children and finding it rewarding sometimes and difficult sometimes and probably worth all the work and worry in the end. Probably. By God’s grace. No matter where you go to school.
Oh, and by the way, A Week in the Woods is a good story of one boy who went to a public school and met a fine but flawed science teacher and learned a lot. I think you’d enjoy it whether you go to public school, private school, or home school.
This post is not about books or reading, but it’s certainly about how I spent my Sunday. We went to church this morning and began to hear the stories of how members of our church and others from all over the country have been working already to help people in Galveston, Houston, and surrounding areas, all the way to Louisiana, recover from Hurricane Ike. Our denomination, Evangelical Free Church of America had crisis response teams in southeast Houston by Monday after the hurricane had passed on Saturday. They and members of our church, Trinity Fellowship in Friendswood, have been working all week, cutting down trees, clearing debris, gutting water-logged houses, and acting out the love of Christ.
If you would like to read more about their efforts or discover ways in which you can help no matter where you are, Mark Lewis, Director of EFCA TouchGlobal Crisis Response, is blogging daily at EFCA Crisis Response. If you live in the storm affected areas and you would like to communicate needs directly to Mark Lewis, email him at crisisresponseATefcaDOTorg. To donate money or needed materials and tools, email efcahurricanereliefATefcaDOTorg. You can also email my pastor at mailATtrinityfellowship if you have needs or donations.
Please, there are many, many needs here and especially further south and on Galveston Island, and the need won’t go away anytime soon. The national media will soon have gone on to other more interesting stories, but the people, especially the poor and the elderly, will still be with us and in need of your help and prayers. Consider contributing money, time or material goods as you are able. I have seen the fruits of the labors of the EFCA crisis response teams, and they will put your contributions to good use. Also, you don’t have to be affiliated with an EFCA church to volunteer or to contribute. They are organizing and coordinating volunteer teams from many groups and from all over the country.
(Because we have been dealing with the illness and death of a family member in addition to our own minor hurricane clean-up, we haven’t been directly involved in the crisis response this week. However, I see the need everywhere, and I’m sure that God is calling us to help and probably calling on you, if you are a Christian, to do whatever you can to minister to those in need here in Houston/Galveston/Southern Lousiana.)
Nominations open on October 1 for the Cybil Awards, children’s and young adult literature awards given by blogger readers. And I get the privilege of being on the panel for judging the first round of nominees for Middle Grade Fiction. I can hardly wait to see which books are nominated and to start reading.
The other panelist judges for Middle Grade Fiction are:
Panelists (Round I judges)
Sarah Mulhern at The Reading Zone. Sarah’s a teacher, and I get the idea here that she has a passion for helping her students connect with books. I think we’ll connect, too.
Alysa Stewart at Everead. Alysa’s a new mom, and she has the cutest little boy. She blogs with Laura at Everead.
Mary R. Voors at ACPL Mock Newbery. Mary’s blog is brought to you by the Children’s Services department of the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Mary’s a librarian, and it looks as if the rest of us will be trying to play catch-up since she’s already been reading all the possible Newbery books for 2009(published in 2008). I can hardly wait to start the race.
Sherry Early at Semicolon. Kim Baccellia. Kim is a mom and a writer, author of Earrings of Ixtumea, a Young Adult novel. I haven’t read her book, but I guess it’s time to find a copy and see what my fellow judge brings to the table. From the looks of her blog and her website, she’ll be bringing an author’s sensitivity and point of view, not a bad ingredient for the mix.
Melissa Fox of Book Nut. Melissa says her only qualifications for judging the Cybils are that she’s a mom and a reader. I’d say those jobs entail some fine skills, especially since they happen to be my skills, too. According to her blog, Melissa has four daughters and an avid love of reading. And she likes Tolkien and Jane Austen. I think we’re kindred spirits.
Matthew Wigdahl at The Book Club Shelf. Matt’s blog specializes in evaluating children’s books in terms of suitability for children’s book clubs. It’s a good idea and well-executed. And I think it’ll be good to have a guy on the panel as long as he doesn’t feel too outnumbered. Oh, and Matt’s a teacher. too.
Two teachers. At least four moms. One homeschool teacher. One librarian. One former librarian. One author. One guy. Seven readers.
Lots and lots and lots of books to read and talk about and evaluate and choose. It sounds like a recipe for a fun fall. Oh, and by the way, my kids will be helping me to read and assess the nominees. Maybe the rest of you can get some kid-help, too.
