ISBN ### Liberal Biliogasm

At first you may assume it's a Stuff White People Like laundry list, but it's actually the debut novel of Tom Rachman, The Imperfectionists. 

To wit:

• American expats living in Europe
• Newspapers, like, the kind actually printed on paper
• Lamenting the decline of said paper news sources
• Character-driven vignettes with an indie sensibility
• NPR fawning all over it
• Malcom Gladwell and the author verbally masterbating each other on a litany of luddite topics in a bonus Reader's Guide

Beyond the liberal bibliogasm that is the content, the construction of the novel is genius. It flashes between present day (more or less) Rome and historical vignettes describing the creation of an American-language daily. About three chapters in you start to notice the weaving of characters and stories, backward and forward, backward and forward. It's done so well and so subtly that I enjoyed it almost like a mystery novel. It was exciting to anticipate and figure out the way the past and present would dovetail. 

The writing is evocative and reads like a painting, if you could read a painting. For instance:

He opens the window, breathes in, presses his knees into the guardrail. The grandeur of Paris - it's tallness and broadness and hardness and softness, it's perfect symmetry, human will imposed on stone, on razored lawns, on the disobedient rosebushes - that Paris resides elsewhere. His own is smaller, containing himself, this window, the floorboards that creak across the hall.

The character development is deep, complex, and exceptional. What really sticks with me, looking back on the book as a whole, is how genius Rachman is conveying human nature. Embarrassing, voyeuristic, intuitive, brilliant - his ability to develop multi-dimensional characters is annoying it's so skilled. 

"You're amazingly self-sustainedd," he says. "I'm just afraid you'll get sick of me. Of my socks in particular." "There is that possibility. As long as nobody sees me cooking you dinner every night, I'm fine." At least this life takes place overseas. She can point out that she's learning another language and that Rome is such an artistic city and that living here is itself an aesthetic education. When she does return to photography, this experience will have had a salutary effect. If she were tending house like this back in D.C. - well, she simply wouldn't. But living overseas changes the rules. As long as no one sees her. She discourages visits from friends and family, and flies home twicd a year to avert them. After all those efforts to instill the importance of financial independence and a career. Or if Annika's art-school friends saw her Nikon sitting there, its case gray with dust, as her cookbook collection mounts - the domesticated horror of it!

The humor is wry and dry, adding to the 'if you get it you get it' vibe of the book:

His ear twitches at the incessant ringing downstairs. It's after midnight. "Can they not leave me alone?" From the answering machine comes the drone of this eldest brother, Vaughn, calling from Atlanta. Presumably to ask if Oliver has an Italian girlfriend yet. The family fears he is gay. They don't like gays. Or Communists. What about art historians? Same difference. He's not, though. Not what? An art historian. 

It reads quickly and is a beach book you don't have to be ashamed of. Go for it. 

ISBN 978-0-358-34367-1

Proust was a neuroscientist

People who stumble on my blog invariably ask, "Why madeleines? Is it a cooking blog?" Nope. Not in the least. This little ditty will explain the blog title. That little ditty will also explain why this makes me unspeakably happy.

“Marks the arrival of an important new thinker, who finds in the science and the arts wonder and beauty, and with equal confidence says wise and fresh things about both” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). Science and Arts combined in one beautiful man who addresses my passion for Proust in moving prose? My head's going to explode. I need to finish grad school tomorrow so I'll actually have time to read this masterpiece.

This video is Jonah talking about his first book, but fascinating stuff nonetheless. It gives you a sense of who he is, which...

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Jonah Lehrer
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Protests

...in semi-related news: My crush on Jonah Lehrer is evolving to the point of near constant distraction. I want him to whisper "metacognition" in my ear. Like, a lot of times. Gonna pretend I don't see that wedding ring.

ISBN ### www.care.org

ISBN 0-7679-1506-2

I read "African Diary" on the plane ride home from Philadelphia. It is a mere 53 pages and doesn't take more than an hour or so to finish. A friend recommended I read it and I'm glad I did - not only for its own merit as an interesting text and a donation to CARE International, but also because it reminded me that I want to work my way through the catalogue of Bill Bryson travel tomes. I'm preparing (beginning to prepare? beginning to think about preparing?) to live abroad and find myself gravitating toward texts that inspire/motivate me to that end.

In 2002 Bill Bryson was commissioned by CARE International to travel to Kenya to visit the refugee camps and experience the projects CARE is working on. All profits and royalties from this book are donated directly to CARE International, so your $12.00 will be well spent. CARE is motivated by the fact that "nearly half of humanity struggles to survive on less than $2 a day. More than 30 countries are gripped by armed conflict. AIDS threatens to take as many lives as all the wars of the twentieth century..." and believes "it's not enough to simply alleviate the symptoms of poverty." CARE works systemically to eradicate the very causes of poverty.

Bryson details his time in the Kibera slum in Nairobi, the people he meets in Mombasa, and all the miles and adventures in between. He is not only composing an interesting travel diary, he's attempting to raise awareness of the political, social, racial, economic realities that compound the problem of global poverty. He accomplishes a lot in 53 pages and I would definitely recommend this book to anyone curious about the world we live in.

After sharing his interactions with individual people helped by CARE International, Bryson writes, "...30 million other people just as individual and real. I don't suppose they can all be saintly and deserving, but they do have one thing in common with the rest of us: they are human beings. And, like us, they get only one life apiece."

ISBN ### A Pilot's Poetic Prose

ISBN 0-86547-118-5

It's been a couple months since I finished Beryl Markham's memoir "West With the Night." My lingering impression is that the commonly-articulated summary of the plot is inaccurate, but the writing is so lyrically stunning that this inaccuracy doesn't matter. I was led to believe that I would be reading the 1936 flight logs turned memoir of the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic ocean (east to west). From the text, "A number of pilots have flown the North Atlantic, west to east. Only Jim Mollison had done it alone the other way - from Ireland. Nobody has done it alone from England - man or woman." It was more a series of childhood vignettes.

Beryl was born in England in 1902 and her father took her to East Africa in 1906. She was a woman well ahead of her time and in ultimate control of her own destiny. I kept waiting for the crescendo clarion calling to fiercely independent women the world over......! Well, there are perhaps three chapters in twenty-four that deal with Markham's piloting adventures, the rest are snippets of memory dealing with her life in Africa, vaguely referenced love affairs, her pilot friends and their ruminations on the British Empire, etc..

Ernest Hemingway (one in a long line of lovers - a story not told by Beryl but one I'm very interested in researching) commented, "She has written so well and marvelously well, that I was completely ashamed of myself as a writer. She can write rings around all of us who consider ourselves as writers." Whether you enjoy Hemingway's writing or not, we can all agree that humble he was not. For him to pay such a compliment to another's writing (and that of a woman) is enough said.

I figure the best way to navigate this ISBN### post is to share sound bites that I found moving (the anecdotes themselves are something you can research if her life interests you).

Particularly beautiful to me considering my motivations for beginning this blog: "How is it possible to bring order out of memory? I should like to begin at the beginning, patiently, like a weaver at his loom. I should like to say, 'This is the place to start; there can be no other.' But there are a hundred places to start. [...] After all, I am no weaver. Weavers create. This is remembrance - revisitation; and names are keys that open corridors no longer fresh in the mind, but nonetheless familiar in the heart."

"There was no opiate for nostalgia, or at least no lasting cure."

"There are all kinds of silences and each of them means a different thing. There is the silence that comes with morning in a forest, and this is different from the silence of a sleeping city. There is silence after a rainstorm, and before a rainstorm, and these are not the same. There is the silence of emptiness, the silence of fear, the silence of doubt. There is a certain silence that can emanate from a lifeless object as from a chair lately used, or from a piano with old dust upon its keys, or from anything that has answered to the need of a man, for pleasure or for work. This kind of silence can speak. It's voice may be melancholy, but it is not always so, for the chair may have been left by a laughing child or the last notes of the piano may have been raucous and gay. Whatever the mood or the circumstance, the essence of its quality may linger in the silence that follows. It is a soundless echo."

"I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesterdays are buried deep - leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe than an hour you remember is a better hour because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance. the cloud clears as you enter it. I have learned this, but like everyone, I learned it late." I can still smell the read leather of our journal and I, too, learned it late. I can, however, attest that the cloud does in fact clear as you enter it.

"I saw the alchemy of perspective reduce my world, and all my other life, to grains in a cup. I learned to watch, to put my trust in other hands than mine. And I learned to wander. I learned what every dreaming child needs to know - that no horizon is so far that you cannot get above it or beyond it."

"You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people than you know about yourself. You learn to watch other people, but you never watch yourself because you strive against loneliness. [...] The abhorrence of loneliness is as natural as wanting to live at all. If it were otherwise, men would never have bothered to make an alphabet, nor to have fashioned words out of what were only animals sounds, not to have crossed continents - each man to see what the other looked like. [...] Such an experience can be as startling as the first awareness of a stranger walking by your side at night. You are the stranger."

"It was not like a herd of cattle or of sheep, because it was wild and carried with it the stamp of wilderness and the freedom of a land still more a possession of Nature than of men. To see ten thousand animals untamed and not branded with the symbols of human commerce is like scaling an unconquered mountain for the first time, or like finding a forest without roads or footpaths, or the blemish of an axe. You know then what you had always been told - that the world once lived and grew without adding machines and newsprint and brick-walled streets and the tyranny of clocks."

ISBN ### Love Sex Ambition Intrigue

ISBN 0-7432-2744-1

So I'm sitting in a movie theatre about a month ago, only sort of paying attention to the previews, when suddenly Natalie Portman appears on screen. I'm immediately enthralled. Then Scarlett Johansson appears on screen with Natalie. Now I'm doubly enthralled. Then Eric Bana appears on screen with Natalie and Scarlett and I'm completely out of my mind. If this film dedicates two hours to watching water boil, so long as Eric, Natalie, and Scarlett are there to watch it boil with me, I'll see it. Probably multiple times. Like in the real theatre. Not even waiting until the $1 Cinemark.

I called my mother after the movie, knowing she's an Eric Bana fan, to gush about this salacious preview. She informed me that not only is she way ahead of me, but even my grandmother is way ahead of me. Apparently "The Other Boleyn Girl" is an historical fiction novel by Phillipa Gregory, a novel read by my grandmother a year ago and my mother's book club six months ago. News to me. I wanted to read the book before seeing the movie and so I picked up my own copy...and then read it in one week flat. One week. 661 pages. I actually called in sick and took a day off work to finish the book. I Could Not Put It Down.

The historical framework of Gregory's novel is entirely accurate and the story itself is nothing new. I assume most people are familiar with Henry VIII, Katharine of Aragon, the Boleyn daughters each taking their turn vying for power via the king's bed, English Reformation, all the sex and scandal, Anne's beheading, et.al. What Gregory does, and where the fiction comes in, is weave dialogue and pedestrian details into the story we all know (ie: she researched the nuances of the English Court and you get a very visceral sense of daily life). Well done.

With regard to the film adaptation, Peter Morgan wrote the screenplay and he's best known for The Queen and The Last King of Scotland. Fan-tas-tic! I'm stoked. The film opens Friday, 29 February. Two weeks. More than enough time for you to read this page-turner!

ISBN ### Where is our Lincoln?

ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-7075-5

"He had packed his own trunk, tied it with a rope, and inscribed it simply: 'A. Lincoln, White House, Washington, D.C.' Neither the luxurious presidential car, decorated with dark furniture, crimson curtains, and a rich tapestry carpet, nor the colorful flags and streamers swaying from its paneled exterior could lift the solemn mood of the president-elect. Lincoln understood that his country faced a perilous situation, perhaps the most perilous in its history. That same morning, Jefferson Davis was beginning a journey of his own. To the cheers of thousands [...] he would be inaugurated president of the new Confederacy."

Right around the fourth grade bright-eyed children across this vast nation are introduced to the mythical legend of The Great Emancipator. Many people feel, to this very day, that Abraham Lincoln is the greatest president our country has ever had. After finishing the 800 page biography "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin I agree with that contention. However, I agree only by adding one specific caveat. I agree for reasons we are not taught in social studies hour sandwiched between field trip permission slips and four square tournaments at recess.

I would never discount the monumental significance of the Emancipation Proclamation. What I will discount is the common notion that Lincoln was a hardcore abolitionist who fought tooth and nail to abolish slavery against all odds (see also: the fourth grade history lesson in which we made top hats out of old newspapers). With about 400 pages of the book dedicated to the complex, intricate, historically detailed discussion of the ins and outs of the slavery debate as it stood in 1860 (give and take 5+ years on either end), I can safely say that I both understand and respect the many shades of gray. Lincoln's stand was to contain slavery where it existed at the time of his election and forbid it from expanding to the western territories. He did not seek, at the time, to un-do the slavery that already existed in the south. He was a brilliant compromiser, but not an avid abolitionist. Saving the union was, to him, a more important calling than abolishing slavery. For that matter, he had the Emancipation Proclamation composed and tucked in his pocket, as it were, waiting for just the right moment to announce his plans to his delicate nation. With that mind, I feel Lincoln is a political genius not simply because he is the Great Emancipator, but rather because of the way in which he held the country together and re-created the United States.

Kearns Goodwin's book is called "Team of Rivals" to reference the way Lincoln formed his presidential cabinet. His primary contenders for the Republican nomination in the 1860 election - William Seward, Salmon Chase, Edward Bates - were all given highly influential positions within the administration, meeting with Lincoln daily, advising him at every turn, and adding much drama to the already dramatic political scene of a country at war with itself. What interested me most and endeared Lincoln to me was his leadership style. Anyone and everyone who met with him left the interaction feeling as though they were heard, their opinion was validated, and they were the most important person in the room. That takes incredible skill to maneuver friends and enemies in that way. To convince others to support your opinion and they leave the conversation feeling as though it was their idea all along. I say "maneuver" and not "manipulate" because it's not a negative and vindictive process, it's a brilliant and astoundingly difficult process. Lincoln was, above all else, a pitch perfect interpersonal communicator.

It's obviously not only Lincoln's interpersonal, either one-on-one or small cabinet meeting, conversations that saved the nation. Anyone who has read his speeches can attest to the power of his public words. Another stand-out lesson I gleaned from this massive tome is Lincoln's ability to speak to the people, the dirty, average, uneducated, mass of citizens that was (is) the heart of America. Coming from a poor prairie existence himself, he never lost sight of that. He was a powerful storyteller, able to comprehend intricately difficult concepts, synthesize them, flip them around and speak in accessible, memorable language. Maybe it's an American phenomenon, maybe it's just the political junkie in me, but I can literally feel his words rush through my body as though they are hiding in my veins themselves:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. [...] The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Can you feel that? "...a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." It was unflappable dedication to this cause that motivated Lincoln. It is his belief in this cause that makes him, to me, the greatest leader we've known. A leader who was willing to prioritize impossibly difficult priorities. Speaking to a newspaper reporter at the height of the Civil War he said, "I fear you do not fully comprehend the danger of abridging the liberties of the people. Nothing but the very sternest necessity can ever justify it. A government had better go to the very extreme of toleration, than to do aught that could be construed into an interference with, or to jeopardize in any degree, the common rights of its citizens." (Take your cue, Patriot Act). Lincoln is not a racist, he was dedicated to a free America and understood the necessity of putting the preservation of the Union first. It is that far-sighted leadership that makes a humble, uneducated man from rural Illinois...Abraham Lincoln.

ISBN ### What is your water saying?

ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-8980-1

I recently posted about my friend's gift of Masaru Emoto's "The Hidden Messages in Water" and now I can post to say I've finished the book. I enjoyed it and I'm glad I finally read it. In many ways, I sort of alluded to this in my previous post, it was more to me than just reading an interesting non-fiction text. I made my own memories and created my own meaning for these crystals, instead of only remembering our memories and our meaning. Very cathartic and also very appropriate for an approaching new year.

For those not familiar with Emoto's work, his basic premise is that all energy is vibration. "The entire universe is in a state of vibration, and each thing generates its own frequency, which is unique." He goes on to say that water visibly responds to words, music, and other vibrations by forming crystals. Positive words, music, images, vibrations, etc. form whole, clear crystals; while negative words, music, images, vibrations, etc. form incomplete, murky blobs. Emoto has photographed these crystals, or non-crystals in some cases, and he includes pages and pages of photos in this book (and more in two previous books he self-published years ago).

Human beings are about 70% water and from there it is his proposition that we are impacted by words, images, vibrations, etc. just as the crystals. Furthermore, we in turn impact the entire planet (also mostly water) by our own words, music, vibes, and so forth. It's a beautiful concept and one by which I already live my life...but not with an understanding of the chemistry of crystals. It was interesting to read about his experiments and to see photographs of the perfectly-formed crystal that heard "Thank you" and the completely deformed blob that heard "You fool." One of my favorite moments was seeing the crystal that heard "Let's do it" compared to the one that heard, "Do it." I loved that.

He says that we start out as fetuses made of 99% water. Perhaps that is why babies en utero respond to Mozart piped through headphones on the mom's belly? Interesting thought. Another interesting point is his answer to the question of how to live a happy healthy life. He says, "purify the water that makes up 70% of your body. Water in a river remains pure because it is moving. When water becomes trapped, it dies. Therefore, water must be constantly circulated. [...] So when your emotions flow throughout your body, you feel a sense of joy and you move towards physical health." Nothing new to those who study chakrasana yoga or even some meditations, but I like how simply he phrased it. My interpretation of circulating emotions is giving and creating. In other words, getting the energy/movement/circulation outside your own body. "The opposite of war isn't peace, it's creation!" (Jonathan Larson, anyone?)

Emoto's message that it's up to us to pro-actively make a positive impact really resonated with me (no pun intended). He writes, "Pollution originated in our own consciousness [think the collective unconsciousness taught by Jung]. We started to think that we wanted a bountiful and convenient lifestyle at any cost, and this selfishness led to the pollution of the environment that now affects every corner of the globe."

ISBN ### Forgiveness is all I have to offer

ISBN 1-4019-0896-9

About a year ago I was watching a Wayne Dyer special on PBS. He was promoting his new book slash speaking tour, "Inspiration: Your Ultimate Calling." At one point he told everyone that he wanted to introduce someone who inspires him. A strikingly beautiful African woman walks on stage, confident but quiet, stands front and center and proclaims: "My name is Immaculee Ilibagiza. This is the story of how I discovered God during one of history's bloodiest holocausts."

Immaculee is a rare Tutsi survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. One half of one percent of Tutsi women survived. The Rwandan government estimates that more than one million people were killed in approximately 100 days. The historical and political story of the genocide are well published, but in superficial summary: Hutus staged a government coop and country-wide ethnic cleansing campaign, slaughtering their Tutsi friends and neighbors, men, women, and children. Immaculee survived 91 days hiding in a Hutu Pastor's home with seven other Tutsi women in a closet-sized bathroom. She shares her story in "Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust." In her own words, the story of "Left to Tell" is her realization that "being spared is much different from being saved...and this lesson forever changed me. It is a lesson that, in the midst of mass murder, taught me how to love those who hated and hunted me - and how to forgive those who slaughtered my family."

"Left to Tell" creates an incredible arc, leading the reader from Immaculee's memories of her childhood, her family, and their village here Hutus and Tutsis lived in peace, to her formative days at university, to the genocide, and finally her life 13 years after the genocide. The book does not shy away from the difficult, bloody details of those three months in 1994. I respect that it doesn't gloss over these events or even give readers a break from the intensity. I couldn't put the book down, finishing it in about three days. As painful as it is to read, there is a power in the book that compels you to not only reach the end, but reach the end quickly. Even though the general history of the event is well known, something in the book calls you to discover what happens to Immaculee, her country, her friends, her family.

The women hiding in the bathroom could not speak and could only move to re-situate themselves once each day for fear of being discovered. Hutu soldiers searched the Pastor's house a number of times and, based on rumors circulating through the town, called Immaculee by name as they hunted specifically for her. The picture on the left shows Immaculee ten years later in that same bathroom, clearly amazed that seven women survived three months in that tiny space. As described in "Left to Tell," throughout the 91 days she spent in the bathroom Immaculee prayed 10+ hours a day, worked her way through her rosary again and again, read the Bible over and over, and trudged through an intimate argument with God...all trying to make sense of what was happening. Reading about her experience in that bathroom is life changing, but it is the closing chapter of the book that shook me to my core.

Within weeks of the end of the genocide Immaculee was living in the capitol city of Kigali and working for the United Nations. She had begun to look toward the future and imagine a new life. She realized, however, that try as she might she could not yet move on. To this end she visited her friend Semana, a politician in charge of arresting and detaining the Hutu killers, and arranged to meet Felicien, the person who killed her family.

"Semana pushed Felicien into the office, and he stumbled onto his knees. when he looked up from the floor and saw that I was the one who was waiting for him, the color drained from his face. He quickly shifted his gaze and stared at the floor. 'Stand up, killer!' Semana shouted. 'Stand up and explain to this girl why her family is dead. Explain to her why you murdered her mother and butchered her brother. Get up, I said! Get up and tell her!' Semana screamed even louder, but the battered man remained hunched and kneeling, too embarrassed to stand and face me. His dirty clothing hung from his emaciated frame in tatters. His skin was sallow, bruised, and broken; and his eyes were filmed and crusted. His once handsome face was hidden beneath a filthy, matted beard; and his bare feet were covered in open, running sores."

Can you imagine what you might say to this person? What emotions would you have surging through your mind and body at meeting this man? Immaculee writes, "I wept at the sight of his suffering. I was overwhelmed with pity for the man. [Semana] grabbed Felicien by the shirt collar and hauled him to his feet. 'What do you have to say to her? What do you have to say to Immaculee?' Felicien was sobbing. I could feel his shame. He looked up at me for only a moment, but our eyes met. I reached out, touched his hands lightly, and quietly said what I'd come to say. 'I forgive you.'"

Naturally, Semana was stunned. He returned Felicien to his cell and then approached Immaculee, "How could you do that?" She replied, "Forgiveness is all I have to offer."

ISBN ### My Legs Are Praying

ISBN 978-0-8070-7726-9

Eboo Patel has a long history of volunteering with the Catholic Worker movement. He writes that his experiences with the Catholic Worker communes scattered across the country significantly shaped his world view and desire to start the Interfaith Youth Council. On the other hand, he also offers this criticism in Acts of Faith: "Why was so much done in remedying social evils instead of avoiding them in the first place? Where were the saints to try to change the social order, not just to minister to the slaves but to do away with slavery?" I constantly teach this model of social change to the students I work with: "It's great that you're serving sandwiches at the soup kitchen. We need that, but you should also be asking why we have shelters in the first place. What will you do about the answer to that question?"

As I read Eboo's thoughts I was reminded of one of my favorite allegories, a popular yarn spun throughout the activist community. To paraphrase: A community living near the river notices a body floating down the stream. They are concerned and jump in the river to save this man. They get him out of the stream and rush him to the hospital. A couple days pass and another body floats by the community. Again, they are concerned and retrieve the body from the water and rush her to the hospital. The very next day, two bodies float past and they also take them to the hospital. Everyone then gathers for a community meeting. It is decided that they need to build a hospital closer to the river to meet the need of the growing number of bodies floating down the stream. In the following days the number of bodies floating past their community grows and grows and the hospital is very busy trying to take care of these people. A few weeks pass and a village elder returns to the community from a long journey. She asks about the new hospital and the mysterious bodies. After the community relays the story of the past few weeks, the village elder pauses before calmly replying, "Why has no one gone up the stream to see where the bodies are coming from?"

That specific philosophy of systemic social justice, in combination with my faith, motivates me to action. My political/social actions are ironically many times marginalized by my faith community. I'll admit that one reason I enjoyed reading Acts of Faith was because it validates my actions and reinvigorates my commitment. Patel writes, "The tradition you were born into is your home, but as Gandhi once wrote, it should be a home with the window open so that the winds of other traditions can blow through and bring their unique oxygen." Through my open windows blows Dorothy Day, well-known for her role in the Catholic Worker movement. She wrote in her diary: "I pray that God will give me a chance to pray to Him the way I like to pray to him. If I pray by making soup and serving soup, I feel I'm praying by doing." And Abraham Joshua Herschel, a Rabbi who worked closely with Martin Luther King, Jr. on the cause of equality and civil rights, said while marching with King in Selma, "I felt like my legs were praying."

I pray by doing. My legs are praying. This is, to me, the heart of religion. It is by no means exclusive to religion or religious people (far from it actually), but in speaking of my own personal faith, this concept of belief-put-into-action is key. The key. Jesus As Radical Hippie Restoring Justice To The Social Order is neither a new concept nor an unfamiliar archetype. (Godspell, anyone? We have the Baby Boomers to thank for that musical interpretation of the life and times).

Jesus' brother James writes, "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction..." (James 1:27, KJV). He continues, "What doth it profit though a man say he have faith and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, 'Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled...' notwithstanding ye gave them not those things which are needful to the body: What doth it profit? Even so faith, if it have not works, is dead, being alone..." (James 2:14-17, KJV). In other words, you can talk a powerful talk but if you don't back it up with a powerful walk...what does it profit? What does it matter? Nothing.

Patel writes, "What is a community but a group of people who have some claim over you, and what is a tradition but a set of stories and principles and rules handed down over hundreds or thousands of years that each new generation has to wrestle with." A tradition that I have to wrestle with? The fact that modern LDS culture (culture = individual members) seemingly ignores our doctrinal call to a political brand of social justice. There is little doubt that humanitarian service plays a huge role in the organization of the LDS church, but I often wonder if members assume "All is well in Zion" and simply retrieve bodies from the river as they float by.

ISBN ### Doctrine vs. Culture

ISBN 978-0-8070-7726-9

Eboo Patel's first love, a high school relationship described early in the book, was with an LDS girl named Lisa. He writes, "I still don't know how Mormon theology regards true believers of other faiths. That moment with Lisa taught me a lasting lesson about the sociology of religion: the heart of even the most ardent religious believer will provide more accurate clues to his or her behavior than the theology of his or her faith." Doctrine versus culture. Or in his words, theology versus behavior. I could write for days and days on this topic and my friends are probably sick of me harping on it; but it took years of angst and screaming into the wind for me to boil down the disconnect I observe to: doctrine versus culture.

For only a few examples of this dichotomy: LDS doctrine teaches, "All things which come of the earth are to be used with judgment..." (Doctrine & Covenants 58) and yet how many tree-hugging environmentalists do you find in the mainstream church? LDS doctrine teaches that members of the faith are to "Sue for peace, not only to the people that have smitten you, but to all people. Lift up an ensign of peace, and make a proclamation of peace unto the ends of the earth..." (Doctrine & Covenants 105) and yet the approval rating for President Bush and the Iraq war are astronomically high in Utah, the DOJ torture memos were written by LDS men, Romney (God help us) wants to double the capacity of Guantanamo, etc.

On one hand is found the theology of the faith and on the other hand is found is the heart of each believer. It is the heart which dictates action more so than the theology. Gordon B. Hinckley can stand at the pulpit and preach love and equality among all people of the earth, telling LDS people to be "kinder and better" until he's blue in the face, but unless each individual heart of each individual member of the faith turns that council into action...it makes no difference.

I am not about to claim that I live in perfect harmony with all doctrine of the LDS faith. I don't. I am claiming that many people exist in a cultural universe unrecognizable to the doctrine. Many times I wonder if we read from the same copy of the Book of Mormon. I can be cheeky or even snarky about this hypocritical disconnect but the truth is that at the end of the day it makes me really sad.

ISBN ### Inner Coherence

ISBN 978-0-8070-7726-9

My last ISBN ### post was eons ago in late August. I have been reading in the meantime but with all my travel and stress at work it's been primarily magazines on the run, friend's blogs in hotel rooms at night, and Sky Mall on the planes. Not exactly the Cannon, but between a National Geographic cover story on Pakistan, a self-guided meditation exercise in Spirituality & Health, "Women in Charge" from The Wilson Quarterly, and Cosmopolitan's 101 ways to skillfully [fill in the blank], I've been adequately entertained.

I will say however that I attended Eboo Patel's lecture and purchased Acts of Faith just in time. I read it over my weekend in Iowa and it saved me from yet another scan through Sky Mall and the temptation to order high-performance running sandals, Scandyna Micropod curvaceous speakers on sputnik spikes, or the full-height telescoping worktable that fits in my laptop case.

Acts of Faith is exactly what I needed to read right now. There is a lot going on in my non-work life lately that has yet to take shape, but is beginning to percolate. I know that talking back to this book will help me formulate the amorphous energy that's is as yet just hovering around me.

Patel's major thesis is a call to religious pluralism. He defines it in this way: "Pluralism is not a default position, an autopilot mode. Pluralism is an intentional commitment that is imprinted through action. It requires deliberate engagement with difference, outspoken loyalty to others, and proactive protection in the breach." I completely agree with his emphasis on action and have much to say about his qualifying statement: "There is a strong connection between finding a sense of inner coherence and developing a commitment to pluralism."

My observation is that people feel threatened by the idea of pluralism. More generally, people feel threatened by what is not circumscribed by their interpretation of their faith. This observation is true of people in many faiths, but I'll speak only about my most direct experience, people of the LDS faith. Somehow people feel that exposure to other perspectives, different versions of truth, new experiences, will detract from their faith and weaken their commitment. This fear is particularly prevalent in Utah's cloistered LDS community, but can apply, in some degree, to many organized religions the world over. Patel's phrase, "sense of inner coherence," resonated deeply with me and stands in sharp contrast to the fear of pluralism that I observe all around me. I can notice this pattern and understand it from an intellectual perspective - even from an historical perspective with the Mormon pioneers fleeing persecution and hunkering down in the mountains of Mexico in relative isolation - but yet I cannot relate in the least.

I struggle with the argument, for instance, that children should be entirely sheltered from "the world" (that *anyone* should be entirely sheltered from the world). In my opinion that does not at all respect one's faith. Rather, to me, that is the ultimate insult to one's faith. If you are a person of faith raising your child with certain values (not that religious people have an exclusive claim to raising children with values!) and you fear that at first exposure to *the other* your child is going to toss those values out the window...what are you saying about your faith and the values you taught your child? (Furthermore...the inherent right of each person to choose their own path trumps this entire discussion.)

If you are comfortable with yourself and confident in your faith, exposure to [whatever] is not something to be feared. Pluralism, seeing the value and truth in many faiths and in many ways of life (even actively seeking to know of that value), is not to be feared. Dr. Patel gave to me the exact words I've been searching for: "a sense of inner coherence" is essential for "developing a commitment to pluralism." Knowing who you are, loving who you are, and respecting who you are is absolutely required before you can comprehend, honor, and defend your beliefs. However, once on solid ground, you must be prepared to comprehend, honor, and defend the right of each and every person to believe or not believe as they will. This commitment has always been at the very core my faith, my identity as an American, my political agenda, and my interaction with the world...and all I can say to Eboo is "Amen."

ISBN ### Wage Peace

ISBN 0-15-603156-6 &
ISBN 978-0-14-303825-2

This post is a double feature. I've just finished two incredible books and I couldn't help but compare them to each other. I've discovered lately an endless fascination with the Middle East, its people, cultures and customs, and complex religions and politics. I'm intentionally seeking an alternative viewpoint to the stories we're being told. I wish every book group in every living room in America would read these books in tandem.

My recent reads are "The Places in Between" by Rory Stewart and "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin. Both are non-fiction and both take place in the Middle East. Stewart's in Afghanistan and Mortenson's primarily in Pakistan, but a bit in Afghanistan as well.

Rory Stewart is a Scottish writer/journalist who walked across central Afghanistan, from Herat to Kabul, in early 2002. His walk began in January 2002 just after the fall of the Taliban. "The Places in Between" chronicles Rory's journey like a travel diary and along the way shows both a beautiful, intimate face of Islam and Afghan people who will never make our sensation-addicted news.

Greg Mortenson was a mountain climber making impressive progress up the slope of K2 when he was forced to stop his climb (long story) and make is way back to civilization. In a profound metaphor that is traced throughout the book, Greg wandered off the intended path without realizing it. He eventually ended up in the village of Korphe in the Braldu Valley of the Karakoram mountain range. "Three Cups of Tea" tells the story of one school house being built in Korphe, 55+ subsequent schools being built throughout the remote villages of northeastern Pakistan, and all the adventures in between.

A superficial reading of the two texts could make the distinction that while "The Places in Between" is educational and an interesting travelogue, "Three Cups of Tea" will change the world as we know it. Admittedly, I felt that way about half way through "Three Cups of Tea," which I read after "The Places in Between."

However, having finished both books and allowed them to simmer a bit, I now realize that Stewart's book is deceptively simple and in fact, deeply profound. He does not write didactically and therein lies the subtlety. For example, he shares his experience of being sheltered in each successive village as he also shares the custom of Islam that requires the faithful to offer shelter to any and all travelers. He says no more and lets you think what you will about that fact. This purely journalistic style threads throughout the book, allowing the power of its lessons to remain between the lines, to remain there for you to discover on your own.

One of the gems of this book is that Stewart tells his story in an evenly measured tone and pace, much as his walking is evenly measured and paced. The tone of the book is the tone of a long walk personified and while purely prose, it becomes very fluid and poetic. The plot gracefully moves along as his feet move along through the desert, mountains, and villages of remote central Afghanistan. My reading took on the feeling of meditative walking, I was lulled into the story, and finished the book within just a few days.

Stewart's book also gave me what I was seeking in terms of cultural literacy. I realized at the time I was reading "The Places in Between" how much I was learning, but not until I read "Three Cups of Tea" and realized I could slide through Arabic words, remarks on village culture, and basic tenets of the various sects of Islam did I realize just. how. much. I had learned. Stewart's book is a quiet teacher.

Don't misunderstand, however, and assume that I'm creating a monolith of village culture, or the basic tenets and sects of Islam, or claiming that after these two texts I'm some kind of expert. It is true, however, that after reading these books I'm not only able to acknowledge that vast intricacies exist in the Middle East, but my knowledge of the history, impact, and function of those vast intricacies has increased ten fold. I could not have chosen a more perfect pair of books.

I mentioned that "Three Cups of Tea" leaves you with the overwhelming sense that this book could change the world. I honestly believe that if people would read it (and similar texts) and take to heart its message, we would have a far more peaceful existence on this fragile planet. It's a story of unnerving power and the potential that a single person has to make a huge impact. One brick at a time, one conversation and negotiation at a time, one village at at time, Mortenson has built schools to educate Pakistan's children and counter the rise of militant madrassas. With the endorsement of village mullahs and elders, the schools openly welcome and encourage girls to receive the same education as their male counterparts.

He makes a brilliant point and one understood by many community organizers and activists: "Once you educate the boys, they tend to leave the villages and search for work in the cities. But the girls stay home, become leaders in the community, and pass on what they've learned. If you really want to change a culture, to empower women, improve basic hygiene and health care, and fight high rates of infant mortality, the answer is to educate girls."

There are many profound moments in this book, but I'll share one of my absolute favorites. Mortenson was on one of his many trips to Korphe and in an official meeting of the village elders when a teenage girl named Jahan walked boldly into the room, into the cirle of 30+ men, and sat directly in front of Greg Mortenson. She spoke in Balti and told Mortenson that when he instructed all the school children, years ago, to plan for a bright future and live their dreams, that she had done just that. She said, "I'm ready to begin my medical training and I need twenty thousand rupees." She handed him a petition, written in English, outlining her course schedule, the books and supplies she would need to buy, and where she would live in while attending university in Skardu. Jahan was a graduate of Korphe school's first class and she had clearly learned her greatest lesson.

Kevin Fedarko, a journalist traveling with Mortenson at the time, said, "It was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen in my life. Here comes this teenage girl, in the center of a conservative Islamic village, waltzing into a circle of men, breaking through about sixteen layers of traditions at once: She had graduated from school and was the first educated woman in the valley of three thousand people. She didn't defer to anyone, sat right down in front of Greg, and handed him the product of the revolutionary skills she's acquired."

Rather than fighting wars, Mortenson advocates for a relatively simple systemic change that holds the power to eliminate many of the contributing factors of war. He advocates for education. Can you imagine if our billion+ dollar military budget was invested in our public schools and in public schools around the world?! Mortenson urges, "If we try to resolve terrorism with military might and nothing else, then we will be no safer then we were before 9/11. If we truly want a legacy of peace for our children, we need to understand that this is a war that will ultimately be won with books, not with bombs.

Assalaam Alaikum (Peace be with you).

The fine print: The photos in this post come from threecupsoftea.com and rorystewartbooks.com.

A blog? What was I thinking?

Four days ago I was blissfully ignorant about the world of blogs. I suppose it's telling that my first post was a pseudo apologetic and "Unnecessary Justification" of my presence on the world wide web. My intention in creating "my madeleines" was quite simply to experiment with a new creative medium. I wrote that this blog would be "a series of essays, poems, creative spasms, sound bites, quotations, ramblings, and whatnots that each trigger *something* inside me." Furthermore, I declared, "I write for myself."

That steely conviction was unwavering...until I stumbled onto problogger.net and the "18 Lessons I've Learnt about Blogging" article.

Those who know me will not be surprised that within 72 hours I've managed to turn a purely artistic exercise into an academic study of blogging culture, theory, and best practices. To say that I'm over thinking myself into a corner is an understatement. The problogger.net article, although geared toward business-minded blogs trying to generate revenue, did teach me a few things about "my madeleines" and helped focus my energy.

After reflecting on this article, among others, I still plan to post my "creative spasms." However, I also plan to consistently post the following:

First Friday Films
I'm passionate about the art of film making and if you bounce back here on the first Friday of each month you'll see what's caught my attention and why.


ISBN ###
My voracious reading habit provides the inspiration for this series. I will ramble, reflect, and ruminate as often as I'm moved to do so by whatever I'm reading at the time.

There are endless hobbies, travels, and events of interest that I could blog about, but this is a good start. We'll see where it takes me.