:: deadline ::

My first Curator article was due today and I met the deadline, yippee. Yesterday, I felt pretty good about the article. Today, not so much. I know this tension is every writer's dilemma, but since health issues sometimes interfere with my brain's function, I just hope the editor won't hate my writing. Gulp.

But I had plenty of visual/cranial fuel up in my cozy writing room:

[a good dictionary and Makoto Fujimura's book, River Grace (5/5 stars)]

[my bird-camouflage tote bag from Target. I use it to transport items up and down the stairs.]

[a nice, big window]

[pretty things. Our cat, Harley, attacked that iron bird a few days ago, totally thinking it was real.]

[a framed photo of baby-me and my grandmother, Nina, and a cool straw purse my Mom gave me (from The Blue Hand here in Houston - a shop to die for)]

[History of Art by H.W. Janson. I left it open like that due to the Rothko page on the right; I mentioned him in my article. That's de Kooning on the left there.]

[one of my favorite oversized books ~ Churches by Judith Dupré (introduction by Mario Botta). I snatched it from our coffee table because it contains a page on the Rothko Chapel which I also mentioned in my article.]

[another page in the book ~ Basilica San Marco in Venice, Italy. Seriously, Churches in America: get with the program.]

[yet another page ~ Borgund Stave Church in Borgund, Sogn, Norway. I love this Church because it whisks me away to one of my all-time favorite books, Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset, set in medieval Norway.]

As for tonight, I'm gonna get lost in some reading and a cup of tea. Or watch a movie w/Johnny. Either way, time well spent.

:: what i'm reading ::

-Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith & Art by Madeleine L'Engle.
-The Son of Laughter by Frederick Buechner (some of the best writing I've read in a long while).
-The newspaper.

I finished Makoto Fujimura's River Grace in one night. It's a short read, but 21 pages full of greatness - one to be read again and again.

I'm re-reading parts of The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and "Women's Work". So good. One of my life-manuals.

I've also been reading fan-tastic quotes lately (thanks to goodreads), such as:

"The silence is all there is. It is the alpha and the omega, it is God's brooding over the face of the waters; it is the blinded note of the ten thousand things, the whine of wings. You take a step in the right direction to pray to this silence, and even to address the prayer to 'World.' Distinctions blur. Quit your tents. Pray without ceasing."
[-Annie Dillard]

"What a hideout: Holiness lies spread and borne over the surface of time and stuff like color."
[-Annie Dillard. I love her brain.]

"The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that does not require his attention."
[-Flannery O'Connor. I love her brain, too.]

"If grace is so wonderful, why do we have such difficulty recognizing and accepting it? Maybe it's because grace is not gentle or made-to-order. It often comes disguised as loss, or failure, or unwelcome change."
[-Kathleen Norris. Need I say I love her brain?]

There were many others, then I ran across this amazing poem:

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
by Wendell Berry

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion - put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

:: the invisible cure ::

I subscribe to the Sunday edition of The New York Times, and I always read the Book Review first. Today, a particular book caught my eye in a small mention on page 24 ("Paperback Row"). The book? The Invisible Cure: Africa, the West, and the Fight Against AIDS. Here's an excerpt from this New York Times review, dated July 29, 2007:

"Halfway through 'The Invisible Cure,' Helen Epstein writes about finding a long-forgotten document in a small research library in Canada. Reading through the paper, Epstein says, 'I felt as though a small stick of dynamite had gone off in my head.' Epstein had unearthed a rare copy of a detailed study on the sexual behavior of Ugandans in the late 1980s and early ’90s, a period that coincided with the country’s historic drop in H.I.V. rates. In short, Epstein knew, the research done by Maxine Ankrah, an African-American academic, would give invaluable insights into what had halted the epidemic — insights that could then be applied to other countries with high rates of H.I.V. and AIDS.

Before Epstein’s discovery, Ankrah’s research seemed destined for oblivion. A United Nations AIDS researcher had read it, failed to understand its significance or to credit it and, Epstein recounts, wrongly concluded that an increase in condom use was responsible for the decrease of the H.I.V. rate in Uganda. In reality, according to three later analyses of Ankrah’s study, the primary reason for the decline was completely different: substantial numbers of Ugandans had ended affairs and remained faithful to one partner."

This book doesn't seem to espouse Christianity, yet it does encourage partner fidelity. To take it a step higher, marital fidelity is one aspect of God's design for human life. And seeing as the Gospel is spreading through Uganda like wildfire, it makes The Invisible Cure all the more intriguing. I do believe Ms. Epstein is onto something true.

:: the bookworm shop ::

[Milo]

An excerpt from my other blog:

"As you can see there, I did find two books at The Bookworm Shop. My brother strongly urged me to read Hiroshima, and my aunt did the same with The Year of Magical Thinking. They say those two are hard/sad reads, but important ones, and both were inexpensive, used copies. As the name implies, The Bookworm Shop was a charming place. Not too small, yet not oversized, either, and full of new & used books. There were chairs and couches, and fun gift items, too."

Also, I received an e-mail from The Brazos Bookstore about an upcoming author event with Jeannie Ralston. I don't know if it's my love for lavender or Texas, or both, but I really want to read The Unlikely Lavender Queen.



From goodreads:

"Jeannie Ralston had a flourishing career in her beloved New York, but meeting the love of her life would change all that. Robb, her husband-to-be and a photographer for National Geographic, hated the city and longed to settle down in the country. Jeannie was loath to leave her urban lifestyle — until they struck a bargain: she'd move to rural Texas if he would agree to start a family.

The Unlikely Lavender Queen is Ralston’s memoir of her life as an urban settler in rural Texas. She chronicles the experience of converting a dilapidated barn into a livable home, records with wit and bemusement her nostalgia for everything from lattes to liberals, lays bare her loneliness during Robb’s frequent National Geographic photo assignments, and raises the doubts that plague so many women of her generation — has she given up too much?

When Robb returns from a trip to Provence with a plan for starting a lavender farm on their land, Jeannie, a mother of two, is skeptical. But much to her surprise, in the course of managing the farm she discovers a new side of herself. By selling blooms to local florists, opening the farm to the public, and developing a number of lavender-related products, Ralston turns Hill Country Lavender into a thriving enterprise — and her life into an unexpected adventure."

I think I could live on a lavender farm ~ how 'bout you?

:: waiting for september ::

After you fall in love with Housekeeping and Gilead, y'all can join my excitement over something I read yesterday.... A new Marilynne Robinson novel will be published in September 2008! I read on Wikipedia (and elsewhere), "Home is a companion piece to Gilead, focusing on the Boughton family during the same time period that Gilead covers."

Normally, I'd be nervous if an author tried to follow up such a rich story as Gilead, but I trust Marilynne Robinson, much like I trust Leif Enger. I loved Gilead so much that with confidence in this author, I'm excited to be reacquainted with the Boughton family. And I'm [selfishly] relieved that Robinson did not wait another 20 (or so) years to write her 3rd novel. God is good.

FYI, Marilynne Robinson also wrote two books of essays. I own a copy of The Death of Adam, sitting on a shelf upstairs, but I haven't read it yet. Will soon.



P.S. - [on my other blog, read towards the end of "she & him (and more)" and "upstairs" to see how musician Lori Chaffer persuaded me to read J.D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey ASAP, and actress/musician Zooey Deschanel did likewise with Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast. There's so much to read in the world.]