Mitigate every Risk with Huxley

 

Isaiah 8:11 "The Lord spoke to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people. He said: 'Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread, and he will be your sanctuary; but for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall...' Bind up the testimony and seal up the law among my disciples. I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in him."

I'm so grateful that I don't have to put my trust in horses, chariots, presidents, kings, or the DMV. 

I like it fine when those systems work. I like it when there is a semblance of order. I appreciate the sacrifice leaders at the local, state, and national level do to preserve a degree of stability. I try not to undervalue the lives of people that do hard things to keep up safe. 

I tend to be skeptical of power whether it be governmental or corporate. I don't think either of those entities is particularly charitable. I don't get my panties in a knot about administrations. I just try to vote for the ones that are going to promote less government instead of more. Pretty simple. 

I think it's important for me to start with evaluating myself and then move outwards from there - myself, my house, my family, my church, my neighborhood, my city and then maybe I could have an opinion about something else if I'm doing my best in all these areas. 

What does this have to do with the book? Well, I guess just thinking about dystopian books and dystopian times. I try not to get upset if the descriptions of people in this book resemble those of brainwashed clone troopers that live in my country and world--people who repeat soundbites and seem to have no idea what they even mean--people who care more about saying the right thing than doing anything worthwhile.

Entirely too many words. She says as she spits more words into the universe.

Literary level--Huxley is a little too sciencey for my taste. He gets into the science of test tube babies and stuff like that. He has fun with it. I kind of skimmed over that stuff. I read this book in high school and I know the gist of what he's satirizing--a world devoid of extreme emotions. A world where folks are anaesthetized with pleasure and drugs into being submissive factory tools. I get it! I feel like I'm on the brink sometimes. It's so much easier (and cheaper) to watch Netflix then to go and experience something for myself. All the exciting stuff of life - like becoming an entrepreneur or having an adventure in nature require too many permits... (at least in this state lol) It's a sterile world devoid of intimacy, mess, melancholy, or risk. 

Certain people want to take away risks so that no one ever experiences pain or want. Spoken as someone who has never gone without food or shelter, I acknowledge that it's easy for me to talk about freedom and risk. I have a credit card, a car, husband, family who are there for me etc etc... I just am not convinced that we do people favors by mitigating every single risk. Dull Dull. 

Got to go! Got to monitor my daughter's return from the grocery store. Oh the irony!

Takeaways from Rita

 

Library y'all! Rita Coolidge was a rising star in the sixties heyday when folksy southerners melded into the rock scene with brits and others. Rita Coolidge formed the band Walela in later years and I love!!!! Unabashed Indian junkie. 

Positive takeaways:

 - singing isn't just about having this perfect voice and pipes. It's also about connecting to the song and the listeners!! I really love when artists perform their own songs even when their voices aren't spectacular - it's about the expression and the meaning behind the art. I'm not downplaying working hard and being talented. I'm just saying - no one should have a patent on art as expression. I love her voice.

 - At one point she talked about being tired of performing her same famous songs that everyone wanted to hear. She wanted to transition to her new stuff. She made a connection by going to a concert herself and realizing how for the audience - the live performance was fresh and exciting. Performing is for the listener too. I think this could be applied to lots of things we do that seem repetitious to us (teaching, massage therapy, etc... cooking) but perhaps to others is new and exciting and means a great deal. We have to try to get into their perspective in order to keep it fresh for us as well. 

 - you may have had a horrible night, feel awful. and tired - but if you don't tell anyone they won't know! I am always so aware of my limitations when it comes to energy, but I think this is kind of like a "fake it til you make it" kind of self therapy that sometimes is effective when dealing with fatigue and you can still get out there and perform, speak, work, whatever it is - if you need to.

 - 

Charming and Scientific fiction about an Eskimo girl

 

I ordered this book with instructional funds from our charter school along with other young adult fiction that was recommended by Ambleside Online. My daughter never read it. One of the things I valued as a parent while raising my girls in their pre-adolescent phase was reading aloud. I only dug in my heels hard on a few things really and one of them was I insisted on reading aloud to them regularly. Not everyone was always happy about it. Hub never grew up being read aloud to it it wasn't in his lexicon of parenting. The other thing I insisted on was camping and hiking. A lot of other things were pretty negotiable: eating habits, bedtimes, showering. About a year ago, I think I finally gave up. Both of my girls read prolifically and they flat out told me that reading aloud together wasn't a priority. 

This book was one I imagined reading together, but I pulled it out and finally read it on my own. Hub and I actually started it together, but we got bogged down with some of the detailed wolf stuff. The author actually went to Alaska and spent weeks observing wolves so her science in this book is amazing - in regards to the behaviors of wolves, how they survive, and communicate with one another within the hierarchy of the pack. This is interesting to me - but only in the broad strokes version - so I skimmed over some of the more detailed accounts.

The latter part of the book got into the sub culture of the Inuit tribe that the author had also done a great job researching. This part is my passion: the anthropology stuff of indigenous groups so I read every word of that section. Jean Craighead George is just a great writer. I love how she is succinct but artful.

The relationship between Miyax and her dad Kapugen was particularly charming.