The Way We Lived, California Indian Stories, Songs, Reminiscences by Malcolm Margolin

 

The Way we Lived: California Indian Stories, Songs, Reminiscences by Malcolm Margolin

pub 1981

August Book Club Read 

The author was really involved in the California History Society and obviously passionate about compiling this treasure trove of lore. The story integrates excerpts of tales and verbatim accounts from Native Californians and includes photographs.  

One of the standout things to me from this is how diverse the populations were in pre-European California. According to the author, when Europeans first appeared in California, there were as many as 100 different languages being spoken. 

Margolin honors the diversity of the groups, but in this book also points out many parallel systems and beliefs that they shared. I enjoyed reading about the customs and crafts of particular groups. He touches on how the arrival of Europeans dramatically altered the lives of these incredible groups. 

One thing that differs greatly from my culture, is the emphasis on dreams, visions, and the supernatural. 

The author points out that when interviews of tribal members would take place, he wanted to know more concrete things about their lives, whereas the interviewee was more interested sharing about their dreams, visions, and unique personal stories of the supernatural. He points out that to them, these factual elements would have been understood by all in their small close knit communities, but what would be unique were their particular spiritual experiences. 

I also was surprised that there was a deep resistance to innovation and change amongst many groups. I guess I have an idealized view of indigenous populations as being very fluid and adaptable based on their close reliance with an ever-changing natural world. Instead it seems, that strict and religious adherence to custom, ritual, roles, and traditions was seen as a vital way of passing down survival ways and a particular cultural heritage - even warding off evil and harm from unseen forces. I guess humans are the same everywhere in the tendency to safeguard practices without always challenging whether or not they are still relevant. 

I enjoyed the book, even if I skimmed over some of the mythology and coyote stories which I've been exposed to before. I'm always amazed at how people in each region utilized natural elements to make tools, weapons, boats etc. The book referenced Carobeth Laird and her memoir about her life with anthropologist John Harrington ( I think I wrote an entry about this). He was manically running around California trying to capture different language groups and sounds before they disappeared. 

As a docent at our local museum, I have recently reviewed some documentaries made mid century 1900s about our local Yokut Indians showing their artisanship.

Chronic People Pleasers Read on: The Courage to be Disliked by Kishimi and Koga

~Trigger alert: unfiltered self reflections abound in this entry

 The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga pub: 2018

 is a bestselling self-help and philosophy book that explains how to achieve true happiness by breaking free from past trauma and the desire for approval. 

Core Structure

Format: A Socratic dialogue over five nights between a cynical young man and a wise philosopher.
Foundation: Based on the individual psychology of Alfred Adler, a 19th/20th-century pioneer alongside Freud and Jung.

Let us say that one (one being me) always needs lots of encouragement to break free from enmeshment, over functioning, co-dependency, and obsession with the past. I'm kind of a psychology junkie and I have to agree with the authors that the psychology I've been most exposed to is of the Freudian strain which emphasizes the concept that past trauma pretty much defines us. 

I'm not sure if Jung emphasizes the past as much, I'm more familiar with Jung in his focus on archetypes and tapping into the subconscious. ie Jung is the forefather of MBTI which is the basis of Keirsey's Temperament Sorter which anyone who has known me very long might know that I'm unabashedly obsessed with. I also adore the book Goddesses in Every Woman, written by Jungian Psychotherapist Jean Shinoda Bolen.

I've heard of Adler, but I feel he is much less referenced and I think this is the first book I've every read about his ideas. It's kind of interesting because I was simultaneously listening to this audio book below which definitely has some parallels. The universe is trying to tell me something. I'm very resistant to this, because as an enneagram four there's hardly anything I love more than wallowing in melancholy and viewing myself as a tragic figure. To be forced to hear from two different sources at once, that I can choose to be happy or at least not worry about whether or not I'm happy and focus on being functional and doing my duty was simultaneously exhilarating and a threat to my entire way of life. 

Sidenote. My sister and I were camping in Kings Canyon while I was reading the Courage to be Disliked. She was reading a book about healing and we talked about how people (when I say people I actually mean mostly women) tend to bond over sharing their woes. The book she was reading actually suggested that some people never progress beyond their trauma because they fear losing the relationships or support groups they have built around their trauma or pain. This was quite resonant because I have several female relationships where I actually pre-prep for the meetup by conjuring up all the negative things in my life that I want to rant on about, and they're usually always the same things BTW. This is embarrassing to reveal actually. While I don't intend to stop this habit cold turkey, because maybe it's cathartic, I think introducing this awareness into the mix will do no harm, and recognizing that I can cultivate bonds even if there's nothing particular to lament about. 

I want to share a few of the chapter headings, because they're remarkably simple but the execution of these concepts I find to be kind of radical: The book is divided into conversations that span five nights which I find to be quite artistic. I will include my journal notes from camping that I jotted beneath each heading: 

The First Night

Deny Trauma

 - opposite of Freud

 - It's not about what you're born with, but what you make of the equipment

The Second Night

All Problems are Interpersonal Relationship Problems

 - 2 objectives - to be self-reliant. To live in harmony with society

The Third Night

Discard other people's tasks

 - real freedom

 - personal responsibility

 - assistance not intervention

The Fourth Night

Where the Center of the World Is

 - the larger community 

 - not punishment/praise

 - horizontal not vertical relationships

 - people have value for being not just what they do

 - don't escape or avoid pain, let it be

- don't take yourself or life too seriously

 

The Fifth Night

To live in earnest in the here and now

 - workaholism focuses on only one aspect of contribution

 - happiness is a feeling of contribution

 - the dance not the destination

 - have the courage to have a normal life (this is really hard for me - more about this below)

Normal life:

Why do I find this concept so difficult? It's simple. I think of myself as an aristocratic snob. No one likes to admit that there's a class system but there always is one. I was raised as part of local landed dynasty on both sides of my family. I was intensely proud of my unique ranch upbringing. I'm not living that lifestyle. Combine that with my enneagram four personality type which prizes individuality, originality, and scorns the ordinary. It doesn't take long to ponder why I feel such resistance to living in a suburb in Bakersfield (a place I always thought of with distaste), working as an employee, having 2 children, the SUV, blah blah blah. (oh this is one of my boring repetitive rants to sympathetic female friends) Such awareness leaves me with two options, acceptance or seek change. ( I tried the latter but it never seemed to quite work out, yet...) So here I am faced with the challenge to be happy. To be happy in normalcy. (Believe me I'm not broaching what is a normal life at a global level, just in the small sphere of this geographic region.) Also recognizing that constantly focusing on choices or situations that led me to this "predicament" actually sabotages present contentment and actually threatens to betray my present and future self. I'm faced with tiny artistic expressions of uniqueness instead of what I see as sweeping glamorous career/lifestyle identities. 

Can it be ok? Is it enough? Whether it is or not.. it is.... To live in earnest in the here and now... Powerful, difficult, baby steps.... Contribute yet be self-reliant. Do my own tasks. Encourage others in their tasks without interfering. Risk being disliked through abiding by the above. To some this may seem simple, but to a highly sensitive soul and empath who absorbs the emotions of others, believe me it's pretty difficult. 

Beth Rodden's A Light Through the Cracks and a Mini Geek-Out

 

A Light Through the Cracks by Beth Rodden pub 2024

July Book Club

One of my book club members has met Beth Rodden and she recommended this memoir and I'm so glad! My first thought on this is that I found it riveting. I could hardly put it down and I don't often feel like that about many books. She has a great story, but there was a deal of craftsmanship in the telling that really drew me in. The story wasn't told lineally but jumped back and forth in time. 

Beth Rodden is a pro rock climber. I had never heard of her, but in 2000 she and 3 other climbers were abducted and held hostage for a number of days in Kyrgyzstan. 

In this memoir, the trauma of the abduction is a pivotal theme. In many ways, the story recounts how it influenced the trajectory of her life and how she recovered from it. Having known nothing about her story, and being the relational drama monger that I am, I was especially curious to see how things would play out with her fellow hostage member, her boyfriend Tommy Caldwell. 

She and Tommy had just begun their relationship prior to their sponsored trip to Kyrgyzstan. She confessed in the book that she had been thinking about breaking things off prior to the trip; the reader infers that there was a degree of uncertainty on her side. Tommy ends up pushing their captor off a cliff precipitating their escape. The two of them share an intense moment in which she pledges her love. 

Their trauma bond leads them into a continuance of their romantic commitment, eventual marriage, and professional partnership. 

The reader senses the unease that shrouded Beth's thoughts and feelings about their relationship which eventually ended in divorce after Beth falls in love with a charismatic boulderer. (I'm oversimplifying here)

As a wanna-be outdoor enthusiast, I enjoyed the details about her climbs and the discipline involved in pursuing new feats. I kind of went on a mini geek out about climbing. I even watched the incredible documentary The Dawn Wall Watch the Dawn Wall Here about Tommy Caldwell and friend's epic climb up a previously unconquered stretch of Yosemite's El Capitan. Ooh I just remembered I was going to muster up the courage to watch that crazy documentary about the bro who free climbs El Cap. (note resume geek-out)

 ~note that I actually attempted no climbing - as I have a relatively paralyzing fear of heights. To get above half-way up a climbing wall I would need like an Oprah level encouragement coach to shout affirmations at me. I like the terms though. Here are a few.

Pitch -  The climbing route between two belay points with a "full pitch" being the length of the rope, circa 50 metres

Portaledge - those terrifying little tents they pitch on the sides of sheer walls

To belay - means to secure a climber or a rope using friction, or to fasten a line around a pin or cleat.

I do like scrambling around on rocks that aren't too high. On the ranches I grew up on, we had quite a few large boulders and rocks and I spent time climbing them and then looking down in terror and somehow descending, half-crawling, half sliding. 

I admire Beth's courage in relating her story so authentically. 

On Gold Mountain by Lisa See

 

On Gold Mountain by Lisa See

June Book Club read

Fascinating account of a Chinese Immigrant family dynasty that begins with the patriarch coming over to work on the railroad and then segues into his son who opens a business in San Francisco selling crotchless underwear to the local brothels. The tale continues as the son marries a red-haired Pennsylvania Dutch pioneer girl who had been tragically orphaned and had tenaciously approached him for work.

The story is written by one of the family members, descendent Lisa See so the story is incredibly personal and yet full of historical context. 

It's been a minute since I read this and I don't have the book to reference as it was a library book. "Gold Mountain" refers to what the Chinese called the United States. Fong See and his wife eventually settle in Chinatown of Los Angeles and navigate away from underwear and into antiques. 

Fong See ultimately has multiple wives, official and un... The book traces many of their struggles and successes in integrated their blended cultural backgrounds. Our book club discussion was so interesting as members discussed personal experiences with marriages of mixed cultures. One of our group members majored in Asian studies and had traveled in China.