tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-193950612024-03-12T20:55:08.101-05:00gospel according to MarciaMarcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.comBlogger114125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-71959931499129366932013-12-06T16:16:00.000-06:002013-12-06T16:23:35.757-06:00Good/better/best books of the year(s)People who work with books know the end of the year brings a
slew of Best books of the year lists. Publishers Weekly does <a href="http://best-books.publishersweekly.com/pw/best-books/2013" target="_blank">its list </a>
early, and the New York Times does a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/08/books/review/100-notable-books-of-2013.html" target="_blank">long list of notables</a>. One of my favorite lists to contribute to and
read is an idiosyncratic list of PW editors’ favorite books. As in, what we
really liked. It’s a revelation: book revelation, self-revelation, revelation
from colleagues. It’s also a freedom from obligation to follow what’s trending
and what should be talked about and instead permission to follow the heart.<br />
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I picked John Green’s <i><a href="http://johngreenbooks.com/the-fault-in-our-stars/" target="_blank">The Fault in Our Stars</a></i> because
it swept me away and it helped me forget that my sister was dying as I read it.
Thinking about my reaction reminded me about the roots of my love for books. In
seventh grade I wrote a poem <i>Books Are
Our Friends</i> and I won a prize for it: a book. Of course. On occasions when
I have talked to students about what I do and sought to encourage reading, I
have told them that if they like to read, they will never be lonely. I still
think books are magic carpets for the imagination, Netflix and HBO
notwithstanding.</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Fault in Our Stars
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFtRmU0LYg-lUvAyyzpl5OQKKGon3TQiu9v2MrSb6qYPr1jHSKoJX1dueAZACqnjHeA7QC5iGBTYPR10tQ2fuVQCu0yYoGTgM0QIM6BbitowdmBj74kee1Dz5Wz99cjL4h94RkJg/s1600/9780525478812H.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFtRmU0LYg-lUvAyyzpl5OQKKGon3TQiu9v2MrSb6qYPr1jHSKoJX1dueAZACqnjHeA7QC5iGBTYPR10tQ2fuVQCu0yYoGTgM0QIM6BbitowdmBj74kee1Dz5Wz99cjL4h94RkJg/s320/9780525478812H.jpg" width="213" /></a></i></div>
resonated on a lot of levels for me. Anything that echoes Shakespeare piques
my interest. The author is also profoundly voicey; you get the picture pretty
quickly. Green’s <a href="http://johngreenbooks.com/questions-about-the-fault-in-our-stars-spoilers/#beliefs" target="_blank">background as a hospital chaplain</a> was another lure. As a young adult book, it was more straightforward and
offered refuge from existential irony and artsy explorations of postmodern
specialized subcultures and gave a chance to look at human-condition, no-escape
issues like mortality. And the pages almost turned themselves, even though I
was reading it on my Kindle. <br />
<o:p></o:p>Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-72620664751675535822013-10-08T16:44:00.000-05:002013-10-08T16:44:04.666-05:00Blessed Are the Faithful
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<i>(I read this at the funeral of my sister Barbara on Oct. 7, 2013. She was 64.) </i></div>
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Somebody else wrote: Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.</div>
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I write: Blessed are the faithful.</div>
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My sister Barbara was married to her husband Alan for 43 years, and they celebrated that anniversary with a dinner out one week before she died. </div>
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Blessed are the faithful. </div>
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Barbara, our brother Richard, and I and our spouses and kids celebrated every Christmas and Thanksgiving together since the late 1980s, after our parents Lillian and Adolph Zdun died. Add most Easters and a whole lot of Fourth of Julys, with various in-laws in various combinations at various houses. </div>
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Blessed are the faithful.</div>
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Easter was Barbara’s holiday, and she made the ham and the Easter eggs and put out the butter shaped like a lamb and the small glass of vinegar for your ham and a shot glass with a salt and pepper mixture for your eggs. We had the butter lamb and the vinegar and the salt mixture because that’s what we had and how we had it when we were growing up in Chicago and celebrating Easter. Thanksgiving was my holiday, and every year Barb and Alan carved the turkey because I’m a vegetarian and I can cook a turkey but don’t know how to slice it.</div>
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Blessed are the faithful.</div>
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Barbara is the family memory keeper, and hers was always the first card to arrive – early -- for birthdays and wedding anniversaries. She signed the cards with her round, neat handwriting: "Love and joy, Barb and Alan." She always remembered my children’s birthdays; there were always cards and gifts.</div>
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Blessed are the faithful. </div>
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Barbara got her first job right after high school in 1967 and she worked at different jobs, starting with Illinois Bell and ending with United Airlines and there was a crafts store in between, until she retired in November 2011. That adds up to 44 years. It says in her obituary that she was a longtime member of her needlework guild and her house in Niles where she lived for more than 30 years is decorated with her needlework, lots of pieces with tiny, regular, beautiful, time-consuming, patience-requiring stitches.</div>
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Blessed are the faithful.</div>
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She was diagnosed with cancer in December 2011 and lived bravely through a year of chemotherapy, one gamma knife surgery, and weeks of radiation treatment earlier this year. She got out of bed – late! – every day until a couple weeks ago after the doctor said nothing more could be done. Then she didn’t get out of bed for a while, but then she changed her mind and answered the phone when I called and she celebrated her wedding anniversary last week and went grocery shopping on Monday because those are things you do when you live your life. </div>
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Blessed are the faithful.</div>
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I prayed for my sister right after I woke up every morning during her illness and asked God to give her healing and strength. She got one out of two. I have had some strong words with God and the only answer I got, as far as I can understand, is blessed are the faithful. </div>
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You are all friends and relatives of Barbara and Alan and our family who came to say goodbye and honor and love your friend. Some of those ties that bind us go way, way back. Thank you for staying faithful to her. </div>
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Blessed are the faithful. </div>
<br />
<!--EndFragment-->Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-30062463237432762742013-02-10T19:09:00.000-06:002013-02-10T19:09:28.312-06:00Theologians: PW Talks with Christian Wiman<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #878787; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">By Marcia Z. Nelson | Feb 08, 2013</span></div>
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<span style="color: #878787; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">Publishers Weekly</span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;">In the decidedly secular literary world, poet Christian Wiman,
who was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in 2005, stands out as one who’s
willing to talk about God. Wiman is the editor of Poetry magazine, but he leaves
that post in the fall for Yale University’s Divinity School and Institute of
Sacred Music. In </span><a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-374-21678-8" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;"><u><span style="color: #17499a; text-decoration: none; text-underline: #262626; text-underline: none;">My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a
Modern Believer</span></u></a><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;">, Wiman offers urgent essays on faith and
mortality, studded with his and others’ poetry.</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75"
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #ee0000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">How are you feeling?</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Good. Really well. I had a bone marrow transplant [in October
2011] and have done well since then. It’s been a long recovery. I get tested
all the time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #ee0000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Do people back away from you at cocktail parties if you say
something about God?</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">I do think it unnerves some people. I do think there’s an
antipathy toward Christianity per se, [but] I don’t find an antipathy toward
religion in general.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #ee0000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Because?</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Christianity in this country has taken some noxious forms. I
think many Christians are uneasy with the term “Christian.” Skepticism about
the language of Christianity is extremely healthy right now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #ee0000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Who’s on your theology play list?</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">I wrestle with midcentury Protestant theologians like Karl
Barth, Paul Tillich, Karl Rahner. They’re so impenetrable. I don’t really
believe in systematic theology, I don’t believe God can be systematized. [But
in their writings] there’s something that comes across in flashes—that
illuminates whole areas of belief.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #ee0000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">You have been speaking about religion these days. What are you hearing
from people?</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">I find a tremendous spiritual hunger among both secular and
religious [people]. Everyone seems to be fighting for a way to articulate this
hunger. I don’t think contemporary churches are answering this need. I
certainly don’t think secular culture is answering this need. One of the places
I think this need can be addressed most effectively is art.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #ee0000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">How ready are you for the job change?</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">My whole life has been arrowing toward a job like this, and I’m
incredibly grateful to the Institute of Sacred Music and Yale Divinity School
for creating it for me. I think it’s a really bold move on their part to bring
in a poet to investigate the ways in which poetry and theology interact.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #ee0000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">And how do they interact?</span><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Poets
can learn from theologians and vice versa. Contemporary poetry has given up on
abstraction in favor of the image. Theology tends to forget the light.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-33118304006663524132013-01-22T19:43:00.000-06:002013-01-22T19:43:36.572-06:00Losing their Religion<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="color: #878787; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13pt;">By Marcia Z. Nelson | Jan 18, 2013</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #878787; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13.0pt;">Publishers Weekly<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Call them “nones”; call them “unaffiliated.” The “young and the
secular” fits well, too. The terminology is perhaps imprecise, but the reality
is measurable, big, and growing. This group has been in the public and media
eye recently, following the release in October of a report by the Pew Research
Center, which put the number of people in the U.S. population with no religious
affiliation at 20%. The unaffiliated include a smaller group that describes
itself as atheist or agnostic, and a larger portion that describes itself as
“nothing in particular.” When the unaffiliated are broken into age groups,
their numbers rise sharply among the young. A third of adults under 30 say they
have no religious affiliation, whereas only one in10 people 65 and older fit
into that category.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">But a lack of religious affiliation does not necessarily
indicate the absence of religious behavior or practices. When researchers asked
about beliefs and practices, they found that more than two-thirds of the
unaffiliated believe in God or a universal spirit, and more than 40% of them
pray. In addition, more than half either described themselves as “religious” or
“spiritual but not religious.” This phenomenon is, of course, especially
significant for religion and spirituality publishers. Does the growth of the
unaffiliated shrink their markets? Are they worried? A number of publishers
weighed in on this question, with thoughts about how they see the nones, how
they see their publishing programs in relation to the religiously unaffiliated,
and whether it keeps them up at night wondering about their futures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Among the Evangelicals</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">It would seem this trend might be especially worrisome for
evangelical Christian publishers like Howard Books (located in Nashville,
Tenn., but owned by Simon & Schuster). But no worries—publisher Jonathan
Merkh and editor-in-chief Becky Nesbitt understand the nones to be people who
object to institutional religion and hierarchy. “People feel like religions are
too caught up with money or power,” says Merkh, who says he is Anglican and is
comfortable with a describing himself as spiritual but not religious, a term
that came into common usage back in the ’90s. Howard has published titles that
resonate with this group. “We are hearing from them in response to books like
Kisses from Katie” by Katie Davis, Nesbitt says. That kind of book shows
“people making a difference but not being overtly Christian or beating you over
the head” with proselytizing, Merkh adds. The elements of “making a difference”
and having an authentic voice and commitment are particularly appealing to
unaffiliated readers, who are also an educated audience. “Their tastes can be
very broad and not constrained,” Merkh says. “I think the nones are just as
likely to read Fifty Shades of Grey as [they are to read] Karen Kingsbury. They
don’t have a voice in their head telling them it’s wrong.” Hitting that market
is a challenge, but offers Howard the promise of new audiences. “We’re not
publishing away from the evangelical market,” says Merkh. “We’re just casting a
broader net.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Chad Allen, editorial director at Baker Books, an evangelical
house in Grand Rapids, Mich., is intrigued by just how much faith he sees apart
from organized religion. Baker published <i>You
Lost Me</i> by David Kinnaman in 2011; the book analyzes why young evangelical
Christians are losing the faith they were raised in. For Allen, the problem is
that many see the Christian church as irrelevant. “The old approaches won’t do,
at least not in their traditional forms,” he says. Last year, Baker sent a
survey to 15,000 of its readers; 13% of respondents selected the category
“other” when asked to describe their faith tradition. Allen is struck by how
nontraditional that choice is in the evangelical subculture, as is the
spiritual-but-not-religious choice of 3%. This convinces Allen that religious
forms are changing, “not the substance necessarily,” he says. So he wants to
publish books that will help the Christian church see what it needs to look
like, sometimes literally—<i>Emergence
Christianity</i> by Phyllis Tickle (2012) includes a photo essay of new
congregations and religious objects—in order to help people live faithfully.
“What we’re very interested in pursuing is, how do we live as faithfully
orthodox Christians in these intensely, deeply changing times?” Allen says.
“It’s not just about adding a coffee shop to your church.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Changing times lead to changing publishing programs. Jericho
Books is a new Nashville-based imprint from Hachette, whose 11-year-old
FaithWords imprint has an evangelical audience. Launched in fall 2102 and led
by publisher Wendy Grisham, Jericho is gathering an audience that defies and
resists religious labels. “You’ve got everything from
nondispensational-premillennial-Anglican-follower-of-Jesus to
it-takes-you-two-lines-to-tell-what-your-faith-is,” Grisham says. “A lot of
people have rejected ‘Christian.’ ” Jericho’s launch list includes Brian
McLaren, known for his work on emergent Christianity (a kind of postmodern
version of Christianity that has come into vogue over the past several years),
and Justin Lee, a gay author who wouldn’t be welcome in the most conservative
Christian churches, or with most evangelical publishers. “One of the things I
hope for when people look at the Jericho Books list is authenticity,” Grisham
says. “Some of the 20- and 30-year-olds are just sick of going to church.
People are not necessarily leaving their faith, but their religion.” Grisham
has given a lot of thought to the important question of how to reach an
audience that doesn’t hang out in churches. “So much of this community is
online,” she said. Author Shane Hipps, for example, did a Google Hangout that
included giveaways and attracted more than 200 people. Grisham says Jericho has
invested in its Web site and social media and is working with a company to
maximize online outreach and opportunities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Another new imprint is gestating at Random House’s evangelical
unit, WaterBrook/Multnomah, in Colorado Springs, Colo. Convergent Books will
debut in fall 2013, publishing to a more progressive Christian audience. Steve
Cobb, president and publisher, says the new imprint might appeal to some of the
nones, though that’s not part of the publishing strategy and house identity,
which he describes as unapologetically Christian. “We will still be Christian
in our foundations within Convergent,” Cobb says. “We can extend our audience
further into Christendom, and likely we’re going to touch people in this new
imprint who may not be affiliated in a conventional sense.” Cobb says the new
imprint will emphasize social justice and faith in action, and he hopes it will
appeal to those under 30, where lack of affiliation is highest. “Publishing to
that younger demographic, whether we would admit it or not, has been more
challenging,” he says.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Spiritual and Wellness Imprints</span></b><span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">For other kinds of publishers, creating books for the
religiously unaffiliated is nothing new. White Cloud Press’s eclectic line of
spirituality and wellness books comprises titles on Islam, including its
attention-getting I Speak for Myself series of essay collections by young
American Muslims, as well as poetry and nature books. Sales are up for the
Ashland, Ore.–based house. “I come from this region that has been at the
forefront of saying that institutional religion is not something that attracts
people,” says publisher Steve Scholl. For Scholl, both publishing and personal
history suggest that organized religion is playing itself out, and the rise of
the nones is part of a trajectory of gradual change. “It will be a long-term
process of people abandoning religion but not the spiritual quest,” Scholl
says. “We’re meaning-seeking creatures.” Scholl is especially emphatic that
spirituality is not an evasion of the discipline that proponents of organized
religion say is lacking among the spiritual-but-not-religious cohort. “I see
unaffiliated people every day who are very serious about their spiritual
lives,” he says.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">It’s also life as usual at Shambhala Publications, which
specializes in books about Buddhism and other Eastern wisdom traditions that
have taken hold in America over the past half-century. “We have always been
publishing to people who are seeking,” says publisher Julie Saidenberg. “I
think in general our books are not about affiliation; they’re about a practice
you do on your own.” Shambhala knows the turf, but faces the challenge of
renewing an older audience, since interest in Western Buddhism is primarily a
baby boomer phenomenon. <i>The Buddha Walks
into a Bar</i> by Lodro Rinzler (2012) has worked well for the publisher to
reach a younger generation that shies away from religious belonging. The book’s
message doesn’t urge the reader to sign up for anything; “You don’t have to
say, ‘OK, I’m a Buddhist,’ ” Saidenberg notes. Another challenge for Shambhala
has been finding the watering holes where seekers and the unaffiliated gather.
The house sells books direct and does a lot of direct mail outreach to
customers. “We haven’t been so great at finding out where the Buddhists are
hanging out online,” Saidenberg says. “It’s frustrating.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">The 30-year-old Beyond Words imprint is happy to see the rest of
the culture catch up with its readers. The house, which began as a small indie
but is now in partnership with Atria Books, made its mark with <i>The Secret</i> by Rhonda Byrne (2006), which
has sold more than 21 million copies. “The nones have, in essence, always been
around, but now this group has been given a name with certain distinct
characteristics,” says Cynthia Black, president and editor-in-chief. Those
characteristics include a willingness to see connections among science,
spirituality, religion, and health. “We have found that the readers in this
movement look for tools and practices to follow their own personal spiritual
quest, whether affiliated with a religious group or not,” Black says.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #262626; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.0pt;">Call
it secularization, personalized faith, meaning seeking, or “none” of the above.
Publishers of religion and spirituality books probably need not worry—if fewer
people look to institutional religions for guidance and inspiration, might not
more of them seek it in books?</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-51664020061196277572012-10-08T16:21:00.002-05:002012-10-08T16:22:48.796-05:00God is the Gift of Desperation<br />
<div class="article-byline" style="color: #999999; display: inline; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;">
By Marcia Z. Nelson | Publishers Weekly</div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px;"></span><br />
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Oct 05, 2012</div>
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<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
Anne Lamott fans who can’t get enough of her trademark humorous-neurotic-spiritual voice will thank their Higher Power for a second book this year from the essayist and novelist. (Earlier in 2012 Lamott published Some Assembly Required, about unexpectedly becoming a grandmother.) <a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-59463-129-0" style="color: #551a8b; text-decoration: none;">Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers</a> is what you would get if you crossed Brother Lawrence’s religious classic The Practice of the Presence of God with a Tina Fey routine.</div>
<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
<b>Will some of your fans think you’ve gone off the religious deep end with a prayer book?</b></div>
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<h3>
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<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
I think this is just so up my alley. It’s about prayer, but it’s really so much about life, how we get through the impossible or confusing times. It’s me in concentrate, like orange juice. I gave one talk in Tennessee on writing and one the next day on faith. The talk I give on faith and the talk I give on writing are really not all that different.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
<b>Do you think prayer really is this simple?</b></div>
<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
It’s about being in a gentle but structured relationship with a Higher Power and one’s own self and the truth, and getting the work done. You close your eyes, breathe, and say, “hi.” The reason “help” is such a great prayer is that God is the gift of desperation. When you’re in despair, you’re teachable.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
<b>How do you write? Do you have a routine?</b></div>
<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
With writing—and prayer—it’s about the development of habits. I try to be at work at nine (a.m.). If I set aside nine to one (p.m.), that’s good. Especially during an election year. I’ll be leaping up to check CNN.</div>
<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
<b>You’re voting this year, right?</b></div>
<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
I’m doing everything I can. I always do. I come by this honestly—my parents were always very politically involved. In 1959 we had bumper stickers and pens for Kennedy.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
<b>Do you prefer writing fiction or nonfiction?</b></div>
<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
Writing nonfiction comes much more easily for me. A novel takes three years, and the first year you don’t know what you’re doing.</div>
<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
<b>What are you reading to your three-year-old grandson, Jax?</b></div>
<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
Cat in the Hat. I begged for us to read something else. I can see Jax is on the bridge to his first chapter book—he wants there to be collagen to the pages. He would love to know what happens when the mother comes through the door.</div>
<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
<b>What’s next?</b></div>
<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
It’s a collection of new and old pieces about coming through the hardest patches of time and loss, As in Life. There will be pieces from Traveling Mercies, and some (previously) unpublished pieces. A third are brand new.</div>
<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
<br /></div>
<div class="article" style="padding-right: 10px;">
from Publishers Weekly, Oct 8, 2012/photo by Sam Lamott</div>
</div>
Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-23273525631638137182012-08-18T08:16:00.000-05:002012-08-18T08:17:46.280-05:00Recovery under construction; drive slowly<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOilsJ5AOdSC43r64tmpkrqAYLM65Pq7J-DzzSWiK5XfZyOVnitlkQXD7_3fqOud4KdM_PLnLXfcEHMZx48hL_rjcRy2364UMzdgq86nH9WOyWcu0-iU2MVDa6LeupyARQhrLNmA/s1600/under_construction_000003779327XSmall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOilsJ5AOdSC43r64tmpkrqAYLM65Pq7J-DzzSWiK5XfZyOVnitlkQXD7_3fqOud4KdM_PLnLXfcEHMZx48hL_rjcRy2364UMzdgq86nH9WOyWcu0-iU2MVDa6LeupyARQhrLNmA/s320/under_construction_000003779327XSmall.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Yesterday was day 12 since Bill's accident, and the road to recovery has not been nearly as bumpy as the ride he took through the corn or bean field where he ended up when the car went off Route 47. (The car, by the way, is still on the critical list; I haven't even seen it.) So I decided to take the wheel yesterday, since he has not been cleared for driving. It was a tiring day as Bill progressed to more mobility and I hovered anxiously (the hospital said you're a fall risk! I'll have to call 911 if you fall because I can't pick you up!) around his remarkable advances to everyday living activities.<br />
<br />
He thinks my sense of humor quit. I think it went to take a shower, a daily living activity I hadn't yet gotten to yesterday. He said, she said. So some harsh words came out at the end of the day, despite my best intentions to be a sainted caregiver, chief household financial officer in charge of doctor bills (they're here already), the religion reviews editor of Publishers Weekly (my day job), and bottle washer (a urinal is really just a well-designed bottle). He has a doctor's excuse. Me, I guess I was more tired than I thought.<br />
<br />
Our daughter arrived to help with care and household responsibilities. <i>Wunderbar</i>, I have someone else I can order around now. He went to sleep, I went to sleep. Sleep heals, and joy comes in the morning.Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-22699520423053216332012-08-16T07:32:00.000-05:002012-08-16T07:32:36.545-05:00Dark night of the body and soulYesterday I learned that just because you are medically stable doesn't mean you can't have bad days, or nights. Bill came home because he is medically stable, hallelujah, but he wasn't his usual articulate self. I have in a way relied on him to understand what he needs medically -- he's a nurse, right? -- but when his illness or lack of sleep or pain medications cause him to be confused, I don't know what he needs. It's like dealing with a baby, who can't tell you what's wrong. I called doctors twice, the hospital once, and got some information, but it still came down to, as one doctor said, trusting my instinct. My instinct wasn't as confused as Bill's, but it was certainly anxious.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn99eqdym5OcWWpQwUS6FTPOJfGzIIRxT4ZgqRULI5uWAfWxDHcqOhWyg91HQchW8UBJ0lsZR_44E6FSZreuOfx-RphXTRWCERJVHWrK4X5Wk6FuyT9h2SSySmzy9IraUV89M15A/s1600/JohnCross.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn99eqdym5OcWWpQwUS6FTPOJfGzIIRxT4ZgqRULI5uWAfWxDHcqOhWyg91HQchW8UBJ0lsZR_44E6FSZreuOfx-RphXTRWCERJVHWrK4X5Wk6FuyT9h2SSySmzy9IraUV89M15A/s320/JohnCross.jpg" width="271" /></a></div>
At 3 a.m. he got out of bed, which he wasn't supposed to do, groggy. (I was a little groggy myself.) When he lay back down, he groaned for a while in pain. Someone groaning in pain is a hard sound; my loved one groaning in pain was worse. I thought, after a while, when he settled into silence and sleep, of the biblical psalms of lament, with their expression of rending pain and sorrow. He has the pain, certainly; I guess I am carrying the sorrow.<br />
<br />
The light is here. All is not well, but it is better with my soul, and both of us have slept healing sleep. I cannot wait to get to the psalms of thanksgiving.<br />
<br />
<i>Blessed be the Lord, who has heard the sound of my pleading</i><br />
<i>The Lord is my strength and my shield, in whom my heart trusted and found help. (Psalm 28:8-9) </i><br />
<br />
(The image is of John of the Cross, the mystic who wrote about the dark night of the soul.)Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-31236104775923612622012-08-14T06:45:00.000-05:002012-08-14T13:55:24.090-05:00The Surgeon's HandsYesterday Bill was in the surgeon's hands, literally. The neurosurgeon, <a href="http://www.rushcopley.com/doctor/doctor-details/?id=703&searchId=e0f8112e-00e6-e111-9474-782bcb3b39aa&sort=10#Profile">Dr. Dmitry Ruban</a>, was very reassuring and had a wonderful bedside manner. How he is in the OR I can't say, but I see the results. Bill feels better, and the surgery may well be a key to assuring that he can resume the life he used to be leading until it crashed not to a halt, but a pain filled detour.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgefKE2sYKMsZb_s0pQh4t49TGWYhse5CmuotM2hUSAZIx-2MoETslO43L5HI-MJH1ebWBOggemQNAMgEKGGi9glI7A44AseoYwBfL8ZvJmXr6w7sOYkq8SFGG8Eztm2X7C6zlbXw/s1600/bh4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgefKE2sYKMsZb_s0pQh4t49TGWYhse5CmuotM2hUSAZIx-2MoETslO43L5HI-MJH1ebWBOggemQNAMgEKGGi9glI7A44AseoYwBfL8ZvJmXr6w7sOYkq8SFGG8Eztm2X7C6zlbXw/s320/bh4.jpg" width="320" /></a>And so when the gospel tells us that Jesus broke the rules and healed on the sabbath (Bill had surgery on Monday; possibly insurance forbids sabbath healing as well as going out of network), telling the lame man, "'Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.'" (John 5:8, CEB), is this a story about healing hands, told in another language and time and through different imagination?<br />
<br />
The first thing I thought of, since I was just introduced to this at seminary last week, on a day when my husband was in the hospital, was <a href="http://www.journeywithjesus.net/PoemsAndPrayers/Teresa_Of_Avila_Christ_Has_No_Body.shtml">Christ Has No Body</a> , a prayer attributed to St. Teresa of Avila. (Thanks, my new friend Cindy, for bringing this benediction to our last class meeting.) I paused the most at "Yours are the hands." So, whose hands? Dunno, but I gotta get up and get over to the hospital. I am up early; maybe Somebody gave me a shake.Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-73757122199953066142012-08-13T22:17:00.004-05:002012-08-16T07:34:35.307-05:00A Nurse Named AngelSo here's my joke. My husband Bill had a nurse named Angel, and an angel named Nurse. (Those who know my husband is a nurse will laugh -- I hope.) I get a call from Angel, and since I had met the surgical nurse, I assumed it was he, and not some other entity, calling to tell me that surgery was over and my husband did well.<br />
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<br />
The operating room, and indeed the hospital, looks like a model of interdependent community: two anesthesiologists (one short, one tall); someone monitoring neurological signs; surgeon; angel nurse; and assorted technicians. I met a number of them, and Bill saw a number more, maybe even some he missed because he was asleep. It's a complex system, and I found myself thinking of Thich Nhat Hanh's idea of interbeing (the image is by artist <a href="http://alexgrey.com/">Alex Grey</a>). Somebody made these monitors hanging on Bill's IV pole (There are three boxes). Someone gave these platelets (they look like peach juice) that are dripping, drip by drop, to become Bill. Platelets aren't artificial; someone has to donate them. Thank you, whoever did.Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-38303246585007464942012-08-12T16:56:00.000-05:002012-08-13T11:42:04.552-05:00Practicing the Presence of God<span style="font-weight: normal;">The last time my husband Bill almost died, I got a pretty good but unpublished essay out of the experience. Times have changed, bringing blogging along as a medium. But writing to think things through remains a motivating factor for any writer. So I guess I'll blog my way through this crisis, since I am a late adopter of new media. </span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPP4X31ix131d7o_5YURXiqKuoy5foHlCBKAfGWo_A6csPKN6vQTVoRYPEtoF4StbJcTcoKe-NTWT4HU-X8nlhqqfDi4NM7uLzTF8HNCtyfHeY28ilfXGIdURKiCvUuSydrTODIg/s1600/God_Is_My_Co-Pilot_(film).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPP4X31ix131d7o_5YURXiqKuoy5foHlCBKAfGWo_A6csPKN6vQTVoRYPEtoF4StbJcTcoKe-NTWT4HU-X8nlhqqfDi4NM7uLzTF8HNCtyfHeY28ilfXGIdURKiCvUuSydrTODIg/s1600/God_Is_My_Co-Pilot_(film).jpg" /></a><span style="font-weight: normal;">Another new thing in my life is that I am a seminary student. I was at the Earlham School of Religion doing an intensive course in spiritual formation. When Bill had his car accident, I was literally in the middle of the two-week course, miles away in another state, and without a phone signal (TMobile has heard from me about this). So I was in good spiritual shape to make the trip. Good student that I am, I learned a lot on the way. </span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">how to drive safely at 80 miles an hour;</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">how to imagine that Jesus was my navigator (I was hoping to get reacquainted with Jesus at seminary, and suddenly there he was in my car, like a handsome stranger had sat down next to me and said, "I'm here to help: take I-465, not I-865");</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">how to have real honest-to-God faith that God would get me through;</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">"God doesn't give you more than you can handle" has always struck me two ways. At times it strikes me as a meaningless and insensitive platitude that can annoy a grieving or shocked person. At other times it strikes me as true spiritual folk wisdom. It's true, even if not terribly original.</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">My husband and this accident help me understand the Bible and biblical history. I think of him as Paul, knocked off his horsepower on his way to Champaign-Urbana (you should see the horse), with God saying, "Bill, Bill, pay attention." It may not seem that way to Bill. But he doesn't mind being prayed for and he is spiritually open, even if uncommitted. And I think the story of the Road to Damascus is a memorable metaphor for abrupt change, catastrophe that is transient -- Paul is blinded only temporarily -- and course correction. </span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">So I am trying to make God a drinking buddy (I hear his son has a line on good wine) or become more aware of the presence of God in order to get through this crisis. Please continue praying and thinking healing thoughts; Bill has surgery scheduled tomorrow. </span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Feedback welcome, especially theological feedback.</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Gratefully,</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Marcia</span><br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
</div>Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-48945473395372301552012-02-13T22:05:00.000-06:002012-02-13T22:05:54.166-06:00Juicy fruit: about fastingAfter seeing the documentary <i><a href="http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/">Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead</a> </i> in which two men shrink before your eyes as they go on lengthy juice fasts, my husband Bill and I were inspired to do something similar. He wanted to do it for health reasons and because it involved buying a shiny new machine: juicer. I wanted to do it for health reasons and to lose those five pounds I have been trying to lose for about 5 years or so. We got past the ee-e-w factor (dinner usually tasted pretty green), swilled down a lot of fruit and vegetable juice (pineapples are a natural and carrots save everything), and managed to make it for five days. He lost over 10 pounds and I lost six. We also lost a certain amount of sleep, since neither of us all that well for the duration and felt especially cold at night. <br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The experience has given me whole-grain religion and some new guidelines for eating that are really simple: </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhzHq4jEV5Knpq5fsWAwjDhrpiLlquQ-VsA6lv34Vq37MRCOFJr41r_K27J1eRpp5OA7iwwxxiaLp-mmx4MiTOHZX549oXIqDDZiSLwQo8cB5rWKj61ghtfU6SgMb1EVkpPhgYKA/s1600/Fruit_vegetables_big.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhzHq4jEV5Knpq5fsWAwjDhrpiLlquQ-VsA6lv34Vq37MRCOFJr41r_K27J1eRpp5OA7iwwxxiaLp-mmx4MiTOHZX549oXIqDDZiSLwQo8cB5rWKj61ghtfU6SgMb1EVkpPhgYKA/s1600/Fruit_vegetables_big.jpg" /></a></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>put color on my plate</li>
<li>drink more water</li>
<li>avoid coffee in the afternoon</li>
<li>cut back on alcohol</li>
<li>eat more slowly</li>
</ul>
This is about eating mindfully instead of shoveling it in while reading a book or newspaper. I've seen these recommendations often, but never trained myself to follow them. I ate my first solid meal in five days slowly, with attention and appreciation.</div>Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-42636292719101322182011-04-30T06:57:00.002-05:002011-04-30T07:02:35.275-05:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOMWkspCPwdvVEWiQkcmlJmY5mEKO-dY5TCyZdA9U8psqD0lqFjJCV1gFOAEtwMmKCVcbJuoEvH1De0-_QpnkfhVolpU2wvPvZA094sgqzeQV4_o0DaQ9LOqhLgQTUb9waR1YDfw/s1600/sagrada.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601345734366963346" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 126px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOMWkspCPwdvVEWiQkcmlJmY5mEKO-dY5TCyZdA9U8psqD0lqFjJCV1gFOAEtwMmKCVcbJuoEvH1De0-_QpnkfhVolpU2wvPvZA094sgqzeQV4_o0DaQ9LOqhLgQTUb9waR1YDfw/s200/sagrada.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Barcelona</span></strong><br /><br /></div><br /><div>As pretty as Paris. And it has the Mediterranean Sea. Does it count as a green vacation when you've flown to a verdant Mediterranean area?</div>Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-18191912451792306272010-11-24T12:07:00.007-06:002010-11-24T13:02:02.575-06:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtnJXw1HpyIgfsZ7lRcPqhopgkYssTEHFkIWK_9JzV6GXwRQXVLB7bRhI_SIAvnomW0gXcam3WPPnB57A9Ewkfa-Z4AtPBT4Py6qvQF4_hDWoL32MSRCrBBC_ZRSGvBa4LWeXkPA/s1600/airplane.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5543192723736953250" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 97px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 124px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtnJXw1HpyIgfsZ7lRcPqhopgkYssTEHFkIWK_9JzV6GXwRQXVLB7bRhI_SIAvnomW0gXcam3WPPnB57A9Ewkfa-Z4AtPBT4Py6qvQF4_hDWoL32MSRCrBBC_ZRSGvBa4LWeXkPA/s200/airplane.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Stop the plane, I want to get off</span></strong></div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong></div><div>They call you a "distressed traveler" when an airline cancels your flight and puts you up at an hotel. I was in deep distress when I woke up earlier this week at 7 a.m. in an Atlanta airport hotel, almost three hours after I had requested a 4:10 a.m. wake-up call that I didn't receive. The predawn wake up was necessary for me to make a 6 a.m. flight on which I had been rescheduled the midnight before, after my 9:15 p.m. flight out of Atlanta's large (and not particularly well-signed) Hartsfield Airport had been cancelled. The flight was cancelled because the airplane door wouldn't seal shut, which the crew didn't notice till we had taxied down a runway. I got home the next day after another reschedule and an hour's weather delay.</div><br /><div></div><div>Think about air travel today: large groups of people are herded on and off airplanes that don't leave or arrive on time, afford precious little seat space, and can experience mechanical malfunctions. That's just the plane. Before you get into your cramped seat (where you will have time to sit and pray to the weather gods), you stand in a long line to check in at Generic Airport, or a short line to get rid of your bag (will you be using a credit card to pay for that?), or you shlep through the airport with a carry-on that you hope will fit in the overhead luggage bin and that contains -- properly packed -- the quart-size bag of creams and liquids (remember: 3-1-1!) that you need to remove from your bag for security scanning. Now comes the fun part: will you be having the body-scan or grope? You've got time in the security line to contemplate the prospect, while you take off your shoes. For this, we can thank the handful of wacky homicidal terrorists who changed the rules for us millions who are trying to peacefully get from point A to point B.</div><br /><div></div><div>Even apart from weather delays, air travel is always a perfect storm of contingent things that have to go right in a coordinated way. Weather and machinery must behave; it is definitely preferable to fly on a plane on which all parts are in working order. People on the plane must behave, too, even if airlines can no longer afford to feed them, a quaint amenity that left the too-large terminal a while ago.</div><br /><div></div><div>The ifs and inconveniences of air travel exact a price beyond the cost of the ticket. Minutes on the tarmac or in the terminal feel a lot longer than 60 seconds. We're all in this together; millions of people fly each week and routinely experience delay or cancellation by the planeload -- I was one of 50 people on my aborted flight. There's no point in complaining about the weather, nor any point in complaining about wacky homicidal terrorists. Complaining loudly seems to be working with TSA about its new grope-search. But there's no getting out of a security search; it's just a matter of degree.</div><div></div><br /><div>For me, the air travel honeymoon is over, and I want a divorce. I do love having a bird's eye view of neat green fields, orange city lights at night, and astonishingly tall mountains. But I hate airports. I hate long lines, overpriced coffee and cocktails, tight seating, and waiting, waiting, waiting, inevitable lateness even if I get to the airport early. It's lost time and a lost cause. I give up.</div><br /><div></div><div>I will be taking the train. I already have a few times this year. At least I know it will be late and I can plan accordingly. I won't get a bird's eye view, but I can see my country, up closer. I get space and time to work. No one will frisk me. Train food will never make the Michelin guide, but it ain't peanuts. I want the right scale of things, and I don't want to be subject to the whims of weather and terrorists with a box cutter to grind. I am bailing out of air travel and hopping on board the train.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div>Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-13110129421455242972010-09-13T19:11:00.003-05:002010-09-13T19:20:01.636-05:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOxtLwS2f5UWy461MJxo7jhy8deax1Y9_SNTtnz3h7Uck-5EKqBM9lJW9VaCfLxNpNLYD63bX5qAMVKA7LyhJL5bTflXr6J8zJAmDX2B_phxCl_pxvGICoePfMQml-__uVdHWaDg/s1600/O.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516557241594510658" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOxtLwS2f5UWy461MJxo7jhy8deax1Y9_SNTtnz3h7Uck-5EKqBM9lJW9VaCfLxNpNLYD63bX5qAMVKA7LyhJL5bTflXr6J8zJAmDX2B_phxCl_pxvGICoePfMQml-__uVdHWaDg/s200/O.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Give her a gold watch already</span></strong><br /><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong></div><div>Oprah begins year 25 -- the farewell season -- with not a lot of celebrities, which is appealing, and a trip to Australia for her diehard fans. As we say in Chicago, <em>ubi meam </em>(where's mine)? Seriously, folks, not a lot of people do the same job for 25 years and manage to keep their interest and their edge. Check out the <a href="http://www.oprah.com/packages/oprahfy-yourself.html">Oprahification machine </a>; I can't bear to post my result. Some things really are better if private. So I'll stick with my book jacket. </div></div>Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-25318396929872056232010-09-10T15:07:00.004-05:002010-09-10T15:21:28.208-05:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7NyTtBlsNLTjqioapkNshS2_wGo-xHsme5Iid6NFioFjvxtxXIu_uKd69K7EXjh4D70sammwSxuTp5ec8f_jwEnnBVrMjXvPt0SbgJQk8xR-EsPTzZaH4nLhSwtHT9Xvc1nu2ZA/s1600/eid.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5515382591350963394" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 121px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 120px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7NyTtBlsNLTjqioapkNshS2_wGo-xHsme5Iid6NFioFjvxtxXIu_uKd69K7EXjh4D70sammwSxuTp5ec8f_jwEnnBVrMjXvPt0SbgJQk8xR-EsPTzZaH4nLhSwtHT9Xvc1nu2ZA/s200/eid.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Eid mubarak</span></strong><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"></span><br />Submitted to the local paper:<br /><br />I’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">ve</span> been really troubled by the eruption of hostility toward Muslims in America that has been touched off by the proposal to build a house of worship and community center near Ground Zero in New York. I have a number of friends who are Muslim, and from them I’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">ve</span> learned a lot about the world’s second largest religion, and also about the world. I’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">ve</span> learned a lot about the value of regular prayer. I’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">ve</span> learned a lot about charity, which is one of the duties of Islam. I’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">ve</span> learned a lot about discipline. It takes discipline to fast for 30 days during the daytime, not even drinking water. I had the great good fortune to be introduced to the religion by a woman, an accomplished professional. I don’t think Islam teaches that women are subordinate any more than Christianity does. Cultures may get that wrong; cultures also get wrong the Christian teaching of nonviolence with distressing regularity.<br /><br />Apart from whether there are rights or sensitivities at issue with respect to building the Cordoba Center, I see this matter mostly as <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">unneighborly</span>. Muslims <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">aren</span>’t them, folks - - they’re us, if “us” means Americans, neighbors, and local residents. Thousands of Muslims live in the western suburbs; I’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">ve</span> eaten gracious Ramadan <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">iftars</span> – meals to break the fast – with some of them. I wish them all a happy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Eid</span>, the celebration that marks the close of Ramadan.<br /><br />I work as a book reviewer and recently received a beautiful new edition of the Koran from the publisher Oxford University Press. To stand with, and better understand, my Muslim friends and neighbors, I’ll be reading my Koran on Sept. 11, not burning it.</div>Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-76387141347166894792010-06-13T15:37:00.005-05:002010-06-13T16:17:32.616-05:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYikJeo4wmKlWRC0QupPdLE9-mosz0O7eDHPQ_oe0xrSxis_CfKmiK_NZqjM8JrdNY-zsmQm06BNV5EGwjmFzUsw50rUQfS0I8R8-n-B_e6m-P0oxvitEL_E-lkOf6xfQOrZ5F3g/s1600/california-mt-whitney.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482368218555395858" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 160px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYikJeo4wmKlWRC0QupPdLE9-mosz0O7eDHPQ_oe0xrSxis_CfKmiK_NZqjM8JrdNY-zsmQm06BNV5EGwjmFzUsw50rUQfS0I8R8-n-B_e6m-P0oxvitEL_E-lkOf6xfQOrZ5F3g/s200/california-mt-whitney.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Why it's hard to climb Mt. Whitney </span></strong></div><br /><div></div><div>We weren't surprised that there was snow on this 14,496-foot mountain in early June, but there's snow and then there's rotten snow. Rotten snow is the kind you sink into because it's soft and melting. That makes for slow going, what with stepping carefully and poking with your walking stick to see if the snow will hold your weight. And of course it also makes it harder to see the trail. This part of California got lots of snow this past winter, so there was more to contend with, and more to melt, swell creeks, and refreeze at night. We had to think a few minutes to plot a path across a creek just 20 minutes up the path: the water was stunningly clear, cold, and rushing downhill in a hurry. </div><div> </div><div>Another factor is sheer height. As mountain trails go, this one is not forbiddingly steep, merely long; it becomes more doable under better conditions. We backpacked for five hours up to Outpost Camp, the lower campground (10,300 feet), where we had a tent back-window view of a snow-fed waterfall. The deciding factor, however, was that one of us got sick. When that happens in the wilderness, there's no running to the urgent care clinic. The first rule of safe mountaineering is know your limits, and there they were. Most people we encountered on the trail did not make the summit; most of them also looked to be in their 20s, with really strong legs. In a spirit of prudence and disappointment, we turned back. (The picture is a placeholder till I load ours.)</div>Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-60899976945598461642010-03-24T17:07:00.005-05:002010-03-24T18:06:44.490-05:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVGndJOeb2MG5YH346-Uyo4u6h4rRy-9IFCJFQ-qL3b4QABV0jWKLP-Bg8LEAFl5li2IN9qWCOZH0M7GC-SGx51iyhRbsasV4caUzW1KAxT-M5Rqt2XSO_4P_k40ffuqoKIpPHAw/s1600/tutu5.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452336596030799426" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVGndJOeb2MG5YH346-Uyo4u6h4rRy-9IFCJFQ-qL3b4QABV0jWKLP-Bg8LEAFl5li2IN9qWCOZH0M7GC-SGx51iyhRbsasV4caUzW1KAxT-M5Rqt2XSO_4P_k40ffuqoKIpPHAw/s200/tutu5.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>The gospel according to Desmond Tutu</strong></span></div><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong></div><br /><div>I recently had the privilege of interviewing Nobel Peace Prize winner Tutu. We talked about peace and reconciliation somewhat indirectly, as the subject was Tutu's forthcoming <a href="http://www.zondervan.com/Cultures/en-US/Product/ProductDetail.htm?ProdID=com.zondervan.9780310719120&QueryStringSite=Zondervan">Children of God Storybook Bible</a>, which will feature his favorite Bible stories and center on themes of reconciliation and forgiveness. But peace was certainly in the room. He has an infectious laugh and lots of personal warmth. I had read his brand new <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061706592/Made_for_Goodness/index.aspx?AA=index_authorIntro_34737">Made for Goodness</a>, which answers the good question, " 'How do you keep your faith in people when you see so much injustice, oppression, and cruelty?' " The answer in the book takes more than 200 pages, so here is a summary that uses the bits I couldn't stick in the Bible story. </div><div> </div><div>He said: "This is a moral universe. This is a universe where right and wrong do matter. When you look at the evidence of history, (Stalin, Hitler, and their ilk) end up being part of the flotsam and jetsam. At home in the darkest hours, that what's we used to say: 'the apartheid government has already lost. ' It's not just whistling in the dark. There <em>is</em> a heck of a lot of evil around. Where the heck is God in all of this? Yes, God is there. ... Yes, people are good and in the end that good will remain."</div><div> </div><div>After spending only a brief time in his presence, I felt deeply encouraged. As much as his joy, his hope -- he doesn't consider himself an optimist, but does have hope -- is contagious.</div></div>Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-27637036951930940592010-03-02T13:54:00.004-06:002010-03-24T18:13:56.721-05:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFbEuhVWmiwnR0cv3KZDkqxhoAnpfA1gcskqx17qqLfy-aNzN2STvwqduSDfksmLr7aSt2EbA0xmCMuesj8dIZCplFl47yhBGCh5ISyYWFjJCnkExgtlddfbdiqn8PZPRKR68SIA/s1600/coldframe.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5452342260091329330" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 150px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFbEuhVWmiwnR0cv3KZDkqxhoAnpfA1gcskqx17qqLfy-aNzN2STvwqduSDfksmLr7aSt2EbA0xmCMuesj8dIZCplFl47yhBGCh5ISyYWFjJCnkExgtlddfbdiqn8PZPRKR68SIA/s200/coldframe.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Wee things</strong></span><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong><br />The temperature has gone beyond 80 degrees F in our cold frame and spinach, lettuce, and radish have all shown themselves, though not their true green leaves as yet. Word picture: spinach is skinny-leafed, radish is round-leafed, lettuce is little-leafed. What the camera sees -- they're the green things.</div></div>Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-25051465289601686782010-02-24T09:20:00.005-06:002010-02-24T11:19:43.845-06:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI9f99jZa8Ts0Kplp4lXoPjK_lqquCOQi8Mhmto2UkvW87dFmLM58lwnJsg0HYGVzEMmQK16NOLiPf9vhdpiz5dpY0ck5b_lpOm4JtdD2-DGZBkO2TY5R4JEYyK2gzauyxmUC3wQ/s1600-h/neilgaiman.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441856192914482946" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI9f99jZa8Ts0Kplp4lXoPjK_lqquCOQi8Mhmto2UkvW87dFmLM58lwnJsg0HYGVzEMmQK16NOLiPf9vhdpiz5dpY0ck5b_lpOm4JtdD2-DGZBkO2TY5R4JEYyK2gzauyxmUC3wQ/s200/neilgaiman.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Imagine that</strong></span></div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong></div><div>As a book reviewer and journalist who covers publishing, I sometimes think that everybody should read the same book I am, or, horrors, no one is going to be reading any books in the near future because they're all playing with their smart phones. Then I go to a Reading by a Famous Author -- <a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/">Neil Gaiman </a>as part of <a href="http://napervillereads.org/neilgaiman.html">Naperville Reads </a>-- and am seated in an auditorium with a thousand other people who like this author, and am enthralled to hear him read and it's all good. They sure sold a lot of books, too. </div><div> </div><div>Gaiman reads his own work exceptionally well (OK, the English accent helps, but maybe he'll pick up a little ya-dere, hey-dere from living near Minneapolis) and is exceptionally able to write across media (scripts, prose, graphic novels) and audiences; he writes for kids and adults. In this day and age of narrowcasting to specific groups, he's broader than many and way more imaginative than most. Maybe the energy of his young fans was contagious, but imagination has energy too. A lot of us still and always love stories, never mind the form. </div></div>Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-79151685584807124802010-02-22T17:05:00.004-06:002010-02-22T17:19:01.419-06:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkF6v95XuMX3fszRrXqwTEOfelghJ3yXknH9HGsDJBOSoE1EP8oXn-L3W_76-5rYGM2cyUsiNzVgjH6CAyi0PdYGsG3AZ2cew5Hsy2_hwN-QtNCt3Bz_-61XDZRmH2vcrrTpmYNg/s1600-h/JSSlettuce.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441210893674414930" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 154px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 161px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkF6v95XuMX3fszRrXqwTEOfelghJ3yXknH9HGsDJBOSoE1EP8oXn-L3W_76-5rYGM2cyUsiNzVgjH6CAyi0PdYGsG3AZ2cew5Hsy2_hwN-QtNCt3Bz_-61XDZRmH2vcrrTpmYNg/s200/JSSlettuce.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Lettuce pray</span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong></div><br /><div>The Nelson garden got a jump on the season with a new cold frame on our south-facing second-floor deck. Bill made the box out of lots of leftover materials, including leftover insulation. We started lettuce, spinach, and radishes and installed a thermometer (the one new item) to keep track of the temperature inside the frame. It snowed last night over the frame, and the temp went down to 40 degrees inside. No one is awake yet. </div></div>Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-45466450446837080632010-02-15T11:03:00.003-06:002010-02-15T11:34:20.489-06:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYCCH6xmVOnYUV4L5or1dubkJy-8kQ7FvUgt-2w83G1e5VUcqLouQ2ZMuTINZ6UYi8v376kqBaYRlMZBf3cgo0qedY-h4RGSa3MvJ_TZo0JLjrP1-gkWBl2BRE6FwThxE2-EkUqw/s1600-h/hero_irena_sendler.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438523547883658098" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 159px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYCCH6xmVOnYUV4L5or1dubkJy-8kQ7FvUgt-2w83G1e5VUcqLouQ2ZMuTINZ6UYi8v376kqBaYRlMZBf3cgo0qedY-h4RGSa3MvJ_TZo0JLjrP1-gkWBl2BRE6FwThxE2-EkUqw/s200/hero_irena_sendler.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Sto</span> lat Irena <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Sendler</span></strong></span><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong></div><br /><div><a href="http://www.polishamericancenter.org/StoLat.htm"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Sto</span> lat </a>is the song/greeting with which Polish people are feted on their birthdays or name days (the latter being more important). It means "may you live 100 years," and today would have been the 100<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">th</span> birthday of <a href="http://www.irenasendler.org/default.asp">Irena <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Sendler</span></a>, who was 98 when she died in 2008. Irena is a personal hero of mine; she was a social worker who smuggled Jewish children out of the Warsaw ghetto during WWII and worked with the underground organization <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Zegota</span> until she was arrested in 1943 and tortured, but she managed to escape execution. She was recognized as <a href="http://www1.yadvashem.org/righteous_new/poland/sendler.html">a righteous person by <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Yad</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Vashem</span></a> in 1965 and lived in relatively obscurity until she was "discovered" by Kansas students doing a history project. <em><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Sto</span> lat, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">sto</span> lat, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">niec</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">zyje</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">zyje</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">nam</span>.</em></div>Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-24472687068044211942010-01-27T10:39:00.003-06:002010-01-27T11:14:14.451-06:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ywdgkFliVME3RAL3-ig_xID1X8o_Urn1oedFMBs2mBYREpr45sEUojsztAkcJgs3NcqZBQ0XSBl4KdnxwLhfH90GC51XPlsgtcMIR01RmViAXx9ean3vXl0YYUYX10C1fik1xg/s1600-h/Vegetable-Garden300x318.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431464769980193362" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 189px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-ywdgkFliVME3RAL3-ig_xID1X8o_Urn1oedFMBs2mBYREpr45sEUojsztAkcJgs3NcqZBQ0XSBl4KdnxwLhfH90GC51XPlsgtcMIR01RmViAXx9ean3vXl0YYUYX10C1fik1xg/s200/Vegetable-Garden300x318.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Eat food. Mostly plants.</span></strong></div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong></div><div>Wish I had said that, but <a href="http://www.michaelpollan.com/">Michael Pollan</a>, who was on <a href="http://www.oprah.com/showinfo/Food-101-with-Michael-Pollan">Oprah</a> today, got there first. I'm amazed at how rapidly and thoroughly food production has changed. I live near the line between urban and rural. When I was a local news reporter, it always amazed me to hear about city kids coming to a local dairy farm to find out where milk came from. They didn't know. The store, right? I lived through this once already, going back to the garden in the '60s, before highly processed food was king and when Wonder Bread was just that -- a labor-saving wonder. Is cheap food all that cheap if it's making us fat and chronically ill? I'm up for a change, starting in my own back yard. The next revolution will be in the garden. </div><br /><div></div>Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-77656837441488300772010-01-25T19:19:00.006-06:002010-01-26T10:42:22.616-06:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvzA1zUItsCGFl9Peg26rkPlvGd6RsedY5z9TtENzOeIOtBvYQc97MPB2XeIL_7apeFIMWjcoXAJsk149kWTDA7_ZoCHav9WSESYKlb7W2CneliaWr-8mSngc0ZgN1XpbXZJUu4w/s1600-h/vickystarr-1992-dt_oc.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5430862337655914674" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 129px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 149px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvzA1zUItsCGFl9Peg26rkPlvGd6RsedY5z9TtENzOeIOtBvYQc97MPB2XeIL_7apeFIMWjcoXAJsk149kWTDA7_ZoCHav9WSESYKlb7W2CneliaWr-8mSngc0ZgN1XpbXZJUu4w/s200/vickystarr-1992-dt_oc.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>RIP Union maid Stella Nowicki</strong></span></div><br /><div></div><div>I attended a memorial service for Vicky Starr, a union organizer in the 1930s on Chicago's South Side, mother of my husband's very good friend, and a subject (she's Stella Nowicki, her "underground" name) of the Academy Award-nominated 1976 documentary <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075372/">Union Maids</a>. Time passes, and that's history. In attendance, all these white-haired folks, singing the chorus of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Maid">Union Maid </a>by Woody Guthrie (as sung by Pete Seeger). These used to be dangerous Commie agitators; now they've got white hair and walkers and have outlived chief FBI paranoid <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover">J. Edgar Hoover </a>and are a little forgetful of who is listening to their stories. We listeners forget that cops shot union organizers; we forget a whole lot. <em>Union Maids</em> is a great little slice of history, showing how history is made: somebody decides to do something, and that somebody is not a hero, just a mom of someone you know. Vicky did her job with dignity. Amen and thanks. </div>Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-69322174089456964412010-01-04T13:30:00.005-06:002010-01-04T15:11:52.767-06:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrKivbkiNLekbfCut2hQpSt2mkgaldboxMZ2U08iP6jbchgCluXfjVuY6G-8zQI8LBCgscJvNKN20okcPyikM-20MJV5rT3jvURgiyT_iFi6vvsJlrI-Z9nIlqNwrhZucJbP8cwA/s1600-h/ackermanbn.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422994911405877394" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 132px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrKivbkiNLekbfCut2hQpSt2mkgaldboxMZ2U08iP6jbchgCluXfjVuY6G-8zQI8LBCgscJvNKN20okcPyikM-20MJV5rT3jvURgiyT_iFi6vvsJlrI-Z9nIlqNwrhZucJbP8cwA/s200/ackermanbn.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>What I'm reading</strong></span><br /><br /><div><div><em>The Zookeeper's Wife.</em> Diane Ackerman.</div><div></div><br /><div>If Hitler had a hierarchy of hate, Poles were somewhat better off than Jews, but not by many rungs. Ackerman's book is a truly fresh perspective on the Holocaust, from inside Warsaw (85 percent destroyed in WWII) and from the viewpoint of Antonina Zabinski, wife of Jan, keeper of the Warsaw Zoo. Animal life took a beating along with everything else in the war -- the zoo was bombed during the 1939 invasion. In a beautiful twist, the mostly empty zoo became a place of shelter for 300 Polish Jews during the war years. The Holocaust and WWII are so overwhelmingly evil and destructive that I am compelled to understand the resistance to Nazis. It is documented at Auschwitz, and documented here; at the Zabinski home, Jews lived in hiding alongside Jan (who worked with armed Resistance forces), Antonina, their little boy Rys, a chicken, a hamster, a badger, a muskrat, a rabbit (those were among the various house pets.) A wide circle of species, interconnected, learning survival. </div></div>Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19395061.post-26766025660144259622009-12-01T17:49:00.004-06:002009-12-01T18:15:25.755-06:00<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG5aAWh6jk3kXYMPSL3k92FK0ITs9az5C0FKaPi0mKKaonxy888M9PnEKvlhXRyC_Yu37xVQgn4W5AeZXQ0VJVAuETF9SoUw9bp8UnM-s69rYwXw2J06fTmb8rzHrkvi0JsCanUA/s1600/O.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5410425588297151410" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG5aAWh6jk3kXYMPSL3k92FK0ITs9az5C0FKaPi0mKKaonxy888M9PnEKvlhXRyC_Yu37xVQgn4W5AeZXQ0VJVAuETF9SoUw9bp8UnM-s69rYwXw2J06fTmb8rzHrkvi0JsCanUA/s200/O.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">My O-pinion</span></strong></div><br /><div></div><div></div><div>Oprah Winfrey had the temerity to announce the ending of her talk show in 2011 while this Oprah expert was otherwise engaged. It ain't over tomorrow, but The End Is Near. This is completely consistent with her style of doing things that are economically prudent and psychologically smart (she would say soul-smart); when you get the lesson, it's over. There are new worlds to conquer on cable; a lot of us can sympathize with the need for ongoing learning and new challenge. She sure doesn't need the money. She also has some time to cultivate a structure for succession that is not now in place. Ellen? Dr. Oz? Oprah already helps produce the latter's show. As the O-empire has grown, she has taken her hands off lots of things. The culture pundits say her influence will wane; I think it's morphing, going where the action is, with niche audiences and concerns. </div>Marcia Z. Nelsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10163790891173068208noreply@blogger.com0