Sickness and Reading

 Well, ugh!!

I am sick now. Ugh.  

The kids kept complaining of a sore throat and I was sympathetic but now that I have the same sore throat I am shocked at how painful it is! Not all the time, but some of the time, especially when I wake up in the morning. Which reminds me, I need to take some ibuprofin.

Ok, I am back.

I also have completely lost my voice. But my breathing is good, so praise God!

I paid big bucks to get a COVID and 2 types of flu test from Amazon. I tested myself and they were all negative. So I guess this is some random annoying virus. And annoying is the word!

Strep throat occurred to me but strep is usually localized and doesn't have a cough with it. So I don't think so.

Sarah is sick today as well. I thought she already had this but apparently not. I lost track.

Anyway. Enough whining.

So I have been reading a lot lately, even more than usual, and I always read a lot. It is my favorite hobby.

I wonder if any published writers who are moderately successful are not big readers. It seems like reading and writing would go hand in hand.

This last fortnight I read a couple of books by a man named Joe Tasker. He was a mountaineer who climbed many difficult mountains before dying on Everest at the age of 34 in 1982. Obviously a long time ago. He turned in his last book to his publisher right before heading for Everest, where he died.

I love reading mountain climbing books for some odd reason. I also like reading about polar exploration, especially Antarctica.

Why? I guess it is because explorers and mountain climbers are weird people and I like reading about weird people. I like to think about how different they are, and how their brains work.

Also, there is nothing to make me feel more calm about an illness then to be curled up on my couch, sipping tea, warm, with plenty of oxygen, while reading about people miserably climbing tall mountains.

Anyway. Joe Tasker was always going to die on the mountains. He was not a careful person who had any sense of self preservation. There were two times in his books where he ALMOST died. Came within a hairsbreath of dying, and yet he wrote that he always thought maybe he was being a coward and always felt this internal desire to push himself farther.

He was high up when he died, along with his friend Pete Boardman, who also died, and no one knows exactly what happened, but neither man seemed to have much self preservation.

Another mountaineer who writes well, who has lived to a decent age, is Ed Veisturs, now age 65, who has climbed all the mountains over 8000 meters. He was the first American to do so. He also writes autobiographically, and his perspective was very different from Joe Tasker's. Namely, Veisturs said over and over that getting to the top wasn't the most important thing, getting down was. He was always willing to give up a climb if he thought the conditions were too dangerous. Now he would be the first to say that ANYTHING can happen on a climb, but he was very conservative, unlike Joe Tasker, who was downright reckless at times.

I find both men interesting. Tasker died young doing what he loved, but it is still sad that he had this inward drive to go upward beyond what his body could handle. Veisturs is even weirder in a way, because he took on a very dangerous career (after becoming a veterinarian as a young man) and yet approached it with care.

Yep, interesting.

As I breathe in the thick oxygen of near sea level and drink lemonade.

Very interesting.

And I would never, ever, ever want to climb a big mountain.

Books!

 I read a lot. A lot. I love to read. It is my favorite hobby.

The last few weeks I have read a few really good books and thought I would talk about them. 

Number 1: All Systems Red: the Murderbot Diaries

This one is science fiction, and I don't read a lot of SF. When I do, I like humor, and All Systems Red has plenty of it. It is an absolutely brilliant book about a self aware cyborg who goes through a bunch of stuff... well, let's just say it is very funny and also very moving. There is a little swearing but not horrific. I have read it twice because it is so much fun and I caught things the second time I didn't "get" the first time. Also, the first six books of the series (yes, there are more!) are on Kindle Unlimited!

Number 2: The Doorbell Rang by Rex Stout.

I have read this one at least five times before but it is so much fun. Nero Wolfe is a 285 lb brilliant detective and Archie Goodwin is his assistant. Archie is the "voice" -- the books are in first person. This one was particularly enjoyable.

Number 3: How We Love by Milan and Kay Yerkovich

This one isn't "fun" but it is thought provoking and helpful. The Yerkoviches are a Christian couple who work as therapists. They contend that most people have an "imprint" about how they relate to others, usually based on personality and upbringing and life experiences. It definitely hits the spot regarding me. I am an avoider, which means I tend to manage my own emotions and not reach out for help. I am very smart and have always been an intellectual, and talking about emotions isn't easy. I have learned how to in the last 26 years of marriage which is very good. It was still useful to read the book again, and think about the children and how they talk, or don't talk, about their feelings. Feelings are important, and if they are strong enough, they can cause a person to lash out in anger (when in fact they are feeling fear, or grief). So yes, interesting and good book.

Number 4: Unveiling Grace by Lynn Wilder

This one was recommended on some FB group of mine and yeah, the library had it!  It is the story of a woman and her husband who entered the Latter Day Saints faith (more commonly known as Mormon) and after thirty years in it, decided it wasn't true and they became evangelical Christians.

I am an evangelical Christian. I am confident the Mormon faith is wrong.  The book is fascinating and well written. One of the things that struck me the most, though, is how easy it is to get confused about meaning when people of two different religions are talking. Words that mean something in one faith journey mean something entirely different in another faith journey. Mormonism is largely a works based religion. In order for an LDS individual to achieve the "celestial kingdom", which is the highest and best of kingdoms, he or she has to do a lot of stuff. They need to serve and they need to have a temple ordinance and they need to do this and that and the other.

I believe that there are only two destinations after death, heaven and hell. Heaven is the dwelling place of those who trust in Christ for salvation. Ours sins were washed away by His blood on the cross. We do "good things" out of gratitude for his sacrifice and love, not because we are trying to earn our way into heaven.

These are diametrically opposing belief systems. There is way more than that; the LDS faith has a lot of very, very, very different beliefs. We can't both be right.

But yet, when an LDS person and an evangelical Christian person talk, they may well talk at cross purposes because what a member of the LDS means by "grace" and "salvation" is different than for an evangelical Christian.

Words definitely matter! Probably when talking to an individual of another faith, it is super helpful to define words in common which may mean something very different based on one's faith.

(Some) Criminals are total idiots

 I don't know if I have ever said this before...

content warning!  I am going to talk about actual murders!  

Not graphically but I just wanted to say if that kind of thing is too upsetting, don't read further!

So I watched a bunch of episodes of a New Zealand show called Forensics, which is about murders in that country which were solved largely through scientific methods.

I find forensics interesting, and I also love New Zealand accents.

So anyway, I did find the episodes interesting, but it was depressing how incredibly stupid many of the criminals were.

Murder is wrong.  That is just...so so so obvious. You shouldn't murder anyone.  Being a soldier in war, or a policeman, or someone in authority is a different matter because I believe there can be justified killing but I'm not talking about that -- I am talking someone gets mad or wants to steal someone's else's stuff  and murders one or more people in the process.

Now if you are evil enough to plot to kill someone, then it seems obvious to me that you'd want to do it in a way which would keep you out of prison for most or all of the rest of your life. That just seems basic sense, right?

Of course murder is terrible.  I'm just saying, from a self preservation point of view, it would be sensible not to murder someone if it is almost certain that you will be caught.

Several of the murderers in question on this show (all were convicted) were stupid, but one of them was particularly idiotic.

He was the ex boyfriend of a woman and was mad that she had broken up, so he decided to murder her. (First degree -- it was planned.) So he snuck into her house, killed her, stole her phone, and started sending out bunch of messages supposedly from her claiming that she was afraid of a stalker at work.

Ok, yeah, that sounds kind of sneaky.  The idea, obviously, was it to look like she was sending messages about a stalker, and then when she was found dead, the police would go after the hypothetical stalker.

But.

He was not a strong speller and when he wrote the text messages, he included numerous spelling errors that the woman would never make.

He made a big deal about how she had told him about the stalker and that he was at her work place, but no one at work knew anything about a stalker.  Furthermore, she was very happy at work. Furthermore, her ex boyfriend HAD been stalking her and her coworkers knew that and told the police.  He had also sent her threatening messages.

So the police were all over that, of course -- they were like, ex boyfriend is probably the culprit.

And then they found a bloody fingerprint on her door, and it matched his fingerprint.

Like. Wow.

Like, dude you are so so so stupid!  You concoct this moderately elaborate plan to murder this innocent woman and LEAVE A BLOODY FINGERPRINT!

Sigh.

Of course I am very glad he was caught and convicted. Horrible man.

But it is kind, I don't know, scary -- yes, scary, that there are idiotic people out there who will commit crimes and apparently genuinely think they will get away with it in spite of all of modern technology pointing their way?

Maybe the smart criminals don't get caught. 

Musings on Andy Weir

 This is going to be kind of rambling, I suspect.

Andy Weir is a now very famous author who has published three books: the Martian, Artemis, and Project Hail Mary. 

He was a software engineer and total science nerd who wrote The Martian for fun and posted it free on his personal website.  He had written many other things before that, but The Martian was the most popular.   A bunch of people loved it (which is reasonable -- it is AWESOME) and asked him to put it into Kindle format. He did, priced it at 99 cents, and threw it up on Amazon.  It was enormously successful and a publishing house came calling and published it and it was a hit.  Then a movie was made from the book, which is also really good.

So I adore The Martian except for one thing, which is there is a lot of profanity. I don't like profanity. But it is such a wonderful book that I have read it several times and just skip over the profanity.  The basic idea is that an astronaut gets stranded on a Martian base in the near future and has to figure out how to survive while people on Earth struggle to rescue him.  The protagonist is funny and witty and so even though he faces life and death situations frequently, it isn't too heavy.

Weir wrote Artemis next and I read like one or two chapters and gave up because I really didn't like the main character.

THEN came Project Hail Mary, which was released in May.  Since it was destined to be a best seller, the Kindle version sells for $14.99.  I just can't handle that. I can't.  Wow.  Too much money for a book which I might have hated. Yes, I am cheap.  So I got in the queue to borrow it from the library and weeks later, I got it.  I read it this week. AND I LOVE IT.  It is so much fun, as much fun as the Martian but with way less profanity. The main character is a junior high science teacher turned astronaut who has to save the world, and Weir decided to make the guy less profane.  Which I appreciate a lot.

Anyhoo, I don't want to spoil the plot but will say that alien life forms are a big part of it.  The Martian is science fiction as is Project Hail Mary, but the latter is more "out there". We have sent probes to Mars, after all and know a lot about Mars; we have never sent a probe to a planet orbiting another star, so Weir had to be more inventive.  It is great fun and he worked on the science a lot.  Main character is very appealing.

One thing that pops up over and over is the concept of evolution. Of course. Because most scientists and science nerds believe in macro evolution.  By that, I mean that they believe life started somehow and evolved through millions and billions of years to get where we are now with people and many other animals and insects and reptiles and fish and hundreds of thousands of different kinds of plants.

I do not believe in macroevolution.  Now, smarter people than me do believe in macroevolution, and smarter people than me don't believe in it. I think it is not so much an intelligence issue as a world view issue.

I understand people believing in evolution. Most have been taught it is true in school, after all. But it does annoy me (a lot!) is that many scientists start with the following belief.

1.  There is no God, and therefore everything we see must be caused by natural processes.

No, just no.  Just no no no no no!  You don't START with an assumption that has not been investigated scientifically! In my view, there is every reason under the sun to believe in a Creator God because our world is too complex, our animals are too complex, our plants are too complex, WE are too complex to come about by chance! And the physical constants are insane in our universe! They are balanced so perfectly to permit life.  Every time I have a twinge of doubt about my Christian faith, I think about the universe and Earth and people, animals, and vegetation.  Because wow, we are truly amazing.

Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel is an awesome book that talks about all the ways that science points towards a Creator God.  

So it is a great book, Project Hail Mary, and also absurd in its own way, but that's fine.  It is tremendous fun.

  

Book Review: The Saint, the Sinner(s), and Eddie by Eddie Love and Christina Ledbetter

I bought this book on a whim and am almost done with it but since I'm in the mood to write a blog, I'll write a random review now.

I'm not saying buy this book, necessarily.  It's very amusing, which is nice.  It's also fascinating in the horrifying way that, say, a train wreck is.

The Eddie in the title, a middle aged man with a much loved wife, a few kids, and a passel of grandchildren, decided to submit his spit for DNA testing.  He wanted to find out if he was Italian, or Irish, etc. etc.

The results were unexpected.  It turned out the man he thought was his father (Edwin), wasn't his father. His biological father Marshall was another businessman in their small community of Orange, Texas.

His official dad (who wasn't really his father) and his bio father were both deceased when all this came out.

Eddie discovered he had a whole bunch of half siblings.  His biological father was extremely promiscuous.  (And actually, his father Edwin was too. Both families were extremely dysfunctional. Eddie himself, until he met his wife, was also promiscuous though he was totally faithful to his wife, which is a good thing.)

It is a very, very funny book. You wouldn't think it could be, but the main author (Christina) manages to infuse a whole bunch of humor into their hunt for answers.

Here's the unnerving thing, though. At some point, one of Eddie's true half sister's handed him a huge box of letters, which were filled with love missives from a whole bunch of different women to Marshall, Eddie's biological father.

These women were apparently crazy in love with Marshall. They were sleeping with him, they were sending him heartfelt letters, they were over the moon about him.

And he was playing them all. He was just all about scoring, all about seducing other men's wives, and the more important the man, the better the score. It was totally disgusting.  In the case of Eddie, his mother (while married to someone else) was impregnated by this Marshall person.

As a Christian, I am firmly of the belief that sex is meant for marriage.  So yeah, I think any kind of sex outside of marriage is unhealthy.  I realize in this day and age, this is an unusual perspective.

The especially tragic thing with Marshall was that he wasn't just having one night stands with women who knew it was a one night stand. He (while married) was having numerous affairs with various women who believed he and she had something really special going on, that he was going to leave his wife for her.  And there were so many women like this.

Yuck.

I guess I'm thinking that having an affair with a married man is just always a bad idea.  How is this not obvious?  He was married to someone else, he had kids with other women. 

I am a cautious person.  Of course, my religious beliefs are a big part of how I view sexual relationships but even apart from that, I just can't imagine taking the RISK of having an affair with a married man.  It just seems STUPID.

I'm in a mood, obviously.  I probably sound rude. But it is just crazy to me.  I guess I have a deep and abiding skepticism about people. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like a lot of people.  I do. But when I think of this smarmy, very charming man managing to get a whole bunch of women to sleep with him it makes my skin crawl.  You really can't trust people if you don't know them pretty well, I think.  And I believe that if a man is willing to have an affair with a woman, that shows his morals are skewed from the start.  And if a woman is willing to have an affair with a man, her morals are skewed.

It does go both ways.

Off track a bit -- I just finished Elementary, a fun mystery series about Sherlock Holmes in modern times in New York City. Mostly it is great except, you guessed it, for the views of the main characters about sex. They do have random sex with various people.

But interestingly enough, even in that show, where random sex is considered normal, affairs are always portrayed negatively.  Often they are the root cause for a murder.

So I think even in our very sexually free culture, affairs are usually frowned upon. So don't do it, anyone!

Ok, enough. This was a weird post. 

It is a very funny book though.

On a Lighter Note...

Amazon is no longer providing overnight deliveries for basic things. Maybe it is for more vital supplies?  I don't know.

Here is the thing.  When we order something, if we are willing to not have it shipped overnight, we can check a tab for delayed shipping and earn $1 of Kindle currency.

Usually.

Now, because ten million people are ordering a hundred million things from Amazon, they have bumped that up to $3 of Kindle currency.

So every time we order something, and are willing to wait for it, I get $3 of Kindle money to play with.

Be still my heart!

It is so exciting!!

I love Gerald Durrell, a (now deceased) man who was an animal nut and wrote many, many books about animals, his life, and his zoo in Jersey (off the coast of Britain.)

He. Writes. So. Well.  Like crazy well.  Like, wow.  He is amazing, and hilarious.

His books cost $10 on Kindle.

I just can't handle it.  That is so much.  I'm so cheap.  

But, Kindle currency is like free money, right?  So yes, I am acquiring Durrell books slowly as my delayed shipping money shows up in my Kindle account.

Joy.

Delight.

Ecstasy.

Book Review: Daniel by Tammy Chupp

I read a book this week, simply entitled Daniel, by my high school friend and classmate, Tammy Chupp.

Tammy and I were in the same grade in school.  After graduation, she went on to earn a nursing degree, got married, and had a little boy named Daniel. When Daniel was 13 months old, he was killed in a freak accident. 

I honestly was so nervous buying Tammy's book.  As a mother of many children, some of them still quite young, the reality of death in children is very hard.  I have suffered much anxiety at the thought of losing a child because it happens. It does.  In Daniel's case, it was a tragic combination of events and  I know know know that there but for the grace of God go I.  I have lost track of kids briefly. I was afraid of reading about it both because my heart weeps for Tammy and her husband and because I was worried I'd be sad and upset after reading the book.

But I wasn't. I read it in its entirety in one day and it was wonderful. Yes, very very sad.  But Tammy and Rod, her husband, are devout believers of Jesus and through the absolute agony of loss, they clung to Jesus.  It has been more than 25 years since Daniel went to be with Jesus, and the Chupps are now a happy family. They were blessed with 3 more beautiful children and now they serve the Lord, and live a good and joyful life, in the same area where we went to high school together.

 I truly appreciate real books about grief.  I have had my own share of grief, though nothing as agonizing and visceral as the loss of a baby I'd met and loved. I've lost 6 babies to miscarriage and those deaths were very very difficult, but that is different from an empty house where a baby once roamed free and happy.

  So yes, Tammy's book balances real sorrow with real hope.  It isn't trite in any way.  Losing their son was a horrible, painful experience. But God was with them always.

Star Wars Holiday Special

I'm an original trilogy Star Wars enthusiast.  In fact, I love it so much that for a long season I didn't engage in the Star Wars fandom because God pointed out I loved it too much.  But a few years ago, He gave me the green light to go back to being a reasonable Star Wars fan.

So yeah, I love Star Wars. Original trilogy. The prequels are Ok. The latest are dreadful.

Kevin had a treat for me a few days ago. He brought me downstairs and found the 1979 Star Wars Holiday Special on youtube and we watched it.

Ok, so I loathe the Last Jedi, the last Star Wars film, for myriad reasons. But after watching the SW Holiday Special, I have to admit that the Last Jedi looks slightly (very very slightly) better.

The Holiday Special is awful beyond words.  Wow. I mean, wow.  I mean, who came up with this ridiculous show?  Well, partly the answer is the writers of the Carol Burnett show, actually.

The first 10 minutes of the show involve three Wookiees interacting and roaring to each other without subtitles. It doesn't get any better after that.

It is hideous, so hideous that it is glorious.

So thank you, Kevin, for expanding my universe to include the dreadfulness that is the Star Wars Holiday Special.

21st Anniversary

Aren't we cute?

21 years of marriage as of the end of June!

Hard to believe in many ways.  

I am so blessed by Kevin. He is truly my best friend. We have a whole lot in common (including a great deal of esoteric knowledge about materials) and he is a loving, faithful, and committed husband and father.

We went to a work picnic on our anniversary itself. For reasons that aren't clear, I didn't feel great that afternoon and evening so we didn't go out for dinner. The next day I felt fine so we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant and then to the THEATER for a MOVIE.

We rarely go to the theater, being cheapskates from way back.

We saw the Star Wars Solo movie, and thankfully, and somewhat surprisingly, enjoyed it.  I say surprisingly because we watched The Last Jedi a month ago or so and loathed it.

Thankfully we saw the Last Jedi on a library DVD so didn't waste any money.  I've ranted about that movie on fanfiction.com (as part of my ongoing Star Wars fanfiction hobby) so I won't burden you. Suffice to say that we thought it was totally lousy.

:-)

Happy anniversary to us!

"If There is a God..."

Ok, another commentary on a Kindle Unlimited book I just read.

The book is called Life and Limb, by Jamie Andrew.

Very short synopsis.  Jamie Andrew was and is a mountain climbing dude.  I love reading about mountain climbing though I have no desire to climb mountains personally.  Just keep me down at normal levels were the air is thick and horrible storms aren't likely to catch me out.

So Jamie and another friend (also named Jamie) were in the Alps trying to climb a mountain when a horrible, unexpected snowstorm hit.  (It was winter, by the way.)  They were trapped for 5 days or so and his friend died.  Jamie was finally rescued by helicopter.  He was very badly frostbitten and lost his hands and feet.

Wow.

His attitude is pretty incredible. There were a lot of 'what ifs' about his friend dying, of course.  He had to grieve the loss of his appendages.  But he got prosthetics and worked hard and is back to climbing mountains.

All that is admirable.

What startled me, and grieved me, was his brief discussion about the existence of God.  He said that while he was freezing to death on the mountain, he didn't experience any spiritual epiphany.  Ok...well, he was miserable and hypothermic so that is probably not very surprising.

He decided that if there is a God, and he's not sure there is, He is probably a benevolent God who won't mind that he has no faith.

Full stop.

Ok....

So, if a person is an atheist, he is wrong. There is a God.   But at least if he convinces himself that there is no God, it is logical to ignore God.  If there is no God, we're all just organisms struggling through life, we're all just individuals who will die forever and ever, and it doesn't matter a lot what one does with one's life. 

But agnosticism -- maybe there is a God, maybe there isn't -- is quite common and Jamie Andrew describes himself as an agnostic.

And he decided, on grounds that were hard to follow, that he just wouldn't worry about a God who might exist.  If God exists, He's nice (why would he be nice?  On what basis have you decided He is nice?) and Jamie can just carry on living his life as he chooses without any concern about what God wants for him.

That is just sad.

Jamie Andrew is not a 'bad' man.  I mean, he doesn't kill people, he doesn't sell drugs. But he's a sinner like you and me.  And he is living his life ignoring the reality that God has every reason and right to expect something from him.

God is not nice.

I mean, nice just sounds mellow.  God isn't very mellow.

Jesus Christ came to earth, born of a virgin, lived, taught, then DIED one of the worst deaths that humans have found to inflict on one another, because WE ARE SINNERS.

Those are not the actions of a mellow, 'nice' God.

The Lord of course has given us all, including Jamie Andrew, the opportunity to make choices.  We have free will.  Jamie is perfectly free to continue his life ignoring God.

But while he is ignoring God, God is not ignoring him.  His sins are many, because all people with the ability to think and move and exist are sinning, and Jamie Andrew doesn't have a savior.

Yet. I pray one day he looks into this whole question of God and does some seeking, and some finding.

Update

Well, wow, 2 weeks since I posted. That's bad.

So we are healthy again, praise God!  Isaac kept coughing and coughing and finally I took him in. His lungs were a bit wonky so the doctor put him on antibiotics for walking pneumonia.  He is all better now thankfully.

I'm usually the picture taker, not the person getting her picture taken. Kevin took my picture and it turned out well, so here it is.  It is interesting getting 'older'.  I mean, we all are all the time, but I do feel like I'm moving into a new season. No new babies,more than  few gray hairs (though thankfully to lucky genetics, I'm still mostly dark haired), more aches and pains.  It's all Ok.  I just have to adjust.

Try to ignore the horribly dirty window. The cats continue to be SO much fun.  They are cute and rambunctious and sometimes adorably cuddly.  

Lydia got her temporary driving license, which I may have said before. So far she is doing well on the road.

I took all the kids except Isaac (who was sick at the time) to get their eyes checked at the optometrist.  We have 6 kids in glasses.  Today I took all 6 of those kids in to pick up their new glasses, except for Isaac who had to have his old one's repaired.  (He sees the optometrist in a couple of weeks.)  An older gentleman in the office commented, "I hope you have good insurance."

And we do. We are blessed to have a vision insurance that provides one pair of glasses each year.  My own eyes are in great shape. I don't need reading glasses and indeed only need glasses at night.  My night vision isn't the greatest.  Again, getting old, but I'm thankful for my good vision.

I found a mystery series I'm enjoying by a lady named Miranda James. They are called the Cat in the Stacks mysteries.  They are of the 'cozy mystery' genre.  The violence is real but not graphic, the person who dies is always extremely, super, over the top annoying (so you don't really regret he/she is dead) and the main character is interesting and nice.  The solutions to the mysteries aren't brilliant, but they are Ok.

The writing is, in my opinion, better than in most cozy mystery series.

The only issue I have with it is that the main character (a male librarian in his late 50's) is totally mellow and happy about the sexual relationships of various unmarried people in his lives, hetero and homosexual.  He attends church and prays occasionally though there is no discussion of Christ so it isn't a Christian book per se.

It's fine.  It's just noticeable to me that many books accept out of wedlock sex as normal, and while it may be normal in our culture, I don't believe it is wise, right, and/or good for people.  Sex powerfully binds people together and therefore it is something that should be kept for marriage alone.  It creates a strong sense of intimacy, tying people together.  Sometimes people who shouldn't be together. All this, I know, makes my views seem old fashioned these days. I'm cool with that.

Ok, gotta go.  I will try to update more promptly next time.

Oh, this Sunday is the yearly excursion we've all been waiting for, our trip to King's Island!!

Books on Missionary Life

I spent 3 years of my childhood in Bolivia, South America, where my parents served as missionaries with Wycliffe Bible Translators.

Since I WAS a child, I of course look at it all from a child's perspectives. There were some totally awesome things about being a missionary kid, and some hard things as well.  That's true about most things in life -- there are great things and challenging things.

I've enjoyed reading many missionary books through the years.  During the last month, I've read three great missionary books.

The first is "Captured" by Carolyn Miller.  Carolyn and her husband and young daughter LuAnne(age 5, I believe) were captured by North Vietnamese forces at the end of the Vietnam War. They spent close to a year in captivity. It wasn't an incredible awful experience as they were quickly recognized as non combatants.  But still, captivity in the jungle as POW's with a small child was pretty rough.  It was interesting to me to read about the mixture of the mundane with the spiritual. The reality is that almost every life has plenty of mundane, irritating moments.  Miller and family had lots of battles with ants and wet beds and trying to cook food and trying to keep clean. One thing she specifically commented on was the joy of throwing away their clothing when they were released as their clothing was very worn.  But in the middle of their daily struggle for survival were many God moments, when the Lord guided them and encouraged their hearts, when He answered prayers. They were released eventually and reunited with their 3 older children, who had been in school in another place.

I read 2 other great books by Kim Abernethy, entitled "In This Place" and "In Every Place". These are  incredibly REAL missionary books about a missionary family serving in the 1990's and 2000's. I've read books where the missionaries seemed to be floating on a spiritual high where the struggles of daily life didn't seem to weigh them down at all.  Those never seemed very realistic to me.

Kim is incredibly open about her struggles.  She and her husband and (eventually) 3 children served as missionaries in Liberia, Ivory Coast, and Jamaica before returning to the United States to work in a college campus ministry.

They had not one, but TWO, traumatic evacuations during their missionary life.  The first was in Liberia, when a rebel army effectively chased them out of the country on short notice.  Following that, they went to Ivory Coast to minister to Liberian refugees.  Kim and her husband nearly had a nervous breakdown after less than a year of ministry, because the needs were so great and the living situation so difficult.  They had a 2 year stint in Jamaica where they were renewed, then moved to Ivory Coast. After a few years there, they were chased again by another uprising.  Seriously, dudes, that is RARE in missionary life nowadays.

I'm guessing Kim's books sound depressing, but they are not. She mixes humor into her prose, and she also has a great many POWERFUL spiritual insights.

I am not someone who likes traveling all over. I love my roots, I love my grocery stores. I love living in the same house for 10 years.  The missionary life does not appeal to me, though I hope that if we are ever called, we'll go with courage.

But regardless of our earthly journey, we can learn from those living in different circumstances.  These are inspiring books.

Books and Movies and Politics, Oh My!

  I feel tired, somewhat physically, mostly mentally.  So this week, we're having a light week of school.  I may take some kids clothes shopping for spring/summer clothes, and we WILL enjoy the spring like weather.  The forecast is for 70 degrees on Tuesday!  Amazing.

  I was thinking, what would I do if I had all the time in the world? Answer: read fun books and watch movies I like.  Ha.  I am reading more than usual right now. I stumbled across a new mystery series, the Flavia de Luce mysteries by author Alan Bradley.  Flavia is an 11 year old fascinated with chemistry in general and poisons in particular.  She isn't an exemplary character and her family relationships are complicated.  But the writing is brilliant and the plots are interesting.

  And speaking of messed up main characters, I took the plunge and let Lydia read Harry Potter. I've held off 'til now, but she is 14 and a half and old enough to analyze books, so, here we go. She loves them.  I read the first book the week after I had Daniel, and I was enraged by a number of the plot themes.  The "good" magical people are irritating incompetents in many cases, and their abandonment of Harry as an infant on the door step of evil relatives did not make me happy.  I was flooded with post partum hormones and held a newborn son in my arms, so I felt really really angry at the indifferent people who should have protected Baby Harry. There are other reasons I don't like the Harry Potter books, but it feels fine to let Lydia read them.  As the kids get older, they have to be discerning.

  I'm still drawing the line at the Twilight series, as I don't like the themes in that series EVEN MORE :-).  Books about a teen girl totally OBSESSED about a man bother me.  When the man in question is a vampire, its even more problematic.

  Another book I'm reading is The Martian, which is the book the movie (by the same name) is based on. Kevin and I watched the movie recently and really enjoyed it. There is some language in both the book and the movie, which makes it problematic for younger people.  But yeah, really quite a brilliant plot with many interesting facets.

  I've been stressing about the political situation, but am doing better about laying it at the Lord's feet.  A couple of weeks ago, the Lord reminded me of Israel during the time of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. They were horrible people and horrible rulers, but the Lord preserved a remnant of His people who never bowed the knee to Baal.  I have no idea what our political future holds.  A country where Donald Trump will likely be the Republican nominee is a screwed up country.  It really does remind me a LITTLE of Adolf Hitler, not that Trump is a Hitler. Praise God for THAT.  But he does say such screwy, terrible, ugly, nasty, vindictive, childish things, and people still vote for him.  Hitler was actually elected leader of Germany, and he had already written Mein Kampf, with it's open hatred of the Jewish people, and people still voted for him. Enough that he was elected. Crazy.  Hitler was, apparently, a compelling speaker and a smart man (and a psychopath.)  I'm not saying that Trump is the same, I AM saying that the man has said many things that make him an embarrassment.  I won't vote for him. And I won't vote for Clinton. So...I might not vote for a president this time around.

Book Series Review: Enola Holmes by Nancy Springer

Every once in a while, I run across a book series that delights me. It is always like finding gold, since I enjoy reading so much, yet am fairly picky about the books I like.

Enola Holmes is aimed at 4th to 8th graders.

Enola is the fictional younger sister of the fictional Sherlock Holmes.  She is only 14, whereas her 2 older brothers are much older (she was a late in life, surprise baby.)  On her 14th birthday, Enola's eccentric mother runs away and Enola's 2 brothers, who have not seen Enola since she was 4, turn up and decide to send her to a boarding school. They do so out of love, but with limited understanding of the unpleasantness of boarding school life for an intelligent girl raised without corsets and with an inquiring mind. Using money her mother left for her,  Enola flees to London, and the next 6 or 7 books describe her making a life for herself as a "Perditorian", or a finder of lost persons.  She is thus a detective like her brother Sherlock, and uses disguises and brilliant thinking (and luck) to find a variety of missing people.

I described one of the books to Naomi, and she correctly pointed out that this kind of book usually drives me mad.  One of my big "things" is that young people should be protected and one of the reasons I hated the first Harry Potter so much was that magical "good" people dumped poor Harry on the doorstep of abusive relatives.  So why do I like Enola Holmes, where a 14 year old has to make her way safely through the cesspool of 19th century London after her mother abandoned her?

It's a good question, but I guess mostly the series is so light hearted that while Enola runs into danger, she is never badly hurt and it is exciting to know that she is clever enough to extricate herself. And that is another thing -- Enola, at age 14, is way more competent and smart than I am at 46. So she's not a very realistic 14 year old :-).

Much of my enjoyment has to do with her older brother Sherlock. I've been a Sherlock Holmes fan for decades, and each book includes amusing run ins between Enola and Sherlock and Mycroft.  Sherlock genuinely loves Enola and she knows that, but she also knows that boarding school life is far grimmer than her older brothers understand.  Pleasantly, the last book of the series ties up the family problems in an almost completely positive way.  I've always enjoyed books about fugitives, and in this case Enola is a fugitive from brothers who love her and really want what is best for her, so that makes it light hearted as well.

Heartily recommended.

Book Review (sort of): the Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

This is only sort of a book review because I only skimmed this book, which has taken the decluttering/organizing world by storm here in this country. I waited for weeks and weeks to borrow the digital version from the local library.

The author is Japanese and I'm guessing this was originally aimed at a Japanese audience.  It therefore has an interesting flavor, because she throws in matter of fact comments about life that don't correlate well with American life.  The most...interesting, I will even say disturbing to me, was the section about household gods and talismans and family alters.  Japan is a largely non-Christian country, so the spiritual outlook is very different from my own.

So...basically this book wasn't amazingly helpful to me. The author has an interesting way of looking at possessions -- specifically, she recommends only keeping items that "bring you joy."  That is to say, she seems to be encouraging people to tap into the "feeling" side of their brains, maybe the right side, and items that "spark joy" are kept. Everything else is discarded.  She thinks of possessions as being animate, to the point that she verbally thanks her purse and wallet each evening for their hard work for her.  Which is weird to me.

The basic THOUGHT has value to me.  Why hang onto items that are still "useful" but I don't really enjoy anymore? But her whole LIFE and personality (and worldview and religious view) are very different from mine. I know some Christian Americans have read her book, took what was useful, and really ran with what she had to say.  Her method has transformed many lives, and provided they aren't being pulled astray spiritually, I think that is totally cool

And I am writing from the perspective that Christianity is true and ancestor worship is a false religion, just to be clear.

The thing that blew me away the most made some sense but not to me.  She recommends that people literally pull out every item of clothing they have and pile it on a bed and go through each garment one by one.  Every garment that "brings joy" is kept.  Every garment that does not bring joy, is discarded.

I like the idea of an "go for broke" analysis of clothing, but WHO has TIME for that kind of thing?  She is a single woman.  I am a mother going bonkers chasing 3 preschoolers and teaching 6 older kids. I do not have 6 hours, or even 3, to devote to a job like that.

Her book section was even scarier. She recommended pulling every single book off the shelves of every bookshelf.  All of them. And then touching each one (the touching part is important for some reason) and deciding if a book "sparks joy." Her recommendation is that most people get rid of almost all their books. She says a really great reader might have 30 or 40 books that they might read again, and everything else should be discarded.

But of course, she's not homeschooling a passel of kids. I do adore books and have quite a few favorites I keep, but the vast majority of books in our home are for homeschooling, for the kids.  She says not to declutter "other people's stuff" but really the books ARE "my stuff" since I am the one assigning them to the children.  But while I do go through and discard books on occasion, I'm certainly not getting rid of most of them!

So again, there are some thoughts in this book that are useful, but we are worlds apart in terms of lifestyle and mostly her method just doesn't correlate well with my personality, my religious beliefs, my lifestyle, and my family situation.

Book Review: Between a Rock and a Grace Place by Carol Kent

  This is the second book I've read by Carol Kent.  Her story is a sad and challenging one, but she has managed to find contentment in life and blessed many people through her books.

  The first is When I Lay My Isaac Down, which describes the incarceration of her only child, Jason, for first degree murder.  There was no question that Jason did commit the murder of his stepdaughters' biological father, because he was afraid the father was going to abuse the girls.   The various underlying issues that resulted in the murder are fascinating but ultimately it is all a tragedy, both for the man who died,  and his family, and for Jason and his family.

  This book, Between a Rock and a Grace Place, is full of personal stories (Carol's stories and others as well) and Scripture about persevering and finding contentment regardless of one's circumstances.

  I have to admit that I feel weird about the Kents' situation.  Weird and horrified and grieved.  I consider my children a huge responsibility and I suppose like most parents, I really want them to do well in adulthood. What "well" looks like, I don't know. I want them to follow the Lord. I want them to work jobs that are satisfying and useful -- whether that is in the workplace or at home as parents to children.

  The thought of all my kids ending up in prison due to first degree murder is just dreadful. Of course, I can pretty much guarantee that ALL my kids won't end up in prison like that, and it is almost certain that none will (Lord, please protect my kids from going nuts and murdering people!)  I don't know why the Kents had only one child and that's none of my business or concern, but they sort of put all their parenting eggs in one basket (to use a complicated metaphor) and until Jason was in his late 20's, he lived an exemplary life.  And then, murder, public and ugly trial, a life sentence, and a series of denied appeals.  So now the Kents are facing life without grandchildren (the wife and stepdaughters have moved on, apparently) and their son is stuck in prison 'til he dies.

  Yep, that is a hard thing to cope with.

 And it is a good message for me. I'm a perfectionist and I like things to be clean, neat, tidy, and good.  I dislike a messy house (though our house often IS messy) and get down about it.  Compared to what the Kents have gone through, I don't have anything to complain about.  But I still do. I still feel dissatisfied with life and fret about the difference between my ideal, and reality.

  Carol Kent's ideal is as far from reality as the earth is from the sun.  But she's content.  She's learned to thank the Lord for what she can. Jason has committed his life to Christ, and spends much of his time working with and discipling fellow prisoners.  That is good.

  I guess another point is that this life really is a blip in eternity.  To me, the thought of languishing in prison for decades until death is horrifying.  The death penalty seems easier. But we all need to embrace what the Lord has for us.  Sometimes it is pretty hard.  Sometimes is very hard.  Jason, of course, "deserves" his fate in that he stalked and murdered a man in cold blood, though his mental state was pretty wonky at the time.  But I still feel sad for him.  God is loving him, and using him, where is at.  That' s a great thing.

 

Book Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

For all that I LOVE to read books, I usually don't like "the classics."  Many are gloomy or depressing. I get that many authors are plumbing the despair of the human condition, or making a point, or expressing outrage at the world system, but I usually read for fun.  I don't like depressing.

Fahrenheit 451 is a classic, I think. And to my total delight, I LOVE the book.  It is AWESOME.

It was written a long time ago, in the 1950's, and describes a dystopian society where "firemen" don't put out fires, they start fires to burn books.  I think many people who talk about the book talk about it in terms of book censorship, but the issues are way larger than that.  Essentially, the culture described in this book has embraced pleasure and simplicity and destroys books because no one wants to really THINK or grapple with difficult concepts.

It is a powerful book.  With lots of amazing ideas. AND, the prose is...wow...just...phenomenal.  Wow.  I mean really, Bradbury paints pictures with words like Van Gogh painted pictures with oils.

Given that my life consists largely of cleaning and cooking and disciplining 4 year olds and changing diapers, I relish times when my brain is engaged intellectually. This is an intellectual book in some ways, but also -- not really fun, I would say, but so fascinating it IS fun. I mean, we're not talking humor here. It's not amusing.  It is soul searching. It is penetrating.  It is good.

I read it because I've assigned the book to our big girls, who are working through a Christian based study guide produced by Progeny Press.

I think I'm more enamored with the book than the big girls are but that's Ok -- we don't always get to read books we love. And this book is worth reading.  Highly recommended.

Book Review: Karla Faye Tucker Set Free by Linda Strom

I received the above book yesterday, when I visited a homeschool sale and the book was being offered for free.  I found it a fascinating, disturbing, and compelling read, and since I was feeling a bit sick I gave myself permission to read for hours, so I finished it by bedtime.

First question is: who is Karla Faye Tucker?  Answer: she was a convicted murderer who was executed by the State of Texas in 1998, and had the dubious distinction of being the first woman executed in Texas in 35 years.

This book is written by a dear Christian friend who met Karla while ministering at the prison where she was being held.  Linda visited Karla at least yearly for more than a decade, and more often at the end of Karla's life as her execution date approached.

The book is really good. So...first off, Karla very definitely committed the murders.  She was high on drugs and full of hate when she and another man broke into an acquaintance's house one night to steal motorcycle parts. The owner and a friend of his were home, and both were brutally murdered by Karla and her friend.

Karla became a Christian while awaiting trial for first degree murder.  She believed both in the grace and forgiveness of Jesus, and also realized she needed to speak truth. So she pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to death in 1984. She wasn't executed until 1998, which just shows how SLOWLY the justice system grinds along in death cases.

I could say a lot about this book and my thoughts are jumbled, so I'm just going to throw out a few things.

One is...I feel better about Karla's execution because she was definitely guilty.  It can be argued that the state shouldn't execute people but I don't necessarily agree.  I think the death penalty can be appropriate.  I DO find it unnerving that people are sometimes discovered to be innocent of a crime long after they were found guilty.  If someone is executed and is really innocent, that is awful.  Horrendous.  At least in Karla's case, there was no shadow of a doubt that she was guilty. She admitted very openly that she committed her crimes.

Two, the slow process of execution seems like one of the worst things about capital punishment.  Maybe this is just me, but wow...for the death sentence to take more than a decade to carry out seems like cruel and unusual punishment.  I guess this is typical for death penalty cases.  Lawyers know what to file and there are numerous appeals and it all takes tons of time.

One of Karla's friends on Death Row was 2 days from execution when she was granted a stay of execution.  The government later commuted her sentence to life in prison, so she'll die in prison but won't be executed.  I am not sure that is better, honestly -- if one is a Christian, being with Jesus SEEMS better than being stuck in a maximum security prison for the rest of one's natural life.

But that brings me to another point. Karla was in prison for 15 years before she was executed.  Other men and women spend their entire lives in prison for murder (and maybe other crimes?)

To me, that seems like such a wasted life. But really, we all are living under a death sentence, aren't we?  I mean, we're all going to die, unless Jesus comes back first.  Karla and her Christian friends had a real and powerful ministry behind bars.  Interestingly, Karla's vibrant faith proved to be incredibly helpful to those who came in to minister to HER and the other Death Row inmates. The author's son, who struggled with a drug addiction off and on through his young life, met Karla and she helped turn him around as she had also battled drug addition.  Another friend learned about forgiveness through Karla.

Linda Strom claimed that hundreds of people through the 15 years of Karla's time behind bars met her and many were profoundly changed by her. That sounds like a valuable, useful ministry in spite of the fact that she was locked up away from the world.

I think one unnerving thing about the book is that it opens a door to a whole culture that I am dimly aware of, but which I don't really understand/  I mean, of course, prison culture in general and Death Row culture in particular.

I have always liked to be in control.  I am a first born engineer.  I think the part of Karla's story that sounds the WORST is having basically no control about anything.  Prison has a lot of rules and many of them are oppressive -- not necessarily out of cruelty, but because prison is full of dangerous people who will hurt each other and the prison personnel if given the chance. It is also a place full of many sad and angry people.  Karla's early life was truly horrible, with abuse and drugs and alcoholism and fighting between her parents. That doesn't excuse what she did at all, but  it IS true that children in abusive, dangerous homes are more likely to get in trouble with the law.  So prisons are full of hurting people.

I might add more later but the kids need me. This is a good book.  A thought provoking book.

More thoughts (Monday morning now...)

I've thought off and on about the death penalty during my life. I don't necessarily feel like I've "nailed down" my view of execution, partly because I don't feel the need to.  Let me wander off on a tangent at this point.

So the world is full of all kinds of issues.  There are some that directly result in specific choices.  Homeschooling is a fine example.  Kevin and I started researching homeschooling before our first child was born. We knew at some point, Naomi would need educated (as would all her sibs) and we needed to figure out how and where she would be taught. We decided homeschooling was right for our family.

Some issues, like global warming, don't affect my daily choices nearly as much.  I'm not sure about global warming.  There are valid scientific data from both camps.  I haven't made the time to investigate global warming (and by this, I mean MAN MADE global warming) in great detail. Why?  Well, because it doesn't fascinate me, and it doesn't affect my choices.  I guess a strong man made global warming advocate would say Kevin and I are leaving WAY too large a "carbon footprint" by having a bunch of kids.  We believe, with all our hearts, that God called us to be open to a large family, and every one of our children is a specific blessing from Him.

Right now, I have the general feeling that man made global warming isn't the issue that many say it is.  Maybe I'm wrong.  If so, it doesn't affect my moral decisions very much.  It isn't really a "voting" issue for me, because my litmus test issue when I vote for a political candidate is that I'm ardently pro-life.  Many global warming advocates are so called "pro choice" (not that I prefer that term, since many women who have abortions feel they have NO choice) and that means I won't vote for them.

So I don't feel like I need to totally "figure out" global warming.

It is similar with the death penalty.  My views on the death penalty will not change my behavior, I think.  I mean, I guess if some nutjob politician was advocating the execution of every person in jail, obviously I would vote against him/her.  But one thing the Karla Faye Tucker book showed was that the death penalty, when administered, is done rarely with plenty of appeals.

This morning, this minute, I am feeling "anti death penalty."  I think the reason is that I don't trust the system.  The woman who was executed in Texas AFTER Karla Faye Tucker apparently had a pretty incompetent state appointed attorney, who was rebuked by the Texas bar 5 times.

I have a wispy memory of a story I read in the last year.  A woman named Gloria was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison, or something like that (she was not sentenced to death.)  15 or 20 years into her sentence, she became friends with a woman who was ministering to prisoners. This lady is the mother of some celebrity(I think an athlete) and was rich.  Well, this woman (I'll call her Joan, which isn't her name -- I'm just tired of saying "this lady") came to the conclusion that Gloria was possibly innocent. So Joan started an investigation into Gloria's case. Joan spent $100,000 of her own money and eventually discovered, without a shadow of a doubt, that Gloria WAS innocent and that state prosecutors had lied and deceived to get Gloria convicted.   Gloria WAS released, but it would never have happened if her friend didn't intervene.  It was a disgusting travesty. The truth is, the system is broken.  Sadly, many prosecutors are all about "winning cases", not discovering the truth.

So that's my main concern with the death penalty, though I guess of course it spreads across the criminal justice system.  Those who are poor and disenfranchised won't be able to hire really good defense attorneys.  We KNOW there are innocent men and women locked up in prison for crimes they didn't commit.  At least if they are still living, we can set them free if the truth comes out.

Though as I said, a life in prison seems way worse than dying and being with Jesus. And as I said earlier, at least we know Karla Faye Tucker was guilty -- which is a relief.

So, rambling thoughts on a Monday morning on a myriad of topics.  Have a blessed day!

Reviews: Pacific Rim movie and Portal games

I could talk about serious things but I'm not in the mood. There has been lots of noise around here -- some happy, some not -- and it is hard to focus on deep cogitations.

Last night, Kevin and I watched most of a recent movie called Pacific Rim.  It's apocalyptic, about humans waging battle against giant beasts that are emerging from a transdimensional portal under the ocean. The humans use giant robots to battle the monsters.  It is very Japanese -- rather like Godzilla.

So far we like the movie quite well.  I like that all the main characters are noble.

I don't recognize ANY of the actors.  I don't watch a great many movies, but I have a retentive memory for actors' faces (weird, because I don't remember people I've met in person very well) and none of these people ring any kind of bell.

But there is ONE familiar actress, and she is a voice actor.  She is the voice of a computer in Pacific Rim, and...she is the voice of THE computer GLADOS in the video games Portal and Portal 2.

The Portal games are some of my favorite in the world. They are puzzle games, where your character has to progress through the game by shooting portals in strategic places.  That probably won't make sense unless you've seen it. The important part here is that both games "star" an insane computer named GLADOS.  At the beginning of the first Portal game, she sounds quite sensible.  As the game progresses, she gets weirder and weirder, and crazier and crazier.  She is SO much fun.  The kids and I enjoy quoting Portal quotes to one another.  One of our favorites is hard to understand out of context, but I'll throw it out anyway:

"Put your weapon on the floor and lie down in the party submission position.  A party associate will come by to escort you to your party, and there will be cake!"  (There is no cake and no party.  The crazy computer wants to kill your character.)

In Pacific Rim, she is still a computer but a sensible one. It is funny hearing "that voice" saying normal, logical things :-).

Review of Daddy Longlegs by Jean Webster

Somehow I ran across the title Daddy Longlegs, and found it was free on Kindle. It is a novel that was written around a century ago, so obviously is from a different era.

The basic plot is that an orphan girl named Jerusha is, at age 17, unexpectedly blessed by an unknown benefactor of her orphanage so that she is able to go to college.  The benefactor's only stipulation is that she write him a monthly letter about her progress.  She catches a glimpse of him as he leaves the orphanage the day she learns of his gift, and she sees that he is tall so she nicknames him Daddy Longlegs.  Except for the first brief chapter which explains the gift and the orphanage and a little about Jerusha's childhood in the orphanage, the rest of the book is in the form of letters to her Daddy Longlegs.  He never writes back personally though does send her occasional gifts and directives from his secretary.

Spoilers ahead.

I am guessing this is one of those books that most people really like.  It got good reviews on Amazon.   I enjoyed reading it but I tend to analyze things a lot and there are many issues with the book.

The first has to do with spiritual issues.  The main character is raised in an orphanage where apparently she was taught a form of Christianity that she disliked.  In her letters, she takes many swipes at Christianity and clergymen and churches.  I guess that's fine in the sense that many people do have problems with being raised with a wrong picture of the Lord.  But Jerusha learns to analyze and evaluate in college, but never seems to focus any of that training on religion.

The most unhealthy quote about God is when she disparages a minister and says that she, personally, will believe in God as she wants Him to be -- kind, generous, loving, and patient.  Now God is all those things, but God is a great deal more and it is very dangerous for someone to decide based on personal wisdom what God is like.  People are free not to believe in Him and many do.  Jerusha apparently decides that she believes in God, but will create Him in her own image.  The truth is that we are all humans limited by our brains and our experiences and if we just base our view on God on how we FEEL about things, we'll probably get into trouble.

Here's the other big issue I had with the book.  While at college, Jerusha meets the young and wealthy uncle of a fellow student.  He and she click and see each other periodically and fall in love.  Jerusha eventually turns down his marriage proposal as he is from a good family and she has never had the courage to tell him that she grew up in an orphanage and isn't from "good stock".  Keep in mind this was written 100 years ago when family line was a bigger deal than it is now.

Jerusha really likes the young man and near the end of the book pours out her sorrow about the breaking off of the relationship to her Daddy Longlegs.  He in turn finally writes her personally saying she should come into town to discuss the situation with him face to face.

It probably is no surprise to the astute reader that the young, wealthy uncle IS Daddy Longlegs.  He had apparently liked the sound of her from her letters and developed a relationship with her without revealing that he was her benefactor.

I guess most people consider that romantic. I think it is creepy.  I would be very unhappy if I was in that situation. She is very open in her letters and talks extensively about the young uncle and her view of him, and he is reading those letters.  At the end, Jerusha is thrilled to discover that Daddy Longlegs and her love are one and the same.  I'd be freaked out that someone would basically deceive me for years like that.

I realize this is from a different era and that may be part of the equation here.  I do think it is good to evaluate the messages in books. One of the messages here seems to be that deception in a close relationship is fine.  I don't like that message.