Feast or Famine in the Wilderness

Hunger adds flavor to any meal.

I am fasting this morning.  I am fasting in prayer that Heavenly Father will help me and each member of my family to open all the doors of possibility and that He will push us through the right ones;  that He will help us to take any needful action on our part that is necessary for Him to do His part; that He will help us to find the path and pur our feet upon it.

I have been ill for several weeks.  On Friday morning I made a journal entry in which I expressed I held no hope for relief from my present life situation.  On Saturday morning I received an e-mail post which held out to me a baton of hope.  This happened just fifteen minutes short of twenty-four hours when I had no hope.  This is how I came to realize how tightly my physical health is bound to my spiritual health.  I felt the weight of worry and despair that I have been carrying leave my body particle by partical.  I was exhausted.  I gave mental thanks for being able to breathe.

And so I came to see that I have been having what I will call a "wilderness experience".  I am coming to see that this experience has been necessary and that it was necessary that it be NOW.  In this context let me introduce Babbette.

Babbette's life was good, and yet it was unbearable--even in the time of her being surrounded by all that she needed to become and be the artist that she was in the finest kitchen in Paris.  The very wealth and oppulance which drew upon her gifts smothered the lives of her friends, neighbors and family.  She was part of the "resistence" which overthrew her clientele and made it necessary for her to flee France.  A string of events that happened years earlier brought her, penniless and ill,  to the threshold of a pair of devout spinster sisters.  These sisters were persuaded to keep her in their service by a letter of introduction which Babbette presented them.

Babette began her wilderness experience.  Not one soul in this tiny community understood her great ability.  Indeed, they could not even guess.  In this remote and simple village Babbette gave freely what she could, never complaining, never demanding, never correcting.  She quietly went about rendering service and using what simple means she had at hand to make life more pleasant for the sisters and their little flock of fellow believers in their austere congregation.  Their pastor father, long since deceased, had relied heavily upon the help of his two young and beautiful daughters while he was alive and highly regarded among the faithful.  Both daughters gave up opportunites of love, fame, and fortune to remain by their father's side.

Two events brought to Babbette an opportunity to both honor the sisters' charity to her and to give her an opportunity to bless others while at the same time releasing the long hidden gifts of the artist she truely was.  One was her receiving 10,000 francs and the other was the sisters' desire to honor their father with a little feast at the 50th anniversary of his passing.  Babbette persuaded the sisters to allow her to prepare the menu and the feast, all at her own expense.  They reluctantly agreed.  Their reluctance grew to anxiety as they watched the ingerdients parade into their kitchen.  They sectretly visited their congregants, desiring of them that the meal be attended but not accepted. They feared that this meal would usher in damnation of a sort.

Luckily for them all a former suitor of one of the sisters who had found worldy success and acclaim had returned to visit his grandmother who was among the sisters' invited guests.  He was added to the list, bringing the number of diners up to twelve.  It was this man who recognized Babette's genius and interpretted it to the other guests.  He even had an ephiphany of the savior's grace which he shared with the little group.

 Meanwhile, the feast had worked it's magic upon all around the table.  Over the years petty slights and arguments had festered among them to the point of excluding harmony within their hearts and among their association with one another.  Somehow the elgance of the dishes, the table decorations, the fine wines, the delicate dishes, all combined together to soften their hearts and open their minds to a higher truth.  Whether they understood or agreed with the little speech on grace, they did feel it.  They were each transported to a happier place in ther memories -- to a time before their perceived suffereing.  They opened up and laughed and forgave -- forgave themselves and forgave one another.

This is grace--the miracle of forgiveness. 

Man is that he might have joy, and have it more abundantly.

It is better that we pass through sorrow, that we might recognized the good.

There must needs be an opposition in all things.

Conference Call Notes: Babbette's Feast by Isac Dineson (will correct spelling of author's name later)

I really enjoyed our discussion last night and got way more out of the story as we talked. Below are the notes I took and transcribed. I was distracted at the start so I missed some of what we talked about in the opening comments. If anyone has anything to add, please do so.
Natasha
"Babet's Feast"

November 28, 2010

Discussion Notes



Brief Summary:



An austere pair of sisters opened their home to receive a French refugee, Babette, who volunteered to be their servant, taking no other compensation than room and board. The sisters instructed Babette to prepare only simple food for they felt "luxurious fare was sinful." Babette did all that was asked of her and managed to "miraculously reduce" their living expenses and produce soup-pails for the poor that had a "mysterious power to stimulate and strengthen" the sick.



The two sisters' father was a "Dean and a prophet" of a Lutheran sect. Their father could not part with them in their youth, so they stayed by his side instead of following their suitors. Years after their father's death, they continued faithfully to tend their father's flock, but were saddened by the discord among his disciples.



After twelve years of serving the sisters, Babette won a lottery of 10,000 francs and persuaded the sisters to allow her to prepare a feast with her money. The sisters were upset to see the ingredients Babette ordered arrive from France so they consulted their dinner guests and asked them not to say a word about the meal. There were twelve at the table, including one outsider, a General who took a fancy to one of the sisters in her youth. The General recognized the feast for what it is: the best cuisine France had to offer. The other people responded as if it was everyday-ordinary fare. The General gave a spontaneous speech about grace—how it is infinite, "demands nothing from us but that we shall await it with confidence and acknowledge it in gratitude." The others at the table weren't as aware that they'de been blessed by grace, but they still benefited and healed their differences.



The sisters were amazed when they learned that Babette spent her whole 10,000 francs on the meal. They said she shouldn't have done that for them. Babette insisted she did it for herself as an artistic expression. The sister who was musically gifted better understood the depth of Babette's sacrifice when she quoted a mutual friend (the singer who taught the sister): "Through all the world there goes one long cry from the heart of the artist: Give me leave to do my utmost!"



This is a powerful story of grace—with greater depth than even the author probably realized.



Gwen & Vivian Babette chose to stay in Norway.



Velinda All the people who could value her art (the French cultural elite) were gone and she had helped to destroy them so she wouldn't go back to France.



Dad The people ate the feast without sensing the power of grace.



Velinda/LNW They were still blessed and healed by the grace (even though they didn't recognize it).



Vivian The General was an interpreter of the food.



Velinda He recognized the dish "Cailles en Sarcophage" which is an allusion of the resurrection.



Vivian There were twelve at the table, an allusion to the Last Supper.



Velinda How are we like the people at the table?



Dad A prayer answered



Dawna Not recognizing the greatness of people around us.



Viv The people got past their feelings by going back to a time of purity, like a second birth. As they did this, they became pure and transcended their bad choices that had injured them. This allowed them to "tesseract" past the wounds.



Lutherans felt every pleasure must be denied and Babette invited them to enjoy their senses. They didn't overdo it—there was no feeling of heaviness. (French diners take 3 5 hours to consume a full-course meal.)



What is the calling of an artist? The sister who sang was an artist thour her only audience was her congregation. The famous singer her trained her felt she chose well to remain with them because he was largely forgotten by his audience.



People are satisfied with second-best-effort, but the artist is not.



Women tend not to acknowledge their greatness. An example is women denying their creativity.



Dad "My impression is that people evaluating didn't recognize creativity when they saw it because they didn't have a standard to go by." Dad shared his example of creatively figuring out a shoveling problem in his work.



Velinda The author could've been expressing her own wonderment on giving a full effort in her art.



Gwen Babette was enjoying the meal from the kitchen and she was glad the General was there to appreciate her efforts.



Viv Babette gave everything she had to give to provide the feast, and in that sense she is a Christ-figure.



Tara Gave the example to illustrate how, if Vance had gone ten years without being able to play the guitar and then was given one last chance to perform a concert, wouldn't he want to do all he could to perform to his very best ability?



Dawna Mom holds onto dreams and ideas—exemplified by her passion to do the salt-dough projects, the salads for family gatherings, the decorations for holidays, hollyhock dolls, crafting her afghans.



Velinda Mom is very creative; she fixed sewing projects.



Dad Babette was approached as bigger than life.



Velinda Summary/challenge: Be looking for grace and recognizing it, and seeing (even if in hindsight) how we are blessed by it even when we don't recognize it.

Transition from "What If" to "What Is"

I credit the following thoughts to my sister, Natasha Boren, who shared them on a conference call.

Thesis involves Ethos, Pathos, and Logos.

Ethos is about extablishing credibility. 

• I introduce myself and my credentials. 
• I am answering the question, "What is your authority on this subject?"

Pathos (passion) is what the author does (what I do) to engage the reader emotionally. 

• This is extremely important. 
• The writer must make the reader CARE before information is thrown onto the page. 
• This is what gives the writer (or speaker) power to lead an audience.

Logos is the use of logic and reason. 

• Be aware that logic can be used to support anything.

 
There are four proofs of logical reasoning

• historical example
• personal or human experience
• logic & reason
• inspiration or revelation

A perfect example of the use of Ethos, Pathos, and Logos is "The Gettysburg Address".
(It goes from the past to the present to the future).  Another example is the Lord's prayer.

Feedback from Natasha:

This looks very good--except for fix the spelling of "establishing" on your ethos line. And following the statement "be aware that logic can be used to support anything," you might want to clarify: 'so keep yourself well-grounded in your source of truth (core book)' or 'so protect yourself from being "taken for a ride"' or anyway that you can think of to add significance to the statement.




This info comes from Tiffany Earl through the Leadership Education Mentoring Institute (LEMI), so you should probably credit her. The only part I added was the idea that the Gettysburg Address is a perfect example. I think Dad added the Lord's Prayer. Since you asked, Liber Communities is what LEMI is calling the three adult scholar projects. You don't need to reference that.

WHOLES, Being my thoughts about Louis Sachar's HOLES

It all began with a dream.
Elya Yelnats fell in love with a beautiful young girl. 
He who hesitates is lost.
Elya Yelnats asked the girl's father for her hand in marriage.
Let's fight the war from here.
Elya Yelnats was told that she was already spoken for.  Her price?  A hog.
She would be a one-hog wife.
So, Elya Yelnats sought wisdom. 
When the student is ready the teacher will appear.
Elya was told by the gypsy Zeroni to carry a pig up the mountain where the water ran uphill, and while letting it drink sing it a song...

"If only, if only, the woodpecker sighs,

"The bark on the tree was just a little bit softer." 

While the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely,

He cries to the moo--oo--oon,

"If only, if only." 

But he must promise in the end to carry Madam Zeroni up the hill, let her drink, and sing her the song.  Otherwise, his family would be cursed forever. 

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

Gypsy Zeroni tells him the solution to this riddle is to begin with a piglet and carry it up the mountain every day. 

This he did faithfully.

Faithfully.  Consistentley.  Without fail.  Thinking of the girl and his future happiness as he did so.

He delivered his pig on the appointed day.  His pig weighed the same as the other suitor's pig.  In the meantime, Elya had grown strong.  To his dismay, the girl of his dreams made no distinction between him (with his youth, his good looks, his ardour) and the middle-aged-overweight-unschooled competitor.

Sour grapes.

Elya left, leaving the pig as a wedding gift (making her a two-hog wife) and, alas,  forgetting the final part of his promise-- to carry Madam Zeroni up the hill--boarded a ship to the promised land.

Fast-forward a hundred years or so.  Elya has a son who he (palindromically) names Stanley -- S t a n l e y  y e l n a t S.  His son's son is Stanley the II.  His son's son's son is Stanly the III.  His son's son's son's son is Stanley IV.  By now Elya has become a family icon-- "the dirty rotten pig stealer".  Each generation in turn blames Elya for their bad luck.  All because Elya did not fulfill his promise to "carry the gypsy up the hill".

Stanley IV is an easy target for bullies at school.  He is overweight and without friends.  On the day of his arrest he had been delayed at school when his attempt to retrieve his stolen notebook ended up with his having to fish it out of the toilet--thus causing him to miss his bus.  He ended up walking home.  There he was minding his own business when a pair of shoes fell from an overpass into his path.  These shoes were odiferous and so he collected them to present to his father, whose avocation was to discover an elixir that would sweeten soles. 

The fateful shoes were to be the catalyst that would change the course of all their lives.

Stanley was found to be in possession of shoes that had been donated by a celebrity athlete to be auctioned to raise money for a homeless shelter.  Stanley was indicted, tried, and sentenced to a year at a Camp Green Lake--where his character would be built be daily digging a hole 5 feet wide and 5 feet deep.

Camp Green Lake, which we will find was indeed once a lake surrounded by a prosperous frontier community, was now desolate, remote, and (dare we say) cursed.  The camp's warden is bound by the golden handcuffs of hidden treasure a - a bequest handed down to her by her father, grandfather, and so forth to her progenitor who wreaked havoc upon all he knew through his pride, jealousy, and hate.

Coincidentally, a boy known as Zero is at the camp.  Zero is good at digging and maintaining a low profile.  He is also the one who stole the shoes that brought Stanley to the camp.  Zero offers to dig Stanley's holes in exchange for reading and writing lessons.

A series of events compells Zero to strike out on his own across the desert.  Stanley deliberates a day before deciding to do the right thing -- search for Zero and bring him back.

Charity never faileth.

Like Elya before him, Stanley is now strong and fit as a result of his consistent daily discipline.  Stanley finds Zero.  They orient themselves to a distant mountain that resembles "God's thumb".  Stanley wondered if this was the same sanctuary where the family story says that the first Stanley Yelnats found refuge after having been robbed and left for dead.  Stanley carries Zero up this mountain where they find a stream that runs up hill.  They drink and eat wild onions and Stanley sings the lullaby "If only, if only." 

As it turns out, Zero is a descendent of Madam Zeroni and Stanley's rescue of Zero has fulfilled his family's obligation.  As Zero and Stanley retrace their steps to Camp Green Lake Stanley trusts Zero's sense of direction and uncanny mathematical ability to set their course.  They end up finding the hidden treasure, which is in a trunk inscribed with the name Stanley Yelnats.

The story is circular, which completes one great whole.

Matthew 5: 48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect.


This scripture has always had the ring of the impossible to me.  That is until my daughter suggested to me that another interpretation of the scripture could be "Be ye therefore whole, even as your Father in Heaven is whole."  She described for me a sphere, complete except for one sliver (like a three-dimensional puzzle).  The sliver is Jesus Christ.  The sphere is me.  I cannot be whole, or complete, without Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ is one with The Father.  As I direct my life to be one with Jesus Christ, or more accurately, invite Jesus Christ into my daily life I move towards completeness, wholeness, perfection.

My daily thoughts and actions either invite or dismiss the gift of the Holy Ghost .

***

At what point did Elya's family blame everything on him?  Did he begin it himself?  Did he sigh, "If only, if only"?  Did it begin with his "dirty-rotten, pig-stealing" self?  Did his son blame every turn of misfortune on his father?  "It's all because of my dirty-rotten, pig-stealing father."  Did his grandson bemoan, "it's all because of my dirty-rotten, pig-stealing grandfather."?

Blame and complain.

Which begs the questions...



Where am I on this continuem?

Where do I want to be?

Where do I want my children to be?

And my children's children?  And my children's children's children?

The choices I make, the promises I make, the desires that direct my energies, the way I respond to conditions over which I have little or no control-- this is the script I write. 

This is my bequest.



Is there anything that I want enough to change my behavior to get?  Am I filling my "dream tank"?  How can I create enough desire to overcome the law of inertia? 

A body at rest tends to stay at rest.  A body in motion tends to stay in motion.

I have found that blaming and complaining gets me nowhere.  I have found, like Elya, that breaking a task down into smaller pieces allows me to chip away at my mountain of intentions and turn them into commitments.

Blame and complain are the shackles of servitude.  As long as a person, a people, a tribe, a culture, a nation is in "blame and complain" mode he, she, they will remain in bondage.

Each of us must carry the gypsy up the hill. 

Who, in my family, carried the gypsy up the hill?  Every one of my progenitors played a part in my having what I have, being who I am.  I am grateful to each of them.

Our family motto is "To the last generation".  When making choices, when shaping our lives, we ask, "How will this effect my children, my grandchildren, my great grandchildren"?  "What am I giving them permission to do if I do this?"  We know we do not exist in a vacuum.

Post Script...
My 21 year-old daughter, my husband, my 13-year old daughter, and myself recently found ourselves in an esoteric conversation about string theory and Einstein's theory of relativity and the concept of time.  We acturally have little knowledge of any of these and so were simply playing with "supposes".  We postulated that time is not linear like this: __________________ but may be linear like this: . (in other words you take the line and turn it so you're looking at it as if it is a tunnel.  In this way there is no dimension "time" -- all time exists at once.  My 21 year-old related a conversation she had while in high school with one of her friends.  He said that any choice we make not only effects the future, but also effects the past.  Choices which hurt the present also hurt the future and hurt the past.  I don't know how this could be, using my logical mind.  And yet, this is exactly the idea which Louis Sachar brilliantly explored in his book Holes.  This idea transitions Holes to Wholes.  Eternity is a Whole.  It is where all time is connected, all choices are connected, all consequences are connected, and all can be healed.  All can become whole.

HOLES: White-board Notes from Conference Call

• Your choices DO make a difference to your descendents
• digging holes builds charachter
• the setting is bleak
• liked how it all tied together
• zero = nothing OR 0 holds a place of value mathematically
• children of Israel  / Stanley is a Christ archetype (thorn in palm)
• generations cursed for sins of the fathers
• Stanley = everyman (no outstanding qualities)
• how self-confidence is gained
• watershesd moments (learned could do hard things
• cultural literacy (Zero had no "hook" for "Old Woman in the Shoe")
• parallels:  Elya & Stanley were strengthened dailey doing small insignificant tasks which produced small incremental changes in them / climbed out / river ran uphill / went up God's thumb (giving thumbs up)
• realizes he likes himself
• tunes out trouble by thinking of mother (the family is of value -- the parents a comfort)
• the whole story brought you to the point of Stanley carrying Zero up the mountain
• journey he had to make--glad for events that happened rather than cursing them
• once at this point he gets inspiration to make a plan
• the whole message of getting the strength by doing something every day
• allegory / analogy / metaphore -- blessing family forward ;& backward in time
• even with the hard luck they are philosophical, have a lot of love, a strong family -- they are good people / gonna do good things with this
• you have to figure this out as your'ed reading along
• good children's literature teaches without being preachy
• decision about the direction they're going (when retracing their steps back)-- Stanley said go one way, Zero said go the other.  The wrong decision would lead to death.  Yet Stanley trusted someone smaller and less educated than he was. 
• I like that the inspiration was the "Thumb of God".  Usually Stanley couldn't see anything in the distance.  He would get little tiny glimpses.
• In the middle of the day we are caught up with our lives.  We are more likely to be reflective in the morning or the evening.  At these moments we can orient ourselves as to our direction.  (prayer, meditation)
• We must prepare ourselves and do the work ourselves.  We must "carry the gypsy up the hill".  (As Christ carried his cross up the hill).
• It was about sacrificing to save this one person.
• theological feature: "I found refuge on God's thumb" (or in God's hand).
• a goal is something to reach

Natasha's summary and notes transcription:

Synopsis: This is a multigenerational allegory of two families, climaxing in the multigenerational setting of God's Thumb.


A family's tradition of good (unity) and ill (blame and complain) gets passed along with the family name from father to son. All the family's bad luck gets blamed on the great-grandfather who failed to keep his promise to carry a gypsy up a mountain. His son's bad luck was to be robbed by Kissin' Kate Barlow, so he was left to survive by seeking refuge on God's Thumb.
Two generations later, Stanley Yelnats finds himself digging holes (to improve his character) at a camp for juvenile delinquents (thanks to the family's perpetual bad luck) near God's Thumb. He befriends Zero, a fellow camp resident, who runs away from his horrible mistreatment at camp. Stanley tracks him down and rescues him by carrying him up the mountain to seek refuge on God's Thumb. They return to camp and find the treasure the camp owner's family has been searching for for generations (the real purpose for digging the holes). It turns out the treasure found was the case belonging to Stanley's ancestor for whom he was named. So Stanley's family got the treasure.

What is more, the friend turned out to be the gypsy's descendent, so when Stanley carried him up the hill, he broke the family curse. His dad made a breakthrough discovery. And Stanley became confident and learned to like himself.
The history of family and place is woven artfully into the present day story. We learn, although Stanley doesn't, why the deadly poisonous lizards don't bite Zero or him: they've been eating onions with an amazing preventative healing quality—originally grown by Kissin' Kate Barlow's dear friend, Sam, who could fix any trouble.
Discussion insights
Vivian: Stanley Yelnats and the story are both palindromes.
Tara: Your choices make a difference to your children.

Your descendents face the consequences of your choices.
Natasha: Zero is not equal to nothing, but rather it holds a place of value (mathematically and allegorically)
Holes is about a place carried forward through history and a family carried forward through history. It is allegorical to the Children of Israel whose story is also about a place and family carried forward through history. And the children are cursed for the sins of their fathers. In the end the Christ archetype (Stanley who carries his burden up a hill and gets a thorn in his palm) heals both his family and his friend's family.
There is a reference to the importance of cultural literacy when Zero can't relate to a common reference (the Old Woman who lived in a shoe) due to his lack of education.
Stanley is "every man" because he has no outstanding qualities and anyone can relate to him and his struggles.
Tara: Through his struggles, Stanley is transformed and gains confidence.
Dawna: The last night Stanley is up in the mountain, he's so happy for no apparent reason. He reviews his life and realizes that this is the first time he really likes himself.
He tunes out his troubles by picturing himself with his family. He keeps thinking about his family the whole time. There is a strong sense of family connectedness.
In the end, he was grateful for all the trials that brought him to the point he met his destiny—to carry his friend up the mountain.
Gwen: the whole story is to bring you to the point of his trial—to carry Zero up the mountain.
Velinda: The gypsy's lesson of carrying the pig up the hill to grow stronger every day, digging holes to grow a little stronger every day, and Sachar writing the book a page and a half every day all illustrate how we can manage little daily steps that, over time, amount to big things happening in our lives.
Strong families also carry us through our difficulties.
Reiterate Tara's comment that we can bless our families forward and backward in time by our actions today.
Gwen: Holes is an intriguing mystery. Good literature teaches life stories without being preachy. It teaches through adventures.
Dawna: Stanley trusted Zero to lead him in the right direction back to camp, even though Zero had far less education. Zero was intuitively good at math.
Vivian: The big journeys—the ones that really count—have to be done by the person facing the mountain. It can't be done for them.

Gwen: Likes that the "Thumb of God" was the inspiration that guided and directed Stanley's life.
Velinda: Stanley got only occasional glimpses of God's Thumb at the beginning and end of the day because he couldn't see through the haze during the day.
Gwen: In life, we are more reflective at the start and end of the day because we are busily occupied with our daily business throughout the rest of the day.
Sachar was inspired in writing this book. His other books don't have near the depth of this one.
Vivian: Olivia says his book is applicable.
Gwen: It is an allegory of Christ carrying His cross up the hill
Dawna: Big Thumb, God's Thumb, Thumb of God are all different titles for the symbolical God of this book, just as we have many different titles for God in life.

Life Lessons from Scout

Having Guests
p.32     That boys yo' comp'ny

Diplomacy
p.59     You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...

p.40     Sometimes it's better to bend the law a little in special cases.  In your case the law remains rigid.

Fairness 
p.41     Are you going to take out your disapproval on his children?

School
p.43     Project...Unit...Group Dynamics...Good Citizenship... but as I inshed sluggishly along the treadmill of the Maycomb County School System... 12 years of unrelieved boredom.

p.45     ...authorities released us early

Romance
p.55     Dill was becoming something of a trial...asked me...to marry him, promptly forgot about it.  He staked me out, marked me as his property, said I was the only girl he would ever love, then he neglected me.

Weeds
p. 56     ...nut grass....Second Battle of the Marne

Being Teased
p.58     first person she thought about teasing and the best defense....was a spirited defense.

Friendship
p.59     ...never told on us, never played cat and mouse with us, not interested in our private lives...

Of Finches and Mockingbirds

The first time I recall reading Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird I was in the back seat of a four-door sedan barrelling down the highway towards Mexico City.  I was flanked in the back seat by my two youngest sisters.  Let's see, if I was nearly 30 that would have made them nearly 23 and 20.  Yes, I remember now.  The only way I would have gone to Mexico was if I were in the company of fluent spanish speakers. One sister had recently returned from a health services mission in Argentina.  In the front seat were my brother-in-law (who had served a mission in Central America) and my sister (who had served a mission in Spain).  We had taken several books with us to read aloud as we traveled.  This book was one of them.

I next read the book aloud to my tween and teenage daughters, just a year ago.  Our small town library had provided free copies as a Big Read Humanities Grant selection.  So, this month's reading was at least my third visit to the book.  I kept a yellow highlighter in one hand, applying it liberally.  I became completely immersed in Scout's comings and goings.  Of course I knew what was going to happen.  I anticipated Atticus's courtroom plea for human decencey, integrity, and the rule of law.  I knew Tom Robinson would be a casualty to the ignorance, fear, and  prejudice of his neighbors.

Neighbors.  This story is about neighbors.  This story is about neighbors making a difference.  Neighbors hurting and neighbors helping.  This story dispells the myth of rugged individualism and installs in its place the need for a community wielding faith, hope, and charity. 

It is a story about abandonment and salvation.

Abandonment.  Scout is motherless.  Dill is fatherless.  Mayella is motherless.  Arthur is fatherless.  Nearly all the significant adults in Scout's life are single.  Each one is fighting a battle, of sorts.  There is Atticus, holding tenaciously to integrity as the chief virtue he would instill in his children.  There is Calpurnia, every bit the equal and even the better of the priveledged community in social graces, education, and insight into human character.  There is Mrs. Dubose, a victim of the good intentions of medical attention which has addicted her to morphine.  These and all the others not singled out here are bound by the expectations of society and using what ammunition they can to break the chains that bind them.

Ammunition.  In this quiver are the arrows of determination (Mrs. Dubose), charity (Tom Robinson), cheerfulness (Miss Maudie),  discipline (Calpurnia), humility (Atticus), repentance (Walter Clunningham), long suffering (Arthur Radley).

Chains.  Links in that awful chain are pride and revenge (Bob Ewell), ignorance, poverty and abuse ( Mayella Ewell), conformity (Aunt Alexandra's guests), shallowness (Miss Caroline).

Atticus encouraged his children to try to see things through other's eyes-- to "walk in their shoes", as it were.  Scout found herself wishing, while the jurors were deliberating, that the entire waiting crowd would concentrate on setting Tom Robinson free.  Which is exactly why Harper Lee wrote this book.  She wrote that Scout heard Jem say that "if enough people--a stadium full, maybe--were to concentrate on one thing, such as setting a tree afire in the woods, that the tree would ignite of its own accord."  That, in a nutshell is how change comes about.  That is how ideas take hold.

Salvation.  Arthur Radley--quiet, alone, misunderstood, misrepresented, all but forgotten--watches.  Watches kindnesses and cruelty, superstition and bravery, all the drama and dullness of an ordinary neighborhood in a forgotten corner of a nation in the throes of depression.  Arthur "Boo" Radley hears a child's cry for help when all others are deaf to it.  Arthur Radley, in his innocence, rights the wrong and saves the children of the scapegoat of Maycomb, Alabama.

We are the finches.  Do we recognize those that are mockingbirds among us?  Do we hear their song?  Atticus reminded his children, "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy.  They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us."  Scout noticed that the feeling in the courtroom during Tom Robinson's trial was "exactly the same as a cold February morning, when the mockingbirds were still."  Mr. Underwood, (interesting name for a reporter--I wonder if Miss Lee composed her book on an Underwood typewriter), the newspaper editor figured it was a "sin to kill cripples, be they standing, sitting, or escaping. He likened Tom's death to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children."  And, at last, Scout observed that to drag Arthur Radley into the limelight would be "well, it'd be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?"

If I am to "get on with my life" I must get this essay monkey off my back.  Scout's story is at peril of fading from the "back burner" of my mind into oblivian.  What is Scout's message for me? 

Scout is telling me that the pen is mightier than the sword.  Is there a message I am to share?  What is it and
how shall I tell it?

Scout is shouting to me about education-- the core phase of education, where one learns about good and bad, right and wrong--the guiding values and discipline phase of education.  Lest I, the reader, miss this point she tells me on page 374 of 376 pages, "As I made my way home, I thought Jem and I would get grown but there wasn't much else left for us to learn, except possibly algebra."  Am I equipping myself and my children with a grounded "Scout Style" foundation?  Scout serves up diplomacy, fairness, friendship, hospitality, hypocrasy, misplaced guilt, optimism, self-discipline, standards, boundaries, dress and behavior, equality, grammar, courtesy, family honor, respect, parenting, expectations, welfare mentality, vocabulary, the power of unified thought (for good or ill), greatness, the rule of law, literacy, situational ethics, and folly, to name just a few.

Scout is challenging me to notice the details.  She is a genius at observation and description.  The Finch family, like mine "ran high to daughters".  Scout found that she had unwittingly spent her tender years "wallowing illicitly in the daily papers".  In her writing mentor Calpurnia's teaching "there was no sentimentality: I seldom pleased her and she seldom rewarded me."  I am witness to childhood dares as Jem "treaded water at the gate".  A looming shadow was "crisp as toast".  At a crucial moment Scout "tarried in indecision a moment too long."  Atticus was called to an emergency session of the state legislature as "the Governor was eager to scrape a few barnacles off the ship of state."

Scout is inviting me to write.  She is showing me how to observe and record.  She is suggesting I pay attention to those around me.  She tells me I can send a love letter of gratitude to the uncelebrated heros of my existance.

Scout's world was everything my world is not.  Her town was tired, sagged, moved slowly, crumbled. People shuffled, took their time, were in no hurry, yet had a vague optimism and trust in a president who assured them they had "Nothing to fear but fear itself".  Her days were filled with routine contentment as she and her brother and their playmate spent the summer hours improving, fussing, and running through their familiar and time-worn list of dramas.

I am a benefactor of Harper Lee's courageous pen.  My children are likewise indebted to her opening hearts to the fact that "most people are real nice when you finally see them."

Whiteboard Notations & Grand Argument Storymind Notes on TKAM

Two weeks ago I filled a white board with comments made during the conference call my sisters and father had after reading Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.  Here they are, in no particular order or significance...

exagerated characters
say-go-be-didn't
suck in your stomach and put some color on
rules of southern women
fringe people
It's not time to worry yet
embarrassed of her dad
tolerance
Daddy/Atticus parallels
weak excuses
side stories make it palatable to a Southern audience
not just an Uncle Tom's Cabin story
both a principle and issue book
careful observing of human nature
insight into human nature
that's just what happened to Joseph (archetype)
say so much with a little phrase
profiling
what is the "static" in our lives preventing us from hearing calls for help
background--literacy--how long your family's been reading
faulting Atticus (or ourselves) for allowing vulnerability
prejudice is pervasive
Civil Right's couldn't have happend before the Salk vaccine
social situations in the South are complex
Dill ran away because he wasn't needed (or didn't feel needed)

I led the discussion, beginning with a brief overview of the Grand Argument Story as explained by Tracy and Laura Hickman at a "Big Read" event I attended a year ago.  They explained that there are four journeys in a story-- the Objective Journey, the Main Character Journey, the Impact Character Journey, and the Subjective Journey.  Their engaging power-point lecture draws speculations and input from the audience.  Eventually it is clear that in THIS story the Objective Journey is the trial of Tom Robinson.  The entire town is interested in this event.  This is a journey of prejudice.  The Main Character Journey would be Scout's.  We see the events through her eyes.  The Impact Character Journey is Arthur Radley's (or Boo's).  He impacts Scout the most.  His influence is felt throughout the story (as suggested on the first page of the book).  The Subjective Journey is that of both Scout and Boo--their story of overcoming their own prejudices and preconceptions.

I am not saying here that I necessarily agree with this.  Some might say that Boo is a Christ archetype.  Possibly more on that later.

Speaking of Character Archetypes, the Hickmans go on to explain the Drivers of the Story (or those that move the story forward) and the Passengers of the Story (or those that are taken along for the ride).  The Drivers are the Protagonist (or hero), the Contagonist (the one with his or her own agenda, a manipulator, a puppet master), the Guardian (the protector, always weak), and the Antagonist (or the bad guy, as it were).  The Passengers of the story are the Skeptic (disbelieving, questioning), the Reason (thinks everything through), the Emotion (feels deeply, acts according to feelings), and the Sidekick (hopeful, believing, faith).  Now the fun begins.  Who is who in this story?  Here are the names:  Tom Robinson, May Ella Ewell, Atticus, Bob Ewell, Jem, Scout, Arthur Radley, Dill, and Calpurnia.  Now to plug them into their roles in the story.  (I won't give away here all the fun the Hickman's have drawing the conclusions out of the audience).

I neglected to share the Mythological Cycle of the Journey Story (again as outlined by the Hickmans).  First, the main character crosses a threshold (a point of no return or the first step which takes him or her into the unknown)--the "Threshold Crossing".  A Helper comes.  There is a "call to adventure".  A "prize" is gained (or the person is changed, experiences character growth).  The "threshold" is crossed again.  This is the "Threshold Return".   But this is not the end.  There is a "Return to the world", "Attaining the prize", "Helpers" again, and "Tests".  The Hickmans also call this the Storymind.

My teenage daughter explains this cycle using the movie "Up".  In her words, "Mr. Fredricson wants to go on an adventure.  A boy called Russel comes and helps him.  They cross the threshold when they go through a storm.  A test they go through is trying to return the bird to its home before the other evil guy can get it.  More helpers come in the characters of Doug the dog and the bird.  They do get the bird back to its home.  The go back to society.  They have crossed the threshold back home.  The prize is they both have grown and learned that relationships are an adventure."

The Sound of Silence

In the last hour I've finished reading Chaim Potok's The Chosen. My five sisters have been reading it, along with our father. Two weeks ago we had an animated discussion about it on a conference call. I was supposed to have finished reading it but had barely begun. We are all to write an essay and share our thoughts. We are having another conference call tomorrow evening to discuss our essays and here I am just making a beginning.

But before sitting down to write I took a pleasant evening walk with my husband and thirteen-year-old daughter.

We live in a small "town home", but within a very short walk we enjoy the smell of hay as we pass a small corral and its resident horses. We walk a little farther and there is a property with a garden and a cinderblock barn for livestock. We cross a road and walk farther and pass a fenced area still full of sagebrush. Ummm. I love the smell. We walk past several other properties with sprawling groomed lawns and gardens and fully grown pine and fir trees. We admire the architectural and landscaping features. To the west the sun dominates the horizon. We catch golden glimpses of it between the crowded pine trees. And then there are no trees and we see fields and fields. In the distance the sun begins to nest on a mountain range that is so far off it appears to be no bigger than a berm. The last house before the road ends often smells faintly, very faintly of skunk. There is a large red barn at the end of the road. If I were a water-colorist I would want to paint this scene.

We cross the road and head north. We are walking uphill now. On our right is a slope and hollow where lots of fledgling Christmas trees are growing. There are larger trees supervising them. Up the hill can be seen an A-frame home through the screen of trees if one knows to look for it.

Our daughter is telling us about her latest idea for a novel. She is describing the characters and their antics. My husband and I are holding hands. Every so often we hear a vehicle approaching so we move to single file, hugging the edge of the road.

We are far enough along now to see a church steeple peeping over the hill to the east. We keep walking and re-cross the road. We pass a home with a dilapidated trailer home in the yard. The family used to live in it. Every day it is more torn apart. They are recycling the parts. Up ahead there is a canal. It is lined on both sides with Russian Olive trees, but this is not the season when their wonderful smell fills the air. We pass a property that has lots of derelict farm equipment scattered about. I imagine they are all still useful, it is just that they are not the latest models.

Soon we are home, checking our mailbox and heading inside. I have laid claim to the computer and now must tackle my essay about my reading.

I have just experienced a feast for my senses. My reading of The Chosen provided a feast for thought.

Potok introduced me to two fifteen-year-old Jewish boys living in Brooklyn during World War II. They meet by chance in a neighborhood baseball game. They are key players on opposing teams. Reuven's team expects to win. Danny's team intends to win. Reuven is a skilled pitcher and Danny is an aggressive hitter. As it happens, Danny hits one of Reuven's curve balls straight at him and Reuven fails to duck as Danny had anticipated he would. Reuven is wearing glasses and the ball hits him full force in the eye. A piece of lens penetrates Reuven's eye and he is taken to a hospital.

The very tool which enabled Reuven to see is now the implement of possible blindness in that eye. The loss of one eye affects ability to perceive perspective. The reader may guess at this point that Reuven has been perfectly satisfied with how he has seen his world up to this point. We may speculate that we all walk in a sort of seeing/non-seeing state. Our "worldview" is clear and uncluttered.

Perhaps, in actuality, we too suffer from lack of perspective. Perhaps we are only half-seeing, or are blind in one eye. Perhaps the lens through which we shape our world view is faulty. Are we in the same place, metaphorically, that Reuven finds himself in, sitting on a bench waiting for the game to end?

I began to suspect the author was steering me, the reader, towards opening my eyes to something.

I found the game of baseball to be a metaphor of the world at war.

I found the hospital to be another metaphor of the world. Reuven meets a former boxer, an Italian. Reuven observes a little Irish boy persuade the injured boxer to play with him. This act of charity will cost the boxer his eye. Reuven meets a non-Jewish boy who is blind due to an accident. The boy is hopeful a surgery will restore his vision. So, in this one ward of the hospital we meet persons from many nations and walks of life, all cheering for one another and hoping for restored sight. Sometimes charity brings disastrous consequences. Sometimes hope is unfulfilled. It takes courage to stay the course.

The danger for Reuven was that the scar tissue would grow over his pupil and thus rob him of his sight. During his short stay in the hospital Danny came to visit him to apologize. Reuven was angry and unforgiving at first. Then Reuven's father asked him to listen to Danny and to be his friend.

As it happens, Reuven's father has already met Danny and knows something about him. Danny comes from a very Orthodox family whose father is an important rabbi or, more accurately, a tzaddik. Reuven's father has observed that Danny is more than brilliant. Danny is an intellectual phenomenon. Reuven is brilliant in his own right, enough so that he and Danny can understand one another. In fact, both boys find themselves to be a little apart from their peers--Reuven from the watershed moment of the near loss of his eye and Danny because of who he is, what is expected of him, and how he is being raised.

These boys become good friends, despite their many differences. The author chronicles this friendship for the reader over their next four years. During this time World War II comes to an end and the chilling sobering horrifying fact that six million European Jews perished in Hitler's wake came to be known.

Reuven's father becomes politically active in the effort to form a Jewish State -- a place that Jews could call a homeland, where they could find sanctuary. Danny's father felt just as strongly that this state was not a viable solution unless it was established by the coming of the Messiah. The American Jewish community was divided into these two camps.

Throughout these years Danny's father never speaks directly to Danny.

Reuven hated silence. When Reuven's father was in the hospital due to a heart attack, Reuven found silence to be by turns empty, oppressive, and lonely. Reuven could not imagine life with a father who never chatted about the events of the day or instructed or comforted or counseled. Reuven grew to despise Danny's father for what he was doing to his friend.

In fact, Reuven comes to hate Danny's father for the silence, especially when it extends to his requiring Danny to ignore Reuven completely because of the polarity of their families regarding the State of Israel. Danny, however, respects his father and his father's wishes and trusts that there is a reason for all of this that will come to light eventually.

Here again is another metaphor. Danny's father was silent to Danny. So too was the "Master of the Universe" silent to His children. Danny's father trusted that there was something to be learned from this silence and he hoped also that Danny would learn compassion and charity through learning to listen and notice and pay attention.


Reuven's father also prompts Reuven to "listen", even if he doesn't want to.


The author guides the reader through the sense of hearing, or listening. The author also introduces the reader to light. The author takes great pains to describe light through Reuven's eyes. When Reuven's eyesight is restored, when the bandages are removed from his eyes, he experiences the sensation of being reborn. Everything is new to him. Everything is fresh. He wonders how he could have ever taken all this for granted.

The author suggests through Reuven that each of us may experience life in a numb-like trance. All is taken for granted until it is lost, or nearly lost. Loss may come in the form of war, accident, illness, disappointment, and even ignorance.

Reuven sees the light in his room, about the house, on his porch, on the plants. It is light which illuminates. It is light, or the lack thereof, which creates shadows. Light comes in many textures and angles. Reuven, as a mathematecian, would notice angles. Reuven observes a fly trapped in a web. He blows on the web. In this way the fly is released and the spider unharmed. The spider scurries on. The fly escapes.

On such small hinges does fate swing.

Reuven's friend Danny is caught in a web of expectations. Danny's fundamentalist outward religious observance--the way he dresses, his earlocks, his beard--all serve to trap Danny into a prescribed or orthadox pattern of living. Danny's professors and classes bind him to a limited menu of choices. Reuven observes Danny's frustration mount. Finally Danny asks of his friend help in springing his trap.

I began structuring this story in my mind around a pivotal turn in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I wondered how it would have been for two young men (like Danny and Reuven) to grow up during the early years in Utah. Their people would have just fled severe persecution in the United States of America. They would have been part of carving out a place in the new State of Deseret to call their own. Their leader, the dynamic "modern Moses", Brigham Young did not want another expulsion for "the saints". In addition to the contreversial practice of polygamy, he designed an alphabet, a "United Order" economic model, and a self-contained production model where all their needs could be met through their own industry. Then, within a short span of years for the boys another leader would make the difficult decision to abadon polygamy, the alphabet, and the experimental eutopion "united order" communities in favor of gaining statehood in the very nation which had expelled them as a people. These boys would perhaps be on opposing sides of these issues. They would have to "listen" and "see" outside of their own experience and understanding.

What I kept feeling for Reuven was the need to forgive. Reuven hated Danny at first for deliberately wounding him, and possibly robbing him of his precious gift of sight. Yet hate is like scar tissue of the heart. If Reuven's eye would have developed scar tissue he would not have healed. Scar tissue of the heart robs us of the ability to feel. Sometimes hate stalks us in the guise of charity or empathy. Afterall, we hate on the behalf of another. Reuven hated Danny's father on behalf of Danny.

On a larger scale, Reuven's father's Jewish community hated Hitler for his inhuman treatment of their people. Reuven's father's community felt that the establishment of a Jewish State of Israel would validate the senseless loss of six million lives. Danny's father's community felt that for "man" to establish the State of Israel would be to denounce their God and make a mockery of the centuries of suffering the Jews endured while holding to the tenents of their faith. To this community, living their religion faithfully and dutifully and charitably was what was needed to honor their deceased kinsmen.

The establishment of Israel through the United Nations came about through terrorism and resulted in continued hatred and bloodshed. Perhaps, in the long run, Danny's father's community was right. However, the die has been cast. Man grew impatient with a silent God, took matters into their own hands, and must live with the consequences.


Forgiveness is difficult under any circumstances. It is especially difficult in the framework of righteous indignation over a sense of abandonment and rampant hostility.

Imagine a world that forgave the Jews, forgave the Germans, and forgave God. Imagine a world that created a way to provide sanctuary to any people threatened with genocide. Imagine a world that forgave each other and forgave ourselves. Yes, all were to blame. They were a stranger and we took them not in. They were hungry and we fed them not. They were thirsty and we gave them not to drink. They were naked and we clothed them not.

God does not give us the spirit of fear. (2nd Timothy 1:7) These people needed sanctuary at a time when people around the world were suffering from severe economic depression. There was real fear that there was not enough to share. There was fear that offering help would bring political retaliation. It was a time of fear.

Yet, through all this came many instances of individual charity, despite the threat of suffering, even unto death, for such acts.

Both Danny's and Reuven's fathers acted in ways that they saw best. Both Danny and Reuven learned to listen, to understand, and to see more clearly through the charity of their elders.

I myself have learned something of the power of forgiveness. In my case I came to rely upon the atonement of Jesus Christ. What a gift that is. As difficult as forgiveness is WITH the help of the Savior, I can't imagine what it would be without that promise to lean on. And yet, I trust it must be possible. Forgiveness is the only way to heal the heart. And the heart that is compassionate is the only way to life. I recently heard it said that "there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way." So too, there is no way to forgiveness, forgiveness is the way.

Let us not develop blinding scar tissue on our eyes by pre-judging another, whether it be those who lived before us or those that live beside us. Let us not develop spiritual atrophy in our hearts through hate.

I thank God for taking away my pain, through my Savior's love. I thank God for helping me to pray when I was not inclined to pray. I thank God for allowing me to live when I wanted to die. I thank God for forgiving me for wanting to die. I thank God for helping me to forgive, completely forgive and I thank God that another could forgive me. I thank God for forgiveness, through Jesus Christ and through the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

While we were on our evening walk I was thinking intermittently about what I might write once I got home. By going on a walk I was creating some thinking space for myself. I was curious what my mind would do with the experience of the book if left alone for a bit. I asked my husband if he remembered any of the lyrics to Simon & Garfunkle's popular song "The Sound of Silence". We came up with a few lines between us but admitted defeat and continued to enjoy the walk.

Once home I did an internet search, found the lyrics, and decided they didn't really apply to my thoughts about this book. Unless in the sense that Danny was fascinated by psychoanalysis and Reuven often had disturbing dreams he could not recall upon waking. The song begins, "In restless dreams I walked alone narrow streets of cobblestone..." The song implies that somewhere sense or truth can be found in the "sound of silence", which is what Danny's father hoped for his son. Words are often misunderstood, taken too seriously, or too lightly. We would not prescribe silence as a solution to self-absorbtion, and yet that is how Danny was raised.

If we are indeed children of a Heavenly Being, we too are raised in silence. Even if we believe in real-time revelation through a prophet, we are still required to listen to the spirit for answers to our personal prayers. We must hearken to that "still small voice" that is found inside for confirmation of our own witness to faith. Eventually, even our own family members pass beyond the veil of this life and we are left to a kind of silence. God's and our loved one's voices transcend the limitations of our outward senses and speak to our hearts. At any rate, that is our hope.

What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen

To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  (Newton's Third Law of Motion)
(Yes, I was listening in Jr. High science class.  That may be the only thing I remember, but there it is.  And thanks to Google, I can even credit the source).

"There is a law irrevocably decreed in heaven upon which all blessings are predicated.  Any blessing we receive from God is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated."  At the impressionable age of 14 I repeated this promise aloud each week before the mid-week teen church group convened.  A google search produced the reference and also the exact wording.  My memory had it nearly correct!

"There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated— And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated." Doctrine & Covenants, section 130, verses 20 and 21.

More recently I have had occasion to mentally visit an essay written by economist and statesman Frederic Bastiat which he titled "What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen".  In the confines of this work he addresses the question of taxation as applied to the fledgling free economy of France in the mid-1800's.  He questioned escalating a standing military force or supporting the theatres and fine arts through taxation.  He even questioned government support of public works and subsidizing industry or agriculture.  He denounced leveling the financial playing field by means of "easy credit" and was against supporting protectorate economies in foreign lands for the sole purpose of easing social ills at home by enticing "surplus population" to emigrate and thereby strike up trade that would animate the economy.

His hypothetical piece predates the revolutions which gave birth to what was hoped  by some would become  a world-wide Utopia created by communist and socialist ideals.  The "Great Experiments" had yet to begin.  Indeed, Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, which invited intellectual scrutiny and national economic experimentation during a period of increasing colonialism, had been published just seventy-five years earlier.  The term "capitalism" was being introduced by fellow Frenchman, Louis Blanc almost simultaneosly with the "Seen and Not Seen" piece.  The ideas put forth by Bastiet came at a pivotal moment on the timeline of world economies.

I  suggest that Bastiet is most closely aligned with the Austrian School Economic model, which in a nutshell can be described as "advocating property rights and the freedom to contract and trade. The Late Scholastics elebrated the contribution of business to society, while doggedly opposing taxes, price controls, and regulations that inhibited enterprise. As moral theologians, they urged governments to obey ethical strictures against theft and murder. And they lived up to Ludwig von Mises's rule: the first job of an economist is to tell governments what they cannot do." http://mises.org/etexts/austrian.asp

I will resist the temptation to visit The Chicago School of Economics, the Neo-Keynesian School or the Monetarist School which have dominated economic policy of The West for the past century.

So, what application can be made today between Bastiet's warnings, if they can be called that, and today's economic entaglements with these self-same issues?

Thomas E. Woods, Jr. does just that in his recent book, Meltdown: A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse.  "In clear, no-nonsense terms, Woods explains what led up to  economic crisis, who's really to blame, and why government bailouts won't work. Woods argues that the only way to rebuild our economy is by returning to the fundamentals of capitalism and letting the free market work." 

On a more personal note, I recall attending a clogging competition a number of years back where my children were performing.  I looked around and saw hundreds of costumed young people from toddlers to teens and even some adults.  I did some mental calculations about the amount of money that was represented by this event.  First, each child attended weekly lessons.  Next, each performer had to purchase one or more costumes.  Each teacher rented a studio space of some sort, owned sound equipment of some sort, and had a music library of some sort.  Each parent paid gas to transport their child to and from the lessons.  Each dancer had to own specialized shoes.  To attend the event each child had to purchase tickets in order for the space to be reserved for this many people.  Judges must be paid.  Even the cameras present were indicative of funds spent on photo gear, film, processing, albums, decorative papers, movies and so forth.These parents represented hours and hours of discretionary time and money spent to support lessons, performances and documentation. Our family drove an hour and a half to be there.  Many attendees drove further.  I remember thinking to myself that all this reflected a healthy economy.

What was seen was a huge performance competition.  What was not seen was all that I inventoried in my mind's eye.  What was not seen was the freedom of choice all these people had with how to spend their time and money.  What was not seen were the personal committments and decisions that were made by many an invdividual to try harder.  Some of the contestants possibly traded work for lessons or earned their own lessons.  Some of the parents, myself included, wanted to give their children opportunities they hadn't been given..  They worked harder, saved, or did without some other necessity or luxury to make this happen for their child.  What was not seen was the time spent together in the car visiting or coming together as a family under the auspices of this event.

One might ask, "Is it right or fair that some children have the benefit of indulgent parents who provide them with an opportunity to learn skills, to perform, and to be featured in photograph albums or movies?  Should clogging, or other performance platforms, be included in the public schools at all levels?  And if so, how would costumes and travel expenses be covered?"

One might also ask, "Are the children who are groomed to perform more likely to be involved in school sporting programs and thus associate with the social elite and thus marry into or perpetuate an upwardly mobile class culture?  Where do the advantages stop?"  These same sorts of questions could be applied to any scholastic niche.

I once read a story about a little girl who was born into challenging circumstances.  Her father, though good hearted, drank to excess.  Her mother and grandmother wanted more for this little girl and her brother than they themselves had and what association with the neighborhood children would bring.  In hopes of a better life for the children they read aloud to them each night from great literature.  The girl's father would take her on long walks on Sunday afternoons.  In this way they found a school that was much better than the one in their neighborhood.  The girl eventually was able to attend the better school, receive the mentoring she needed to give her a window out of the squalor of her youth, and her parents hopes were realized. 
This is the story told by Betty Smith in her novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.  In essence, this is "The American Dream".   That is, that through personal effort and determination and perseverence a better way was found, grasped, and used to change the story of this girl, and with this girl a family, and with this family a community, and with this community a nation.

Everything else is cosmetic.  The school choice challenge has been addressed in these times with busing and federal monies and programs to help the disadvantaged.  But with these programs there can be an undercurrent of dependency, entitlement, loss of dignity, and backlash of some sort.  The real difference for this girl was made from what happened in her home-- the reading and discussing of good books, the knowledge that she was loved and sacrificed for and believed in.  Her parents were imperfect, as were her circumstances.  Yet there was hope.

With all this saying, have I said anything?  Possibly not.  It still remains, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.  There are eternal and irrefutable laws of the universe.  Any blessing that an individual or a society realizes is in direct obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.  If our society, our culture, our personal freedoms are in a mess, we made it so.  To untagle them we would be advised to find a course that runs more true to the irrevocable laws of nature.  There are economic laws just as there are physical laws.  They are no doubt entwined with eternal laws of morality as well.  That which appeared to be a good idea or a quick fix during prior times of economic stress may be the hinges upon which our present troubles swing.

I am in favor of taking a serious look at Bastiet's apparently simple approach of laissez-faire and letting a more free market be given a chance at becoming a better provider of freedom, within the confines of a more informed and financially literate society.  






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