Between the World and Me. Ta–Nehisi Coates

Between the World and Me by Ta–Nehisi Coates

I was looking for a new Black History month read and Coates had several recommendations. The New York Times Book Review by Michelle Alexander describes the author as: “who now speaks unpopular, unconventional and some times even radical truths in his own voice, unfiltered. He is invariably humble, yet subtly defiant.” Alexander has an excellent review and I’ve lifted multiple quotes from it. I was similarly vexed that Coates material is accurate and from his atheistic point of view is without hope. In her review she agrees (as do I)with the reality of racism and exploitation but she offers a sliver of hope; which I want to believe can happen.

The book was an excellent choice and I recommended highly. Expand one’s perspective white privileges and institutional racism. Both which are reality is in today’s world. And the fear of physical safety that exist in America for most middle of color regardless of their education and social status or economic well being -institutional racism continues embedded in most everything.

I think living abroad has helped our family’s point of view; as has living with the Loa community for three years, and again it’s on us down here in Florida. Our church congregation is a blend of Haitian, Latinos, and Anglos; and the majority of my scout troop is non white.

Individuals need to reach out in acceptance, love, equality, and acknowledge the embedded racism.

I need to;

Groups need to;

Churches need to;

Corporations need to;

America needs to . . .

. . . make plain for young people what is truly at stake in the struggle and disabuse them of the prevailing myths that breed complacency, defeatism or inaction.

Coates

“repeatedly emphasizes the young man’s power and potential and urges him to believe that revolutionary change is possible against all odds, because we, as black people, continue to defy the odds and defeat the expectations of those who seek to control and exploit us.

is trying to make sense of blatant racial injustice and come to grips with his place in a world that refuses to guarantee for him the freedoms that so many others take for granted.

within a country lost in the Dream, is the question of my life, and the pursuit of this question, I have found, ultimately answers itself.”

“Hollywood fortified the Dream. The Dream was gilded by novels and adventure stories”; Dreamers are the ones who continue to believe the lie, at black people’s expense. In what will almost certainly be the most widely quoted passage, Coates tells his son: “Here is what I would like for you to know: In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body — it is heritage.”

“But you cannot arrange your life around them and the small chance of the Dreamers coming into consciousness.”

Michelle Alexander for The New York Times

As Frederick Douglass observed long ago, “Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never did and it never will.”

“The second time around I could see that maybe, just maybe, this is what is most needed right now — a book that offers no answers but instead challenges us to wrestle with the questions on our own. Maybe this is the time”

“I cannot pretend to be entirely satisfied. Like Baldwin, I tend to think we must not ask whether it is possible for a human being or society to become just or moral; we must believe it is possible. Believing in this possibility — no matter how slim — and dedicating oneself to playing a meaningful role in the struggle to make it a reality focuses one’s energy and attention in an unusual way.”

“But I believe we could only benefit from hearing what answers Coates may have fashioned for himself. Whether you agree or disagree, one of the great joys of reading Ta-Nehisi Coates is being challenged in ways you didn’t expect or imagine.”

post script

Carvell Wallace in review entitled ‘making a motherland review’ of Black Panther commented -“ our individual successes and failures belong in a perfectly real sense to all of us. That can be for good or ill. When it’s good, it is very good. It is the sunlight and gold on the best African mountains, is the shining splendor of the Wakandan warriors poised and ready to fight, is a collective soul as timeless and indestructible as vibranium. And with this love we seek to make the future ours, by making the present ours. We seek to make a place where we belong.

See separate post on related subject – Braving the Wilderness – the quest for true belonging and the courage to stand alone; a 2017 book by Brene Brown.

Tales of The Lost Ten Tribes by Tamar Yellin

Tales of the 10 lost tribes. Tamar Yellin

The title caught my attention - ‘ten lost tribes’. Other than the tenth article of faith, one does not hear of them. Yellin inserts Jewish literature quotes contextualizing their ‘ten tribes’ lore, quest, and understanding. Given the quotes, Jewish awareness and interest is greater than I would've thought.

The book’s voice is that of a wandering narrator “who encounters a series of displaced persons: the uncle whose endless travels seem romantic but are in fact a camouflage for a life of failure and malaise; the professor whose mastery of many languages can never assuage the anguish of his lost mother tongue; the girl student who may literally be invisible; the young man who spends his night hours obsessively writing and rewriting the slim volume he can never finish. With each encounter the narrator inevitably moves on, dreaming of home, unable to resist the lure of the world's labyrinth.” They all are part of the ‘lost ten’ seeking their identity and meaning.

“He was not who he appeared, he appeared as he really was.”

Paradox of the lost

- “Is he had not lead a life that was worth mentioning the sole reason that he was still waiting for it to begin”

Another version of waiting for Godot?

“I will cast them into the furthest place in the world and none will remember them and therefore therefore they are truly in scripture called imprisoned and lost.”

The narrator becomes the embodiment of the Lost Ten in his final quixotic quest for the last of the lost sequestered deeply in the remotest part of the world -after 8-9 days boating up the river, a week of two hiking jungle, shelter by an indigent primitive tribe; trying to find the shelter, the words, the message of the Lost Ten – where he the narrator becomes the lost.

It is not uncommon in church circles to hear of a gathering of saints in other corners of the world of ‘a survey’ being taken of those - attending who have had patriarchal blessings and - discover that the group are representatives of 10, 11, or 12 tribes. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel AOF10 !

Pax. by Sara Pennypacker

PAX by Sara Pennypacker

A moving story of the extraordinary friendship between a boy and his fox, and their epic journey to be reunited. I got it at the library with the intent of Eden reading it
- she didn’t - I did. 

A very engaging story, a father and his strained relationship with his son, war and its inhumanity, and learning to identify your core- self . A quick and enjoyable book to me.

Sara, sort of the muse of the woods , has GIB like rules - #11   The Gulf Stream will flow through a straw,provided the straw is aligned to the Gulf Stream. And not at cross currents.

Her definition of peace - I have peace here- I am exactly where I should be, doing what I should be doing. That is peace! 

The card is blank.
A truth of your own that you discover on your own.

Oneness is always growing in the world. Two but not two.

Like a Phoenix - no matter how bad things got, we could always make ourselves new again. _ then the nest ignites, burning the old birds body. And the new bird rises up out of the old bird's ashes. 

It's thoughtful

The Tale of Despereaux. by Kate DiCamillo

The tale of Despereaux. By Kate DiCamillo

 Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread.

This is not a new book and I was surprised I wasn't familiar with it. I read most of the books the kids read, and delighted in sharing a story with them. I will tell them of this tale and encourage their reading of it . I love a good QUEST story. 

"The world is dark, and light is precious. Come closer , dear reader. You must trust me. I am telling you a story. "  As I read this I occasionally thought the book exposed too much of the dark that is in people and happens to a soul in the course of life. For light is precious and sometimes barely discernible. - and it takes time to see it.  Some similarity in her "The Tiger Rising" - both of which I ultimately enjoyed. And the world has a lot of dark in it - and our kids need to deal and cope with it.

The story of Despereaux Tilling, a mouse who is in love with music, stories, and a princess named Pea. It is also the story of a rat called Roscuro, who lives in the darkness and covets a world filled with light. And it is the story of Miggery Sow, a slow-witted serving girl who harbors a simple, impossible wish. These three characters embark  on a journey leads them down into a horrible dungeon, up in a glittering castle, and, ultimately, into each other's lives.      

No more ... You've got to go read it!The

100 essays I don’t have time to write. Sara Ruhl

100 essays I don’t have time to write. Sara Ruhl

The collection of essays that are easily read but not always easily digested. Where there are nuggets  which prod  thinking.

11. An essay in praise of smallness 

“ i admire minimalism”

(One must admire the beauty of it)

12. Plays of ideas

“Small forthright words,used in the service of condensing experience, might have an idea buried in them as large as the most expansive work that wears  its intellectualism on its sleeve.  The unshed tears of the deeply felt are akin to the unused large words in the  service of a thought

Are we common man taking the roles of the famous famous people taking roles of the common man 

Almost impossible to truly think one thing While saying another thing

Life is not constantly about wanting to get something from somebody else . Life is about joy

The  Adverb game - The action in the manner of the word

Famous BY NAOMI SHIHAB NYE

Famous

BY NAOMI SHIHAB NYE

The river is famous to the fish.

The loud voice is famous to silence,   

which knew it would inherit the earth   

before anybody said so.   

The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds   

watching him from the birdhouse.   

The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.   

The idea you carry close to your bosom   

is famous to your bosom.   

The boot is famous to the earth,   

more famous than the dress shoe,   

which is famous only to floors.

The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it   

and not at all famous to the one who is pictured.   

I want to be famous to shuffling men   

who smile while crossing streets,   

sticky children in grocery lines,   

famous as the one who smiled back.

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,   

or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,   

but because it never forgot what it could do.