The magic strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch albom

I try not to stray into the sentimental too much, nonetheless, I just finished reading  The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto by Mitch Album ( popular author who wrote The Five People You Meet in heaven )  This story is narrated by Music, interspersed with interviews with famous musicians of many ages and genres. The main character, Francisco, an incredible guitarist , is like Forest Gump meets the world of music.- primarily the age of rock and roll. You might find it charming , which is why I refer it to you - or totally off putting dribble , in which case  you will hopefully forgot I recommended  it by next time we talk.

"The Secret is not to make your music louder but to make the world quieter"

"That is often why you come to music Isn't it to feel that you're not alone".   And I thought i learned last week from Gabriel  Zevin that, that is what reading is for!

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanith

When breath becomes air by Paul Kalanith

A NYTimes top seller; Interesting book to chosen to read right after the storied life of AJ Fikry. Both deal with death more than anticipated by me; both deal with living richly and loving abundantly. Both challenging me to live better dealing with my Parkinson's.

'A tureen of tragedy was best allotted  by the spoonful' -when he was in his doctor mode on how to share devastation , most need time to digest, be mindful of how we share

'You can't ever reach perfection, you can believe in an asymptote (a line that continually approaches a given curve but does not meet it at any finite distance.) toward which you are ceaselessly striving'

'Darwin and Nietzsche agreed on one thing : the defining characteristic of the organism is striving'

'The tricky part of illness is that, as you go through it, your values are constantly changing. You try to figure out what matters to you, and then you keep figuring it out. It felt like someone had taken away my credit card and I was having to learn how to budget. You may decide you want to spend your time working as a neurosurgeon, but two months later, you may feel differently. Two months after that, you may want to learn to play the saxophone or devote yourself to the church. Death may be a one-time event, but living with terminal illness is a process.'-WORD

'Seeing death as an imposing visitor but knowing that even  if I'm dying, until I actually die I'm still living'

... The prospect of losing meaning and agency agonizing'

And that my wife and family might say of me as this line in the book - 'even while (the author Paul) terminally Ill he was fully alive despite physical collapse he remained vigorous, open, full of hope, not for an unlikely cure but for days that were full of purpose and meaning'

Footnote 

The song the author and his wife sang. together in church which is not in our hymnal but which I like a lot: the servant song

Will you let me be your servant

Let me be as Christ to you

Pray that I might have the grace

To let you be my servant too

We are pilgrims on the journey

We are brothers on the road

We are here to help each other

Walk the mile and bear the load

I will hold the Christ light for you

In the night time of your fear

I will hold my hand out to you

Speak the the peace you long to hear.

I will weep when you are weeping

When you laugh, I’ll laugh with you

I will share your joy and sorrow

Till we’ve seen this journey through.

When we sing to God in heaven

We shall find such harmony

Born to all we’ve known together

Of Christ’s love and agony

Places

As I stated earlier a trip can be defined by the people with whom you interact, meet and share with on a trip. But that is not all - place can also make or break an experience. I adhere to the definitions of sense of place:

Sense of place is:(according to nathaniel james)

• Difficult to quantify and abstract — place is frequently referred to as "fuzzy" or difficult to locate geographically.(5) In addition, one definition of place may not transfer across political or geographic borders.
• Comprised of natural features, patterns of human settlement, and social relationships — the connection between people is a key component of place.
• Determined by local knowledge — while it may be possible to broadly describe place as an outsider, intimate understandings of place are best expressed by natives.
• Embodied in folklore, personal narrative, and amateur history — intimate descriptions of place rarely show up in "official" documents, that is, those prepared by government or bureaucratic agencies

In simpler terms a sense of place can also be:
Some places are just fun and make a great experience just by being there.

Other places are bucket list type and you want to have been there.

Places may define a larger geography and take a meaning of their own.

Sacred places bring you nearer the infinite and lift you up by being in their presence.

The place is home for that is where the heart is.

Gratefully we experienced many relevant places - to us.

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry, by Gabrielle Zefin

This is mostly, in a small bookstore and is about a bookseller, books, life and death, love lost, found, developed, and the life that surrounds the store itself. I like bookstore books, my favorites include : The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon; and Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. 

“The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry reminds us what saves us all from a life of loneliness and isolation: our sense of empathy; our ability to love and be loved; our willingness to care and be cared for. Gabrielle Zevin has written a wonderful, moving, endearing story of redemption and transformation that will sing in your heart for a very, very long time.” 

'We aren’t the things we collect, acquire, read. We are, for as long as we are here, only love. The things we loved. The people we loved. And these, I think these really do live on'

'Remember, Maya: the things we respond to at twenty are not necessarily the same things we will respond to at forty and vice versa. This is true in books and also in life'

'It is the secret fear that we are unlovable that isolates us,” the passage goes, “but it is only because we are isolated that we think we are unlovable. Someday, you do not know when, you will be driving down a road. And someday, you do not know when, he, or indeed she, will be there. You will be loved because for the first time in your life, you will truly not be alone. You will have chosen to not be alone.'

'The words you can't find, you borrow.

We read to know we're not alone. We read because we are alone. We read and we are not alone.'

The high mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel

The high mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel
Martell is a little unorthodox in the storytelling but it is compelling reading and I love the unpredictable.  Agatha Christie mystery books as an allegory for Jesus Christ and the gospel just  wasn't expected but it was a new thought and got me thinking. It merits more discussion than space / time I want to dedicate to it at this point in time.

The conversation Peter had in his mind about where to move with Odo reminds me that the only place I ever thought of retiring had been Portugal; where the two of them embarked:  "where will they go? Florida. A lot of Canadians retire there, precisely for the purpose of fleeing Canada's winters. But the place means nothing to him. He does not want to live between a strip mall, a golf course and a sweltering Beach. Portugal The word illuminates his mind" . So, maybe I ought to take a field trip from my Florida home to Portugal.

I've always found crying, my crying odd. He explains: "And weeping is undignified. It lies beyond the tutorials of etiquette remains a personal idiom individual in its expression. The twist of the face , quantity of tears quality of sob, pitch of voice, volume of clamber, effect on the complexion, the play of the hands, the posture taken: one discovers weeping - ones weeping personality – only upon weeping. It is a strange discovery, Not only to others but to oneself." So I ought to be comfortable with my limited but trending up weeping

Interesting discussion on what I would deem light-mindedness. "Humor and religion do not mix  but humor sheds no light on true religion. it's just humor unto itself. Worse humor misunderstand religion , let's  not make the mistake of thinking that levity is the same thing as Joy. Religion abounds in joy. Religion is joy

His explanation of the allegory of walking on water. "swimming is a modern invention – people at the time of Jesus cannot swim if they fell in the Deepwater they sink they drown that is a literal truth but we think of water is the experience of life there's also the religious truth man and women are weak it in their weakness they sink. Jesus does not sink a man drowning in water naturally looks up what does he see while being engulfed by choking darkness he sees above him the clear light and pure air of salvation   he sees Jesus."

Of Awkward phone calls with relatives: "they end the call with the grace of people learning how to dance on stilts"

In total an odd book but a good book. I skipped a few pages where it was appropriate. He's an author with a twist no doubt about it. And he gave me a few things to ponder.








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The Last Armada by Des Ekin

The Last Armada by Des Ekin

I must confess that if I were to be an historian I would be a devotee of the 15th - 18th century with a focus on Spain, France, England, and Italy. Whether its historic fiction like Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, the Chronicles of Brother Cadfael mystery series by Ellis Peters, or non-fiction like The Discoverers a history of discovering the Americas, by Daniel Boorstin or the Map That Changed the World, the history of the first geological map by Simon Winchester – I will dive in and give it read. So when the library failed to deliver on the book I supposedly had on reserve, The Last Armada by Des Ekin caught my eye and so we dove.

I’ve formed my own jaded opinions, over time, of the peoples of that epoch: English - over-bearing, over-confident, exploitative in a patronizing manner, destined to play their role in setting the stage for the restoration; Spanish -discoverers, adventuresome, indulgent, unfortunately consumers of their American found wealth and not builders; Irish – animated, strong willed, destined to emigrate. The book did nothing to dissuade me.

The English did not win (many more of them died) – they claimed they did. The Spanish were not there to help the Irish (only to interfere with the English) – they failed on both accounts. and the Irish simply did not fight (why should they? they were there for the spoils/not for freedom). The flight of the Earls was never a significant result. Without an Irish national feeling, No man would die for another man's freedom – they languished in their relationship with England ever since.

The author explains the terrain, battles, siege construction, and weaponry well enough to please any military historian concerning Spain’s last armada and invasion of Ireland and the battle of Kinsale. Most compelling are the author’s discussions of the effect of the battle on Spain as its empire died and England’s colonies grew, the end of Spain’s religious wars, the shift of power in England, and the cataclysm as Gaelic Ireland declined and died.

A good book that places Kinsale siege and battle in its rightful place in history. And as a randomly chosen book was well chosen.

Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler

Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler

When  Abraham is to offer Isaac on the altar - it is the first  interactive moment in the Bible first time the Reader is asked what would I do in this situation.

How do we likin the Scriptures unto ourselves we should enter the story yourselves. Reimagine ourselves in bondage and reconsider the feelings of awe  fear, apprehension and expectation we have upon being  released by a God we're just seeing and feeling for the first time.


To walk in the land of Israel is a holy thing to do.
When the spirit speaks to your spirit it is like some homeless portion of my consciousness that hasn't even realized it was looking for a home suddenly found  a place where I feel comfortable and surge forward to put down anchor
An objective less to prove the Bible and more to witness its atmosphere and lingering appeal. 
With the old testament the 10 Commandments in the first covenant with God written down all others are oral  renewed with words.
In much of religion the services are profoundly solitary nature and also deeply communal

In ancient times a monk would be a top the path he would hear persons confession to make sure that he was spiritually prepared to be at the sacred-place you come to the monastery you purify yourself and then you ascend -what happens when you get in the holy ground- this is holy ground when you get there your heart will be beating in your head will be light .just shut your eyes and listen closely God will tell you what to do.

"The three pillars of the structure of Israel history are revelation covenant and law" Gunther Plaut. -interesting to observe the parallel process the LDS faith developed revelation - first vision and covenant - temple and the law-D&C built in crossing the in the wilderness In search of  a promise land - Zion ( by accepting  the law they to become part of Israel)
That an individual cannot reach salvation without a community
For Feiler  to experience the desert is like we would talk about experiencing the temple "I see this road seven times in the week and every time it's different because the sun hits it in a different place because I am in a 
different mood and for me it's always new"

Stiff-neckedn is a reference to an ox that refuses to lower its neck which It 
must do to be properly fitted into a yokel

The details of the Bible are the important part but knowing the stories is. Anyone who has a wish to be faithful and honest will have a crisis of faith in study of the details. However when you go certain places you feel him you feel of His spirit. When you do you come away a better person. Since you always can't be in certain places we have the written word in the Scriptures to also help us feel of that spirit become a better person. Only by entering the story ourselves can we truly understand its meaning. All I need to do is remember what I was looking for for somehow I already knew. Denied entry Moses actually gets more he gets prophetic vision personally granted him by God . Moses may not get the land but He gets the promise. The land alone is not the destination, the destination is the place where human beings live in consort with the divine.





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Becoming wise

Becoming wise: An inquiry into the mystery and art of living

by Krista Tippit

I enjoy Kristen Tibbetts podcast on being - listening to her interviews of people with various spiritual backgrounds and beliefs trying to come to a common ground . I read this book hoping it would be well written and bountiful in thought - it was both. 

'“I’m a person who listens for a living.  I listen for wisdom, and beauty, and for voices not shouting to be heard.  This book chronicles some of what I’ve learned in what has become a conversation across time and generations, across disciplines "

 
Review stated: "In Becoming Wise, Tippett distills the insights she has gleaned from this luminous conversation in its many dimensions into a coherent narrative journey, over time and from mind to mind. The book is a master class in living, curated by Tippet.
 The wisdom we seek emerges through the raw materials of the everyday. And the enduring question of what it means to be human has now become inextricable from the question of who we are to each other. It insists on the possibility of a common life for this century marked by resilience and redemption, with beauty"

Some favorite snippets:

Wisdom leavens intelligence and ennobles consciousness and advances evolution itself.

 Listening is about being present not just about being quiet.generous listening is powered by curiosity

What we practice we become- What's true of playing the piano and throwing a ball also holds for our capacity to move through  the world mindlessly and destructively or generously and graceful -(Related to Wilcox talk grace saves us and helps practice living in grace as the Savior lives changing our nature . )

I have yet to meet a wise person who doesn't know how to find some joy even in the midst of what is hard, and to smile and laugh easily including at oneself

There is such a thing as a bad question generous listening in fact yields better questions. Questions illicit answers in their likeness answers mirror the questions they rise or fall to meet. It is hard to meet a simplistic question with anything but a simplistic answer it's hard to transcend the combative question it is hard to resist a generous question

Words

Choose from the words 

that even now sleep on your tongue and to know that tangled 

among them terribly new is the sentence that could change your life 

What a wonderful way to think about the power language the mystery of it comes from in us

The question of listening is also a question of how do you listen to yourself

'He's looking with an eye that was deeply filled by love and compassion that Eye opens us up to see many things that might otherwise be missed '- seeing things through the filter of God's eyes not man's eyes

A Hug provides the boundary around an experience embraces one with love and says this is a limit to the pain that you can suffer

Muddled words

Awe - wonder of the ineffable of God

Vs awesome -totally radical dude

Beauty – that in the presence of which we feel more alive. Acts of kindness works of goodness – beauty incarnate, The spirit of living the beatitudes, proceeds through exuberantly inhabiting the given imperfect raw materials of the every day

Loving reality in all it's imperfection is the necessary prelude to discovering God present and alive

Vs Beaut - something sexually vivacious

People with Disabilities can bring this thing is precisely to the equilibrium of the heart beauty and purity of the world

The Buddhist word citta meaning the heart and mind are the same thing like into D&C 8:9 Lord telling you in your heart and in your mind

Excerpts from a poem by Elizabeth Alexander - what if the mightiest word is love?

Love Beyond marital, filial,  national 

love that casts a widening  pool of light 

love with no need to preempt grievance.

My heart cannot be educated by myself. It can only come out of a relationship with others. And if we accept being educated  by others, to let them explain to us what happens to them , and to let yourself be immersed in their world so!they can get into our world, then You begin to share something very deep.

We find our fulfillment  where we choose to find our fulfillment. if you're told you can only find it here you don't look it where it is , which is your life , you keep thinking it's coming. OK it'll will be here one day I'll get the big love. Well we have a big love.  it's already here.

(in capitalism what is engineered is longing, engineered longing and desire and us what can be in the future. It's always about the next product the next big thing) everything is all hooked into the seduction. What if we were actually content with our  life's?'The daily subtle simple gathering of kindnesses'

Muddled words continued

Wonder

Wondering is it beautiful way to begin to speak of a shared vocabulary of mystery we might embrace across our disciplines or contrasting certainties and our doubts. 

We need to look at examine the world with wonder we need to keep asking not just asking in our youth. 

Children connect with the questions the inquiry enormous curiosity about this universe and The hope that somehow those answers will come about. Spiritual life is a way of dwelling with perplexity searching for the purposes  as well as its perils its beauty as well as its ravages.

We are called to be the good Samaritan and lift our neighbor out of the ditch. but After you lift so many people out of the ditch you start to say maybe the whole road to Jericho needs to be transformed.

It's worth pausing every once in a while and taking in -isn't it -this dramatic change in our lifetime -when you travel you know you're not really doing so in order to move around you travel in order to be moved!

"The point of gathering stillness it's not to enrich the sanctuary or the mountaintop (or the temple ) but to bring that calm to the motion the commotion of the world."

'And the thing is being a wise parent or a spiritual parent doesn't take extra time. It's enfolded into the act of parenting.'

Hope like every virtue is a choice that becomes a practice to become spiritual muscle memory. It's a renewable resource for moving through life as it is not as we wish it to be .  - and cynicism is not more reasonable than hope .unlike almost every worthwhile thing in life cynicism is easy it judges things as they are but does not lift a finger to try to shift them. 

And hope is not an emotion. Hope is a cognitive, behavioral process that we learn when we experience adversity, when we have relationships that are trustworthy , when people have faith in our ability to get out of a jam. - The moments that make you are the moments of struggle. Hope is the function of struggle. resilience is a successor to mere progress, a companion to sustainability. To nurture a resilient human being is to build an expectation of adversity a capacity for inevitable vulnerability. Resilience is it once proactive pragmatic and humble. it doesn't overcome failure so much as transmutes it integrating it into the reality that evolves.

(We need to learn to fail gracefully - see book ' learning how to fall')

 Hope inspires the good to reveal itself

Humility has a lightness of step not a heaviness of heart. This lightness is the surest test for recognizing wisdom when you see it in the world or feel it's stirrings in yourself.

Plenty of mini sermons in this book. Plenty  to ponder on -  faith hope and love ultimately leading to wisdom

Sent fr

Chicago by Brian Doyle

Chicago by Brian Doyle

A novel of exploration of development of community, exploration  of a city, development of a person . Made the better because it's Chicago, and I feel a kindred spirit to Chicago we lived nearby in Naperville  for five years. 

Enjoy Doyle's rich  writing style his use of words in his thoughts and insights.
Pg 154 - too long to, but a great description of Chicago and his perspective and language

"... while many stories slipped my mind over the years and slipped through my fingers too because I did not know enough to jot notes to serve as spurs to memory some of them remain adamant and resistant to erosion"

"stop for a while and watch , he's like that you know alert to things and patient enough to wait for them to arrive"

"it turns out that the biggest moments are a lot  like the smallest moment , just trundling and shuffling  along one after another, each one utterly normal and absolutely the most amazing moment ever"

It's a friendly, uplifting read on several levels - read it because you like Chicago , because you are moving into a new city and want to observe how someone else approached it, because you too are a listener , an observer, and a lover of a curated story.

It turned me to my reflections on moving away from Minnesota 
Leaving Minnesota

I have to admit in being a little disappointed in not being asked to speak when we moved to Chicago but had I been asked to speak this is what I would've said reflecting primarily on my religious community in Minnesota.

I take from Minnesota 
1 LEGACY of mighty men of Minnesota who dared to be great: my dad Paul Williams Wilson Lou Oelkers Everett Manwaring Alan Anderson Bill Nelson Francis McDaniels Jack Paynter Larry Ingalls

2 FRIENDSHIP 
Long term 50+ years 
Mid years raised our children with 
new just joined congregation 
served by and served with

3 TESTIMONY
from warren biorn to Roy Patton competed for the longest testimony
To Sandra Jerry Christina and Evan who were the most consistent
To the hundreds if not thousands I've heard in this chapel and carry with me

What I left is just as precious
Our family pew

My gratitude
The ward the people shaped me and my family
Served us through babies multiple heard surgeries trips to mayo  and unemployment
Bounteous times baptisms ordinances missions marriage

My family
My parents my brothers my in-laws nephews and nieces and a church family

My love 
with part of my heart always here with dear friends and fellow saints

My testimony of things I know
God lives 
Loves us and wants us  to be happy 
hears and answers prayers
Holy Ghost to reveal to us
His son sent to redeem us


I love those things and a threat to return someday 






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This is Water by David Foster Wallace

This is water by David Foster Wallace


It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience

Need to make a conscious decision about how to think what to pay attention  to
It's the automatic unconscious way and I experience the boring frustrating crowded parts of adult life I'm operating on the automatic unconscious believe that I am the center of the world and that my immediate needs and feelings are what should determine the world priorities

Everybody worships ( men money power) (yielding  wealth comfort personal freedom ) the only choice we get his what to worship

Insidious things about most types of worship is not that they are evil or sinful but that they're on unconscious  - they are  default settings

Important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline and effort being able to truly care about other people to the sacrifice for them over and over in myriad Petty little unsexy ways every day

Value a real education simple awareness and if someone is sensual rounds this is water and consciously each day
In the world 






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