A Playlist

Mom’s “playlist”…

Over the years on this blog I’ve shared a lot of book stories about my mom. She was my lifelong book buddy, an avid reader, and always an inspiration to me (in so many different ways). She read a lot, but she also listened to a lot of music. I knew she loved opera, and musicals, and movie soundtracks. But I found an unexpected gift from her this week.

Earlier in the week, I pulled her old iPod out of the drawer I put it in seven years ago. It was pretty old technology back then, so I had simply set it aside, not wanting to get rid of it. But I was cleaning out drawers and found the box with her much used iPod in it, and when I opened the box, I found a handwritten list of the songs that the iPod contained. Her favorites, said the heading. So I decided to make a playlist of her music on Spotify. “Mom’s Favorites” is one hour and thirty-four minutes of pure Mom!

I was able to share the music with my brothers, and it’s fun to have playing in the background as I continue with my organizing tasks.

Love you, Mom.❤️

Mom

Wise Words from Charlie Chaplin

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BERJAYA

The Osage Orange Tree

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BERJAYA
What to do when you wake up at 3:00 in the morning and can’t get back to sleep? I don’t know why I woke up so early this morning, but my mind started racing and I finally gave up and turned on my light and reached for a book. That book was The Osage Orange Tree, by the poet, William Stafford.

It’s actually a story, beautifully told in the succinct and evocative language of a master poet. It is a coming-of-age story that tells of two young high school students during the Depression, who become friends. It’s a quiet but deeply felt story, a slice of life during a difficult time, their friendship a ray of hope in a dismal world. A moment in time for the young man on the brink of manhood.

The illustrations, created by Oregon artist, Dennis Cunningham, were beautiful blockcuts that separated each “chapter” of the book and added an almost visual poetry to the story. And when you finish reading it, there is an exquisite Afterward written by another of my favorite poets, Naomi Shihab Nye.

This little book is a treasure.

More Wise Words from Carl Sagan

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“A Pale Blue Dot” — a photograph of Earth taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1 space probe…

BERJAYA

Roots

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BERJAYA

We hear a lot these days about “intergenerational trauma,” a term that describes the impact of traumatic experiences on subsequent generations in a family. I thought of this term as I finished reading Roots: The Saga of an American Family, by Alex Haley, this week. But I felt that what I would call “intergenerational resilience” is what this story is really about.

The story begins with the birth of Kunte Kinte in 1750, in the village of Juffure, in the Gambia, West Africa, who grew up with a rich inheritance of intelligence, strong spiritual beliefs, a deep understanding of the natural world, and with powerful leadership skills. His potential for excellence in his close-knit community within a deeply rich culture, was great. However, all of that was stolen from him when he was kidnapped as a teenager, and sold into slavery. He survived the horrific journey across the ocean in a slave ship, and was sold upon arrival to a slave owner who saw him simply as a good workhorse.

Kunte fought for his freedom with every fiber of his being, running away numerous times only to be caught each time. The final attempt to flee to freedom resulted in his being maimed by the slave owner, so he could never run away again. But the maiming also awakened in Kinte a new strength and will to live. He had survived the unsurvivable, and had lived. Everything he had been taught by his family, all his experiences growing up in his culture, fed that resilience, and from that came a strength that runs through his family to this day. Each subsequent generation of his family shared the stories of Kunte’s life, each generation drew strength from those stories and lived their own lives with great integrity and dignity, their true inheritance.

I started reading this book on January 1st as part of an unusual reading challenge created by Nick Senger: American Masters Chapter-a-Day Read-along. It was an incredible experience to read this book one chapter at a time. I had time to really absorb and appreciate each nuance of the story, to fully feel the impact of every carefully chosen and crafted word Mr. Haley wrote.

This has been a profound reading experience for me. After reading this story, I don’t think I can ever see the world quite the same again. It made me look again at my own family background and family struggles over time, and appreciate them with new eyes. And reading it at this time, with all the turmoil within our country right now, added a powerful current dimension to understanding the struggles of Alex Haley’s family within our American culture. The problems at the heart of this story still exist today.

It is going to take me a long time to process this book. I know I’ll be thinking of it for a long time yet. And if asked, I’d have to say that this is one of the best books I’ve read over a lifetime of reading.

A huge Thank You to Nick Senger for creating the challenge that led to this amazing reading experience. And another Thank You to my friend, Marlo, who read it alongside me (although we live many miles away from each other). Sharing our thoughts and reactions as we read through the book really enriched my experience with it.

“Early in the spring of 1750, in the village of Juffure, four days upriver from the coast of The Gambia, West Africa, a man-child was born to Omoro and Binta Kinte.”

Saturday Afternoon Listening

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BERJAYA

When I was growing up, our home was always filled with music. My parents were very busy during the week, but they loved listening to music on the weekends, so our old record player was always in use, and Saturday afternoons were filled with opera or violin music, or whatever they loved at the time. My oldest brother was always very musically talented, and he introduced us to jazz through his growing record collection as well as his time spent playing the piano. Each one of us would contribute to the family listening experience with our current favorites. It wasn’t organized as a family activity, it just happened that there was always music in our house, especially on the weekend.

Today, I was cleaning and dusting, and pulled this CD off the shelf: Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35, with David Oistrakh on violin. (I actually still have the vinyl album that belonged to my father). I haven’t listened to it in many years, partly because it became a favorite of my husband, and it’s been hard emotionally to listen to his favorites since he passed away. But today I cranked up the volume and listened with all my heart for the both of us, and, yes, Tchaikovsky always brings tears with the depth of the emotion in his music, but they were good tears and I so enjoyed my very familiar Saturday afternoon concert!

Wise Words from Albert Einstein

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BERJAYA
This is National Library Week, and this year’s theme is “Drawn to the Library.” I think Albert Einstein explained best what ‘being drawn to the library’ means, and the importance of reading is in all our lives.

Celebrating National Library Week

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BERJAYA
I love this quote from Jorge Luis Borges because it is what I imagine, too! This week, April 6 – April 12, is National Library Week and this year is an especially important time to celebrate libraries. Last weekend, I spent a few days at Seaside, Oregon, and attended that wonderful book event at the Seaside Public Library. I’d never been to that library before, and happily discovered that it’s a very nice library! I took many photos, and share them here in celebration of all our libraries.

Ship of Lost Souls

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BERJAYA

My interest in seafaring adventures and tragedies was sparked very early in my life by a poem. I was given a book of poems, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and became captivated by his poem, The Wreck of the Hesperus. (I memorized it for life!). A few years later, I found the book, Kon-tiki, by Thor Heyerdahl, on the bookshelf in my dad’s study. And then as a young teenager, I discovered at the library, a trilogy of books about the Mutiny on the Bounty, written by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. From that beginning, I am always drawn to a good seafaring story, and my most recent such read was Ship of Lost Souls, The Tragic Wreck of the Steamship Valencia, by Rod Scher.

This story is truly a tragedy in that everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, and the people who boarded that ship in San Francisco, heading for Seattle in 1906, were doomed from the very beginning. But it is a fascinating tale of all the details that led to this tragedy — human error first and foremost, the lack of technology that could have averted the shipwreck altogether and that could have helped save more lives, and the changes that followed in the aftermath but too late to save these lost souls.

From the Author:

In January of 1906, off the coast of Vancouver Island, BC, almost everyone aboard the steamship Valencia died, including every single woman and child, when the vessel crashed into the jagged rocks just off of the island. Some 170+ souls perished within a couple hundred yards of land, and in spite of the fact that ships had been dispatched to rescue them. This is the story of that disaster, about who was at fault, and about the lessons we may or may not have learned from the tragedy.

Rod Scher

Rod Scher gives a riveting account in this book. His research for it was extensive and gives you a complete picture of the tragedy and the times. The photographs are fascinating in themselves, and the illustrations by the artist, Molly Dumas, are beautiful. Rod is currently on book tour for this book, and I was able to attend his book event at the Seaside Public Library this weekend. It was a lovely venue and a fascinating presentation. Molly Dumas, the artist who did the illustrations for the book, was also there and spoke about how she created those illustrations. It was a wonderful book experience overall!

Rod and his wife, Lesley, are our special friends. I met Lesley in 2007 through her book blog, Coastal Horizons, and we became online friends. My husband and I were finally able to meet Rod and Lesley in person during a trip we made to the Oregon Coast in January 2018. And for a number of years, Lesley and I were able to meet in person numerous times. Those enjoyable get-togethers were interrupted by the pandemic, so this weekend was a delightful reunion (and book celebration) after too many years.

Rod, Byron, and me…

Lesley and me…

Wandering Wednesday: Cape Disappointment

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A photo of me at the mouth of the Columbia River, Oregon side…

In 2015, for one of our “Wandering Wednesdays,” Byron and I set out for Cape Disappointment at the mouth of the Columbia River. Byron had read about an historical and cultural site designed by the architect Maya Lin, and we were curious about it. On that trip, we learned that the site at Cape Disappointment was the first completed project of a much larger collaborative project called The Confluence Project…

“Connecting people to the history, living cultures, and ecology of the Columbia River system through Indigenous voices.”

The Confluence Project consists of six special sites along the Columbia River. Four of these sites were designed by the artist/architect, Maya Lin, the artist/architect who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., which was completed and dedicated in 1982.

On the Confluence Project, (from Maya Lin’s website). Please click here to read the entire description of the project:

My work with the Confluence Project is a series of four large-scale art/landscape installations along the Columbia River basin marking the two- hundred-year anniversary of Lewis and Clark’s journey west. The state of Washington had invited Native American tribes of the region— Chinook, Umatilla, Nez Perce— to participate in this historic commemoration in close dialog with federal, state, and local officials, and this group in turn had thought that my involvement would contribute to a more inclusive cultural history of this place.

As one tribal elder had put it, “Lewis and Clark did not discover this land. We were here.”

The Confluence Project is an amazing historical and cultural ongoing project. It’s so much more than just the sites along the Columbia, and the website for this project is a treasure trove of learning which includes articles, videos, podcasts, newsletters, all about different aspects of the history of the life of the Columbia River Basin. So this post is just a very brief introduction to a very rich topic.

The First Site: Cape Disappointment, Washington, October 2015

“We start where Lewis and Clark’s journey ended at the mouth of the Columbia, where the river meets the sea, holding up a mirror to reflect back upon Lewis and Clark’s journey.”
– Maya Lin

The Confluence site at Cape Disappointment State Park is designed in two parts. According to the Confluence Project web site, the first part consists of:

1–Cedar Circle

In a secluded grove, cedar driftwood columns surround a cedar tree trunk that predates Lewis and Clark’s arrival.

2–Amphitheater and Walkway

From the existing amphitheater, a path of crushed oyster shells leads you from the coastal forest environment through dune grasses to a secluded grove. As you walk, read the lyrics of a Chinook praise song that was recited at this site on November 18, 2005, the 200th anniversary of Lewis and Clark’s arrival.

3–Boardwalk

Along one of several trails at the site, learn about Lewis and Clark’s 4,133-mile journey from St. Louis to the Pacific in their own words. Read text from their journals inscribed in a boardwalk that leads from an existing amphitheater to Waikiki Beach.

Here are some photos Byron and I took from that part of the site. (Click on the photos to enlarge them.)

Once again from the Confluence web site, the second part of this site consists of:

1–Fish Cleaning Table

Cut from a single polished block of native basalt, this artistic fish-cleaning table is inscribed with a Chinook origin legend that tells the story of the interdependence of the Chinook people and the Columbia River’s salmon.

2–Overlook

A simple, curved viewing platform offers an unobstructed view of Baker Bay and its surroundings. Text from the Lewis and Clark journals etched into the surface of the platform evokes the scene and moment they finally arrived at their destination.

Here are some photos we took of that part of the site.

The rest of that Wandering Wednesday was spent hiking to the lighthouse at Cape Disappointment and admiring the grandeur of the view of the mouth of the Columbia River. There was an added drama when we realized that the Coast Guard was doing practice rescue maneuvers. It was fascinating to watch through our binoculars.

As you can see, this Wandering Wednesday was an amazing trip for us. It’s a great destination for families, especially if your family has been reading about the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the history of the Columbia River, and the cultures and history of the indigenous people of the area. My goal now is to finish the adventure that Byron and I started ten years ago, and visit all six sites of The Confluence Project.