Halloween on Gatun Lake in the Panama Canal

The Coral Princess is safely anchored in Gatun Lake just past the Atlantic Ocean locks of the Panama Canal. It was absolutely fascinating to go through these locks and see the operation of the canal up close. And I DO mean up close. Our stateroom is on the starboard side and at several points during the transit we were face to face with the operators of the locomotives that guide the ships through the locks. We had some interesting conversations with them.

We entered the canal at about 6:30 this AM and just finished to this point about an hour ago - 9:00 AM.

I read on Branseurotrip that she is spending Halloween in Rome, Italy! Wow, her adventure sounds SO wonderful. We are happy to be spending Halloween in the middle of the Panama Canal.

The ship is decorated "to the nines" for halloween. They do everything in a big way on these ships.

Last night we enjoyed Karaoke, even though neither of us had the guts to compete. We also enjoyed the country and western night and the line dancing.

I have missed checking The Median Sib and Reasoned Audacity since we have been on ship. It takes a long time to load and internet time is precious and expensive here. Ruthlace had not added a new post last time I checked.

I have some great pics, I think; but I cannot upload them directly from the camera. I will have to wait until we get home to post some.

We will go back through the locks beginning about 12:00 and dock in Cristobal about 4:00. We set off from there at 7:00 for Limon, Costa Rica.

Ocho Rios, Jamaica and the Panama Canal

I missed posting yesterday. We had a wonderful day in Ocho Rios. We took a shore excursion that included a visit to the Green Grotto Caves and to Dunn's River Falls. The caves were pretty much like any caves -- we did see a lot of bats this time and a lot of interesting rock formations. However it was extremely HOT and HUMID, and the air was thick with mosquitoes. So I am paying today for that visit with lots of itchy spots.

The falls were spectacular! They were very steep and high at the bottom, had a level place in the middle, then climbed steeply again near the top. What was really interesting is that they allowed people to get in the river and climb the falls. I can't imagine that that would be allowed in any park in the US. There were hundreds of people (mostly from the ship) climbing the falls -- kids as young as 8 or 9 and senior citizens as old as (guessing) 75 or so. It was extremely strenuous and potentially hazardous. Jim and I decided not to climb them. We were already pretty tired from climbing and ducking our way through the caves for 2 hours. But we really enjoyed watching those hardier souls who did climb.

Today was a sea day. We attended (along with abut 300 other passengers) an interdenominational protestant worship service. Quite interesting. I also took a line-dancing class and spent a lot of time reading and lying on a lounge chair on the top deck.

Tomorrow is the big day of the cruise. We will partially traverse the Panama Canal. I am looking forward to that experience. The next day we will visit Limon, Costa Rica. Then we have two more sea days on the way home.

We have seen several really good comedians, pianists, dancers, Caribbean bands, and other kinds of entertainers. In a few minutes we are going to a karaoke show, then to a country and western hoe-down.

Panama, here we come.

Finally!

We are finally on the Coral Princess and actually sailing. After a 6-hour drive from Orlando to Miami, leaving at 6:30 AM this morning, we got on board at 1:30. We set sail about 7:00 -- barely an hour ago. Miami looks beautiful (an adjective I never realized could be applied to Miame) from the ship.

Internet access on the ship is even more expensive than it was from the resort yesterday, and I still cannot check Bellsouth email.

I got to talk to both our children this evening, since our cellphones are still working. That is a good way to get started.

The next post will report more interesting event, I hope!

Cruise Blues

I am sitting the the business center of the Marriott Vacation Club Resort finally getting a chance to write a post. I can't seem to get into BellSouth to check email. If any of my friends and family want to send me an email, please use the Yahoo address.

The last two days have been full of misinformation and changes of plans. Actually it has almost been a comedy of errors. We jumped right out of the frying pan into the flames when we left hubbub and confusion of the Atlanta airport Tuesday morning. Our flight to Fort Lauderdale was cancelled; but they got us on a plane to Melbourne, FL, thinking we could rent a car and drive to Fort Lauderdale and things could go on as planned.

I will detail later. Right now, my internet time is adding up fast, since I tried to check email first and never did get connected; so suffice it to say -- we have had change after change. We flew to Melbourne, rented a car, drove South, ran into the situation of no electricity and no gasoline, drove back North. Had to go north and inland all the way to Orlando to get a motel after we found out that our cruise had been delayed.

The latest info says that we will be picked up at a McDonalds in the morning at 6:00 by a bus provided by the cruise line and taken to Miami where the cruise will originate. We are supposed to sail at 5:00 tomorrow evening.

Thank goodness we brought a cellphone with us this time. We don't usually. We did have to buy a new charger, since we didn't bring one and have made dozens of calls to get info, rent car, find hotel, etc. We also bought travel insurance this time -- we don't usually!

It has been a little strange to be here in vacation area -- literally across the road from Sea World and just a few miles from Epcot Center, Disney World, Universal Studios, and other shows, entertainments and yet spend all our time calling and piddling with arrangements. On the other hand, this resort is gorgeous. We had a wonderful hour-long walk this morning around the grounds. We didn't bring warm enough clothes for the weather, so we had to wait until about 3:00 this afternoon for it to be warm enough to be out in the breeze for very long. The temp broke records for the day's low here in Orlando last night at 47 degrees.

Hope to have more time to post from the ship.

The Traveling Blog Hog

The Blog Hog totebag is going on a cruise! It arrived in the mail today -- just in time to carry my reading material to Panama, Costa Rica, Aruba (maybe), and The Cayman Islands. I won this cute hand-made bag last week by being the 500th visitor to The Median Sib. Isn't it cute? Thanks, Carol.

We still don't know whether Aruba will be the port that substitutes for the hurricane-harried island of Cozumel; but we DO know that the Ft. Lauderdale airport and seaport are doing business as usual. So first thing tomorrow morning, we fly out of Atlanta to begin our vacation cruise. YEA!!!

"at your age"

I am hearing those three title words more and more lately.

I had an appointment with the ophthamologist this morning. I had neglected my checkups for a couple of years, so it had been three years since I last had my eyes checked. As far a vision goes, I checked out with near-perfect 20/20 distance vision and the same correction for reading that I have had for several years. The need for reading glasses is typical, I am told , "at your age."

I have long prided myself (did I hear 'pride goeth before a fall'?) on seeming somewhat younger than other people my age -- fewer meds, better general health, more physical strength for lifting and carrying, more energy, basically positive attitude, perhaps younger looking and acting in some ways. I DO, after all, drive a pick-up truck and have multiple ear-piercings!

Well, today I added a few catch-phrases that are more typical of my age than "pickup truck" and "piercings." The doc says that I have the beginnings of cataracts (oh, my! that word makes me sound OLD!) Cataracts, he says, are to be expected "at your age." And, to add insult to injury, he says that I am under suspicion (his words) for glaucoma! The pressure in my eyes is normal, but there is an irregularity in the optic nerves that could signal the beginning of glaucoma.

I had to resist the temptation to tell the young doc as I left, "Your explanations were pretty vague and poorly-stated -- but that's to be expected AT YOUR AGE."

Cozumel or Aruba?

Well, we are still uncertain what our travel plans are. The travel agent told us tonight that our cruise will definitely not be going to Cozumel after all -- DUH! She thinks that the cruise line will probably substitute Aruba, reversing the planned route and covering about the same distance total.

The bigger question at this moment is: Will the Fort Lauderdale airport be open and ready for us to fly into it Tuesday morning? After Wilma makes landfall Monday morning, we can check their website and see if they are operating on schedule. If so, we leave home about 6:30 Tuesday morning for our 8:30 flight. Go easy on us, Wilma!

Sit Up Straight, Eat Your Veggies, Learn a Language

Branseurotrip wrote this morning from Interlocken, Switzerland, that she is constantly being made aware of the fact that almost everyone in Europe speaks more than one language. As an American traveling through Europe for 100 days, she is at a disadvantage because she is fluent only in English.

This very topic has long been of interest and concern to me. Back in the dark ages I graduated from college with a double Secondary Education degree in Spanish and English. I fully expected to teach Spanish in high school; but along about that time, the powers-that-be decided that languages were a "frill" in the education system. Consequently few schools were hiring teachers of foreign languages, and I taught English (now more commonly called "Language Arts") throughout my teaching career. In recent years, foreign languages are again being taught in our public schools, but, alas, Spanish unused quickly becomes Spanish unusable.

In the above-mentioned blog post, the writer points out that one of the reasons most people in Europe learn other languages is that the close proximity of the countries makes it especially useful, if not actually necessary, to speak the language of bordering countries. Perhaps because of the geographical hugeness and isolation of the United States on our continent, we haven't seen the necessity of teaching our children other languages. We can travel hundreds, even thousands, of miles without encountering the need to speak or understand another language.

Besides the obvious advantage of being able to communicate with more people, the advantages of learning another language abound. For one thing, children who learn another language at the same time they are learning their native one come to realize early the important fact that we are each citizens of the universe, not just of our own country. They become more tolerant of differences, they don't perceive different as inferior. They learn an important lesson in human communication: that just because I don't understand it doesn't mean it is wrong or useless.

Another great advantage of learning at least one foreign language is the understanding of language structure in general that is gained. This understanding helps one become more effective at using his/her own language to communicate clearly. Communication is difficult at best. Any given listener or reader seldom understands exactly what any given speaker or writer means by his/her words, since we all interpret what we read or hear in the context of our accumulated life experiences. Given this innate problem with communication, we as a society should do whatever we can do to increase the likelihood of true understanding between people. Anything that can be done to help children learn to communicate more effectively will be of benefit to all of society.

Cruise to the Panama Canal

We're going on a cruise! (Of course, as I write I am not sure that Cozumel - our planned first port - will still be there! And it is yet to be seen whether Wilma will leave Fort Lauderdale cruiseship docks usable.) For over 8 months we have had this reservation made; we thought the time was NEVER going to come! The hubby is so way overdue for his vacation! We fly out of Atlanta about noon Tuesday, and if all goes well, we will set sail on the Coral Princess from Fort Lauderdale about 5:00 PM Tuesday night. We hope to visit Cozumel; Georgetown, Grand Cayman; Puerto Limon, Costa Rica; Ocho Rios, Jamaica; and, of course, the Panama Canal. I intend to write a brief journal entry each night during the cruise, so come along!

Html Codes

I spent SEVERAL hours today trying to learn HTML. My blog template had somehow got messed up so that the sidebar started where the main column ended. I tried everything I could think of. I went through a 7-lesson tutorial on HTML to try to understand the template so I could fix it. Finally tonight I just picked a new template and redid all the edits I have done since I started the blog on September 8. What a major pain!

So ---- ta da--------Ladies and Gentlemen ------ I am proud to present a whole new look for Daddy's Roses! (drum roll)

Risk-taking and Overcoming (Addendum)

Sorry, I couldn't resist posting another addendum. I was perusing one of the books I bought at the Library book sale and found some thoughts about risk-taking and overcoming to support my post on October 12 :

Samuel Smiles (1859) – We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do by finding out what will not do. He who never made a mistake never made a discovery.

Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (1874) – It is a common mistake to think that failure is the enemy of success. Failure is a teacher – a harsh one, but the best.

Charles F. Kettering (1876) – Learn how to fail intelligently.

Charles F. Kettering (1876) – Every great improvement has come after repeated failures Virtually nothing comes out right the first time. Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement.

So there.

Books, Books, Books (Addendum)

Throughout the generations, great thinkers have realized the importance of reading. The following quotations are an addendum to my last post.

Rene Descartes(1596) – Reading all the good books is like a conversation with the finest men of past centuries.

Richard Steel (1627) – Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

Thomas Jefferson (1743) – I cannot live without books.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803) – Many times the reading of a book has made the fortune of the man – has decided his way of life.

Gustave Flaubert ((1821) – Read in order to live

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemons) (1835) – The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.

John Burroughs (1837) – If I were to name the three most precious resources of life, I should say books, friends, and nature.

Anonymous – Our civilization is the sum of the knowledge and memories accumulated by generations that have gone before us. We can only partake of it if we are able to make contact with the ideas of these past generations. The only way to do this – is by reading.

Books, Books, Books!

Yesterday my Mother and I "stopped by" the public library's annual book sale before we began a round of more necessary errands. In the facility's largest assembly room, books were arranged by category on row after row of tables and shelves. Several hundred thousand pieces of reading material were for sale. We each picked up an empty box and began shopping.

First I visited the Classics section, which included at least 700-800 choices on three tall book cases. I selected only a couple of classics (Wuthering Heights and Spoon River Anthology.) Then I sauntered past 10 long tables filled with books labeled simply Fiction. A relatively small bookshelf filled with Family books sat beside a slightly larger bookcase with Foreign Language books. I gave that one a cursory going-over to see whether there was anything in Spanish. Most were in Asian languages, but I did find a small Spanish crossword puzzle book for $.10, so I added that to my box. I hurriedly glanced through Georgia Authors, Southern Lit, Gardening, Crafts, Cookbooks, and Biographies, each on a long table of its own. I selected two books of humor that I am looking forward to reading - Bill Cosby's Fatherhood and David Letterman's Book of Top Ten Lists. I won't name all the other sections, but I added to my box from the Philosophy shelves, the Mystery section (8 or more tall shelves full), the Religion tables (6 long tables full), the Travel section, and the Children's tables.

I forced myself not to look at 4 tables full of simply Paperbacks, still hoping that we would have time to run the other errands on our agenda. I confess I am considering going back today to look over those paperbacks. I finished up and topped off my box with several selections from Magazines.

I emptied my box on the check-out table to tally up the damage. I was buying 18 magazines, 4 hardback books, and 12 paperback books and spending a grand total of $7.25! (Mother's total expenditure was about the same as mine.) We struggled out the door, down the hill, and out to the truck in the parking lot, each lugging our box of treasures. We had spent a very pleasurable hour or two together browsing and selecting; and we'll spend many more hours enjoying our purchases. (BTW, We will run the other errands another day!)

Only $7 for dozens of hours of great entertainment. What a bargain!

Laity Sunday

Today was Laity Sunday at our church. For those of you who don’t know, Laity Sunday is a Sunday during which the non-clergy people of the church conduct the entire worship service, from leading the music to preaching the sermon. The pastors, musicians, and regular church staff sit in the congregation and worship as the lay people usually do without having responsibility for leading the service. So today our lay people did all the music, read the scripture, led all the prayers, played the instruments, made the announcements, and collected the tithes and offerings. Our congregation-elected Lay Leader preached the sermon.

Having been a pastor’s wife for 42 years (and before that a pastor’s daughter for 21 years), I have been present for at least 40-50 Laity Day services. Quite often (dare I say usually?) they are slow-paced with long “dead” spots while people try to figure out who is up next. They are often more a “show” than a worship service, with people watching to see how so-and-so performs in an unfamiliar role. The prayers are almost invariably halting and self-conscious, and the sermon is typically weak in content AND organization.

Today’s worship service was decidedly NOT a typical Laity Day service. The flow of the service was just as smooth as on a typical Sunday. The music was upbeat and inspiring. An amazing 12-year-old read the scripture with confidence, enthusiasm, and expression, not to mention poise. The prayers were offered seemingly spontaneously and with fervor and clarity.

Michael, the Lay Leader, preached on one of my favorite scriptures and showed me a take on it I have not really thought of before. His topic was basically “Does God Listen to Our Prayers?” The verse he used is: II Chronicles 7:14.

“If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

He took this verse phrase by phrase as a prescription of the conditions that must exist in order for God to listen to and answer our prayers. He included numerous other references in support of each point of his message. Here is a brief outline summary of my understanding of Michael’s sermon based on this scripture.

“If my people, who are called by my name” -- In order to have God listen to our prayers we must be His person, known by those around us to be one of His. (The following is my addition – not Michael’s point.) Non-believers often complain, “God never answers my prayers.” It is hard to explain to them that the only prayer a non-believer can expect to have answered is for forgiveness and salvation.

“Will humble themselves” – Being humble means not making yourself out to be more important than you are (even in your own estimation.)

“And pray” – communicate directly with God

“And seek my face” – really seek to know God. As Michael spoke, I thought of what it means to really seek someone’s identity. When we really know someone, we recognize his/her face immediately upon seeing it. We become that familiar with a person by spending lots of time together – we have already “sought” his/her face.

“And turn from their wicked ways” – As long as we hold on to our unwholesome thoughts and actions, God will not hear our prayers.

The rest of the verse tells what God will do when we meet the preceding requirements for getting his attention.

“Then will I hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

The old cliché tells us that there is nothing new under the sun. While I know that these ideas are not new, I saw them in a different way today. I guess that is, at least in part, what a good sermon does. It causes a listener to think about God’s Word in relation to his/her own life and to see/hear familiar words with new understanding.

Thank you to the wonderful lay people at Douglasville First United Methodist Church for an effective and inspirational worship experience today.

Janitors of Our Possessions

On October 8, 2005, The San Francisco Chronicle ran an article by Arrol Gellner headlined "America may be at the peak of latest materialistic cycle." The article by this noted architect also ran on BellSouth News today, October 14. I wish I had read this article before I posted my observations on Simplifying Life on October 5. I sure could have made some connections there!

In this article the writer details the way in which Americans have seesawed "from extravagance to asceticism in bursts" over the last half-century. He points out that the typical new house "has bloated" to more than twice the size of the average home of 1950, even though families have gotten smaller. He tells how on a recent shopping trip near Portland he saw THREE boutiques selling clothing, diet supplements, and confections -- for DOGS. (If you are interested, here is one online dog boutique to check out.) If you'd like to see some funny dressed up dog pictures, just google those words -- there are hundreds to view, but I couldn't find one I could copy and post for free.

Gellner closes the article with a quote from Frank Lloyd Wright and some related observations of his own. He says:

Perhaps there is a point when too much really is too much. We've all seen that bumper sticker beloved by the terminally empty-headed: "He Who Dies With the Most Toys Wins." Yet few intelligent Americans would argue that having a huge house and a couple of Escalades, much less a larder stocked with dog pastries, has actually made their lives any happier. Some might even own up to the contrary. Yet we seem unable to perceive the siren song of materialism for the commercial sham that it is.

Frank Lloyd Wright once observed: "Many wealthy people are little more than janitors of their possessions." Today, it's not just the wealthy who are so afflicted. Rich and poor, old and young, left and right, we Americans seem poised to become a nation of janitors.

Food for thought.

Bits and Pieces

Update on a post from a few days ago: The NaNoWriMo contest rules include the directive that participants cannot start writing their novels until November 1st. So much for my plans to get a head start since I will be unavailable to the computer for the first few days of the contest. I will begin on or about November 5th. I am allowed to prepare an outline ahead of time, so perhaps that will give me a little edge.

If you enjoy good photography, check out Colonel Corn. I enjoy his posts not only for the writing but for the many excellent photos he includes. He is one of a number of photo journalist bloggers. He certainly is good at what he does.

Risk-taking and Overcoming

I read two very inspirational quotes yesterday on The Median Sib. Both were by Helen Keller. She said, "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure." Do we avoid danger and seek security so much that we curtail our own freedom? I believe that behavioral freedom is based on proper respect for, not fear of, possible dangers. Real and meaningful accomplishment is almost always achieved at some risk.

The other favorite quote by Helen Keller that Carol mentioned in her blog was about overcoming problems. Certainly if anyone can be considered an expert in overcoming, it is Helen Keller. She said, "Although the world is very full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it." I wonder if, as a society, we are allowing our children the opportunity to learn how to overcome. Are we providing so many luxuries and privileges that they have nothing to overcome?

When I read these two quotations yesterday, they immediately jumped up on my favorite soapbox with me and demanded to be heard. In recent years our schools and the adults in our society have focused intensely on developing high "self-esteem" in our children -- often just bragging on them whether or not real accomplishment has been made and protecting them from any embarrassment, disappointment or failure. Self-esteem is gained by trying something hard (in other words taking a risk) and succeeding at it (in other words overcoming.) When we protect our children from possible failure, we deny them the opportunity to take risks and overcome dangers and hard circumstances. When we prevent the risk and overcoming, we virtually insure that their self-esteem will suffer (at least eventually.)

National Novel Writing Month

Chris Baty, author of No Plot? No Problem! instituted the idea of National Novel Writing Month (abbrieviated NaNoWriMo) beginning in a few days. The goal is for each registered aspiring writer to complete a novel during the one month of November. Those who register at the website commit to writing 50,000 words before the month ends. Blogger.com encourages participants to create a blog just for the purpose of writing this novel.

Interesting idea. I have created a blog in which to write my best-seller. I have an entry for the title and one for Chaper 1 so far. I will have to get a jump start before November begins though, since I will be unavailable to the computer during the first week of the month. Let's see now: 30 days hath September, April, June, and November.... So the contest/activity runs for 30 days.

In order to write 50,000 words in 30 days, the crazy novice would have to write 1666 words per day. If that person were to write only 25 days during the month, he/she would have to churn out 2000 words per writing-day. (I wonder how long I would sit at the computer before 2000 words tallied up on that screen?) If that unnamed novelist-wannabe were a lazy slob and managed to write only 10 days during the month, the daily requirement would rise to 5000 words per writing-day! Gulp! Why did I register, giving my name and even my picture???

It is not by accident I have not included the name and URL of my new blog!

If you'd like to read some novels that have been blogged by more confident writers, check out this site.

SuDoKu Puzzles and Life

I have been reading about the "new craze" - SuDoKu puzzles. I have tried two or three of the very easy ones to see what the attraction is. So far I have not become addicted (by most accounts the pastime is highly addictive.) They are, however, very involving -- to a person like me who really likes word and number puzzles and enjoys thinking games.

As an educator, though, I find it fascinating that adults sometimes enjoy activities that students think of as work. One of these "addictive" puzzles, given by a teacher as an assignment, would be regarded by the students as just hard work and would be completed grudgingly, if at all. Yet according to numerous media reports, adults by the hundreds of thousands are neglecting life's responsibilities in order to spend time, money and energy to solve SuDoKus - - just for enjoyment and relaxation.

Isn't this to some degree a metaphor for life? Youth want what they perceive as the freedom of adulthood, while adults often seek out leisure activities that are reminiscent of our youth. We want a lifestyle we do not have, and we believe that the grass on the other side of the fence is greener than our own pasture.

A Common Life by Jan Karon

My "book du jour" is A Common Life by Jan Karon. I have come late to the Jan Karon fan club. I briefly scanned one of her books several years ago and did not become interested, so I formed the opinion that I did not like her kind of writing. Last weekend I found a practically new hardback copy of this book at a yard sale for 50 cents. Of course a bargain like that does not go unsnappedup!

This book is a quick, easy, and delightful read because the plot is secondary to the characterization. Few writers can achieve reader-loyalty with virtually no plot in their novels. This one is an exception. I think that expecting an exciting plot is what put me off on my first attempt to read this author. Notwithstanding the lack of plot, I loved the characters, drawn so carefully and completely and true-to-life. I laughed at Uncle Billy's speech patterns, don't you know. Who hasn't known someone who wraps every statement in his/her own special security blanket -- like Uncle Billy appends "Don't you know" to everything he says? And how can you not recognize and become attached to Dooley, the little foster child who has "come up hard," but is working to make something of himself?

This book is well worth a few hours of your life.

Mentoring in Public Schools

Today I spent some time with a 3rd grade boy I have come to love over the last two years. Before the last school year began, I signed up to take training to become a mentor in our local school system. As a recently-retired public school teacher, I had visions of working one-on-one (an opportunity seldom afforded the regular classroom teacher) with some little student who really wanted to be more successful in school. I thought I would probably work with a Spanish-speaking child to help him/her become more fluent in English usage, since I have a good understanding of both English and Spanish. Or perhaps, I thought, I would see the light dawn in some sweet face as the promise of being a good reader was realized. I visualized quiet times reading together, enjoying lunch at school together, and having pleasant conversations that would positively impact the child's understanding of human relationships and his/her decision making. I thought this was going to be an opportunity to really make a difference in a child's life. It hasn't worked out that way!

My mentee, Ralphie (not his real name on the off chance someone who knows him reads this), definitely needs to gain a better understanding and appreciation of human realtionships, and he desperately needs to learn to make more advantageous choices; but our sessions have been disappointing to say the least. They have not been satisfying for me or helpful for him. Since this child's behavior choices are frequently very poor and consequently disruptive of classroom procedures, having Ralphie out of the classroom for 45 minutes once a week has probably been most beneficial to the OTHER students in his class -- an opportunity to have some of the teacher's attention. And I am sure this break from pandemonium has put a smidgen of sanity in his teacher's life.

So while mentoring surely has not been what I expected it to be; there have been some positive results.

In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick

I just finished reading In the Heart of the Sea, The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick. I, of course, had heard of the book and knew that it had been a bestseller; but I had never read it until this week. It was spellbinding.



The story of the sinking of The Essex was the inspiration for Hermann Melville's Moby Dick. This author used one of the same sources that Melville used extensively - an account by the first mate, Owen Chase, entitled Narrative of the Wreck of the Whaleship Essex. (I will list some other accounts of this story at the end of this post.) I found this book fascinating, not only for the story, but also for the descriptions and vocabulary. Never having been on Nantucket Island, I enjoyed the vivid descriptions of that location in the narrative and in the epilogue and notes at the end of the book.

In 1819 The Essex left Nantucket with a very young and new crew intending to sail down the coast, around Cape Horn and into the South Pacific hunting for whales. After 15 months at sea, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the ship was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale. The crew is forced to board three small whaling boats to try to reach South America (about 3000 miles away.) It is really not as much an adventure story as a tale of survival, determination, and desperation. Only about half of the sailors survived the ordeal to finally reach the shores of Chile. How the survivors manage to BECOME survivors is part of the draw of the story.

I enjoyed the vocabulary choices this author made. While I did not encounter any totally unfamiliar words (except techincal terms related to whale fishing) there were several very interesting word choices. One example is "malignity" (intense ill will or hatred.) We regularly encounter other forms of this word in our reading and conversation, but I don't recall ever seeing this noun form used. Also the author chose the words "brown and sere" to describe, if I remember correctly, the skin of some of the sailors. Very vivid and exact description.

Besides the story itself and the author's vocabulary choices, I also enjoyed learning a little about lifestyles of almost two hundred years ago in sea-faring communities. I wondered WHY young women of the day would marry these sailors. The men would spend 2 or 3 months at home and then be gone again for 2 or 3 years. One Nantucket woman, Eliza Brock, wrote a poem in her journal which she called "Nantucket Girl's Song." The poem ends with these lines: "But when he says, 'Goodbye my love, I'm off across the sea,' First I cry for his departure, then laugh because I'm free." Maybe this is the answer I sought as to the young women's reasons for marrying.

If you want to know more after you read this absorbing book, there are other accounts of this event in history. An unpublished noteboook written by the youngest member of the crew, Thomas Nickerson, was found in 1980. This amateur account was published just for the Nantucket museum in 1984. There is also a narrative poem about the Essex entitled "A Travail Past" by Charles Philbrick (an uncle of this author.) Thomas Heffernan wrote an account called Stove by a Whale: Owen Chase and the Essex in 1981. There is also a novel, The Jonah Man, by Henry Carlisle published in 1984, which tells the story from the viewpoint of the captain of the ship, George Pollard.

This is definitely one of our country's great true adventure stories.

Simplifying Life - a Musing Rumination

A famous book begins with the line "Life is difficult." Never have truer words been spoken. Since life IS difficult at best, it is of primary importance to individuals to resist habits and activities that increase its level of difficulty. I found, in a quick internet search, that there are many experts on this subject. Abounding on the internet are listings for "life coaches", articles outlining plans for simplifying life, and various sites containing hundreds of thousands of motivational quotes.

As an older American who has moved from one residence to another more than 20 times (a life-circumstance that requires one to evaluate each possession and whether it merits being packed in a box and hauled to a different house), I have come to value highly the idea of simplifying life. Over the years I have developed some strong feelings/beliefs about one habit that tends to make life more difficult. Eliminating that one activity/habit gives a person a hand up onto the horse of a simpler life.

I believe that the greatest "complicator" of life is the accumulation of STUFF and the resultant problem of organizing it. Belongings take up time, space, money and emotional energy. Most of us simply have so many things (clothes, kitchen gadgets, books, computer files, etc.) that we spend our days and our energy organizing, sorting, searching through, accumulating, discarding, and wondering what to do with STUFF!

Life is difficult - why not make it simpler by knowing where you left your shoes so you don't have to search for them every time you go out?

Life is difficult - why make it more difficult by having to choose between 14 pairs of shorts when deciding what to wear to the ballgame?

Life is difficult - why complicate it further by having to move 25 pictures and knick-knacks from the shelf everytime the shelf needs dusting? Do I really need or want all these angel figures?

Life is difficult - wouldn't it be easier to sort 3 loads of laundry instead of 12 or 13? Too many clothes!

Since life if already difficult, why complicate it further by purchasing another pair of earrings, when you seldom wear 40 of the 50 pairs you already own?

If life is difficult, why spend half your time organizing your "stuff" - cleaning out drawers and cabinets, sorting through books and papers, dividing clothes up into piles to give away, throw away, or keep, sorting and filing information on the computer?

Do I own my stuff -- or does it own me? Which is master and which the slave?

If I were master, I would have plenty of time to blog. As it is, I must go put in another load of laundry.

Literacy

I read this morning that Merriam-Wester has updated its dictionary. How many of these newly-added words/terms do you know?

bikini wax
steganography
SARS
amuse-bouche
retronym
wi-fi
metadata
chick flick
brain freeze
otology
cybrarian (the one I found most interesting)
hospitalist

These are just a few of the new additions to the dictionary. Some I thought were already in there, some I had never heard of. How up-to-date is your state of literacy?

Forever Love

A couple of weeks ago I posted a piece on "Young Love". Today I saw an amazing example of "Forever Love". An elderly man of our acquaintance was diagnosed with terminal cancer last week. He and his wife took the news with great aplomb and settled in, expecting to have a few months left together. But Nick was sicker than they realized. He died during the night Friday night, only a few days after the diagnosis.

Today at the "visitation" there were hundreds of friends who came to express their condolences. Both Nick and Alice have spent most of their lives in this community, teaching and serving as principals in the public schools. They both were mainstays in church throughout their lives, taking numerous responsibilities, providing many services for others. As Alice stood beside Nick's casket today, graciously greeting each visitor, I was struck by the number of floral arrangements that contained roses; so I walked around and looked at each and read the cards.

Just to the side of the closed coffin, there was one especially beautiful arrangement of a dozen yellow roses with delicate white baby's breath tucked into all the spaces between. The card attached to the arrangement was hand-written and said "Forever, my love. Nick"

Upon inquiry I found out that Nick had gone to the florist and ordered the flowers (Alice's favorite yellow roses). He wrote the card and left instructions with the florist that the flowers were to be delivered to Alice upon his death.

This beautiful couple had spent more than 60 years together in total commitment. Nick gave Alice a last gift by providing comfort for her even in his own death. It could be that real "forever love" takes a lifetime of true selfless devotion to grow.

God bless you, Nick and Alice.

Georgia Tales

I am reading a book entitled A Treasury of Georgia Tales by Webb Garrison. It is a fairly old book (published in 1987) that I bought in the used book store this week, so it is probably not still in print. It is comprised of 38 mostly little-known stories from Georgia history.


One story I enjoyed was about John Wisdom who made a Paul-Revere-style ride during the Civil War to save his old hometown of Rome, GA from a Union attack. According to this author the credit for preventing the attack is usually given to General Nathan Bedford Forrest to whom the Union force surrendered that day. But in his view the real hero was John Wisdom who rode in his mail-delivery buggy, later a lame pony, later still a fresh mount, and last a worn-out old plow horse to cover more than 50 miles from his East Alabama home to warn the people of Rome that the opposing forces were coming. The entire ride took him from 3:30 PM to midnight on May 2 and 3, 1863.

There were few able-bodied men of fighting age left in the town; so a few boys and some old men with squirrel rifles and shotguns assembled. A handful of wounded soldiers from the local hospital joined them. They dragged a couple of rusted, unusable cannons to the battle line to present the appearance of a threat. The Union forces saw what they perceived as well-staffed and well-equiped defenses in front of them, and they knew that there was a small force of Confederate cavalry behind them; so believing they were surrounded, the commander surrendered.

Another very interesting, and related, story involving Rome was about a young woman named Emma Sansom who helped General Nathan Bedford Forrest find a quicker and shorter way to Rome to defend the city against the threat at the same time as the above story.

I may detail some more of these interesting tales later.