Today was not a great day, in fact it has not been a great week. I wear my heart on my sleeve as well as on my blog, this week I can't even fake happy.
Tonight was our church group book club. My sleeping beauty sewing fairy (my friend who helped me with Caroline's costume) had bought the book for me and put it on my doorstep to make sure I had no excuse to come to bookclub. I started reading it on Sunday and had a difficult time getting through it. I did a bit of skimming to get through it. Basically I read the beginning, a little of the middle and the end.
I don't watch a lot of t.v. and don't enjoy going to the movies. I have a really hard time seeing people sad and I guess you could say, in the case of this book, dealing with reality.
After my bad day and not really wanting to talk about the reality of this book I was not going to go. But after reading about Jill's awesome bookclub group, I put on my girl girl panties and went.
Wow, what an incredible group of women. The girl who led the discussion printed out 4 pages of information and quotes about Afghanistan, with maps and vocabulary. Her husband also works at Walter Reed and had just returned from 6 months in Afghanistan. (for those wondering if Jeff will have to go overseas the answer is not likely but always a possibility) She did a lot of studying and researching about the history of the country while he was there. Another lady in the group has lived all over the world and her husband works at the White House and is very aware the current issues. Linda brought a Berka that her husband had brought home with him. It had only a 4" net opening. I wore it for less than 5 minutes and felt quite constrained.
One of my favorite things we talked about was the question,
The girl who hosted the discussion had made food that was easily found in the country and had a whole bowl of pomegranate seeds (oh my favorite) She had a vase of tulips because they used to grow wild in Afghanistan. The lessons came full circle tonight. I can not believe how much I learned.
In May we are going to read "Three Cups of Tea" which is a story about a man while climbing K2 learned about the lack of schools in Pakistan and has since gone back and built many schools for the children there.
So, I am glad I went. I get so down the first week of the New Year. Finished my 100 things but saving them for Monday's post...
Any thoughts on our question for the night?
Tonight was our church group book club. My sleeping beauty sewing fairy (my friend who helped me with Caroline's costume) had bought the book for me and put it on my doorstep to make sure I had no excuse to come to bookclub. I started reading it on Sunday and had a difficult time getting through it. I did a bit of skimming to get through it. Basically I read the beginning, a little of the middle and the end.
I don't watch a lot of t.v. and don't enjoy going to the movies. I have a really hard time seeing people sad and I guess you could say, in the case of this book, dealing with reality.
After my bad day and not really wanting to talk about the reality of this book I was not going to go. But after reading about Jill's awesome bookclub group, I put on my girl girl panties and went.
Wow, what an incredible group of women. The girl who led the discussion printed out 4 pages of information and quotes about Afghanistan, with maps and vocabulary. Her husband also works at Walter Reed and had just returned from 6 months in Afghanistan. (for those wondering if Jeff will have to go overseas the answer is not likely but always a possibility) She did a lot of studying and researching about the history of the country while he was there. Another lady in the group has lived all over the world and her husband works at the White House and is very aware the current issues. Linda brought a Berka that her husband had brought home with him. It had only a 4" net opening. I wore it for less than 5 minutes and felt quite constrained.
One of my favorite things we talked about was the question,
"What is important enough to you that if taken away you would
risk dying for to get it back?"
We all agreed on the importance of education and constantly learning and that this is something that is lacking in this country. We talked about if you could not read books any more or if they were all taken away, how you would crave to read something, anything. It increase my desire to read anything I could get my hands on .risk dying for to get it back?"
The girl who hosted the discussion had made food that was easily found in the country and had a whole bowl of pomegranate seeds (oh my favorite) She had a vase of tulips because they used to grow wild in Afghanistan. The lessons came full circle tonight. I can not believe how much I learned.
In May we are going to read "Three Cups of Tea" which is a story about a man while climbing K2 learned about the lack of schools in Pakistan and has since gone back and built many schools for the children there.
So, I am glad I went. I get so down the first week of the New Year. Finished my 100 things but saving them for Monday's post...
Any thoughts on our question for the night?
16 comments:
I'm so proud of you for going. Outings like book club and Relief Society are always great solutions when you're having a bad day or week, it's just so hard to make yourself go when you feel like that.
I don't love reading "heavy" subject matter like that either, but am usually glad I did. One of the great beauties of book clubs is that they "force" us to read things we wouldn't normally be drawn to read. This has happened to me over and over again, and I'm ALWAYS grateful (even if I complained some of the time).
I think I'd fight and be willing to die for my religion, women's rights and education.
Probably my education. Definately if we lost freedom to worship freely, rights for women.
I am in a place where I am having a tough time reading books like that too. Pregnancy does that to me, I have to read lighter material.
When I avoid outings because I feel blah, I usually feel even worse later because I know I missed out on something. Its a double edged sword.
I hope you have a better weekend than you did week. Its almost your birthday!!!
Sounds like you have an amazing group of women in that book club! So glad you forced yourself to go. What an night of education and viewing things in a new light. Years ago I read the book STOLEN LIVES by Malika Ofkur. It is a heavy subject but I learned so much! This woman, the author, was imprisoned for 20 years with her mother, and 5 siblings! Unbelievable story. Google the title to read more - I can't leave you a novel (ha)
Handsdown I would be willing to die for my family & religion!
Kristi, I'm so sorry your having a bad week. Hopefully next week will be better?
I have a hard time reading books such as the one your group read. Usually because I am made aware of just how unjust and imperfect our world is, and how I am ignorant (probably self imposed) and I feel badly that I have the many freedoms and blessings that I do when others do not. It does make me wish there were more that I could do, but mostly I just pray for those people and countries.
I, like Jill, would probably choose to die for my religion, my rights as a woman, and education.
Sounds like a very diverse group of women in your group. Glad you went and gained so much from it. It is so hard to get out and feel like socializing when we are down but usually what we need when we are in that state.
Children's rights and education top my list. Fighting for those who can't fight for their own rights. I guess that wouldn't be something that is taken away from me, just maybe my children- in which case I would take anything on.
liz, you hit the nail on the head. it is like i feel guilty for all that I have, i never really realized that being one of the reasons it is hard for me to read that
I am certain that I would totally crave reading if it was taken away. Maybe I should tell myself that more often to learn to love it.
I'm glad you decided to go. I have had a terrible day, etc. and done that a number of times and have been so glad I went. Hope you are feeling better, after all isn't Monday the big day of celebration?
Can't wait to see your 100 list.
Way to go dragging yourself to book club! So I'm not the only one having a tough time right now -- I was interested to see that you said you always are so down in the first week of the new year. I hadn't really thought about it in those terms, but maybe that's contributing to my depression right now, the lull after all the stress and excitement...
It sounds like your ward book club is a great one! It's always so amazing when you can be educated and enlightened by each other. Books like that one are definitely hard to read, but I love it when my mind is opened and broadened like that. It can really make you appreciate what you have and more determined to help others whenever possible.
I hope you get to feeling better soon!
I have to agree with everyone else - family, religion, education, women and children's rights. I got the book "Three Cups of Tea" for Christmas from my mom, and can't wait to read it. I am reading "Reading Lolita in Tehran" right now, and I think that's one reason why I'm struggling through it because it makes me so sad to know that I have everything I could want for in the world including the right to dream. There are many many women and children in the world who cannot even claim that. It's hard to know these things. But, in a way it inspires me to not take my own freedom and blessings for granted, and makes me want to find a way to look outside myself and my comfortable happy world to help someone else who could have been me. I haven't quite figured out how to do that yet, but I feel driven to figure it out in a way I haven't for a while.
I hope you have a better week. I am always glad when I break through my mood and go to something like that when it's the last thing you want to do -- although my stubborn streak makes it tough to get there.
I don't like to read books that are heavy, go to movies that are deep, or watch "soap box" tv shows because they make me feel so helpless. There is so little that I can do to help those in the world that the best I can do is like Liz, pray for those less fortunate then ourselves. My son was serving in Venezuela, and was one of the missionaries that was evacuated from there. The church's stand on why they were evacuated was because they couldn't get their visas but my son thinks that it was a lot because Hugo Chavez is a total nut job. The oppression there was so hard for him to take, and he struggled with what to do to help these people. He finally decided that the only thing he could do was bring the gospel to them, to give them hope. And that is what we have. Hope, because we know that it will all be made right. Good for you for reading a hard book, for going to your meeting, and for having an open mind to learn something about it!
Beautiful post. I envy you your book club. Mine wants to read nothing that takes more than a day. Ughh. I'm ready for more depth.
Sometimes our hearts have to break in order to grow.
That is awesome that your ward has such a fabulous book club...but having visited your ward that is hardly surprising! Our ward does not have a book club, it is a fairly small ward and doesn't seem to have enough people to get one going (I have suggested though). So I do my best to read at home. Something I read while on vacation was my Dad's copy of "America Alone: the end of the world as we know it" by Mark Steyn. It was non fiction but extremely interesting, it changed the way I see the world around me entirely. It is VERY conservative so depending on your political views you may or may not take issue with the authors opinions, but the book itself is very well researched and facts can't be disputed. Basicly it looks at current world demographic trends and shows that quicker than we in North America realize the freedom and way of life that we take for granted could be taken away if we don't do something about it and fast. I think we do tend in many ways to still be very isoslated in the United States and are not fully aware of the advantages that we do have. (In Canada, a fairly liberal country all the bookstores are owned by the same people, when the above mentioned conservative book came out none of them would sell it and people like my dad had to throw a fit and write letters to newspapers etc... to protest that thier access to information was being controlled...only then were the books stocked...freedoms can be quickly lost if we don't realize and appreciate them).
I heard a radio interview with the guy that wrote the book "Three cups of Tea". I have been dying to read it since. He is such an amazing man and has such a wonderful outlook on how to "fight terrorism".
I heard a radio interview with the guy that wrote the book "Three cups of Tea". I have been dying to read it since. He is such an amazing man and has such a wonderful outlook on how to "fight terrorism".
You should read Reading Lolita in Tehran. It is such a fantastic book and deals a lot with the change in clothing for women. It is AMAZING. It also deals with reading books that were going/are banned.
When we were in SLC we went bowling and a woman came in in FULL covering. You couldn't even see her eyes. I just don't get it!
I love going to bookclub. It is interesting to have a different on a book and realize how fabulous it is that we are each individuals. I'm proud of you for going.
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