April Books

 How can this be the last day of April already? Where did the time go? It has flown by!

I read eight good books this month!

1. We are all perfectly fine: a memoir (2021) by Jillian Horton--I think all (2) of my readersalready know that memoirs are a favorite genre for me, and this one was really interesting. Jillian Horton is a (Canadian) doctor of internal medicine and an eductor. Her story tells about her going into medicine because of her sister, whose medical emergency six years before Jillian was born kind of controlled their lives because Wendy had surgery to remove a brain tumor, developed post-operative meningitis, and was left with severe disabilities. Jillian wanted to be a doctor (and a musician and a writer--she has done them all) but found medical school harrowing, and ultimately believed that the way the west trains doctors makes them all not okay, not perfectly fine. She goes to a Zen retreat for doctors at Chapin Mill, a few times, and writes about the healing that she, and many others, and maybe all of us, need to find when we are not perfectly fine, which is pretty often, right?

2. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library (2013) by Chris Grabenstein is a JUV book about junior high kids who are chosen to enter a contest upon the opening of the new town library, financed by game developer millionaire Mr. Lemoncello. Some of the twelve accidentally break the rules and get eliminated, some lose interest/motivation and choose to leave, and some of the kids learn to work together in what they originally thought was to be an individual competition. Teamwork makes the dream work!

3. Relit: 16 Latinx Remixes of Classic Stories (2024) edited by Sandra Proudman (whose name does not sound Latinx and yet she is) had a range of stories. Some I really liked, some less so. That is the way it is with short stories! This was on the new book display on level five, and I decided to give it a read. Sometimes it is nice to read stories--easy to read more than one book at a time if one is made up of stories. All of the stories were reimaginings of famous stories (from Pride and Prejudice to The Great Gatsby, The Little Mermaid, Frankenstein, etc. All sorts!) 16 stories in all. 16 Latinx Authors. 16 short bios of them.

4. The Mistress of Bhatia House (2023) by Sujata Massey. I have read and enjoyed Massey's stories of female lawyer Perveen Mistry in 1920s Bombay before, and so I read her latest, that looks into laws surrounding abortion at that place and time. (Some pretty terrible issues for women that in the 1970s I thought we had left behind once and for all, but you know...apparently not.) Since Perveen is not allowed in court herself, she had to try to find a man to argue the case in court, and that was frustratingly awful, too, as well as the circumstances of the case. Interesting read.

5. Probably a favorite read not just for the month, but for the year so far. I happened upon this book on the 5th floor sorting shelves, and it was entirely captivating, I thought. The Girls at the Kingfisher Club: A Novel (2014) by Genevieve Valentine is a retelling of the 12 dancing princesses. I have read other retellings of this fairy tale, but they usually are princesses in ball gowns. These were flappers sneaking out to speakeasies during prohibition, home schooled girls whose mother had died subsequent to childbirth after Violet, the youngest sister is born, disappointingly to their father, as the 12th daughter. I loved the way the author developed the characters of so many girls--12 protagonists to keep track of is a lot. Great story--my only complaint was the timeline between the girls leaving and the death of their father. I felt like more time needed to pass. But that is a minor complaint--I loved this take on the tale!

6. A drowned maiden's hair: a melodrama (2006) by Laura Amy Schlitz is turn of the century historical fiction that addresses orphan children and spiritualism, seances and such things as they were carried out at that time in history. Maud feels lucky to be adopted even if that means she is a "secret child" compelled to help stage seances for wealthy patrons. Nobody can know she exists or the jig is up for the elderly sisters who earn their keep acting as mediums.

7. A brilliant night of stars and ice (2022) by Rebecca Connelly is a retelling of the story of the Titanic--historical fiction--from the point of view of the captain and people on the Carpathia, the ship that came to the rescue. Rebecca Connelly got interested in the story because there were a few Connelly people on the Titanic, including two Kate Connellys, one who died and one who lived--only they got them mixed up!! That adds interest to the story. This is a great story of courage and hope and integrity and friendship and service. This was also a favorite!

8, Becoming a matriach: a memoir (2024) is Helen Knott's second book. I liked it even better than her first book--probably because I can relate to it better. (I have never been a drug/alcohol addict, the subject of her first memoir, but I have lost my mother and grandmother, the subject of this book.) Page 83: she realizes she is not a girl "held up by the women around her. I was a woman who was raised to help with the holding up of others." Page 110: "No one told me that such a big part of being an adult was learning how to lose and figuring out how to make yourself whole again in the face of those losses." Favorite chapter: Interlude #7 (page 146) which tells a memory of her dad helping her bathe, and seeming to her like a superhero with magical powers like getting the water the right temperature--how does he even do that?--and it starts with this poem:

if I could protect you from being wounded

shield you

from the world

would i be loving you

or denying your growth?

is there a thin line or a canyon

between the two?

Lynn's Lesson

 A few days ago, my friend Lynn put out a call on Facebook, and in our Rock Canyon email group, asking: Do you have a ceramic (or other) mushroom I could borrow? (Not a real one.) I’d like to borrow it from today through Sunday evening to use in a church class for an “object lesson.” Is it in your garden? Or a display case? Art print or tea towel? Thanks for your consideration.

I was sitting in the living room in my usual spot, and glanced up at Dad's painting of mushrooms hanging on the wall right in front of me, so I texted Lynn to tell her what I had. She responded a few hours later, asking if she could pick it up (and maybe me?) on her way to an event on Thursday evening. After asking Bruce if he was willing to lend it, I told her she could pick it up (but not me--she was going to listen to an artist speak, but I am continuing in my anti-social ways, so no) and so she did come and pick up the painting, but not me.

She of course asked Bruce lots of questions about his art, and he of course showed her all of his pieces in the living room.

It was nice to get that oil painting dusted! I should do the same to all of the others.

Anyways, Lynn was teaching the Relief Society Lesson, and after I played the piano, and sat beside her, she leaned over and said, "Are you going to take pictures to send to your husband so he can see what I did with his painting?" And so I did.

His painting was perfect, because it was exactly the right size to cover up the painting that is behind it.

I decided I needed to take a horizontal photo.

When I sent this photo to FamJam, I was afraid it was blurry. I couldn't tell, so I took another one.

I dunno. Maybe the first one is better? In any event, you can see that Lynn has many pictures of Christ up around the mushroom, and some little ceramic mushrooms on the side, as well as (look hard to see it) a package of store-bought mushrooms.

Josie commented on Lynn using Dad's painting. Kelli commented that this painting is one of (or maybe her most) favorites of Dad's paintings. Patrick said "Nice. Also why?"

Lynn was teaching a lesson from Elder Jeffrey Shumway’s conference talk. When she is teaching about someone else's teaching, she likes to find out background information about them. From her research, she learned that when he was a missionary he served in a town that was all about mushroom production which back then meant caverns of animal dung and the whole town was dirty and smelly.

He hated being there. But one day he had the impression of the Savior asking him ”What would you give to know me?” or perhaps it was "What price would you pay to know me?

And he realized that he wanted to know the Savior, and he had been called to serve the Savior there in that awful smelly town, and so he could serve the people in that smelly town to learn to know the Savior better. That was a price he was willing to pay. He actually learned to love the humble people who worked with mushroom growing, and didn't mind the smell that produced the lovely white mushrooms that people could eat and enjoy the eating of.

Lynn is a very good teacher. She had questions that she asked, and times that were interactive. She should be a good teacher--she was in BYU's CTL (Center for Teaching and Learning) and before that at the CTL in one of the Oklahoma universities--can't remember which--and had a 25 year career teaching professors how to teach better. 

Anyways, the actual talk she was teaching about was about Jesus, and so she then removed the mushrooms and this is what it looked like. A painting of the Savior was behind the painting of the mushrooms:

She was able to use her mushroom analogy well throughout. She hoped that would make the lesson memorable. Her main point was that if we want to know the Savior better, then acting as he would by giving service to others helps us to know him better, and also the more that we act in ways that he would act, we become more like him.

New Life Experience

 When I was young, and would hear on the news about  civil rights marches, and the campus protests against the Vietnam War, I felt like I would like to get out and march with them. Of course, I was just a kid, and I lived in an entirely different country where such things were shocking to me. Like the furor over race was incomprehensible. 

I know (in retrospect) that my own country was not good to its natives, although I could not see it as a child. My own interactions with natives were mostly good. I had only one native friend who was always there, in my school, year in and year out. Many of the native kids were only there seasonally, but Robert McKay and his sister, who was so beautiful but I can't remember her name, lived in our town year round. My dad, who looked like a native (brown skin, brown eyes, black hair) though he was just a very tanned white man, had friends among our native population, John Littletent being the best of them. When dad hired native families as beet workers, he was always fair with them. We did occasionally have trouble with drunk natives, living as we did along a major highway, and I do remember one who threatened to burn our barn down if Dad didn't give him a ride somewhere. But my parents were not racist at all, and I feel like they raised us also not to be racist.

We were also surrounded with Japanese families, most of our closest farming neighbors, and they just seemed like normal people to me. Chinese families were also abundantly present, though they tended to live in town running grocery stores and other businesses, and raising children who were incredibly smart, and who seemed to always be among the top academics in each grade.

We did not have very many black people, but those we had were in positions that called for respect. Mr. Mathis was the music teacher in the high school; Mr. Morrison was the english teacher. We also had few East Indian people, and again those we had were professionals. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas were both high school teachers, and Mrs. Burrows was the principal of the elementary school. Or assistant principal at least? She retired before I got there. 

So, I am just saying that in my community, I did not perceive racism as a problem, and was shocked by all of the things we heard on the news that were happening south of the border. Lynchings, even! Completely mind-boggling to young me that such things were allowed to continue. I could not imagine the RCMP putting up with such things!! 

So, all this is to say, that the United States may have always looked a little bit tarnished to me, even while its people were proclaiming "We're the best kind of Sneetch on the Beaches!" 

Well. From the inside, the tarnish is pretty visible. (Although, the tarnish in my home and native land is also more visible. I guess that is what age does.) I don't like the tarnish. 

I have a few issues with the MAGA slogan. One issue is "make America great." Isn't it great? Haven't I been told all my life that America is the greatest country in the world? Do you mean that when you said that (ad nauseum) it wasn't really true? Because you don't need to make America great again, if it is already great, right? So you are saying it isn't great?  I have spent a lifetime of irritation because of friends and family doing the "we're the best; sucks to be you" thing. So irritating, because I can read, and it is very clear from what I read on platforms that are factual that the USA has not been the best at many things (health care, education, freedom of speech, etc.) for a very long time, and they are slipping down the slope even more on those things all the time. 

Then there is the "again" part. Does this mean that the MAGA people agree that America is not so great, and could do better? And what exactly do they think America was once great at but aren't any longer? MAGA people do not seem to value the same things that I think will contribute to America's greatness--like truth, kindness, compassion, defense of human rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness--the hate and oppression that are clearly obvious in the current regime do not seem to hold to the values that were apparent at the founding of the USA, or the USA as a humanitarian nation. Was that not great? If not, then what exactly did make America great once? Being a tyrant and a bully was once an American thing and we want to return to that? I don't get it. I am so confused about the again part.

The thing that I am most upset about is that Due Process has flown out the window. People are guilty until proven innocent, but shipped off to nobody knows where so that they don't get a chance to prove their innocence. AI summarizes it thusly: "The Due Process Clause, found in both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, guarantees that no one shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. This principle ensures fair legal procedures and protects against arbitrary government actions. The Fifth Amendment applies to the federal government, while the Fourteenth Amendment applies to state and local governments."

I just can't even with the current regime and its complete ignorance of the constitution. Arrgh. It makes me very upset. Especially because this thing--the constitution--has also been waved in my face as a reason why the USA is the best country in the world, (so it sucks to be you, in another inferior country that does not have this same amazing constitution.) So maybe what would M(ake)A(merica)G(reat)A(gain) would be to return in earnest to the intent embodied in the constitution? 

Anyways, this is all to say that my friend Lynn, who is 78 and very involved in civic duty, very active in city politics, invited me to go to a protest with her. Young me, age 12-13, would have been all over that. Old me was reluctant, but went. 

This is what she invited me to, and the list pretty well sums up things that are irritating me. And these problems are not a one-party problem. Executive overreach, for example, has been a growing problem under all of the presidents in the last 20+ years. Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden, and now Trump again have all been a bit cavalier in their "my way or the highway" approach to getting things done. That is not how democracy works. They want their way fast, but democracy is slow because it requires compromise. One of the signs yesterday, which I have also seen as a meme, said, "If you think you love freedom but you don't care if it applies to everyone, what you actually love is privilege." I feel like this is a really big problem. There is too much of executively ordering things that maybe need to hashed out in real time in congress and the senate by representatives who truly care about their constituents. Not sure there are very many of those kinds of representatives anymore. 

So. I was happy to see many people in Provo, and I know there were many (more) people in Salt Lake at the capitol building, but protests are really not my jam, so I was also uncomfortable, and it was crowded and I didn't really know what to do with myself. (Young me would have been much better in this situation. Old me is much more circumspect than young me was!)

Here are some pictures. This is the back of my friend Lynn. She was the opposite of me! I wore nondescript clothes, and sunglasses, and mostly hid behind my sign. She was in bright pink, and she stood out on purpose because she wanted people to be able to read her T-shirt ("Mormon Women for Ethical Government" on the front, and "Faithful, Nonpartisan, Peaceful, Proactive" on the back).

Looking off to the speakers (who I could not hear most of the time):

I had wanted to get a picture of a girl whose sign was about Autism as a spectrum, but she moved and I just got this "Courage is contagious" sign instead. I liked her sign because I was super irritated by RFK Jr. saying about kids with autism: “These are kids who will never pay taxes, they’ll never hold a job, they’ll never play baseball, they’ll never write a poem, they’ll never go on a date, many of them will never use a toilet unassisted,” Kennedy said. So clearly not true!! It might be true of some, but not all, many, or most. The same could be said of the general population: some of them will never pay taxes, hold a job, play baseball, write a poem, go on a date, or use a toilet unassisted. So irritated about him and the things he says that are either entirely false, or intentionally misleading.

It was nice to see people of all ages, from elderly people through babies, attending. And cars driving by honking, which when we left, Lynn wanted us to drive around the block a few times and honk. She is very definitely an extrovert! She does not let being 78, recovered from open heart surgery, with a bad back and hips, stop her! I was there to help her get safely up and down the stairs, and to hold up the other sign she made, one side saying "Save our civil service" and the other side saying "Hanging by a thread..." (referring to the constituion). So. It was an experience. 

I came home and got to work taming our yard's dandelion problem.

In other news, I am so happy with BYU. First, at Christmas, they were better at putting Christ back in Christmas, and then they did the same for Easter. Hallelujah! It is about time!

Spring is Springing!

Happy Spring from me! I feel like someone just recently quoted the Beatles lyrics, but I can't remember who or where, but they are kind of spot on:

 
It's been a long, cold, lonely winter
Little darling
It feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun!

Bruce is doing okay with retirement. He was ready to jump in with filling in for vacancies in staffing, which he has done a couple of days in January, February, and March. We went to several family events--I often go alone, but he came--and got rewarded with a bad case of shingles, and now they keep coming back. I think he needs the new shingles vaccine--we got it ten years ago, but apparently there is a new and much better 2-course vaccine available. He also had an MRI and then some follow up physical therapy and steroid shots in his lower back and neck. So, fun times!

Guys, I just had my annual review and got "surpasses expectations" in all areas! Apparently, I got the highest rankings of anybody in the library, which means a nice raise. Then I will feel like I need to work more--so is it nice?!!! We have been trying to move to Canada. I applied for a job in Sudbury for which I am overqualified, and am thinking about applying for University Librarian at Yukon University in Whitehorse. This is their first time hiring a university librarian. I am qualified...but Whitehorse? That is so far north and so remote. I could just retire and not work, but am not alone in feeling like this is an iffy time to retire. I have been getting head-hunted by the University of Utah!! The first time I thought it was a form letter they were sending to everybody. The second time, I was like, huh? Really? And the third time, today, I was like, "Oh. This is really real. I had better write back and say that I am not interested." Because I for sure am not interested in that commute, nor am I interested in moving to SLC.

It was Josie's birthday yesterday, and even though she was in Vienna, and I am here, she asked her very nice (and sweet and kind) friends to deliver flowers to me, and so I received flowers last evening. It was hard to decide how to photograph them. So here are some variations on a theme:

That was looking from the top down. I stood on a stool and so you can't even see the vase. In the next shot, you can:

Then we decided to try the blue curtains as a backdrop. Bruce is holding the vase, but I was trying to cut everything except the background out of the picture.

Not sure which image I like best, but the flowers are lovely. And appreciated. Thank you, Josie!

For women's history month, my coworker (who presently is the interim boss of me, while I am still the boss of her, which is a bit awkward at times) Elizabeth did a Suffragette Sing-along. Here is a link to an article about it, and a video.  

Nancy took a still photo of me from that video:

Peace and out for today!

PS - I forgot tariffs! We have always purchased our library shelves from Canada. Due to supply chain difficult after COVID, all the orders have been pretty late, which unfortunately has puched into tariffs, and so we may be seeing if our in-house shops can modify existing shelving instead of buying more. So fun.