Books

     This week I received an envelope from my best friend. She is so good at the art of snail mailing me every so often. She keeps me up to date on what's going on in her life and the lives of her family. And always, she sends me clippings from newspapers, like the LA Times and Wall Street Journal, and cartoons about cats and kids and other funny things.We also talk on the phone quite often, sometimes for hours, but I must admit, if she stopped mailing me these little packets of clippings and such, I would truly miss them. One, I love to get mail as I wrote about in an earlier blog, and two it just shows me how much I mean to her; that she is constantly thinking of me and wants to send me articles she thinks I would like or have a use for the information therein.So it is with no small amount of jubilation that I search my mailbox everyday and on some days I find an envelope from her.
     She sends me many articles on writing, both on a personal level and things of interest for my high school classes. I have put many of these ideas to use over the years. She sends articles about animation and other art forms, events going on at museums,etc...
     But this week, along with articles on writing and such, she also sent me an article about a man who had read thousands of books. He talks about having each of them, still, piled in his work space, and in every room of his house. He talks about switching to an e-reader but in the end he vows to never give up the printed page in hard copy format. Technology is great but not to replace his books. this man says that he reads every where, lectures, lunch with friends, concerts (once a 9 hour concert was read through. He read an entire book!)
     Well, now. My brain screams, "CHALLENGE!" Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to have all the books you ever read surrounding yourself on a daily basis? How great that would feel to have the warmth of all those story lines to reflect upon and re-read if you chose to? Could one do this? It would take a long time to gather all those books from all those years. Could I even remember them all? Hmmmm... just how would one go about this? And then where would I put them all? A great idea if I could get rid of everything in my house, which I'm telling you right now, is not very big to begin with. And the cost. Even at $5 a book (library sale, yard sale price) we're probably talking thousands of dollars. No, really, I mean it. I am now 57 years old and I have been reading since I was 5. (I'm not sure I would want to pay the price for the antique Dick & Jane books of my youth!)
     So, in thinking about this I believe I have come up with a good alternative. A book list. I don't think I am going to organize the list but rather put them on willy-nilly as I come across one. For instance: today I have my students at the library. As they scan the shelves looking for a book for SSR, I find these books that I have read and loved: Pet Semetary by Stephen King, Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, The Life of Pi by Yann Martel, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Jonah's Gourd Vine by Zora Neale Hurston, The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, Texas by James Michener, Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson , The Awakening by Kate Chopin,  Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain,  The Stand by Stephen King, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.
     Not a bad beginning for the list. I will add more as I come to them and read more, so look for the list to grow.
     It is a good feeling to be able to look at the list and remember the books and their stories. But mostly it is a comfort to realize how many hours and years I have spent in the company of literature. I would love to pile the books all up and sit upon them. Decorate my rooms and life with them. But a list will have to do. And I have a feeling that the challenge of the list will keep me busy, in a good way.            

Anniversary

     Yesterday was our 38th wedding anniversary. 38 years sounds like a really long time. Doesn't seem like we have been together that long. And then you add in the 3 years we went together before we got married. Wow. 41 years!
     We have been through so much in those years. Hard to believe that we raised 2 kids and now they are grown and both married themselves. How many cats have we had? How many jobs? How many clogged toilets and roof leaks? They all blur into a hazy memory. Each experience seemed so important and urgent at the time. Each high school football game and swim meet so real. How did we survive the death of our parents and grandparents and cancer? It is difficult to think while you are having the experience, just how forgettable most of the details will become. They morph into a cloud of other memories and are softened out of urgency and tragedy.
     So, what is still real and up front and personal? What has stayed consistent all these years? Love; of course. But almost more importantly: friendship and laughter. You just can't have a true relationship without those two things. Friendship is so important. One must never say anything hurtful  to a spouse you wouldn't say to a best friend. And the laughter. How many times at the end of the day did we come together and laugh about a stupid social mistake or something the kids had gotten in trouble for? Don't get me wrong; marriage is a serious business. It's all about hard work and giving, on both sides. But sometimes you just have to laugh. Especially if you have children. they take themselves way too seriously. They don't know that in the big scheme of things, breaking a window or not keeping curfew is not a life-or-death situation.
     I knew going into this marriage that this was going to be my only marriage. I said the vows: "Till death do us part." But even if my husband dies before me (he says statistically, the odds are not on his side) I know I will never have another marriage. I will not even want to look for another relationship. I will want this one to be ever most present in my mind until I die. It has been too good. Too much fun. And I will not want to lose it into a hazy memory. It will comfort me, and sustain me and when I end my days it will make me laugh.   

Ponderings

     There are a couple of things I have been pondering lately. The first item regards men's ties. Most men who wear ties on a regular basis have been wearing them for a while. Why can't they get the knots straight when they tie their ties? I don't notice it so much on the regular guy types one passes on the street because they don't hold still long enough to really notice things like that. I'm mainly interested in the news broadcasters and other men on T.V. This is really beginning to bother me. I know many of the national news guys have make up and wardrobe people. Isn't it their job to make sure their boss goes on screen nice and neat and tidy? What would it take? Two seconds to race up and say, "Wait! Let me fix the tie!" Someone should take on this issue. Someone should be held responsible for this travesty of television viewing. And who decided that newscasters would be ok wearing striped ties? This just emphasises the crooked knot even more! A nice plain or small print tie would be nicer and then, if they don't get the knot just right, it is not so evident. My husband cringes when he sees a knot askew because he know's what's coming...a disgusted sigh and look of derision from me in my chair and usually... nope, he can't stop it...a short tirade on the inefficiencies of the support people in the studio. Come on...Is it too much to ask to straighten a tie? People, PLEASE!
     The second thing that is of concern, bowing again to the news programs, is the repeated stupid pitures they show in relationship to their news story. The other night we were watching the news (my husband swears he's going to forbid me to watch anymore because I just get angry...) and they were reporting a murder in Santa Maria, a stabbing, I think. Anyway, they put up a picture of a convience store. No cops, no patrol cars, no yellow tape, broad daylight (remember I said it was at night.) Now, was that the store where it happened? Was it a store even IN Santa Maria? What was the point? And last month when all the news stations were reporting the countdown to the "sequester" in Washington (a stupid name by the way...doesn't anybody check dictionary.com? Sequester does not mean "to be stubborn" :/ ) every newscast I saw, that talked about the issue, showed paper money being printed? What was THAT supposed to mean? Were the stubborn politicians out printing money instead of making important decisions? Where they supposed to be voting on a new color for the money? What? I just don't understand what they are thinking. It would be nice if the pictures went WITH the news story. What a concept.
     My head hurts.
     That's all I'm going to ponder about today. I have essays to grade and that will require all my brain power. Guess I won't watch the news tonight...my husband will be happy.