Friday, February 20, 2015

HOORAY FOR GHIRARDELLI

Last night, around 10:00, after my walk through the halls, I sat down and thought about how tired I was. And I still had to take my shower, but not without reading a bit first. So, first I read in the Psalms, more than one of those, and then I picked up that heavy tome Einstein and read about 30 more minutes, while debating the possibility of delaying the shower till tomorrow. But years of experience reminded me how wonderful it is to wake up, having showered the night before. So, up I got and dragged myself to fetch a fresh towel from my bedroom. Returning, I passed a candy bowl with a lid, placed where I would not readily notice it. Now I noticed. Might there be a Ghirardelli dark chocolate left? There were three! Three make a serving. So, I had a serving, as I read a few more pages of Einstein, well, two pages anyway. (My rule is to turn the page at least once before closing a book.)

Then something happened. Suddenly I wasn't tired anymore! I arose from my chair with energy, took plenty of time for a leisurely shower, read a few more pages of Einstein and got my usual six hours of sleep. 

I must put Ghirardelli on my shopping list. 

Saturday, February 14, 2015

TWO ENGROSSING BOOKS

A long time ago, it seems, I wrote only a little about Unbroken, perhaps the best book ever written of its kind, and I have loaned it out to a friend here where I live. She has completed reading it and enjoyed it, if you can say such a story is enjoyable. The ultimate message in it is, of course, enjoyable. I would not care to see the movie of it, for two reasons. One, that ultimate message is not in the movie; second, there is no way that much of it could be filmed realistically. But I want to leave that book for a minute or so and talk about the other book. 

It is Einstein by Walter Isaacson, copyrighted in 2007 which must have been the year I purchased it. I got about a third of the way through reading it, and then I had other important fish to fry. But after Unbroken it was time to finish reading Einstein. It is a heavy book, with 564 pages down to the section of notes. I am roughly 3/5 finished. Some days and nights there is no opportunity to read at all. I anticipate doing so for a few minutes tonight. 

Einstein is an extremely well-written volume, about an extremely brilliant mind. So, I want to study physics! This is  not the first book to make me wish that. Eve Curie'a biography of her famous mother, Marie Curie, also made me want to study physics. But this book gave me an inkling of what Einstein's Theory of Relatively is. He wrote a simple book for less brilliant minds to understand it. I'd like to get that book, but I wouldn't have time to study physics, now really, would I? 

But I bring up this book, in relation to Unbroken, for when the Einsteins were traveling the world, they made a brief visit to Japan. The theoretical physicist could not praise the Japanese enough, everything about them. It was before WWII and Einstein had no idea that the Japanese planned to rule the world and enslave many thousands of people from other countries. Einstein would not have approved Japan's brutality such as what Louie Zamperini suffered in Unbroken. Where I am reading in Einstein, Hitler is already on the rise, and anti-Semitism is spreading. We know that this particular German Jew escaped in time and became an American citizen. But millions upon millions of other Jews did not escape. 

I want to point out a difference in the brutality of Germany and of Japan: the Jews in Germany's bloody hands died more quickly than did the multinational prisoners in Japan's evil claws. Some of them slowly starved to death along with other atrocities. Life is not worth anything to hoodlums at war.



Friday, February 6, 2015

STAY AWAKE FOR AN HOUR

At 8:00 this morning the wind seemed to be attempting to uproot the tree outside my window. But it didn't, in spite of the gyrations it went through. There was no sunshine, and therefore, no shadows on the blinds. But through the open bit of window, about five inches, the gyrating could remind one of actors on an outdoor stage in ancient Greece, or London's Globe Theatre in the 1600's. The play was, of course, a tragedy, perhaps Macbeth. The limbs that swayed on my tree were the moving trees of Birnam wood carried by soldiers as camouflage to defeat Macbeth. 

Sleep is good and necessary, but when we sleep, we are missing out on many other good things. Once in a while, when we have had our six hours or so of sleep, it should be an adventure to stay abed another hour and look outside to the hills or the river or the desert or the city street and see and listen to its message. Of course, this is a solo "flight," not to share with anyone else until you get to the breakfast table. Then you share. 

Sunday, February 1, 2015

DO DROP INTO MY BLOG

How nice to hear from  so many strangers  but ones who apparently know Laura Hodge, not me. I don't do face book and don't know how to get my name off that roster. But reading what you wrote to Laura was fun. Quite a few people read my Blog -- from Ukraine to India to Russia to Canada and many other countries -- who haven't added their names or pictures to the page. I invite all of you to sign up to read my Blog, not daily, for I am a very busy lady, but when I can get that job done and when you have the time for it. 

The Blog is called Literature and Life by Lindsley Rinard. You don't have to use your real name and you can post a picture of your shoe or your dog or your hat, if you like. I hope to see you there. 
Thanks.