It’s Saturday so grab a hot drink, sit in your most favorite spot, and spend time reading and relaxing!
On the woman behind Roe v. Wade: 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Jane Roe. I found this an interesting look behind the curtain. Every law suit has a person with a story behind it. Norma, the woman who is ‘Jane Roe’, has an interesting story and a bit of it is told in this article.
On Egypt: The second anniversary of Egypt’s Uprising was yesterday. There was a massive demonstration in Tahrir Square with police and anti-Morsi protesters but otherwise, a country that occupied everyone’s thoughts and all the media spots two years ago remained almost off the radar. That seemed sad to me. In the midst of this I read a blog post from January 7th (Coptic Christmas and Epiphany) written by a friend of ours. It will give you a perspective you won’t hear in other places. Take a look at A Remarkable Sign of Hope During Christmas in Egypt by Ramez Atallah.
On Grace: The Lesson of Grace in Teaching is an essay written by a Professor of Mathematics, Frances Su. The essay is the text of a talk he gave. If you’ve followed this week’s posts, you’ll know that I’ve needed Grace. My favorite quote from the article:
The Lesson of GRACE:
- Your accomplishments are NOT what make you a worthy human being
- You learn this lesson when someone shows you GRACE: good things you didn’t earn or deserve, but you’re getting them anyway.
On What I’m Reading: First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers is a memoir from a Cambodian woman that covers 5 years of her life. For fifteen plus years I’ve worked with the Cambodian population in Massachusetts, sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly. I remember a few years ago sitting with one of my Cambodian colleagues over lunch, asking her about the Khmer Rouge and her journey from Cambodia to Lynn, Massachusetts. Her story had my throat catching and I wanted to weep. This memoir is long overdue for me and while I’m partially dreading it, it’s important that I read it. And yes, Crime and Punishment is still on my bedside table……
What about you? What are you reading and how is it affecting you? Join the conversation through the comment section!
Marilyn R. Gardner 
I was amazed to read the Roe vs Wade article – extraordinary!
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Isn’t it? It makes me think a lot about those people behind controversy that is discussed daily.
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In graduate school l was bowled over with culture shock: quite unexpectedly as I’d been living in the states 13 years and thought all that was behind me. But I took a course called “Sex, Race, and Christianity” at Northwestern. We read texts which focused on the ways in which sex and race have colluded in US history, and how Christianity has been used on occasion to perpetuate oppressions. The class was open for lots of personal discussion, and my culture shock occurred within the context of one of those types of discussions. We were sitting round the room in a circle, each of us sharing our own experiences of ‘race’. I mentioned having grown up in Papua New Guinea, and then I made the fatal mistake of mentioning ‘our house boy’. WOW. Did it hit the fan!
And that moment of heat, embarrassment, and subsequent discussion which lasted until well after midnight, opened my eyes to my own ignorance of American history (not having had even the high school American history/civics courses to draw upon). I had no idea how my language triggered rage on so many levels. I didn’t know that American had its own brand of Apartheid: Jim Crow law. I was stunned.
Since then, I’ve made a concerted effort each Jan/Feb to read Black texts (in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. day and Black History Month). This year I’m rereading the autobiographies of MLK, and of Pauli Murray (activist, feminist, lawyer, priest, and poet). Some amazing history and amazing people of faith!
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Oh this. We need coffee for this comment. It’s amazing how what we don’t know can inadvertently trigger reactions that we are completely unprepared for. I appreciate your steps since then as your response represents the best sort of response to encounters like that.
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I am still reading 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and am starting to pull my priorities and value up from the bin of the forgotten and my life seems to be coming together.
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Love the phrase you used “from the bin of the forgotten”…I look forward to hearing more. Resurrecting things I cherish but have forgotten how to do is a challenge.
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Thanks for the great suggestions….off to the library!
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Janet- I want to hear more about your trip! But for now, I hope the library gave you some good stuff!
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