Books, Reviews, Short Stories, Authors, Publicity, a little poetry, music to complement...and other stuff including politics, about life... Life is Sweet...
Good morning
Thank you.
It's raining and will all day. Cleansing the earth. It's cold again. I'll be 69 in a few months.
"Age is matter over mind,
but I don't mind because it don't matter."
A lifetime of experiences mirror in my mind. All the heartaches, all the good times, all the people I've met and known.
When I wrote The Elder, it was to bring attention to how they get ignored when they can't get around or out. How they have to swallow their pride and dignity to ask for help. How no one calls or visits to check in on them. When I hear people say, 'We honor our elders, it's just a crock of bull. The young don't realize elders, not so much older people, but elders, have libraries of knowledge with them.*
They have much they want to share and pass down. Ask them if they need any help.
Let this day begin. Let's unwrap this gift. Have a blessed day and with much healing. Jeewi Jeewi Jeewi Yes! Yes! Yes!
~~~
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Monolin “Manny” Moreno is of Yaqui-Tarascan descent and an Enrolled Member, of the State Recognized Tribal Group of Texas Band of Yaqui Indians. His Yaqui Ancestry records date back to the late 1600’s. He has four books published: The Bridge is Gone, poetry, and The Elder: A Tribute, remembrance of elders Harry Jack and Barry Beaver Turner--both published by Back40 Publishing, and his book of poems, Longview Road, Sam Aros and son published. His fourth book is Scared – Coming Full Circle published by Eaglespeaker Publishing. It is under revision to be published under new title Scared – The Healing. • Manny’s poems are about the beauty and heartache of growing up in rural Livingston, where his grandparents settled in the early 1900s, and about his rough and crazy decades in Stockton. Readers have admired the plain language, emotional power, and honesty of Moreno’s verse. His poems have appeared in Song of the San Joaquin, Hincha Poesia and Whispering Thunder. He was nominated for the Pushcart Award in 2011 and was Poet of the Month for Moon Tide Press in June 2012. • Moreno is a Sundancer and member of the Black Wolf Honor Society Gourd Clan and Native American Church. He has appeared on Native Voice TV in Santa Clara, KKUP Indian Time Radio in Cupertino and on Channel Ten for Native American Month. Manny has lectured and read his poems in many venues, most recently at Modesto Junior College (Modesto), and the Haggin Museum and Mexican Cultural Center (Stockton).
Manny's newest book, Santa Nella Blues is Created with support and funding from: The Heartland Creative Corps, California Arts Council, Merced United Way, and the Merced County Art Council.
*I was looking for a little bit of music to include with this post. Instead I found this:
I don't need to know more about the situation other than to reread Manny's words above... Here is supposedly a learned group of speakers, who, when done, had a responder. You can tell he is an elder and is well versed in what he is saying... Yet a speaker interrupts. When the elder said he had the floor, he was ignored...well, you can form your own opinions... It is quite clear to all who the childish words were coming from. When we are not allowed to speak as those in older years, we stop sharing our wisdom. When we are told our words are not valid, we stop arguing and know that this individual has closed ears. Manny is my adopted brother. We have bonded over many years, during which I have listened to his words. And I've heard his wisdom, his truth. I agree. Especially now, Citizens of America are no longer being heard... It is, indeed, a crock of bull. And we must use our words to let our anger be known!
Jesus said that What you do unto the least of these, you do to Me... Have you ever done one thing to help an elder who is NOT related to you? Tell us about it in comments!
Manny is loved and respected across the Nation...
But That Doesn't Buy Bread...
So How Many Have Read His Words of Wisdom...
His earlier books are always available for sale.
Consider Listening to His Wisdom...
Manny Writes to Live. He is Tired... But Keeps on Writing to Live...
How Much Are You Willing to Do Unto Others in Need? He is Embarrassed to Ask for Help
I Ask For HIM!
I've Adopted Manny and Help Him as Much As I Can
In fact, instead of helping all these politicians begging for money, I chose to give it to Manny Instead...
Books, His Art, or Money for Essentials...
Please remember those who, if He were Here,
Jesus Would Produce a Miracle and Feed Manny!
Provide that Miracle for an Elder Today!
"I have to sell books. My Art. Everything is so expensive now. our gas over 5 a gallon. food is outrageous. It is harder at my age to make it with just my social security. forced to find ways to live without all this stress and anxiety. God be with us..."
Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else
--Judy Garland
Henrietta Hedgehog rolled into a tight ball under her quilt. She didn't want to go to school today. Mama Hedgehog stood in the doorway. "Henrietta, stop trying to hide! You are late."
Mrs. Shrew will be mad if I am late," she said with a sniff. "I don't want to go to school." A big fat tear slid down her cheek. "What happened? I thought you loved school!" Mama said.
"I do love school, Mama. It's just...just... I hate being a hedgehog." "You hate being a hedgehog! That's... that's..." Mama sat on the edge of the bed. "Why?" The other kids make fun of me. They say my spines are scary!" Mama Hedgehog wiped Henrietta's tears away. "They're not scary. You have beautiful quills."
Henrietta looked at herself in the mirror. "I don't know about that, Mama. The kids won't sit close to me because they say they're very sharp. I wish I had a busy tail like a squirrel or soft fur like a ferret. Anything but these pesky things," she sighed. Mama frowned.
Henrietta waited for Mama to leave and then took a paper bag from under her pillow. She shoved it into her backpack...
~~~
I've been reading the children's books written by Carole P. Roman for over a decade... and I enjoy each one! In this time when we are even more involved with children and what affects them in school, church, or even at home, it is important to gently but specifically talk about things that bother all of us, from grade school to adult!
Using animal characters often helps to take the child out of this world into a make-believe world where things that make us different in America, can be explored without pinpointing the real differences. In the case of bullying, this may be especially important. I don't think this book is about bullying per se, rather it is a book about getting to know and liking--and loving--ourselves, no matter what we look like...
The minor twist used by Carole in identifying the issue facing Henrietta Hedgehog's prickly problem, was perfect... You see, Henrietta was not liking who she was--a hedgehog that had quills on her body, which, at certain times, would help her against any enemy that might attack another. She knew that if somebody got too close to her, though, they could be hurt, even if she didn't mean to hurt anybody!
What to Do? Henrietta wanted to just not go to school. But her mother wouldn't allow that. So, thinking about those she knew in her class, she remembered that Bella Beaver was somebody she thought looked nice, so she made a mask to wear that made her look just like Bella...
But when she got to school, Bella took one look and thought that Henrietta was making fun of her front teeth, which were Bella's prickly problem for seeing herself as needing to change... Wow! Henrietta soon realized that everybody had something that they didn't like about themselves...and that the others still were willing to be...a prickly hedgehog, a beaver who didn't like her front teeth, a squirrel who doesn't like his "squeaking" voice...and many others who came to talk to Henrietta and tell her that they still liked her, even with her quills!
How about you? Is there anything that you don't like about yourself? Well, think about it and be open to talk about your problem with your mother, or even your teacher... Sometimes, you'll find that the problem you have really isn't prickly at all!
Now I know that some will ask the question; don’t the people need to know not to do wrong and that God doesn’t want them to do evil? Respectfully, I would say, if people don’t know by now the difference between doing right and doing wrong, then centuries of brow beating them has been to no avail; and if continued, will only drag them down deeper and deeper in the pit of despair and condemnation. If men and women have not learned by now to ask God for forgiveness when they have erred or sinned in some way, then we are beating a dead horse.
Before most people come to church, whatever has caused them personal wounds in conscience has already been addressed privately between themselves and God. They don’t need to be reminded again and again of their errors and mistakes. They usually come to church for comfort and encouragement and for ways of faith and hope for the many problems and concerns of their personal lives and the lives of their loved ones. Some people have beaten themselves up so badly and of course our prime enemy, (you know who that is) has joined in with his accusations as well; that they are so wounded in conscience that they can hardly hold their heads up. Then they go to church and hear negative sermon after negative sermon which only discourages them more. They have been to the whipping post again and again. This is why so many christian people are miserable and are just trying to keep a stiff upper lip to the world around them.
The better way seems to be the positive way. For example, lets use a current comparison: Which parents do the best job of raising their children; those who raise them in a negative environment or those who raise them in a positive environment? Which children are the happiest; those who are always being rebuked and criticized, or those who are being encouraged and guided with kindness? The facts indicate that the most insecure, unhappy and depressed children come from home environments where love is lowest in its expression, and anger and chastisement are at its highest.
This is also analogous to the two basic kinds of church environments.
One environment is always emphasizing the negative passages in the bible and
another one is emphasizing the positive passages in the bible.*
Am I saying that we should never emphasize any negative passages in the bible? Of course not, but if this is the steady diet being given to congregations of believers, it is certain that they will be downcast and discouraged most of the time.
They will barely be able to remember that they are not under the law, but under grace.
The wounds of the last sermon they heard will have barely begun to heal before the wounds are opened again by a new series of sermons that are just as condemnatory as the last sermon they heard.
It is a fact that the spirit of the new testament message is more kindly toward human failure than that of the Old Testament.
When the Pharisees brought the women caught in adultery before Jesus, they immediately referred him to an old testament command. It was commanded by Moses that such women should be stoned.
Jesus knew that was true, but he refused to apply it to the woman before him, he rather turned the issue back to those who caught the women in her personal transgression, and told them that whoever of them was without sin, let him throw the first stone. Silence fell upon the gathering and forgiveness was given to the woman.
If we linger on verses that are full of condemnation and rebuke, we will miss the wonder of the new covenant, and forget the fact that we are not under the law, but under grace.
Here is a poem that I wrote which highlights these thoughts. I wrote the poem because I feel there is too much doctrine, and not enough love.
Too Much Doctrine
We look for the worst,
Too quick to call one accursed,
The scripture says, we begin,
And immediately harp about one’s sin.
A verse here, a verse there,
And inevitably we create another scare,
We are so ready to pick up stones,
Feeling justified, blind to our wrongs,
We rebuke, we condemn, and flat out condescend,
We are righteous and not of their kin,
How strong we are in our creeds,
How weak we are in meeting another’s needs,
We forget how far from Him we once were,
So now compassion for others is not even a stir,
We show the hard side of God,
Ever unleashing the fierce lightening rod,
We quote it and say, He wrote it,
And we must be faithful and tell it,
Yet buried behind this wall of defense
Is what God has also said since,
If God is love and condemnation is past
Because of a sacrifice that will forever last,
Why can’t we lighten up on other men’s sin
If we would ever their trust to win
And show once again the God of all grace,
Who put everything on the line
to save the human race
--Thurman L Faison
*My Emphasis
Isn't it wonderful when you find somebody who thinks the same as you do? Surely there are many on earth that might, but you don't know it, or ever learn of their opinions. At this time in my life, it has become even more important for me... Many of you know that I've been upset regarding how religion, and in particular, christianity has become a part of the political scene, much more than ever before... I was unable to accept that all that was happening was in God's plan... Yet, when you do begin to doubt, in my opinion, you must also consider that you may not be speaking Truth. That you feel you need confirmation. Thurman Faison provided that for me in Be Spiritually Bold!
The book reads like a sermon in many ways. Of course, Faison is a pastor, so that is a natural way of speaking for him. But it is clear that he has done much thinking about what he says, before he says it. So that when Faison tells you to Be Spiritually Bold, he has learned exactly what that meant--before he tells others!
No, this book is not politically oriented. What it is is a book that tells it like it is...as he has found in his own life. Pointing out that many find it hard to approach God, yet Faison says that is exactly what God wants!
when we dare think of being bold in our approach to God a flood of emotions enters our mind; fear, uncertainty, and that startling voice from our deeper human consciousness which asks the question, “who do you think you are?” There’s the problem: Who do we think we are? I believe the answer to that question begins to unfold when we remember where we came from.
While that is an excerpt from the book, it meant to me a little different that how many people would read the question, "Who do you think you are?" In fact, I had said it to an individual within the past year... After she had accused me of back-stabbing her... I was so shocked, that, for me, I believe it was the first time ever that I had asked that question. Of Anybody? We wonder, especially now in America, how and why people are turning against others in anger, in distrust. I included. Trust has become a problem for me as I grow older.
But my Trust in God has never faltered. I think that is somewhat based upon my human father having been killed while my mother was carrying me. Not having a father for any type of male support, it was natural for me, when I heard about The Holy Trinity, to quickly understand my role with that concept. God was My Father, Jesus, His Son, was My Friend... and they supernaturally talked to me through His Spirit which resided within me.
I cannot say that I haven't turned away from God a few times during my life; i.e., I didn't want to hear His words, because I knew what they would be. But I always knew that He would not abandon me. I was made in His image and I was His child...
As mentioned in the preface, and supported by the scriptures, we are made in “the image of God.” We are like him. We are also identified in the scriptures as, “the offspring of God,” that is why when we pray, we often say, “Our Father.” We came from him, and we are ‘like him’. Although our lives have been marred by many personal failures and much wrong doing, the fact remains that our being and God’s being are eternally related. Therefore we have the right to approach God, to speak to him and even expect him to respond to our cry.
It is reassuring to know that we alone determine how we will approach God, and with what words we shall express our expectations. No one had ever approached God in exactly the same way with exactly the same words as Elisha. But God honored his request and his faith...
Jesus spotlighted this dimension of faith when he said: “verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.” Notice the words, whosoever and whatsoever. There are no restrictions on who may accomplish these things, nor what things can be made to happen. Now I know we are in deep water now, but since Jesus said it, we should not be afraid to repeat it. Not only should we repeat it, we should seek to prove for ourselves the truth of what he has said. That is really what Elisha was doing when, “he smote the waters.” He was seeking to prove for himself the divine possibilities of the use of faith and spiritual authority. Now I know someone reading these words will say; I am not Elisha! No, you are not Elisha, but you are as Jesus said – whosoever. Just to hopefully make this a little clearer, remember, we started this chapter with an emphasis on ‘spiritual succession.’ We talked about someone following another and expecting to have the same authority and power that his predecessor had while he occupied that position. The successor would expect to use his authority and expect no less recognition of that authority when he stepped into the same role. He would look for things to happen for him as had happened for the other. Before completing this chapter, I would like for us to remember that Jesus also said of his followers: “the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do.” Now he said that; and I am only repeating it to bring back to our minds that there is so much more for us to reach for in this thing called spiritual succession.
Faison is talking about the prophet Elisha as he writes (or speaks), but for me, most sermons I heard throughout my life were words from God, presented through another child of God. As a young Christian, I was reading many different books, including The Living Bible which was the Bible I used most at that time. So it was quite easy for me to consider attending a Full Gospel meeting when I was invited, and was anointed, speaking a few words in tongues. Later, as I've shared, it was through another book, Something More, that He poured His love over and through me, taking the step of being baptized in His Holy Spirit.
Later I was to learn that my bold step was being questioned by some. Comments like God doesn't give His gifts any more... or even, probably, Who Does She Think She Is--to claim such a thing happened to her? I share this in the context of this book, because, for whatever reasons, I've been spiritually bold since my early teens--I've been open to God in all ways, maybe not at all times, but deep inside I've always known that God would always take care of me... Many of my chosen songs reflect that willingness to open up to Him.
T he key point that needs to be made from reading this book... We are His Children! And because of that we must, yes, we must, recognize that role as His Child and turn to Him for All That He Has To Give Us! And, in being willing to look boldly toward Him, we can do all things through Him!
Faison goes into reasons why we may not look boldly... Yet... He meets each of us where we are. Just like Jesus does... He is our friend. We can talk to Him about anything and everything. Much more than with anybody else, I have found! Because we can always trust that He loves Us and Wants Us to Know that First...
And then, readers will be introduced into the supernatural aspect of God... What does that mean? Well, remember the story about moving mountains? Do we have the faith to move mountains?
I've shared that I've always had the boldness. but I've been limited, at times, in my faith... Right now, for instance, I've claimed that the 2024 Election for America will be what I think should happen... I've claimed it, I have faith... But is it enough? After all, millions of others have just as much right to be wanting a specific outcome. I know that, perhaps, is not a good example because the impact depends upon my being right--that God is NOT a God of Violence and those of us who seek the future of God in all of His Power and Glory, do not accept that going backwards in our religious lives can be the right way... Nevertheless, I'm claiming that in God's Name, Here in Public. In Faith I Boldly Seek God's Truth and God's Love to rein across the world. I claim that authoritarian leaders who have no empathy for people will not win, that guns will be controlled, that wars will cease. Will you join with me in Boldness and in Faith that God's Love and Truth Will Win in the 2024 Election?!
I wanted you all to know what happened... after I wrote this last paragraph. I was looking for the song Sweet Sweet Spirit, but nothing sounded right... Then I heard His Spirit speak one Word. Promises... I immediately placed it in search--I had not heard the two following songs before... Was this my second confirmation?
I just want to close out this post. This book spoke to me. I believe it will speak to you, if you allow it. I believe Thurman L. Faison speaks of the love of Jesus and this book will help you find his promises... For You...
Solange looked around her. She was in her safe bedroom, with its warm peachy-beige walls and reassuring art deco prints. Bunny May had confiscated all the covers and was sleeping, completely intact. The cat’s oblivious snoring gave Solange a sense of well-being. Thank God these things are only dreams, she thought. She stretched, and felt tingling pricks in her head and arms as oxygen moved once again through her system. Now. What to take. Valium was a good choice, and although it wasn’t the prescription of choice in the twenty-first century, she couldn’t knock it. It was Valium that got her through Paul-Michel’s funeral. It was Valium that kept her upright as she walked into the small Lubbock, Texas church. Everyone had watched her. She was the widow, dressed in a black dress Paul-Michel had given her as a gift four years earlier. All eyes on the widow as she sat in the pew, listening to the preacher despite the fog in her head, hoping he might know something useful. No one knew better than Solange how life-saving it was to be able to take a pill and sit there and wait for it to kick in -- knowing, even through her despair, that within forty-five minutes her body would loosen up, the tears would slow down, her lungs would begin the taking in of oxygen again, and her voice would come down off its three-octave tightrope. The problem occurred when the Valium wore off, and her husband was still dead. But finally, at fifty-two, the pharmaceutical industry came up with something that got in your blood and stayed there. Prozac was a gift from God, although Solange grieved the loss of the high. Prozac didn’t make her high. But at least it allowed her to breathe, speak coherently, and practice her forty-seven string Lyon and Healy pedal harp every day, which is what she decided to do for a living after Paul-Michel died. She decided to leave her job as a voice teacher and go out and learn an instrument and get a gig.
“You’re not euphoric, are you?” Dr. Stone had asked with concern during Solange’s first med check visit after starting the Prozac. Solange realized from the tone of his voice that euphoric was bad, and although she did feel like she was right on the edge of a post-crisis bliss, she knew that to preserve that, she’d have to deny any ounce of euphoria. “Oh, no euphoria,” Solange answered in the overly casual tone she had learned over her younger years of having to feign sanity in order to get the Valium. “I feel alright. Able to work, clean house, drive responsibly.” For good measure, if there was any hesitation from the doctor, “I’m a grandmother, you know.” Men liked to hear that their female patients were now able to clean house. Solange had figured out long ago, back in the days of Elavil, that you have to go to a male doctor because only men will prescribe anything you want if it makes you a better housekeeper and keeps you from shrieking at your husband. Female doctors were much more hip. “Deal with it,” one of them told Solange, and she was right of course, but Solange never went back to her. Solange could only deal with stuff small bits at a time. The stuff itself came at her in larger quantities than she could manage, so there was the discrepancy. What to take, what to take? It was noon-ish.
Solange had read Tarot cards on the Seer’s Network line until 4:30 a.m. That would be 5:30 on the east coast, which meant no one would call from there any more, and although it was only 2:30 in L.A., the pace still slowed. Still in her nightgown, a burgundy cowlick standing straight up on the back of her shoulder length hair, she staggered over to the harp and began tuning. Soon, harp scales filled her cozy bedroom in her residential corner of Austin, Texas. Bud and LaVinia never seemed to mind, although they had mentioned the midnight vacuuming. After a half-hour of scales, an hour of wedding repertoire, an hour of assisted living repertoire, and a half-hour of glissandos in various keys, she realized once again that while she had been doing this since Paul-Michel had passed away ten years ago, she was still quite awful at it. The decision was made. Coffee and an Ativan. Everything was going to be fine.
Scene 7: Night Needles Dream: I am taken to a place beneath the earth, underneath everywhere. A place of karma and retribution. Most people are completely unaware that this landscape exists. I had never seen it before; never even conceived of its possibility. But this dream is vivid and detailed. Like I am there, not dreaming. You have to protect yourself. It’s an alternate world, but it manufactures events and situations that affect the waking world. There is daylight there, and it’s barren, lots of desert, but no wind. A man with a drum. A snake. He’s smiling. The events are outside of our control. Yet we only take them on during our vulnerable times. Back on the dirt side of earth, in the big wooden dreamscape house, we’re preparing for the battle. It is to be a major attack. There’s a lot of military equipment. Suddenly the guns begin. It is violent and harsh, as automatic and semiautomatic weapons fire. Bullets fly over our heads. Some of us are killed. We are close to total annihilation. I am tense and upset, but not terrified like I would be if, say, there were cockroaches dripping down.
She brought her coffee, vitamin C, Prozac, socks, and Unlocking the Door to the Other Side channeled by the Pleideans from another dimension, back to bed with her, along with a cold croissant. Bunny May and the dream journal were there, and she found a pink tasseled Pretty Pony pen under a throw pillow, so she gently sank into the warm illusion of feeling alright. She played the RO RO SO SO OFO OFO game for a while, robe on, robe off, socks on, socks off, overhead fan on, overhead fan off. It was Solange’s organic substitute for hormone replacement therapy, and it worked alright if you didn’t mind going crazy.
Scene 8: Phantoms and Nightwalkers Dream: An old white van passes us. I’m in a car with Paul-Michel. Suddenly, from the van, a face looks back at me -- his eyes lit as if from a supernatural, malicious source. In the gleaming eyes, a hint of a smile. His eyes get bigger and the glowing more intense. Paul-Michel quickly turned our car to the right, to get away from him, and said, “What was that?” I knew, but I didn’t say anything. Paul-Michel shouldn’t have to have known. One of his favorite things to do was to feed swans. Solange woke up hyperventilating. When she caught her breath and brought some hot coffee back to bed, she thought about Lighthead-Nettles. The place had killed Paul-Michel. Yes, it was a cancer hospital, a cutting-edge world-leading state-of-the-art hospital that took up umpteen New York City blocks and you couldn’t get parking even while you were dying. Yes, Solange was a New Yorker. Her blood was made of New York blood. But by now she hated the city and was glad to be in Austin. She’d never go back. And after it killed Paul-Michel ten years ago, Solange looked at Lighthead-Nettles not so much as a healing place as a slaughter house. You go in, you get tortured in the most hideous ways, you fight with them about the impending dismemberment of your body and the divvying up of the parts for research and autopsy, and you come out in parts. Walking through the halls at Lighthead-Nettles on the chemo floor, hearing people scream in pain from behind closed doors; seeing people stagger around the halls with burned skin, dragging their drip bags along; the dust, the dirt; the nurses pulling twenty-four hour shifts; the plastic surgical gloves and rubber bands that were used instead of ice blankets for 106 degree fevers. Yes, Paul-Michel had been killed just as viciously in the hospital as if he had been mugged on the street.
Solange picked up a pen, mindless of its silver pom-pom, and wrote: How can I live? That reminds me: She washed down an Ativan with a long, slow sip of the coffee. She wrote more: Actually, I don’t feel so good myself.
~~~
Did you ever start a book which is so alien, so bizarre from anything that has occurred in your life, so far, and you think this is not my type of book, but you just keep on reading, thinking, ah...what is the point of this book? But then words "the lure of Funky Music" heads a page and you decide to keep on reading, knowing that you now realize just why, many years ago, you decided that you would never want to take pills or drink something to the extent that you would not want to know what had happened--and this book proved that you had made the right decision! But you figure, by now, there has to be more to this book, so you just keep on reading...
Seriously, if you read the subtitle of a book and it says: The Midlife Crisis of a Quirky Pharmaceutically-Challenged Harp Player, and the only words that caught your attention was "harp player," then beware, because you have no idea exactly what a midlife crisis really is! And you might be grateful that you never learn! Especially since your mid-life is in the past... But, darn, Harp Music!
I think of some songs that I'd like to hear on the Harp:
Or
The Lord's Prayer
Ah, beautiful, so you decide to keep on reading about her wild, really wild dreams, and see what she does with her harp... "Scrapple from the Apple"? O...K...
It's jazz even though I'd never heard of the song, but it was pretty cool, though short...
So Solange, our main character goes out, trying to get a job as a harpist... In fact, if you continue reading, like I did, you will see that Solange is really somewhat, shall I say, OBSESSED, with music composition, so much so that everything she does turns into a counting of that activity to music--you know, like if the garbage truck is coming down the street, stopping at each home, there'd be a certain rhythm of the truck stopping and starting, together with the bang, bang, bang of the cans against the moving barrel...stop stop...start...start...bang, bang, OMG, she has me doing it! What fun! I hated counting when I was learning hymns, especially... I wanted to play them as I would sing the song, while my teacher wanted me to count the value of each note...Now I have to ask, just who would be singing this song, while I was playing the piano... Most people at my church were old and sang slowly--they weren't counting the note value, I can tell you!
So, anyway, Solange can't get over the death of her husband from cancer, mainly because she thinks the hospital was at fault... And she would wake up crying in loss once again about who was so good at the slow hand...
But as years went by, only Mile Davis could help her fall asleep, to dream....
Or sometimes just be curious...
So she does Tarot Card readings to bring in needed cash... She uses different names so people calling will never know to whom they are speaking... It's safer that way, don't you think? After all, reading the fortunes for somebody can bring them either sadness or happiness... And, if the latter, they'd want to stick with the "seer" who made them feel great. Or the opposite could also happen. And, no, I've never called for a reading... But I admit I enjoyed reading books about the personalities of different signs and measuring them with potential male friends... LOL
Do you get the idea that I'm writing differently, like, maybe to match what I had just read???
And while waiting for gigs, she continues recording her dreams in a journal, one of which spotlighted Amazing Grace, so she decided to attend her meeting of the spirituality group...which gets too close to issues that Solange was having for her to be spiritually uplifted... Or it could be the pills she took...
And she gets an audition and wows them...
Finally, she gets a gig with others with are also playing the harp....but she doesn't match the timing of the others... only she doesn't realize that it is she who is the problem... Or maybe, it's because the conductor keeps suggesting special practice with him... Practice continues! But I totally understood Solange about how she "felt" how to play the music. Fortunately when I sang, my sister was normally the pianist and she followed me, not the music... See that's why I'm reading further...
After past auditions, she had been able to maintain a quasi-zen emotional state -- that is, pretending it didn’t matter if she got the gig. If the gig was cosmically right, she would get it. And if it was cosmically wrong, she would not get it, and that would be correct in a not-knowing-the-bigger-picture-therefore-it-must-be-God’s-plan way. Like if she didn’t get the gig, it would have been bad to have gotten the gig. Still, at fifty-two, she felt an urgent need to get up each noontime and continue her quest to get the better gig. Solange went downstairs to the kitchen and brought back a saucer of milk and Bunny May’s insulin works...
Many of the songs were those I selected...do you like the above, which was actually part of the book's playlist? I've always like the music, but never had heard it by harpists! Cool, right?
Well, after all you have learned about the book, I am positive that you will never think how the book ends! Nor how much you may have found you've enjoyed this quirky harp player when she forgets about anything but her music...
with maybe a little tequila nearby...
Suzann Kale is an author that you need to at least read once or you won't know what you've missed! And if you are quirky pharmaceutically-challenged, but NOT a harp player, I think you'll totally want to read this one!
Note this is a sample of the audio book which you can read...
Freedom is a dream
Haunting as amber wine
Or worlds remembered out of time.
Not Eden’s gate, but freedom
Lures us down a trail of skulls
Where men forever crush the dreamers—
Never the dream.
—pauli murray, “Dark Testament”
While I was working on my post related to The Handmaid's Tale, I was led to another book. This is another book that I had earlier purchased when I saw it publicized.. How? well, when I start reading, my Kindle automatically records that I am now reading on GoodReads. But, for the first time, I had received two "like" comments, one of which was by a leading woman who works in the publishing field... My earlier plan had been to skim this book for a future time once I knew what it was about... Was this another nudge to read now? Here is what I found:
I had reached chapter 6 - The Case: Abortion at the Border... You see, this book is an all-female spotlight of women who needed, sought for, or participated in getting justice through America's courts... Kindle also brings readers directly to the first pages, so that I had not read the Table of Contents in advance... In the Border Case, Brigitte Amiri was the Litigator spotlighted... Amiri had a sign on the wall behind her desk... A quote from The Handmaid's Tale!
In the fall of 2017, a fight over abortion, religious conscience, and the actions of government officials became the next marquee controversy over the Trump administration’s new worldview, in which religion and law became frequently interchangeable. It was a story told most commonly through the aperture of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale. And the comparison was not inapt. Brigitte Amiri knows all about this strange dystopian meta-story, because, well, she litigated it. In fact, the Trump Justice Department tried (unsuccessfully, as it turned out) to ruin her professional career for prevailing in a constitutional challenge to it.
Yes, you read that right. The Litigator, the author of this book, all publishing participants, and more, saw a direct parallel of a court case held under the past president's administration to be comparative to The Handmaid's Tale! Let's get specific about that meaning. In this case, we find a 17-year-old who has been raped, seeking an abortion. She had undergone counseling and remained firm that she could not deal with being forced to carry her rapist's child, even to term... The court named her Jane Doe, she had been unaccompanied at the border. In fact, she had left her parents home where she was being abused.
At the Border she was immediately placed in a care facility and while she was waiting for asylum support, she discovered she was pregnant. She asked for an abortion. Because she could not get parental approval, she would have to seek approval of a judge.
Jane went to state court with Marie Christine Cortez, an attorney from Jane’s Due Process, a nonprofit organization that offers assistance to pregnant minors in Texas. (A state which was just beginning to flex their political power regarding women's health care.) She was appointed a guardian, and a state judge granted her request on September 25, 2017. The procedure was scheduled for the 28, toward the end of her first trimester.
All that would have been needed was for Jane to leave the care facility and then return to await action on her request for asylum. The head of that facility would not allow her to go! Scott Lloyd? In 2017, Donald Trump placed him in charge of ORR, which had custody over all immigrants. You may have heard about him via the news. It had been reported that he was tracking the menstrual cycles of all females under 18 in that facility! Yeah, you sure can tell what a man's like when they start keeping track of women's menstrual cycles! No wonder these young women did not trust him or others involved... But that was just the beginning as the court case began to allow her an abortion... With the new president's election, all things women's health would get harder, but Amiri knew she had no choice...
The panel Amiri drew for oral argument in Garza v. Hargan consisted of three appellate judges: Karen LeCraft Henderson, Patricia Millett, and Brett Kavanaugh. Attorney Catherine Dorsey, representing the Justice Department, opened by telling the court that the government was “not preventing, blocking, or imposing any obstacle on Ms. Doe pursuant of an abortion here, such that it could constitute an undue burden within the meaning of Casey. The Government has not put any obstacle in her path; rather the Government is refusing to facilitate an abortion, which it is permitted to do in furtherance of its legitimate interest in promoting childbirth.” The government wasn’t impeding her, it said; it just wouldn’t help her. Judge Kavanaugh pressed Dorsey on how it could be true that if Jane were an adult in a federal prison, she would have a constitutional right to abortion under Roe v. Wade, but not as an immigrant minor. Dorsey replied that “Ms. Doe has the option of voluntary departure” to her home country. Later in the argument Dorsey would be asked whether Jane’s home country allowed abortion. She conceded that it did not. Dorsey explained to the court that adult migrants in ICE detention can obtain an abortion but minors cannot because HHS has an interest in promoting “the best interests of the child,” which is, presumably, to give birth in every single case. Judge Kavanaugh asked how many pregnant minors were currently in ORR custody. Dorsey did not know. Judge Millett asked how it was possible that ORR would be “facilitating” an abortion given that Jane is “in the custody of a grantee who has no opposition to letting her go, other than . . . the Government’s threat to take away funding if they let her go have the abortion.” Dorsey acknowledged that the shelter needed only to do the paperwork to transfer her and provide care for her post-procedure. Millett was confused: “So the one health care they’re not willing to do is for abortion. They’d be willing to do anything if she were to continue the pregnancy and do all this facilitation if she were to continue the pregnancy?” Dorsey repeated that the government had an interest in promoting childbirth. Millett: “You’ve already had a judicial bypass that says she can make this decision herself, not her custodian. She’s got a guardian ad litem that agrees. And your position is that the facilitating would be ORR saying okay we’re going to let you exercise your choice.” Then it was Brigitte Amiri’s turn at the lectern. “May it please the court. Good morning,” she opened. “Since 1973 the Supreme Court has held that the Government may not ban abortion. By refusing to transport J.D. for an abortion, or refusing to allow anyone to transport J.D., including the shelter or her guardian ad litem, the Government is violating well established Supreme Court Precedent.” Judge Kavanaugh pressed her on why a sponsor couldn’t be found for Jane. Giving custody of Doe from the government to a sponsor would prevent the shelter from facilitating an abortion and thus allow the court to avoid making a ruling on an undocumented minor’s right to an abortion in federal custody. Amiri replied that the government had been unsuccessfully seeking a sponsor for six weeks already, that one attempt to locate a sponsor had already fallen through, and that finding a sponsor could take months. Judge Millett asked why the federal government didn’t have an interest in helping unaccompanied minors make decisions that are safe and appropriate for them. Amiri replied, “Your Honor, they do have the requirement to act in the best interest of minors. And I will say that they are not doing that with respect to J.D., when she has made a decision to have an abortion. She has a judicial bypass from a state court judge. What they are actually doing is supplanting their decision about what J.D. should do with her pregnancy and that is not acting in her best interest and that is actually veto power over J.D.’s abortion decision.” Judge Kavanaugh* pressed her on why having a sponsor, another adult to talk to, wouldn’t help Jane make a better, more informed decision. Amiri reiterated that Jane already had a judicial bypass, plus a guardian ad litem, plus an attorney ad litem for emotional support. She added that Scott Lloyd had gone to another minor in a shelter, personally “to talk to her about her pregnancy and, I believe, unfairly pressure her to carry her pregnancy to term.”
*Judge Kavanaugh was one of the three Trump appointments who overthrew Roe even though during his appointment interviews, he indicated that he considered it a precedent and told the women who asked that he would not vote to change...Barrett also said this during her interviews! Yet both voted for the overthrow on the first chance they got!
Now we all know what happened under the past president, don't we? First his Attorney General made it a law to separate children from the parents, as they allowed immigrants through the border! With a deal made with evangelical christians, Trump placed judges who were from a pre-selected list for appointment. It was rigged of course... And then they proceeded with actions like just this one case times so many we can't count... And she also knew that they lost count and location of where those children were taken when they stole them from the parent(s)!
And it gets worse daily. Roe was overturned and the whole nation is in uproar... I've shared about a number that were extremely upsetting to the individual making the news who needed to have a medical procedure... But this week it has gotten even worse, thanks to Clarence Thomas (yeah, him who gets big sums of financial support from a millionaire, and whose wife assisted in the January 6th insurrection planning...)who in his concurrent statement on abortion suggested states go back into the historical records to see if there was already a law for abortion in place... Suddenly Arizona's state supreme court pulled a law that was written by one man, before even the state was authorized...in 1846...and made it the law of the state!!! This week!
You can't write fiction that is this extreme!
Most of you may remember that, in my opinion, IF there must be a law, it should be Pro-Choice. But, women's health care is a personal issue that should not be controlled in any way by the government! Can you imagine a woman who has had a problem with pregnancy for whatever reason, that the doctor and all who are involved would be jailed!!!
As the Attorney General clearly stated yesterday, this cannot be allowed to continue! Women are being used for political power on all levels... Men are the primary architects creating such laws! And no, they are doctors, they are politicians!!! Stop this Madness!
I found it ironic that this book included reference to my last read book... I am continuing to read this book. Included, for example, is what happened in Virginia where a young woman was killed by car during demonstrations... I have found it of benefit to see WHAT happened legally after those events took place in front of us! I'll be fitting in this type of post among reviews of other books I've already read... I've even thought about making it into a book club discussion here on BRH... What do you think? Comment if interested!
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