Quotes, pt 2 - why I read

More quotes from my collection, this batch about the value of stories.

A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading. – William Styron

Through a well-told story, I can live vicariously in another era, in another culture, or in an alternate universe. I can inhabit the experiences of a hero or villain, of a frail old man, an anxious teen-age girl, or a struggling single parent. These experiences have increased my empathy toward people whose lives are different from my own.

After nourishment, shelter, and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in this world. – Philip Pullman

Maybe that's why, throughout human history, stories were told wherever people gathered. Your Thanksgiving table has hosted a tale or two, I'm sure.

In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you. -Mortimer J. Adler

Here's what's gotten through to me in hundreds of books - a story would be boring if there were no struggle, no risk-taking, no effort needed to reach success. Who wants to read about someone who has it easy all the time?
I've learned that the same holds true with life. It's the problems we face and the fact that we overcome them that gives us hope and forces us to grow and eventually succeed.


So here's the last word on the subject.

Let us read and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.
-Voltaire

Quotes

In all the 'stuff' that comes into my life, I differentiate between stuff I accumulate - dust bunnies, unfiled paperwork, and toys that need repair, and stuff I collect - recipes, vinyl record albums, photographs, and quotes. The quotes are saved on my computer in an ever-growing 60+ page Word file, and I've got a Pinterest board with a bunch more. I'll share some this week. This particular batch is faith-based.

"The older I get, the surer I am that I'm not running the show."

There's both complexity and order within our immense universe and within the microscopic world. It's completely illogical to think that happened by chance. It's designed that way by a Creator much grander than I can imagine.

"I believe in the sun even when it's not shining.
I believe in love even when I am alone.
I believe in God even when he is silent."

The origin of this quote is vague, although many sources say it was found written on a cellar wall in Cologne, Germany after WWII. These sources assume it was written by hidden Jews. Holding onto faith in such incredible circumstances is amazing.

"The number of 'followers' you have doesn't mean you have a better idea. Hitler had millions. Jesus had twelve."

No comment needed.

"Come to the edge."
"We can't. We're afraid."
"Come to the edge."
"We can't. We will fall!"

"Come to the edge."
And they came.
And he pushed them.
And they flew.

Faith and trust are intertwined; my thesaurus uses them as synonyms. Flight requires trust in our forward momentum to overcome gravity, trust in the air currents to provide lift, and faith that your wings will work. When it all goes as it should, it's somehow both wondrous and completely expected.

Better targets of the governor's attention

Fact: Governor Tom Corbett has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the residents of Pennsylvania against the NCAA regarding its sanctions against Penn State University.

Disclaimer: I'm not fluent in legal-speak and I have no interest in personally investigating what the NCAA is or is not legally able to do.

Fact: The suit stems from the Jerry Sandusky case, in which football and money were deemed more important than children.

Disclaimer: I like a good game as much as the next person, but I value children a whole lot more than sports. I think sport performance and the accompanying money, fame, and clout often become more important than the moral behavior of those involved, and this is a sickening example. Children should be protected from adult stupidity on all levels.

If he were truly interested in what's best for the WHOLE commonwealth of Pennsylvania, ALL its residents, not just sports lovers or Penn State fans, these (underfunded, pitifully broken) systems would have been better targets of the governor's attention.

*Pennsylvania's roads are in constant disrepair. Our bridges are even worse, aging and crumbling from the deadly combination of time, increased truck traffic (can you say drilling?), and repeated storm damage. A bridge just a mile from my house has been out of service for 7 years, tied up in bureaucratic wrangling and lack of funds. Bad for residents of Pennsylvania.

*Pennsylvania's schools are underfunded, causing massive teacher layoffs, higher student/teacher ratios, and cutting essential programs. Bad for the residents of Pennsylvania, present and future. Didn't I say children should be protected from adult stupidity on all levels? Shouldn't that include our own government?

*Pennsylvania's state pension system is underfunded. Reports continue to show the cost of public worker retirement benefits is higher than anticipated, and baby boomers are just getting started drawing down funds. Bad for the residents of Pennsylvania, present and future. Ditto the questions raised above.

*Public services to support children and families in need continue to be cut. The cynic in me says it's because children don't vote, and the working poor are too busy trying to survive to be politically savvy. It goes without saying that the same type of program that supports children like Jerry Sandusky's victims has received less funding than in previous years. There's no logic to explain that. Again, the same questions apply.

If Gov. Corbett applied the same logic to these injustices that he applied in filing the NCAA lawsuit, he'd have to sue his own administration. Guess that won't be happening. We as the residents of Pennsylvania have to make him accountable using the only power we have.

November 2014 can't come soon enough for me.

My most unpopular blog post ever

Today, our country will mark a moment of silence for 'the 26 victims' of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I will join with thousands or maybe millions of others to honor and mourn the loss of these precious lives, but my prayers will be for more than the 26.

I will pray for the families and friends of the deceased. No doubt they are paralyzed right now, filled with grief beyond understanding. Somehow, they must find a way to breathe and move and live their lives again. That's a journey which will take many years and much love and support and prayer.

I will pray for the children and faculty who survived the tragedy, those who heard and saw things which defy words. Their innocence has been stolen, and the stain of these events on their dreams may be permanent. They need years of counseling and understanding and love and prayer in order to learn to trust again. I pray they each find a safe haven somewhere in our troubled world.

Here's the unpopular part. I will pray for the 28 lives lost. Yes, I will include the shooter and his mother in my prayers. We may never know the depths of their despair, the anguish and isolation which burdened a family until a young man broke and took so many lives. But the shooter and his mother are God's children too, and they now stand before Him. May He have mercy on their souls as He does on the souls of the school's children and faculty.

And may He also have mercy on us for our part in a system so broken, a society so warped, that persons with mental health problems fail to get the help they need. I will pray that, with God's grace, my own interactions with people will lighten burdens and spread ripples of goodness and truth and hope, today and every day.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

-St. Francis of Assisi

Mr. Rogers and heroes

A day after this week's horror in Connecticut, several Facebook friends posted this quote from Fred Rogers

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother's words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.”

The quote resonated to my core.
The helpers. The people who somehow keep it together during unthinkable events. The ones who push aside their own fear and take care of the small, the weak, the vulnerable. When every cell courses with panic and adrenalin and survival instinct, these helpers work for a greater good. They are my heroes.

I love heroes, especially unlikely ones, reluctant ones, ordinary folks who find themselves in extraordinary situations. That's why I read so much, so I can find and love characters who pull themselves up by their bootstraps and seek ways to act with courage.

That's also why I write. Somehow, creating characters who are surrounded by evil but not overcome by it, who keep their moral compass in the face of immorality, gives me hope that I, too, might act as a helper. I just hope and pray I never have to be put to the test.