Reading and resting more than walking
My favorite reading spot - under the magnolia
This week the weather has been beautiful, but I haven’t had as much energy for walking. I have worked in the garden, but also, I have enjoyed sitting in the shade of my giant magnolia tree reading, and I wanted to share some thoughts from my book. I’m reading a book called Joseph Anton, which is the cover name for the writer Salman Rushdie. Rushdie wrote the book Satanic Verses years ago, and the book so angered the Iranian leaders that they issued a fatwa against him, a death sentence for blaspheming their religion. I tried to read Satanic Verses, but it wasn’t my style of writing. I also couldn’t see what was so offensive, but then I didn’t finish, and I’m not Muslim. The book I am reading describes the life Rushdie had to live, in hiding and with British protection around the clock. He tried to have a normal life, but for many years he was forced to live as if he was in house arrest. He believes deeply in the freedom of expression, the freedom to write what you want to write. No one is required to read a book, we all have different interests. Not wanting to read a book or not wanting to give money to a book we disagree with, that is all within our rights. What we don’t have the right to do is to control others. We don’t have the right to tell others what they can read, or to tell stores what they can sell, or to tell libraries what they can carry. We certainly don’t have the right to tell people what to think, nor to wish death on someone for saying words or ideas we don’t agree with. At one point Rushdie wrote the following in a letter to the newspaper:
“We have the freedoms we fight for, and we lose the freedoms we don’t defend.” This goes for any freedom, but in this letter, and in his book, he was talking about free speech. It would be easy to give in, to say I’m sorry my book/article/story offended you, I’ll withdraw it. Or to say, I don’t want to make someone angry, I won’t write how I really feel about the government or the church, but when we make that choice, we are giving in on defending our rights of free speech. Every time we give in, a tiny death nail is struck in the coffin of the free speech, and every death nail becomes harder to pull out. (Can you tell I’ve been reading a lot?)
I’m also reading and really enjoying a series of letters that tell a story. My sister in law Heather gave me a Christmas gift of a year of letters that arrive in the mail, and through these letters I learn about the adventures of a lady traveling in the Amazon Jungle in Brazil. In the story the letters tell the main character is writing articles to a Ladies Magazine, and she is also researching the mystery of her parents disappearance. It’s such fun, I look forward to receiving the mail again. I wish I was as good and thoughtful in giving gifts. Anyway, in the last package I read something I wanted to share. In the letters, one of the pages was a copy of the article our main character had written for the Ladies Journal. On the same page was an article about eugenics. This story takes place in 1910, and eugenics was a popular concept at that time. In a type of Dear Abby style article, a person had written a question about eugenics; was it moral and how should she approach the idea? The author answered her question by giving a bit of the history of the concept, and the supposed reasons people liked it, then she ended with this quote, which I think could guide us today, in our lives in the 2020”s.
“I will close now by leaving you with a piece of advice. Heed the lessons of history and you will rarely go wrong. Strive to build a future founded on principles of equality, justice and respect for all. Simply put, follow the Golden Rule. is this not the tried and true answer to every ailment that now or ever will plague society?”
Just because it's pretty, fiddlehead from the greenhouse
This week I walked 11 miles, one mile at a time. The total for the year is 169.31. Even though it’s not that far, I am walking more than I did last year, and that is good. Today I was just going to sit down and read, or scroll (doom scroll) as they call it, but then I remembered I needed some miles to make this article look better. I went out and walked through two neighborhoods, looked at azaleas and roses, and wildflowers and had a great afternoon. Walking always makes me feel better, but sometimes I need a push to get out.
At 169 miles I have reached the Fontana Dam, and the Fontana Visitor Center. The first time my parents went backpacking they started at the Fontana Visitor Center. My grandparents dropped them off, and with my brother and I we vacationed there. I remember thinking my parents would love to have a token to remember us by, so we added two toy cars secretly to their backpacks. I’m sure they appreciated the thought and didn’t mind the extra weight. Backpackers will spend enormous energy cutting down every extra ounce.
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