Atheist to Catholic - Book 14

I just seem to be on an Atheist to Believer jag lately!  

This is a very slim volume of short biographical essays which chronicle the journey each of the essayists have undergone from being unbelievers to becoming Catholic.  I bought this book on impulse because I recognized some of the contributors.  Karen Edmisten, another Catholic homeschooler, is one of the contributors.  Jennifer Fulwiler of the well know Conversion Diary blog is also included in the book.  The other two names I recognized were John C. Wright, prizewinning science fiction author, and The Raving Theist (formerly know as the Raving Atheist!).

For me,  as someone who also passed through a period of atheism in my youth, a long bought of agnosticism, another long bout of searching, and finally a reversion back to the Catholic faith of my childhood, I find these conversion stories so heartening and beautiful.  I enjoyed all the stories in this little book very much.

As always, check out Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks for more reviews.

A Song of Nagaski - Book 13

I bought this book, A Song for Nagasaki by Paul Glynn, S. M.  some time ago but had never gotten around to reading it.  After the Japanese triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and radiation leak, I remembered it and dug it out of my pile of TBR books.

This book tells the moving story of Takashi Nagai, working as the head of the Radiology Department at the University of Nagasaki when the Atomic bomb was dropped on August 9, 1945.  Dr.  Nagai  was the son of a herbal doctor who grew up in a close and loving Shinto- worshiping family.  Upon attending university with the desire to become a medical doctor, he became an atheist convinced that science was the new hope for mankind.  He admired many Western scientists including Pascal.  He stumbled upon Pascal's Pensees.  This became his most beloved book which he read over and over again and it raised in him many questions about atheism, science and faith.  He felt himself intrigued by Pascal's Catholic faith.  He knew a bit about the history of Catholics in the Nagasaki area where St. Francis Xavier had converted so many Japanese who had been persecuted and oppressed brutally for hundreds of years.  At that time, late 1920s - 1930s, Catholics were giving grudging freedom by the Japanese government.  Nagai decided he wanted to learn more about these Christian Japanese so he deliberately rented a room from one of the Catholics families near the University.  It actually took him years to convert.  He was drafted into the Japanese army to help fight in the Manchurian invasion.  He saw the horror and brutality of war first hand.   After he returned he converted to Catholicism and wound up marrying the daughter of his landlord, a beautiful young lady he'd fallen in love with.

Nagai survives the A-bomb but lives through the grief and horror that it brought to Nagasaki.  He was one of the leaders in rebuilding the city.  While slowly dying of leukemia brought on by radiation poisoning (which actually happened before the A Bomb; as a radiologist he knew the risks he ran as the technology of radiology was in its nascent stages), he wrote many best selling books, most notably The Bells of Nagasaki about the meaning of suffering and how God's love is the only answer.  He was a deeply religious man, very holy and wise.

This book is very well written.  The author was a missionary in Japan for 25 years and he conveys his deep knowledge and respect for the Japanese and their culture.  I felt I learned so much from reading this very moving book; so much about Japan that I didn't know previously, but also so much about faith, prayer, love, trust, perseverance, and hope from the beautiful and tragic story of Dr. Takashi Nagai.   

For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Heidi by Joanna Spyri - Book 12

This week, I finished reading this book aloud to my 9 yo, Becky.  We enjoyed it thoroughly.  As Becky said, "This is a very Christian book!"  She noted that it was more Christian than the audio recording we had gotten out of the library. Apparently they had abridged a lot of the Christian references out!  I hadn't noticed this!  This was my 3rd reading of Heidi.  I had read it when I was young.  I read it again when my oldest daughter was Becky's age and, of course, now.

This book strongly evoked two things in me, a desire to be in the Alps with all the gorgeous descriptions of the countryside, the flowers, the sunrises, the wind in the fir trees.  But it also is a book about how to pray and trust in God.   It made me long to have the faith of a child.  Heidi's enthusiasm for life and the Grandmama's wisdom and kindness guide the reader to a sweet understanding of what it is to trust God, even when you have no idea of what is in store for you.  The characters of the Alm-uncle, Peter the goatherd, the Grandmother and Klara are all wonderfully drawn, though my favorite secondary characters were Fraulein Rottenmeier and Sebastian; lots of comic relief with those two.

This is one of those children's classics for a reason!  Two thumbs up!

(Warning:  this book will give you cravings for goat's milk!)

See Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks

Highlights of the Week 2/20/11 - 2/26/11

Sean got a letter from the 4H folks.  He and Rick hadn't stayed around to see if he'd won anything last Saturday.  Turns out he got a blue ribbon for his talk.  He was pretty proud once he realized what it meant.  I don't think he was all that aware that he was actually in a competition before.  Anyway, we are all pleased for him.
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Josh for some baffling reason failed his learner's permit test again. I think he didn't really study.  Anyway he was mortified by it but I really, really think we need to talk about being responsible and realistic about things.  He just drifts along aimlessly.  He may be in the mood to work hard or he may not, all depends on . . . . something.  I don't quite know what!  But it doesn't seem to have much to do with what it actually going on in his world!
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Becky keeps going to this site because she is fixated on getting one of these boats.  She's got $91.  She's saved it up from birthdays and Chanukah over the last couple of years.  Today she kept asking me if she could do chores so she could earn more money.  She tidied and vacuumed the family room for me, cleaned the big sliding glass door to the screen porch (filthy from the the dog and spring mud) and also cleaned through a big box of junk I had sitting around meaning to go through.  After much negotiation, she got $11 for her labors.  Alas, she went to see how much shipping cost and it was a whopping $105.00.  She was pretty upset for a while but now seems to have calmed down.  Funny, but the next day she was still in wanting to earn money mode, so she weeded the little veggie raised bed in preparation for our (potential) garden this year. (We'll see if I can get my act together to REALLY have a veggie patch this year.)
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I got Celebrate Calm cds from Kirk Martin.  I am really liking it so far.  I'll write a post just on it at some point soon.
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On Saturday, Josh and I mulched the parish grounds as part of the mulch sale fundraiser for the Teens upcoming workcamp this summer.  Hard work for us soft city folk!  Josh also had a 2 hour archery lesson with 4H.  Very cool.
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We are reading:  Dante's Inferno, Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes (such a great book!), Old Yeller (almost done!), David Copperfield, Saintly Solutions and The Bronze Bow.  Will is reading Candide by Voltaire and something else that he was going to tell me about but then didn't.  Or maybe I just didn't remember.  He is very into Project Gutenberg right now.

Highlights of the Week 2/13/11 - 2/19/11

This week Becky and Sean basically played all week.  We did no formal academic stuff.  Mostly we focused on:

Josh and Mom studying for and then taking the National Latin Exam on Wednesday.

Becky and Sean working on their 4H Contest Day stuff. Becky went to Art Class as usual on Tuesday.  Wed. afternoon she finished up her newsboy hat for her sewing project.  We had to do it over at the project leader's house as I am so hopeless at this stuff.  I'm really thinking of taking sewing lessons this summer just for me so I don't feel so clueless.  Sean worked a lot on his Illustrated Talk.  Here it is:

The Interactive Art of Videogames; Past, Present and Future

By Sean Roberts

Richard Wagner stated that the Greek Tragedy is the highest art, not because individually the music, writing or acting was ideal but because of the collaboration of the three.  In fact in most cases when most forms of art collaborate the individual lessens in value but together it’s something new.  This is why videogames could be high art.  So is it?

When you take a Greek tragedy no one  questions whether it is art.  So why is there a debate on whether or not videogames are?

Even the name videogame isn’t accurate anymore.  A game like Pong is merely a game.  I believe games stayed like that until 1985 when Nintendo introduced Super Mario Brothers.  It was no longer a game, it was an adventure.  It wasn’t exactly immersive but it took you there.

It still wasn’t art though. 

The early arcades:  they had pool and pinball and ping pong and that kind of thing.  Pinball was something new.  Not a sport.  The main focus is a ball but you are not holding, throwing, or making any contact with the ball whatsoever.  You are pressing buttons to make paddles hit the ball.  It’s the idea of a video game. It’s a transition.

The first video game that I consider to be art was released in 1986 – Metroid.  It was enjoyable but not fun in the same way as pinball.  It was immersive.  It created a new environment for you to explore – to be part of.  It wasn’t exactly Picasso but it was more than Pac-man. 

Video games balance three separate art forms:  storytelling, visual arts and music.  The perfect art game would use a balance among all three to create something that is both original and that has an atmosphere all its own.  A shared vision of different art forms.

a game that is not well balanced can still be good, but as a peace of music, or a story.

Not as a video game.

A recent game that exemplifies video games as art is Portal.  Portal tells a story like a work of literature, but the story is told in a new way – you discover it through your own immersion in the game.  It is like a work of performance art with you as one of the performers.  No other medium could tell Portal’s story as well as it is told and experienced through the interactive art form of video games. 

To be clear - not all video games are art.  Like a chair, most video games aren’t bought to be art, they are bought to be used.  But you can go to a museum and look at beautiful furniture that is truly art.  You can buy a video game as a game to entertain you.  But some of these games achieve a level of artistry. 

For the future, there are two key developments.  The first, is something called digital delivery.  This is a way for independent video game artists to offer their games directly to people.  One truly artistic game, World of Goo, was made by two artists who wrote it  in their spare time sitting in internet cafes over the course of a year.  Big game companies are looking for mass appeal, not art.  Digital delivery will allow people like me to find the starving artists of the video game world.

The second change is 3d.  Next week, Nintendo will release the 3DS, which will let you see and play in 3D without the need for 3D glasses.  This will give video game artists new tools to explore, like giving a painter a new color pallet.  In the right hands, 3D games might allow the artist to create a virtual window into another world.

Just like Wagner said Greek Tragedy was the highest form of art, videogames could also be.  They bring together different art forms, though the music itself wouldn’t be as good as the music of Beethoven or the writing wouldn’t be as good as a play by Shakespeare, as a whole they can be even better.

He also got into making little games in Basic on an old, old computer Rick had in storage.  This was pretty cool and even made a video of himself explaining the little game and how he made it.  I tried to get him to post the video on my blog but he really had no interest in doing this for me, so since it is his video and my blog, I gave up.  (But that's why this post is so late getting published!)

The weather got really beautiful toward the end of the week.  Becky and I took a nice long hike together through the little wilderness area behind our house.  We went to an area the kids have named the 'Deadlands"  It is really what I think they call bottomlands, a very low lying area, rather swampy and filled with streams. It floods regularly.  Great fun for a kid to explore though!

On Thursday Will and I met with someone from Berklee College of Music to chat about any questions Will and I might have.  It was very pleasant and reassuring.

Josh had his regular Biology and Latin classes.  We met with another student to discuss Church History.   Josh went off this weekend to help with the 8th grade Boys Confirmation retreat.  He left Friday evening and is due back Sunday at 4:00 p.m.

Becky freaked out about the 4H Fashion revue and at the last minute refused to go.  She also refuses to let me post a picture of the hat on this blog.  So sad because it really was a worthy first sewing project.  Anyway, just Rick and Sean went to Contest Day.  Rick said Sean's talk was great.  Sean said he was glad he did it and now he's glad it's over!  They didn't stay to find out if Sean won anything.  They were hungry they said and went to 5 Guys instead!

We've been reading either collectively or individually:   Saintly Solutions, The Bronze Bow, David Copperfield, Heidi, The Quiet Light, Harry Potter, The Red Pyramid, Old Yeller, Boxcar Children, Discworld, Moon Walking with Einstein and A Little Way of Homeschooling.

A Little Way of Homeschooling by Suzie Andres - Book 11

This book is lovely.  Suzie Andres is like the angel of unschooling for Catholics!  She has such a practical, humorous, profound and intelligent way of approaching the topic of unschooling.  I'll confess, I'm one of the contributors, so it might sound like I'm tooting my own horn, but really I'm just one little part of the beautiful mosaic that is this book!   I hadn't read any of the other chapters before receiving the book this past Friday.  I love the way Suzie incorporates the spirituality of the Little Flower into Catholic unschooling.  I loved reading all the different accounts of how these mothers embraced unschooling in their own families.  I have known these women on line for years but it was new and wonderful to read their stories in this book.  I loved Mike Aquilina's Forward and I especially loved Tony Andres' chapter entitled A Philosopher's Perspective.  The whole thing is such a joyful blessing!

Check out 52 Books in 52 Weeks.  If you are interested in this book, please support the small company that published it by going here.

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin - Book 10

Even though this week seemed very full and rather stressful, somehow I managed to read not one but three books!  Here's my second one of the week, a rather quick read.

Since it was St. Patrick's Day this past week, I thought I'd read this novel by a current Irish author.  My aunt had been given this book by a friend and she passed it on to me.  I found the author's writing style intriguing in that he wrote in such a simple, quiet way relating seemingly very ordinary things, yet somehow the story line seemed compelling.   The story is about a young Irish woman who emigrates to Brooklyn just after World War II.  She has a rather passive, naive personality which at first is fine but as the novel progressed I found her more and more irritating.  The author's style of plodding along stating mundane things in the same tone as things of greater import proved to keep me rather alienated from the main character, so that I never seemed to develop a lot of sympathy for her.  There is something very flat in the telling of the story and in the main character's personality. She seems spineless in that she only seems to do things in reaction to what others do to or for her.  The only thing she has any self-determination about is getting her certificate in bookkeeping.  In fact, her self-absorption grated on me.  At one point she's naively asking a clerk in a bookstore if the Nazis really did massacre the Jews.  She is totally clueless about anything outside her own little (very little) world.  She is completely self-centered, though she has a sweetness and reserve in dealing with others.    It seemed to me she simply couldn't form strong connections with others even the ones she loved.

 I was starting to warm up to her at one point when she is involve with her Italian boyfriend (who I liked much more than her!) but in the end, at the climax of the book, I decided she was a superficially 'nice' person with a wishy-wash personality so shallow that she was incapable of faithfulness, even to herself.

I closed the book in irritation at both the character and the author, for having such an odd and intriguing way of writing that kept me reading this basically nothing novel.  Rather a downer.

For more book reviews see 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Book 9 - The Quiet Light by Louis de Wohl

The Quiet Light  by Louis de Wohl is a novel about the great doctor of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas.  Actually it is as much about his family and the times he lived in as it is about the saint.  Thomas is just one of many characters in this book.  Most of the story is actually told from the point of view of Piers an English knight for the Aquino family.  Piers, I believe, is a fictional character.

The book opens with a monastery being taken over by the forces of Frederick Barbarossa, stupor mundi.  Frederick is a brilliant megalomaniac, a strange mixture of intelligence and cruelty.  He has alienated himself from the Church by doing all sorts of blasphemous and rebellious things, many of a military nature, and has been excommunicated by the Pope.  He conducts an ongoing feud with the Papal office which leads to civil war in Italy with city after city rising in rebellion against him.  In the midst of all this turmoil, the Aquino family tries to maintain their position of nobility.   Thomas' mother, a powerful character, is second cousin to Frederick and loyal to him until he goes too far.  His brothers, one a poet and one a soldier eventually switch sides and join the rebellion only to be imprisoned and eventually executed.  One of Thomas' sisters become a nun and then abbess.  His other two sisters marry.  At the end of the book Thomas has died and his one sister, who has been the love of Piers the knight's life, remains behind to contemplate Thomas's life.  Interwoven in all this are snippets of the familiar story of Thomas Aquinas, placed in the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino at the age of five, he grows up to attend the new University of Naples.  There he encounters the Dominicans and defying his mother's wishes, joins the new mendicant order.  His family is enraged and kidnaps him, holding him locked up in one of their various castles until a sister helps him escape.  They even try to seduce him by sending a prostitute into his room; a pretty funny scene in the book.  Thomas picks up a burning log from the fireplace and chases her out!   He goes on to study under St. Albert the Great, to write his magnum opus, The Summa Theologica, to out argue Islam and the Albigensian heresy as well as to successfully defend attacks against the Dominican order.

This novel is a page-turner, with exciting events happening constantly,full of  intriguing characters and noble knights, and it travels all over Italy, the Middle East and North Africa.  The two teens I read it with enjoyed it very much.

Two thumbs up!  To read more reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

A Sand County Almanac - Book 8

This isn't the edition I read.  Mine was an old, old paperback from the 1960's

Boy, am I getting way behind on the 52 Books in 52 Weeks!  I'm back to my old habit of starting books but not finishing them!  And they don't count in this challenge!

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold is considered one of the classics of nature writing.  Leopold is seen as the father of Wildlife Management in the U.S.  He died shortly after writing Sand County Almanac, ironically, while fighting a prairie fire on a neighbor's farm.  He writes about the prairie fires in the Almanac.

Leopold was born in Iowa in 1887, the son of German immigrants.  His love for nature began when he was very young and his father took him fishing and hunting.  He attended Yale and got a degree from Yale's Forest School.  He spent his life devoted to protecting nature.  He also taught at the University of Wisconsin.

Leopold is a beautiful writer.  He writes like a lover passionately composing poetry about his beloved.  The book is really a collection of essays.  The first part of the book is the 'Almanac' which takes one through the months and seasons on Leopold's farm in Wisconsin.  The second part of the book is various memoirs of different travels he had done in Mexico, New Mexico, Canada, etc.  Each sentence is so tightly crafted and evocative.  It's like he carefully chiseled his words out of stone.  The final part of the book is the one section that kind of lost my interest.  It is devoted to the science and economics of wildlife management.  He develops theories very eloquently but, alas, my life got a bit too hectic at that point.  I kept putting the book down and then taking it up again, not quite sure where I had left off.  Also, I kept wondering if what he was saying was dated now.  I know so little of the subject.  He wrote it in 1948 or before.  He seemed to have such a dismal view of our ability to save wild spaces that I  found myself thinking, but what about Yellowstone and Yosemite and the Appalachian Trail and all the other parks that abound everywhere.  I guess he might be one of the influences that allowed for so much land being set aside.  Although I think a lot of the parks had been established well before that.  So I can't say I ended the book satisfactorily, but I really think that was my fault and not the fault of this fine, eloquent and intense author.

I'm glad I 'met' Aldo Leopold.  He seems to me to have been a very admirable American.  One with great vision, passion and intelligence.

Highlights of the Week 3/6/11 - 3/12/11

• Becky and Sean both signed up for the Contest Day at 4H.  Sean is working on his Illustrated Talk entitled The Interactive Art of Videogames:  Past, Present and Future.  Becky is trying to finish sewing her hat!  We are going over to the project leader's house again today to try to finish it up.
• Becky and Sean were so into learning about how to give a proper presentation that for fun they both designed a new video game and then made accompanying illustrations.  Becky gave her presentation to anyone who would listen.  Sean demurred but he did show me what he wrote/drew, though not in presentation form.
• Josh had spring break from his Biology class.  Unfortunately he had to study for and retake that test he didn't do so well on.  We are also gearing up the National Latin Exam next week.  He and Sean went on a field trip with the 4H Alternative Energy Project Group.
• The boys all gave up screen for Lent.  Sean is bored out of his skull, Josh has taken to reading copiously. Not sure how Will is coping.  Becky decided not to give up anything but she is trying to pray more and be more obedient.  I've reduced screen time for me and I'm trying to give up complaining which is MUCH harder than I thought it would be.  (Wait, was that complaining?  One problem is I don't know when stating a negative fact about something is complaining!).
• We finally finished Discovering Music!  
• I started reading The Bronze Bow out loud to Becky and Sean.  I'm also reading parts of this book aloud.  Very worthwhile.
• My Aunt Jackie turned 88 this Friday.  Woot!  Poor thing, she had to spend the morning meeting with her endocrinologist because since her amputation and all the other medical crises she's been going through, her diabetes was really wacky.  Hopefully, on a new insulin regime things will go more smoothly.   I and my sisters all took her out to lovely restaurant I'd never been to before.
• Will's been doing lots of socializing since his friends are back on spring break.  He's also very into the subject of the brain and memory.  This was inspired by the program he got from CollegePlus.  Now he's reading a book about it.  He's also decided that like Dmitri Shostakovich, he will write his first symphony before he's 20.

Lenten Retreat

Today is Ash Wednesday.  During Lent, from now until Easter, I will not be posting here, except for Sundays.

Have a blessed Lent!

Journaling the Day 3/7/11

Life is crazy around here!  Really, really crazy!  And I just haven't be able to blog as consistently the last few days.  I thought today I'd just journal since I feel we are in such a 'swing' time right now because of changes.  Adjusting to them is taking a while.

This morning I woke the kids up at 8:30.  I'd been letting them sleep in but they were staying up later and later and sleeping later and later and it was becoming problematic.  So I decided moderation was in order.  Sean got up about 8 though and played on the computer.  Josh got up when I asked and promptly showered.   It took a full hour of going in and gently cajoling Becky before she got up.  She stayed up past midnight last night.  I got Will up too.  It took him a good hour and 1/2 to emerge.  I made everybody omelets for breakfast, except Josh because he doesn't really like eggs and Will because he came up from his room after I'd finished cooking.

I wanted to try to get back in the habit of doing a bit of our formal stuff, but Becky and Sean were not into it.  We did do a tiny bit of cursive (when I say tiny, I mean tiny!) and a little bit of Latin (maybe 10 minutes worth).  I made Becky two more of the cootie catchers for the 3 and 4 times tables.  She promptly misplaced the 4 x one.  Where it vanished to has yet to be determined.  Sean and Will did spend part of the morning playing the piano.  Becky and Sean played together quite a bit, mostly on Becky's walkie-talkies.  At some point Sean did a sudoku.

Josh did geometry at Khan Academy.  He learned about Heron's Formula.  He also started working on his biology test.  He took one on Friday and barely passed.  He simply didn't study for it nearly enough.  So the teacher said he could retake it.  So now he's studying.

Will, Sean, Becky and I ate lunch at Whole Foods and then did some grocery shopping.  Came home.  Sean and Becky wound up taking this measuring device (that contractors use to measure out feet and yards, like a yardstick that marks off as you walk?) and they walked from the house to the vegetable stand.  8,358 feet.  They also discovered that the walkie talkie range really just allows them to just go over the rise that divides our neighborhood from the other.  Josh and I worked on our Latin homework, during which I fell asleep.  This is happening more and more lately!  I need more sleep.  I really do.  Will was playing the piano a lot in the afternoon and he also filled out and delivered a job application with a local landscaping nursery.

Made chicken parmesan for dinner.  After dinner, Sean did some work on division at Khan Academy.  Josh and I took a practice National Latin Exam.

Read alouds:  I managed to read about 5 minutes worth of David Copperfield.  I don't think I've read it aloud for about 3 weeks now.  Rick finished the Percy Jackson book and now he's reading The Red Pyramid out loud to Sean and Becky.  I also read more Heidi aloud to Becky.  Josh and I are still reading Chesterton's St. Francis of Assisi, sloooowwwwllly.  Becky has been reading the first Boxcar Children's book.  I think she's on chapter 7 or 8.  Sean has been reading Old Yeller.

Wordless Wednesday 3/2/11

Hannah is in Athens right now.  I wish I was too!

(Source:  http://www.almiyachts.com/greek_islands/saronic/athens/athens_greece.html)

Getting ready for Lent

I've been sick since Friday.  I keep thinking I'm better and then I get a fever.  I had a miserable night.  It's 6:22 a.m. and I've been up since 3, too congested to sleep.

So I was thinking about Lent.  Isn't that what everyone thinks about in the wee morning hours when they're feverish???  I was thinking that because of my aunt's health crisis which started before Christmas, then her moving in, then me being sick here, my kids have gotten neglected.  I'm glad Lent's coming soon because it will give me a good excuse to recalibrate around here.  I think I'm going to give up 'screen' time, as we call here so that I can more time for prayer and for focusing on my family.  But since the internet/screen is complicated I have to think it through:

• I think I'll give up daily blogging.  I'll just blog on Sundays.  I think I'll focus on my 52 Books Challenge and posting highlights of the week.
• I can't give up e-mail because I need it to communicate but I'll only focus on business type stuff, like my homeschool group, 4H, AHG, family, etc.
• I'll still check in on facebook because I don't want to give up friends and family who are there, but I'll just allow myself a quick check up in the a.m. and p.m.
• I'll only post on one yahoolist, my unschoolingcatholics one.  That one is really the dearest to me and is a wellspring of support.   The ladies there are so faith-filled that it will enhance my Lenten journey rather than diminish it. But all the other yahoolists and TWTM are out (except Sundays, of course!)
• I won't play on my ipad unless I'm playing with another family member.  I tend to just play scrabble or solitaire by myself and it rather shuts me off from others.
• I'll only watch TV if it is a family event.