Saturday, April 7
6:20 am McLeans Ridges, NSW, Australia
12 C forecast high 28 C Sunny
A change, of sorts, in the forecast. It is both cooler this morning as well as hotter this afternoon, with no showers.
6:30 am Life
The last few days have been perfect. Very low key and very relaxing. My cough has almost disappeared. About time! The meals have been a delight. Very healthy salads with a mix of fruit, nuts, and green leafy veggies. Duck sausages were a new taste sensation and the chicken kebobs were another delicious treat. The New Zealand recipe book has been a rich source of ideas. I will order it as soon as we return home.
I am on my favorite spot at my favorite time. Early morning, with the sun rising in the east and morning mist in the valley below. At the moment there are 2 Laughing Kookaburras and a Currawong in the tree in front of me. The sun on one of the kookaburras is gorgeous as it makes the blue of the wings shine. So far they have been quiet. There is a dove cooing behind the house and other currowongs, magpies and butcherbirds raising a racket in the nearby trees. The freshly brewed coffee is hot and delicious. Magic all around. And now the sound of the Eastern Whipbird is beginning.
Lunch!
Fresh Prawns!
Goodies! Presentation is an art form at this house.
Desert!
Needless to say, we are living rather well.
5:20 PM Literature
Perlman: (chap. 2): This chapter introduces a second character to the story - Adam Zignelik. His background is quite complex and he often has nightmares about events that he has read or been told. His father was a lawyer in the American civil rights movement and there are some graphic sections of some of the early events. There were also descriptions of some mob activities as well as Lincoln's decision to draft men to fight in the civil war, and the riots that took place in New York.
Me: This is described in terms of specific details involving particular people - not in a generic overview - making this much more effective, and disturbing. How soon we forget. Real people were involved, and some of them were murdered, tortured, and lived in terror.
I have now read the first 4 chapters. This is a very powerful novel. I had high expectations for this book, and they have been exceeded. I definitely need to go back to chapter 2 and make more notes before continuing. There is a lot of detail about history that I want to get a better handle on. But already I suspect the implication is really about the future and that there is much that needs to be done, soon.
Perlman: (chap. 2): "... the character of the light would only add to the surreal quality his unconsciousness was spraying in a fine mist over his perception of the new and already fugitive day. [p. 19]
- 1861 - 1865 American Civil War over the emancipation of slaves.
- Emmett Till, 14, tortured and murdered in Chicago in August 1955 for speaking to a white woman.
- 1954 - The US Supreme Court in Brown versus Board of Education passed a law desegregating schools. Thurgood Marshall of the Supreme Court successfully argued for the end to segregation.
- Elizabeth Eckford, 15, was attacked by a mob in Little Rock, Arkansas in September 1957 while attempting to enter Central High School.
"Three years is a long time to hold your breath, right? Is it a long time to change the mentality of more than half the nation? Is it a long time to shift vested interests? Is it a long time to break down generations of fear? [p. 26 - 27]
"It [racism] can paralyse even good people. It can paralyze government. We have to fight that wherever we find it. That's what good people do." [p. 29]
- Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, Addie Mae Collins, all 14, and Denise McNair, 11 - all killed in Birmingham, Alabama when a bomb exploded in their church in September 1963.