Farewell, Meg Murry

It is 6am, and I write this with tears streaming down my cheeks as I've learned of the death of the brilliant writer Madelaine L'Engle, author of my favorite book, "A Wrinkle in Time." It will not have escaped discerning readers that this blog, Tesseractive Pictures, derives its name from that book and the tesseract that allows Meg and her baby brother Charles Wallace to time travel as they try to save their father. I remember myself as a child, arguing vehemently with my own father, an eminently practical engineer who had no use for science fiction or fantasy. I insisted that the idea of time as the fourth dimension, accessed by "wrinkling" time, was certainly true. It had to be. The way L'Engle wrote about it in the book was so logical and compelling, I was certain that it could be proven to be true (as indeed it still may be). And besides, Mrs. Whatsit said so.

The last time I cried over Madeleine L'Engle was eight years ago, when I was reading "A Wrinkle in Time" aloud to my daughter Jules, then a second grader. We got to the part at the end when Meg is steeling herself to take on the all-powerful IT, who has captured the brain of her beloved little brother, Charles Wallace. Meg knows she has to go, but is terribly afraid, as she cannot imagine how she can overcome his power. She is a crusty underachiever who is struggling with self-esteem issues - hardly the person who is likely to be a hero, and she knows it. The stubbornness that often infuriates the people who know Meg is an asset at this moment - she simply refuses to give up.

As I was reading, I started to cry. My daughter looked at me curiously. "Mommy, why are you crying so hard?" she asked.
"I am crying because I am being Meg, and she is very afraid," I replied, and kept on reading aloud and crying.

Meg gets closer and closer to the moment of truth, still not able to think of anything that she could possibly have that would defeat IT. "WAIT! I know...I KNOW!" Jules said excitedly. "It's LOVE." Which of course, made me break down in sobs.

The climax of the final Harry Potter book turns on this same realization, as Harry defeats Voldmort through the power of love. J.K. Rowling has been widely praised for creating a mythology based on a rich and nuanced presentation of the battle between good and evil, even touching occasionally on theology. I like this very much about her writing. But, Madeleine L'Engle did it first, and she did it better.

I once attended a reading by L'Engle, in the old Brentanos Bookstore, on Fifth Avenue. I perched on the edge of a bookcase in the children's section, behind the kids sprawled all over the floor, listening to her read from her latest story. When she finished reading she talked to the children about the process of writing, and described an incident that is quoted in today's NY Times obituary. She was in the habit of reading aloud to her son whatever she had written while he was at school each day. On this particular day, she was reading the chapter from "The Arm of the Starfish" in which the character Joshua dies. Her son started to cry, and insisted that she needed to go back and re-write it so that Joshua wouldn't die. She told him that she couldn't - "that was simply what had happened, and there was nothing I could do to change it."

L'Engle's writing had a searing, enduring impact on my way of thinking about myself, first as a young girl who was often as complicated and prickly as Meg, then as a woman and mother (Meg's mother, a beautiful scientist absent-mindedly cooking dinner on a bunson burner, has long been my idealized role model!). She also inspired me to continue to be a dreamer, a woman of faith, and to eventually become a writer. As I learn of her death, I thank her, once again, for these gifts.
Madeleine L'Engle - New York Times Obit

I have a dream that one day my four little children...will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I've been reading Martin Luther King this morning. I have a great little book, edited by his wife, of his most significant sermons and speeches, and make a habit of reading excerpts from it on his birthday each year. This year it brought to mind the wonderful book by Jim Wallis, called "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get it." He writes passionately about the place of spirituality in the public discourse, and holds up Martin Luther King as a shining example, fighting for African Americans' civil rights "with a Bible in one hand and the Constitution in the other." It is a book well worth reading.

Photo courtesy of Martin Luther King Jr. Institute at Stanford University.

Amazon.com: The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization

I've been re-reading Thomas L. Friedman's important book (well, actually, listening to Tom Friedman read from his important book on a long car trip that I took this week), and I'm receiving the ideas somewhat differently in the current world situation. Forcibly taking down the regime that controlled Iraq without a plan for dealing with the consequences of dissolving that system (no matter what Donald Rumsfled claims) has left us pinned down in a dense grove of olive trees. We're struggling to gain control of the situation without a sense of how our choices resonate in a deeply interconnected, globalized world where superempowered individuals can challenge our status. The days of the superpower are clearly waning. We can impose our might on a situation to a point. But the Super Markets (the bourses worldwide that now wield more power than governments) will ultimately decide whether we have been successful, and we are fueling the wrath of superempowered individuals who will easily be able to attract the loyalty of people who feel dehumanized by our myopic crusade. There is a whiff of greed about this whole undertaking, and we're not going to get away with it.

The Big Melt

The Big Melt

This is a time of year that makes me wish I could slough my skin entire, like a snake, just walk away from that old integument and step out new into the air. Humans thrive on the metaphors of rebirth and regeneration, and the trouble is that they're nearly always only metaphors. But it's the actuality of spring that overwhelms us. Every hour peels back another layer of snow and shrinks the dominion of ice. The ground gives, and the sap streams upward. The finches molt into their mating colors. I walk out among it all and find myself hoping to change with the season, too.
By VERLYN KLINKENBORG

The Pursuit of Liberty.....

The Patriot Act, passed in reaction to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, gives the FBI and other federal agencies broad new powers to track down suspected terrorists by demanding records of books sold from bookshops and borrowed from libraries. Previously, Federal agents needed a court order to ask for records of books purchased or borrowed by a specific individual believed to be a security risk. Under the Patriot Act, the FBI can make a general request for customer lists, so that they can see who is reading what. According to a study by the University of Illinois' Library Research Center, 11% of the public libraries in the United States have received a request for member borrowing records since September 11, 2001.

Generally, I think the privacy advocates get a little carried away. People who refuse to use EZ-Pass at highway toll booths because they don't want the government "knowing their movements" seem silly to me. If you're not breaking the law, you don't have anything to worry about. I like the convenience of using EZ-Pass on the highway, and don't worry about the fact that there is a record of my movement in a computer file somewhere.

However, the Patriot Act feels more invasive, in a scary way. I started thinking about what I'm reading right now. Hmmmm.....likely to be a problem if someone cared to look. There are three books on my bedside table. THE QUR'AN: AN INTRODUCTION, by Mohammed Abu-Hamdiyyah. Since I believe that we must engage in dialogue to try to solve the current schism between the Muslim world and the U.S., I am seeking understanding. THE TALE OF ONE BAD RAT, by Bryan Talbot - a graphic novel about a girl trying to come to terms with having been an incest victim. A partner and I are considering pitching an adaptation of this book as a youth-oriented film. SMALL WONDER: ESSAYS, by Barbara Kingsolver - many of these pieces were written in response to the events of September 11, and focus on the growing social and economic inequities that she feels contributed to these events. Heck, I subscribe to a daily emailed devotional from www.bruderhof.com, who would technically be considered a "religious sect," if one was looking for a suspicious pattern.

U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders (Indep-Vt.) has filed a bill in the House of Representatives called the Freedom to Read Protection Act. It would restore the requirement for federal agents to produce a specific warrent at to bookstores and libraries. Sanders' bill would also require government agencies to report to Congress regularly on how many bookstores and libraries have been subjected to searches for records and what the searches have yielded that has actually reduced the threat of terrorism. I'm certainly going to let Sue Kelly, my congresswoman, know that I'd like her to vote YES on this bill!

I'VE BEEN READING.....

Amazon.com: Editorial Reviews: If a Place Can Make You Cry: Dispatches from an Anxious State
Could it be that there is something so subtle, so magical, so intoxicating-and so dangerous-about this land that it leads parents to willingly sacrifice their children?

In 1998 Rabbi Gordis accepted a one-year sabbatical in Jerusalem, moving his wife and three children from Los Angeles. When they arrived, there was great hope in Israel that a lasting peace was finally being achieved. Things quickly deteriorated, however, and they found themselves (and their children) living in the middle of escalating violence. Amazingly, they decided to stay - they realized that they had never felt such a sense of "home" anywhere. And, despite the danger, they were captivated by the experience of living in the Jewish homeland. Gordis is a moderate - uncomfortable with the Zionist views his children are learning at school, and volunteering in Palestinian refugee camps. His voice is clear and honest, and presents a fresh point of view. I came away with a much clearer understanding of how complex the situation in Israel really is. We hear so many voices dictating "what the Israelis must do" or "what Arafat must do" to achieve peace. Seeing life through Gordis's eyes, it will never seem quite so cut and dry again. This book is a very readable way to dig for a deeper understanding of the current situation without being subjected to the rigid rhetoric that's so often present from both sides of the conflict.

My daughter Julia gave me this book for Christmas. She did the research on amazon.com and decided this was something I would be interested in. She was right. I was captivated.