tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58704865884791438952024-03-13T20:31:42.689-07:00Musings of a MadCityWriterA blog about books (mine and others)...perspectives on American culture (from my own POV and no other's)...and reflections on life in general.Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-64171746853516851712015-10-28T11:30:00.001-07:002016-01-17T15:27:18.461-08:00Finding Your Way Forward With a Life Coach<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">As I approached my retirement after 40 years of teaching, I found my head spinning with all the possibilities, worries, fears, and questions that come with a major life change. I turned to my friend, <a href="http://www.familylifecoachingmatters.com/" target="_blank">Mary Aleckson, a Life Coach</a>. And to my amazement, in just a couple of sessions she helped me corral and organize my thoughts, prioritize my needs and wants, and envision my own path forward, addressing both personal and creative goals. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">I had never used a Life Coach before and was intrigued by the profession. So I asked Mary some questions about her role as a Life Coach via email. Here is what she said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">What exactly does a Life Coach do?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mary: The simple answer is we coach! If you take the word “coach”, you might think of a “carriage”. A carriage takes you to a place you wish to go and so does a Life Coach. We develop powerful partnerships with our clients to help them design their future. We do this by asking powerful questions which get our clients thinking. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s not therapy or advice giving, so we talk about present situations and ask where they want to go in terms of dreams and goals. We use an array of tools such as the wheel of life, metaphors, new perspectives, value clarification and more. These tools help to create new awareness which can benefit our lives and make it more fulfilling. We are trained and devoted to guiding others into increased competency, commitment and confidence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">What drew you to this type of coaching?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mary: I am an educator with lay counseling and crisis intervention experience. I am always looking for new ways to be a resource for my family and friends. Training to be a life coach seemed like a natural evolutionary tool to add to my educational repertoire. After doing the research, I enrolled in the UW Dept. of Continuing Studies PLCC (Professional Life Coaching Certification) program. It was a nine month, highly rigorous programs which expertly prepares us as a trained Coach. Personally I was looking for a career which would provide flexibility to my schedule. I am hoping to coach for the rest of my life, I love it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Have you ever been coached yourself? If so, what was that experience like?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mary: Funny you should ask. It was a requirement for PLCC. My coach, Pam, was from Phoenix Arizona. She was also certified in mentor coaching so she was able to give me advice on starting a business, as well as personal goals. We spent quite a bit of time in class coaching our cohorts, too. In class we were free to discuss our coaching topics as long as we sought permission from each other. Otherwise, we learned that what we coach on is always confidential and will not be discussed with others. Being coached can sometimes create new awareness, which can be uncomfortable at times, but ultimately provides personal growth, which makes us a better and more productive person. It is important to experience what it felt like to be coached while learning the art of coaching.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">What is your biggest challenge in coaching?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mary: I had many challenges. My background is teaching, tutoring, lay counseling and a person willing to give advice or guidance on any topic at any time to any person. I love to do research and I read a lot, and folks would call me up for advice all the time. This included looking for jobs for them. I love it! Coaching, on the other hand, takes a different approach. We hold our clients to be creative, capable, and confident, and in charge of their own lives. So what this meant for me was that I had to learn to remain silent and ask questions and be a better listener. And trust the client will come to their own conclusions and direction in their own lives. As a teacher, I always had a good life lesson narrative to share, so I needed to learn it is not about me and my life lessons, but my clients. This challenge took some time to learn for me, but I think I got it now.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">What has surprised or perhaps delighted you most as a coach?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mary: Initially I thought it would be a wonderful trait to help others be more satisfied in their lives, but what truly surprised me was just how effective life coaching really is! Part of the requirement in class was to coach at least 50 hours for practice. I was delighted to know so many family and friends trusted me to coach them. Amazingly, it turned out to very beneficial for them and they said coaching really helped and some clients volunteered to write complimentary testimonials for my website, which I appreciated. Coaching is about growth and change, so I was happy the PLCC program did such a nice job of training us to help make that happen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">I understand you are doing some pro bono (free) coaching. Talk about that for a bit, please.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mary: There is a group of women from Indiana who came together to create a national program to help women wanting/needing coaching but couldn’t afford it. It’s called <a href="http://women4changecc.org/" target="_blank">Women for Change</a>. It’s a win-win situation. They screen the women and match them to a coach. I have just been matched with a young woman from Texas. I will coach her for 12 weeks [for free]. This opportunity keeps me in the loop, plus it counts as paid coaching hours which I need for higher certification from the International Coaching Federation. W4C3 also provides free workshops for me so I can continue to receive CEUs. Since most coaching is over the telephone, I have the opportunity to coach folks from all over America. Not to mention I feel it is a very valuable cause to help others in need.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">What should people know or think about before hiring a coach or going to their first coaching session?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mary: People should know that coaching really works. They should keep in mind it is not therapy. It is about where they are and where they want to be. I would tell them to be excited about coaching because it works. So if they are not ready to grow, or make a change, then it’s not for them. But if they feel stuck and would like to make a change, coaching gives them the ability to create new perspectives and awareness. The coach provides the technique and the environment to make it successful. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They should know that coaching is totally confidential, nothing is discussed with anyone else. Since Life Coaching is about the individual, they can be coached on work, career, anything personal, health issues, relationships, or really anything. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Expect the coach to use tools like the wheel of life, metaphors, values and value conflicts, or new perspectives. Most coaching takes place over the phone, so it is convenient. The first session is about designing our time together and what that will look like. And we suggest you come with some goals in mind. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The coaching session usually runs from 30 to 60 minutes. Coaching can be once a week, every other week, or even once a month. I coached a young woman who “got it” after one session. I was happy for her.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">What advice do you have for someone who might like to become a Life Coach?</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mary: Well, I don’t give advice (wink) but in my opinion if someone wishes to expand who they are personally and achieve their own goals, becoming a life coach can only make your life better and more enriched. Many folks in Human Resource find coaching enhances their departments. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As far as starting a business, recognize that embarking on a new profession can take time, but with tenacity and patience (and a good coach) anything is possible. We are often advised to find a niche, as well, even though we are trained to coach any person and topic. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since my background is in Education, I created a coaching website addressing families experiencing learning, health, or emotional challenges, in themselves or their children called, <a href="http://www.familylifecoachingmatters.com/" target="_blank">Family Life Coaching Matters</a> I also created a niche website called, <a href="http://www.familylifecoachingmatters.com/" target="_blank">Second Life Coach</a>. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If wanting more information the <a href="http://continuingstudies.wisc.edu/professional-life-coaching" target="_blank">University of Wisconsin Department of Continuing Studies PLCC</a> website is a good place to start. They are ACTP certified which means they meet all the requirements for an excellent program through the ICF. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I would also recommend trying a coach first to see what it is all about. I offer a free coaching sample session for anyone interested in trying it out. Trust me you’ll love it! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">~ My thanks to Mary Aleckson for sharing her insights about the benefits of working with a Life Coach. If you've had a helpful experience with a Life Coach, please share with us in the comments.</span><br />
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Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-89053747716496605762015-09-25T11:07:00.002-07:002015-12-22T09:46:53.482-08:005 Things I Bet You Didn’t Know About Pope Francis<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Pope Francis, Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, has been causing quite a stir this week with his visit to the U.S. cities of Washington D.C., New York, and Philadelphia. Throngs of people have turned out to greet him, listen to him speak, or attend Mass celebrated by him. The 24-hour news media have provided pope coverage 24 hours a day during his visit. U.S. political leaders invited him to address a joint session of Congress, and today he gave a speech to the U.N. General Assembly. Many of this country and the world's most powerful have gone to great lengths to shake his hand. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">And he, Pope Francis, in his usual humble way, has turned his attention during this U.S. visit to the poor, the homeless, the imprisoned. His message has been one of love, forgiveness, acceptance, and the need to care for the planet which God gave us to live on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Most people know that he is the first pope to be born in the Americas; He is Argentinian, born in Buenos Aires. His birth name, which he used up until he became pope in 2013, is <span style="background: white;">Jorge Mario Bergoglio.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">You might have even heard that he is the first pope in 110 years who refuses to live in the Vatican’s grandiose <span style="background: white;">Apostolic Palace.</span> Instead, he lives in a simple apartment <span style="background: white;">in the Vatican guesthouse, the Domus Sanctae Marthae, (St. Martha’s House), on the edge of Vatican City. He has apparently said that he doesn’t like being isolated and he enjoys daily contact with ordinary people, which these more humble quarters allow. </span></span><span style="background-color: white;">And of course, he refuses to ride in limousines, preferring instead his favorite used Fiat while in Rome and a modified Jeep Wrangler Popemobile for his U.S. visit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><b>5 Interesting Facts About Pope Francis</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Much is already known about this very public man, but there may be some things you hadn’t heard. For instance,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">1) Pope Francis has nine Twitter accounts! Each is in a different language. His English language <a href="https://twitter.com/Pontifex" target="_blank">Twitter account</a> has 7.34 million followers </span>(as of this posting). Worldwide his number of followers is second only to that of U.S. President Barack Obama with somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 million global followers. However, with an average of 9, 929 retweets-per-tweet, he is considered the most influential tweeter on the planet. </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">2) Pope Francis once held a job as nightclub bouncer. Obviously, this was before he joined the priesthood. He also worked as a janitor, sweeping floors, and as a chemical technician which is what he studied in college before he got his advanced degrees in philosophy and theology.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QO_nVcQuSms/VgWKPAFX3-I/AAAAAAAABCU/RiGXCEiTfdM/s1600/Tango.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QO_nVcQuSms/VgWKPAFX3-I/AAAAAAAABCU/RiGXCEiTfdM/s200/Tango.png" width="140" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">3) <span style="font-family: inherit;">You can probably guess that Pope Francis is a soccer fan—a HUGE soccer fan by his own account. He has been a lifelong, passionate supporter of <span style="background: white;">Argentina’s<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_2069888757"></span>San Lorenzo<b> </b>football team<span id="goog_2069888758"></span></a>. He has said that his love for that particular sport and team <span style="font-family: inherit;">is </span></span></span></span><span style="background: white; color: #282828; font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%;">"part of my cultural identity." </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But you might not know that another part of his cultural identity is that he used to dance the Tango! He has admitted to a biographer that he “loves tango” and that there was a certain young woman that he used to share his love of tango with.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">4) It might not surprise you to learn that when Francis, then Jorge, was promoted to Cardinal in 2001 he asked those who supported him in Argentina not to come to Rome to attend the ceremony, but instead to take the money they would have spent on the journey and donate it to the poor. Nor to learn that in 2005 he supposedly came in second in behind Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was then elected Pope Benedict XVI upon the death of John Paul II. However, did you know that Pope Francis’ mother did not want him to become a priest in the first place? According to Francis, she eventually acquiesced and even asked for his blessing once he was ordained. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XfkrUbhbKJU/VgWHY2wORHI/AAAAAAAABCA/wfWGC_4EDBU/s1600/Pope%2BFrancis%2BHarley%2BCatholic%2BNews%2BService.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XfkrUbhbKJU/VgWHY2wORHI/AAAAAAAABCA/wfWGC_4EDBU/s200/Pope%2BFrancis%2BHarley%2BCatholic%2BNews%2BService.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: inherit;">Both cycles—a Dyna Super Glide and a Heritage Softail Classic—along with a leather Harley
Davidson jacket signed by Pope Francis—were sold at
auction, with the Dyna Super Glide fetching around $327,000 in 2014. One
lucky rider managed to snag the Softail Classic for a bargain price of $67,700
a year later. The leather jacket? Reports are that it was snatched up for
somewhere in the neighborhood of $80,000. All proceed went to the Pope’s favorite
soup kitchen charity in Rome.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There are no
reports of Francis having ridden either of the Hogs, but c’mon! A
soccer-loving, tango-dancing former nightclub bouncer who defied his mother and
refuses to ride in limousines? Can’t you just picture it? Sneakin’ out after
dark… shrugging on the leather jacket…v-room v-room…!</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What goodies have you heard about this popular Pope? Post your comments here. I just love hearing about this man!</span></span><br />
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Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-86390393173044391942015-07-08T10:50:00.001-07:002016-01-17T15:28:21.783-08:00Discovering Maria Popova's Brain Pickings<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I
have recently retired from forty years of teaching. It was a rewarding forty years, and I have to admit my job defined me. Most people look at retirement as the ending
of something, but I see it as the opportunity to embrace something new in my life. I don’t
expect to stop teaching. At some point, after the wonder of having whole days
to do nothing or to do whatever I want, I expect to either tutor, find a part-time
job, or volunteer as a teacher. Teaching
is a skill set I have no intention of letting go of.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">But
I am also an avid learner and a writer. So, three weeks ago I took a deep
breath and stepped away from my teacher desk, walked out the door of my school,
and took the plunge into the next adventure in life. I’m still figuring out
what shape that adventure will take, but poking around, I have come across some
interesting guideposts. One of those guideposts is by a
blogger I have only just discovered: her name is Maria Popova and her blog is
called <a href="http://www.brainpickings.org/" target="_blank"><i>Brain Pickings</i>. </a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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what I gather, Ms. Popova contacted a few friends in 2006 announcing her intention
to start “a weekly digest featuring five stimulating things to learn about each
week.” Apparently her <i>Brain Pickings</i>
became so popular that her readership grew from the few friends to over a
million readers from all over the world. I, of course, am generally late to the
party, so it looks like I have nine years of <i>Brain Pickings</i> to catch up on. But I look forward to exploring </span>Ms. Popova<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">’s backposts. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">What
first caught my attention, however, was an entry from October of 2013 titled, “<a href="http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/10/23/7-lessons-from-7-years/" target="_blank">7 Things I Learned in 7 Years of Reading, Writing, and Living</a>.” In this short
essay, </span>Ms. Popova<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> explained that she is often <span style="background: white;">asked
to offer advice to young people who are just beginning their own voyages of
self-discovery, or to “those reorienting their calling at any stage of life.” That
would be me! And while she doesn’t like to use the word “advice” she does
offer these seven tidbits of “learning.” Here they are in the short version:</span></span></span></div>
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<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Allow yourself the uncomfortable
luxury of changing your mind.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Do nothing for prestige or status
or money or approval alone.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Be generous.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Build pockets of stillness into
your life.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">When people try to tell you who</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></span><em style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">you</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">are, don’t believe them.</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Presence is far more intricate and
rewarding an art than productivity</span></span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Expect anything worthwhile to take a long time.</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Of course, she
expands on each of the above and gives credit where credit is due. I recommend
you read her <a href="http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/10/23/7-lessons-from-7-years/" target="_blank">entire post</a> for yourself. But
when I think about the people in my circle that I admire the most, they
seemingly embrace (likely naturally) most if not all of these precepts and live their lives being generous, being present, willing to work on
their passions over the long haul, and do it for satisfaction rather than
prestige, status, or money (most of which they attain regardless). I’d love to say these seven tidbits of
learning are the mantra I live by, but I have to admit that they are only what I
<i>strive</i> for. But striving is good, right?</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Maria</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span>Popova <span style="line-height: 115%;">also lists her seven favorite </span><i style="line-height: 115%;">Brain
Pickings</i><span style="line-height: 115%;"> posts, which provide a good starting point for exploring her blog,
the first of which is the intriguing sounding “</span><span style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; padding: 0in;"><a href="http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/08/12/on-looking-eleven-walks-with-expert-eyes/" target="_blank">The Art of Looking: What 11Experts Teach Us about Seeing Our Familiar City Block with New Eyes</a>.” <b> </b>I am off to read that one. Perhaps you will, too?</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let me know in the comments if you find one or more of her posts that particulary speak to you. I'd love to hear from you!</span><br />
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<span style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%; padding: 0in;"><br /></span>Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-62246943154988920042015-04-25T11:25:00.004-07:002015-12-22T09:43:35.321-08:00Can Mindfulness Rewire the Brain to Cause Kindness, Compassion, and Ease?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The
Dalai Lama issued neuroscientist Richard Davidson of the University of
Wisconsin-Madison a challenge: instead of spending so much time studying
conditions like fear, depression, and anxiety, why not apply your rigorous
scientific methodology to studying the qualities of kindness and compassion? That
was in 1992, and <a href="http://richardjdavidson.com/biography/" target="_blank">Dr. Davidson</a> has been doing just that ever since. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QYhZaqCmIQs/VTsIm7SxuZI/AAAAAAAAA_o/HIcmy55IG50/s1600/DavidsonDalaiLama.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QYhZaqCmIQs/VTsIm7SxuZI/AAAAAAAAA_o/HIcmy55IG50/s400/DavidsonDalaiLama.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">One
manifestation of Dr. Davidson’s work is the mindfulness training going on in
schools like <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/23/teaching-kindness-in-school_n_6926870.html" target="_blank">Glenn Stephens Elementary</a>, here in Madison where I currently teach. Our 4K classes have been learning the power of empathy and kindness through
mindfulness as part of their social emotional curriculum; and our fifth graders
and their teachers are learning mindfulness techniques as well. Both
experiences are part of larger research studies being conducted by the <a href="http://www.investigatinghealthyminds.org/" target="_blank">UW's Center for Investigating Healthy Minds</a>, founded and headed by Dr. Davidson.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This
week I was invited to watch and discuss an incredible documentary on the power
of mindfulness meditation (thank you, Marci of <a href="http://mybackyardyoga.com/" target="_blank">Backyard Yoga</a>!) called <i><a href="http://danishdocumentary.com/site/freethemind/" target="_blank">Free the Mind: Can You Rewire the Brain Just by Taking a Breath?</a></i> The
film traces two unique research projects at the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds. In one a group of veterans, all
suffering from PTSD, went through an intensive meditation training program. The
purpose of the training was to attempt to rewire their brains so that they could reduce the amount of daily trauma they were suffering. The research methodology was
rigorous, using MRIs, attitude inventories, and other methods of documenting and
analyzing emotional and physical changes in the men. A corollary project was
going on in the Waisman Center’s preschool program. The children participated
in compassion meditation training.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-icdWDKCCuUc/VTsHYW9ZdtI/AAAAAAAAA_Y/AVmBdLj9uyY/s1600/FreeTheMind.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="155" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-icdWDKCCuUc/VTsHYW9ZdtI/AAAAAAAAA_Y/AVmBdLj9uyY/s320/FreeTheMind.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The
focus of the film was on two Iraq war veterans suffering from PTSD and a five
year old suffering from ADHD and extreme anxiety. One of the veterans had witnessed
unforgettable horrors during the war including when one of his buddies had all
four limbs blown off. The other had been an intelligence officer and
interrogator and suffered immense guilt over what he’d done to others. </span>The five
year old had many manifestations of his anxiety, but the most visible and heart
wrenching was his deep fear of elevators. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The men made measurable improvement
in their ability to deal with their PTSD in just seven days, with residual
effects in the months afterward. The film ended with the little boy getting onto
the Center’s elevator with a group of his classmates—although not without
trepidation—and riding to the sixth floor to look out the window from that
height.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I’ve
been reading a lot about the success various schools have been having with
meditation techniques such as Transcendental Meditation. Celebrities like Anderson Cooper and Jerry Seinfeld have reported on how learning meditation
changed their lives. The technique used
by Dr. Davidson and the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds is called “<a href="http://www.mindful.org/" target="_blank">mindfulness</a>.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eQzJeCIvRGg/VTsHkpv8AHI/AAAAAAAAA_g/v4XCsNnSRxE/s1600/DavidsonBook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eQzJeCIvRGg/VTsHkpv8AHI/AAAAAAAAA_g/v4XCsNnSRxE/s320/DavidsonBook.jpg" width="200" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Dr.
Davidson is quoted on the movie’s website as saying, “We actually have no idea
of how conscious experience arises from this blob of matter that weighs three
pounds. It’s really still very much a mystery.” And, "The brain is the most complicated organ in the universe...we're just beginning this journey [of discovering how it works]." Watch for more posts on this subject as I begin to
explore my own mindfulness and the work of people like Dr. Richard Davidson.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">If
you’d like to read more this topic, try these titles:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452298881/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0452298881&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=XUAZHQJCZEUUIW7J" target="_blank">TheEmotional Life of Your Brain</a></i> by Richard J. Davidson & Sharon Begley</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>T<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1608829928/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1608829928&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=MYVWBQGKPAZ3HCXO" target="_blank">heMind’s Own Physician: A Scientific Dialogue with the Dalai Lama on the HealingPower of Meditation</a></i> edited by Jon Kabat-Zinn & Richard J. Davidson</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005H7UGFA/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B005H7UGFA&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=5X4ASQDFTE7T6C3I" target="_blank">TheArt of Happiness: A Handbook for Living</a></i> by the Dalai Lama</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Read about my experience when the <a href="http://madcitywriter.blogspot.com/2013/05/dalai-lama-teaches-about-happiness-in.html" target="_blank">Dalai Lama came to Madison</a>.</span></div>
Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-83369771754500458712015-04-15T20:00:00.001-07:002016-01-17T15:29:12.549-08:00Wisconsin Film Festival Features Peter Anton in "Almost There" Documentary<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iLZQr9DRR4s/VSyKgB90_UI/AAAAAAAAA_E/GalfBORwvAw/s1600/wff-screen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iLZQr9DRR4s/VSyKgB90_UI/AAAAAAAAA_E/GalfBORwvAw/s1600/wff-screen.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">One
of the jewels of the Madison cultural scene is the <a href="http://www.wifilmfest.org/" target="_blank">Wisconsin Film Festival</a>.
This year’s 150 films are spread throughout seven theaters over a span of eight
days. Run largely by the grace of a huge
volunteer force (headed up by a relatively small paid staff), the festival prides
itself on its diverse offerings from a wide variety of international fair to “Wisconsin’s
Own” offerings, from student films to a recently discovered Orson Welles film.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This
year my husband Mark and I lucked into a couple of tickets (thanks, Stan and
Theresa!) to the festival’s showcase documentary, <i><a href="https://www.kartemquin.com/films/almost-there" target="_blank">Almost There</a></i>. Described as a
“coming-of-(old)-age story,” the film traces the discovery of 83 year old “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsider_art" target="_blank">outsider</a>” artist Peter Anton who was found
living in isolated squalor in East Chicago, Indiana. At times
hard to watch, the film takes the viewer on an emotional journey as Anton’s first
chance at artistic recognition is brought low by a potentially sordid discovery about his past. But this particular tortured artist ultimately demonstrates his resiliency and this particular audience member (me) was left with a sense of awe and wonder at how his life turns out. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zrDXHkVM8mQ/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/zrDXHkVM8mQ?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The
film probes many facets of the human experience: creative obsession, mental
illness, the heroic if unappreciated willingess of individuals to step up and try to make a difference in another person's life, and so much more that you have to see it to get it.
What I was amazed by was the way in which Anton, irrascible and often demanding, drew people to him. From the little girl who cleaned up his pastels at the Pierogi Festival to the neighbors and social workers who made sure he had a place to live and food to eat, people constantly looked beyond his scabbed face and unkempt hair and clothes to the inner man. While
some might say he used those who reached out to help him, in the end he gave as
much as he took in terms of lifting others up. There were just an
incredible number of layers to this film. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>Almost There</i> was co-produced and co-directed by Chicago filmmakers <a href="http://www.kartemquin.com/about/dan-rybicky" target="_blank">Dan Rybicky</a> and <a href="https://kartemquin.com/about/aaron-wickenden" target="_blank">Aaron Wickenden</a> who were just
as repelled by and drawn in to Anton’s life as the people they interviewed
and featured in the documentary. Their ability to take eight years worth of footage and tell a difficult yet compelling story with honesty, focus, and the unexpected twists and turns of life makes the film Oscar quality in this reviewer's opinion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">For
those who find in-depth studies of humanity on the personal level to be as fascinating as I do, I
highly recommend this film if it screens anywhere near you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-70380771166947618182015-03-03T17:46:00.001-08:002016-01-17T15:29:37.354-08:00Unravelling Shakespeare<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Last
night I had the opportunity to attend a production of Shakespeare’s <i>Twelfth Night, or What You Will</i>,
produced by the <a href="http://www.strollerstheatre.org/" target="_blank">Strollers Theatre</a> company which performs in the <a href="http://bartelltheatre.org/" target="_blank">Bartell Theatre</a>
here in Madison, Wisconsin (thank you, Project Famous, for the complementary
tickets!). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UuD2Ac_xXuM/VPUkwvjL-eI/AAAAAAAAA-M/KQ5cuutH_2A/s1600/Shakespeare.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UuD2Ac_xXuM/VPUkwvjL-eI/AAAAAAAAA-M/KQ5cuutH_2A/s1600/Shakespeare.jpg" width="123" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The
play, under the direction of Greg Harris, uses the traditional Shakespearean
script but takes place in present day with modern (or maybe a bit retro) set
design and costuming. While I’ve seen a
number of Shakespeare plays produced live or on the big screen, I have to admit
up front that I am no scholar of the Elizabethan era bard. And in fact, if I
hadn’t quickly Googled <i>Twelfth Night</i> just
before the lights went down and the curtain opened and read the Wikipedia
entry, I would have been totally lost as far as the storyline goes, despite the
fact that the acting was dynamic enough to keep the audience engaged regardless
of whether we (meaning me) understood the plot or not.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><b>Who Wrote Shakespeare's Plays?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Shakespeare
is a unique beast in the literary world. The grand master of complex plots, he
seems to have generated quite a controversy over who actually penned all those
iconic plays. Were they written by the man whose gravestone carries the name
William Shakespeare? Or were they, in fact, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespeare_authorship_question" target="_blank">written by someone else</a>…or perhaps
several someone elses? </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> I had seen a documentary on PBS a number of
years ago that made a convincing case for the ghost writer to have been
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Marlowe" target="_blank">Christopher Marlowe</a>. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Other top contenders appear to be Sir Francis Bacon,
Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, and more recently two different women,
Mary Sidney and Amelia Bassano (who at one point had an affair with Christopher
Marlowe—ah, dear reader, the plot thickens!) among many others.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">For
those who love a good literary mystery, here are few titles about the
authorship of the Shakespearean plays to get you started:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<ul>
<li><span class="a-size-large" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416541632/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1416541632&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=QNQ6BCLX2KQ3S5FX" target="_blank">Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?</a> </i></span><span class="a-size-large" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">by James Shapiro (2010)</span></li>
<li><span class="a-size-large" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1463671873/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1463671873&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=RTQLXBJ3LYKPWEAH" target="_blank">Sweet Swan of Avon: Did a Woman Write Shakespeare?</a></span></i></span><span class="a-size-large" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> by
Robin P. Williams (2011)</span></span></li>
<li><span class="a-size-large" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1445621606/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1445621606&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=ELZO62K5DNXMEXDJ" target="_blank">The Dark Lady: The Woman Who Wrote Shakespeare'sPlays</a> </span></i></span><span class="a-size-large" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">by John Hudson (2014)</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0313361770/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0313361770&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=JEEADASDLELS76YF%22%3EThe%20Case%20for%20Shakespeare:%20The%20End%20of%20the%20Authorship%20Question%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0313361770" target="_blank">The Case for Shakespeare: The End of the AuthorshipQuestion</a> </span></i><span style="color: #111111;">by Scott McCrea (2005)</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span></span><br />
<div style="background: white; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><b>Understanding Shakespeare's Plays</b></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">
</span></span>
<br />
<div style="background: white; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">
But if you are less concerned with all the
controversy surrounding who actually wrote the plays you were forced to study
in high school, but just want to understand what they are all about, you might
turn to the PBS series <i><a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/shakespeare-uncovered/" target="_blank">Shakespeare Uncovered</a>. </i></span></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PHD6EY6/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00PHD6EY6&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=RTPNYPRRG2LHUMHE%22%3EShakespeare%20Uncovered:%20Series%202%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00PHD6EY6" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JUx_bwD4_0k/VPUWph7jsKI/AAAAAAAAA98/Jpop3Vux-fg/s1600/Shakespeare%2BUncovered.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><br /></i><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">This series uses a variety of popular actors to walk
the viewer through the plots, subplots, characters, and themes of the most
popular of Shakespeare’s plays. Joseph
Fiennes, who first caught my eye in <i>Shakespeare
in Love</i>, narrates <i>Romeo & Juliet;
</i>Morgan Freeman tackles, <i>The Taming of
the Shrew</i>; and Kim Cattrall helps us understand the motivations in <i>Anthony and Cleopatra</i>. As of this writing, these and others in <i>Shakespeare Uncovered Series II</i> are
available in full episodes on the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/shakespeare-uncovered/" target="_blank">PBS website</a>. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B1E6EAY/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00B1E6EAY&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=PIQZBJDIOJYIAJ5P" target="_blank"><i>Shakespeare Uncovered</i> <i>Series I</i>,</a> which focuses on <i>Hamlet, Macbeth</i>, and <i>Henry the V</i>, among others, is available
on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B1E6EAY/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00B1E6EAY&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=R5UXGAJ75USVCFR3" target="_blank">DVD through Amazon</a>. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">What I like about this series is that each episode
always begins by taking the viewer back to the Globe Theatre in London, but
includes clips from a variety of theatrical productions as well as from popular
movies based on the various plays. </span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Shakespeare does not make for easy reading or easy
viewing. But when you think about the fact that this body of work was written
(by whomever) over 400 years ago and are still being produced today, it’s
really quite amazing. The themes in his plays are so universal that writers
often adapt them to <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/louispeitzman/movies-you-might-not-know-were-based-on-shakespeare-plays#.smMmrkxO6" target="_blank">modern storytelling</a>, as found in movies as diverse as <i>West Side Story </i>(<i>Romeo and Juliet</i>), <i>Ten Things I Hate About You</i> (<i>Taming of the Shrew</i>), <i>She’s the Man</i> (<i>Twelfth </i>Night) and <i>The Lion
King</i> (<i>Hamlet</i>) .</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #111111; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">A playwright who is as popular as ever 400 years
later… I wonder how many of today’s writers will have that kind of legacy? </span></span></div>
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Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-45761959382370387792014-12-27T10:54:00.001-08:002015-12-22T09:47:31.938-08:00Heroes to Me: Ferguson Public Library<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009NSCRQ/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0009NSCRQ&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=QMQLJVW7JS2CCBUM" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FNFHW2dZv0c/VJ7_RVnUSQI/AAAAAAAAA8E/5MVzUfdMTys/s1600/Librarians.jpg" width="135" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I
got a kick out of the advertisements this week for the TNT show <i><a href="http://www.tntdrama.com/shows/the-librarians.html" target="_blank">The Librarians</a></i>, featuring young librarians as super heroes.
While not as dramatic and absent the explosions, real life librarians
are often truly the super heroes of our society. Case in point: the Ferguson,
Missouri Municipal Public Library. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The
racial tensions that began in Ferguson, Missouri last August with the shooting
death of 18 year old <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Michael_Brown" target="_blank">Michael Brown</a> by a Ferguson police officer actually go back to the very beginnings of our nation. Racism is one of the disheartening
aspects of American society that weighs on us as a nation. But this story isn’t about
racism. It is about the role of libraries in supporting and healing our
national psyche. And the role that the
Ferguson library is playing in the healing of that community is a perfect
example of how important libraries are, and why their funding should go up in
times of economic strife, rather than be cut.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I
first heard about the Ferguson library in November on the show of my favorite MSNBC
news pundit, Rachel Maddow. <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/public-library-an-oasis-for-a-turbulent-town-364268611847" target="_blank">Steve Kornacki did the reporting</a> in this 3 ½ minute
bit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/8yK22LhtWwI?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Basically,
in the midst of all the upheaval and strife that was going on in that community
in August of 2014 and again in November, so much so that public schools and
many businesses were forced to close, the Ferguson Municipal Public Library
announced that they would remain open offering “Wi-fi, water, rest and
knowledge” to anyone in need. Children, especially, were invited to spend the
day in a setting supervised by over 50 volunteers comprised of parents,
teachers, and retirees. Free lunches were provided, along with story times. In November,
the library also made space available to businesses looking for a way to
preserve records and file insurance claims for damage done during the violence
of that month’s protests. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">As
Steve Kornacki said, “Just by being open this week, by doing pretty much what
they do every day, by doing it amidst incredible upheaval in the larger
community, by doing that the Ferguson library made a difference…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">A
short <i><a href="http://www.msnbc.com/alex-witt/watch/nation-shows-support-for-ferguson-library-375458883668" target="_blank">Weekends with Alex Witt</a></i> piece
(also on MSNBC) focused on the national response to the story of the Ferguson library. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">That
alone is heartening: that all over our nation people will reach out to one small
community library to offer support in words and in donations of books and
money. As of this reporting, more than
$400,000 was contributed through the donate button on the library’s website,
most of it in small amounts from people who care. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Rachel
herself, on December 23rd, featured the Ferguson library in her “<a href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/watch/librarians-volunteer-to-help-out-in-ferguson-376628291872" target="_blank">Best New Thing in the World Today</a>”
segment. But what she focused on
was the fact that the library received so many donated books that they did not
have enough personnel to catalogue them all for use by their patrons. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The best new thing in the world, according
the Rachel Maddow, are the librarians from communities as far away as the East
Coast who went to Ferguson over the Christmas holidays and volunteered their
time to help catalogue the books.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The
story of the <a href="http://www.ferguson.lib.mo.us/" target="_blank">Ferguson Municipal Public Library</a>, the donations that flooded in
during a time of need, and the people who stepped up—both locally and from far
away—to volunteer, points out one of the wonderful things about America amidst
so much that is disheartening and disturbing. The soul of our nation can be found in many
places at many different times, but it can be found any day of the week in any of our local public libraries. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-81981958688680520302014-06-29T15:14:00.000-07:002016-01-17T15:30:49.855-08:00An Interview with Ben Perreth of Making Lemonade with Ben Fame<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Ben Perreth is an incredibly amazing young man. At age seven he survived a brain hemmorage, as chronicled by his mother Katherine Perreth in the must-read book, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1477665161/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1477665161&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=YO6LAMCJ6I5ILKOB" target="_blank">Making</a> </i></span><i style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1477665161/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1477665161&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=YO6LAMCJ6I5ILKOB" target="_blank">Lemonade with Ben: The Audacity to Cope. </a></i><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> That singular event launched him and his family on a journey that reads more like fiction, but is every bit reality. I can't say enough about the book. It is a page turner from beginning to end, a roller coaster of emotions, but a story told with incredible humor and perspective. </span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4Sp86dn2YrM/U6ZaBaG8LqI/AAAAAAAAA7I/47hjHqdPV0s/s1600/PerrethBookCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4Sp86dn2YrM/U6ZaBaG8LqI/AAAAAAAAA7I/47hjHqdPV0s/s1600/PerrethBookCover.jpg" width="133" /></a><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">In a previous post I <a href="http://madcitywriter.blogspot.com/2014/06/a-conversation-with-katherine-perreth.html" target="_blank">interviewed Katherine</a> by email. You'll want to take a look at that conversation. Of course, Katherine is articulate and expressive. But I think you'll be blown away by Ben's own voice. He is an individual </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">with much to say about his life and life in general. It's no wonder he was elected to travel to Washington D.C. to accept a national award on behalf of the Children's Museum of Madison where he works. I suspect we'll be hearing a lot more from this young man in the future.</span></div>
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<b style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">A Conversation with Ben Perreth</b></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">MCW: Ben, how old are you now?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>Ben: </i> <i>In months, 310, but in years, 25. Since I started working at the children’s museum I noticed that when I ask how old their babies or toddlers are, parents answer in months. So when they question me, “How old are you?” I answer the same way.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">MCW: Tell me about what it was like during the time your mom was writing the book. Were you aware of what she was doing? Did you have any input into it or any influence over what she wrote?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4l8NL54EvkI/U6ZaNeUx5KI/AAAAAAAAA7Q/XjcnJNagkr0/s1600/PerrethKathBen14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="241" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4l8NL54EvkI/U6ZaNeUx5KI/AAAAAAAAA7Q/XjcnJNagkr0/s1600/PerrethKathBen14.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Katherine and Ben Perreth at a local award ceremony</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Ben: <i>I was always thinking that this book would be too much for her, and I was trying to stay out of her way and my dad kept on reminding me until I got it. It was during the last summer when my mom was writing the book, I think when I saw her she was exactly like a statue, always in one place, in the back yard under the lilacs writing very fervently.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>Yes, I did have influence. My mom would always come and ask me, “Hey, Ben, I was thinking of taking this out,” or “I think you won’t like this,” and I said to her, “Mom, slow down, go to yoga, remember my words: this book is the only book you’re going to write and you have my stamp of approval for putting in all of it, the ups and downs, depressions, psych ward twice, and going to Disney to enjoy it before the radiation.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>I wrote three sections, from myself. And I have the last word, in the whole book, which I think is very uplifting, especially when people read it.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>After I read the final draft of the book I said to my mom, “It’s flawless sprinkled with awesomeness!” And ain’t that the truth!</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">MCW: </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">When you look back on the years from when you were seven and into your teens, what memories stick out most in your mind?</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>Ben: I thought about that and it’s still to this day that the sharpest memories that really stick out are the ones that I am peaceful. Like, five minutes before I drift off to dreamless sleep, knowing that I don’t have to be so resilient at the moment. Hearing my mom’s voice, singing, “I love you, Benjamin.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>Running with my favorite cousins and my brother and sister, running around the red-leaved burning bush and into the garden while my mom took a picture. I felt so alive and the weight of all the bad stuff, the medical, and hospitals and stresses of my life were gone in those moments. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>When I went into a new cave, a sense of wonder, astonishment and a deeper sense of longing to find the end of the cave. In Arizona, in my junior year of high school when I was having depression, we went into the biggest cave I’ve ever been in, and I had my body leaning against it, and the guide said, “Ben don’t lean on it more than what you are, because we don’t know how far it goes down.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>I said, “Maybe a mile?”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>And she said, “Well, it’s deeper than that.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>I felt, and I made an illustration, that this cave was my life. That there is no end until I finally pass away. It was taking the weight off my chest again, the not knowing what’s in store for my life. It was very moving.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>Whenever I’m in an airplane, I’m above the clouds and letting my spirit fly. I’m looking down at night seeing the lights, and seeing the images and shapes in my mind. I saw a baseball player hitting a ball with his bat and the white rabbit in Frosty the Snowman.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>When Sam, Sarah, Mom and Dad and I climbed up the very steep hills of the Black Hills, and I saw tens of thousands of grasshoppers. And my mom started singing, “The hills are alive, with the sound of music,” and I started to move like my mom, bringing my arms out, up and floaty, and I felt the increase of my contentment and joy of being wild.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>When me and Pilot Neal, it was just us in the Morey Airport taking off, and I was telling him my story. We flew and I navigated the coordinates of Tyrol Basin and finally found my Grandpa Syrup’s house in the country. We saw three turkeys fanned out, grazing on his hill. Flying back, I saw my mom’s house that she’s been living in for many years of her life. The neon bright, sun-golden flowers in my grandmother’s rock wall at mom’s house, and feeling the love emitting from them, drilling into my soul.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">MCW: What are you doing now with your life and work?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>Ben: </i> <i>I’m being very vigilant and proactive, putting first things first, keeping the end of the goal in my mind from day to day, thinking win-win, because most of my life has been down. I feel most of those principles guiding my heart in the right direction.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>For work, there are two places. The Yahara House, where I hone in my skills weekly, cooking for whoever is going to eat lunch that day or the next day. We occasionally make a pie or have a discussion of what’s going to happen the next week. There’s a weekly menu. </i></span><i style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">With the help of a staff worker at Yahara House, Janet, who I’m so grateful towards telling me, “Get yourself up again, Ben, and shine!”</i></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-48GTMptCSN8/U6ZaWwkmuqI/AAAAAAAAA7Y/rk0Y6NPyQSA/s1600/PerrethBenKath13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-48GTMptCSN8/U6ZaWwkmuqI/AAAAAAAAA7Y/rk0Y6NPyQSA/s1600/PerrethBenKath13.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ben and Katherine Perreth</td></tr>
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<i style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">I work at the Madison Children’s Museum. I like to rephrase my work into, “I get paid to have fun at the children’s museum!” From the time I started working there, I have said that. Being the Discovery Guide for kids and people of all ages brings more than money into my life.</i></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>Hobbies are very crucial to my life. Being an actor from an early age, I have been in an Acting Techniques class, for four years now. Mind you, I have to pay for each session, and I’ve been in for 19 sessions.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>I also go to a free thought group, AHA! That stands for agnostic, humanist and atheist. We have philosophy discussions. And afterwards we go to the Rathskellar.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>For my solitude, I like to walk in nature.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i>All those three things, my life, work and hobbies cannot function without the other two. Like a stool.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Thank you, Ben, for such awesome thoughts and insights! </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1477665161/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1477665161&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=YO6LAMCJ6I5ILKOB" target="_blank">Making Lemonade with Ben: The Audacity to Cope</a></i> won the Readers' Favorite 2013 International Book Award in the "non-fiction, inspirational" category. You can find it on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1477665161/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1477665161&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=YO6LAMCJ6I5ILKOB" target="_blank">Amazon</a>, at Barnes & Noble, or request it through your public library.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">And be sure to check out my interview with author (and Ben's Mom) <a href="http://madcitywriter.blogspot.com/2014/06/a-conversation-with-katherine-perreth.html" target="_blank">Katherine Perreth</a>. </span></div>
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<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-4Sp86dn2YrM%2FU6ZaBaG8LqI%2FAAAAAAAAA7I%2F47hjHqdPV0s%2Fs1600%2FPerrethBookCover.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4Sp86dn2YrM/U6ZaBaG8LqI/AAAAAAAAA7I/47hjHqdPV0s/s1600/PerrethBookCover.jpg" -->Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-83667062935280749362014-06-23T10:43:00.002-07:002016-01-17T15:31:14.637-08:00A Conversation with Katherine Perreth, Author of Making Lemonade with Ben<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Earlier
this spring I had the opportunity to meet an incredible woman, Katherine
Perreth, and her even more incredible son Ben, at a writers conference. I can’t
begin to describe what happened to Ben in just a few paragraphs, except to say
that at age seven he had a massive brain hemorrhage and that event launched him and his
family on an incredible life’s journey.
That journey was recorded in amazing, emotional detail by Katherine in
her book, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1477665161/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1477665161&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=YO6LAMCJ6I5ILKOB" target="_blank">Making Lemonade with Ben: TheAudacity to Cope. </a></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lZYSKXjWXF8/U6ZXKl_tyII/AAAAAAAAA60/W6LvZMbu370/s1600/PerrethBookCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lZYSKXjWXF8/U6ZXKl_tyII/AAAAAAAAA60/W6LvZMbu370/s1600/PerrethBookCover.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I
have to tell you, Katherine’s book kept me on the edge of my seat. Even though
I knew from the outset that Ben had survived—he is, after all, a very real,
very active young man in his twenties today—the way she crafted her story made
it a page turner. I felt like she was
narrating it to me personally, and I rode the roller coaster of her and her
family’s ups and down as if I’d known them from the get go. But the thing that is most amazing about Katherine's telling of Ben's story is her wry sense of humor. While told with heart-wrenching candor, the story was never maudlin; Katherine's ability to turn some pretty devastating lemons into lemonade <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">makes this story a great read on so many levels.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Of
course I wanted to know more about Katherine and what it took for her to write
this book, and what it meant to Ben, so I emailed them a few questions. They were both kind enough to reply. While I
became intimately familiar with Katherine’s voice over the course of the book,
I was surprised by Ben’s answers. He is every bit as articulate and eloquent as
his mother, but he has his own unique and delightful voice and sense of humor. Katherine’s replies are below. My <a href="http://madcitywriter.blogspot.com/2014/06/an-interview-with-ben-perreth-of-making.html" target="_blank">interview with Ben</a> was posted separately. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lF4LwHZNPvs/U6ZXQAfIYEI/AAAAAAAAA68/dXjP8Ii2wAE/s1600/PerrethKatherin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lF4LwHZNPvs/U6ZXQAfIYEI/AAAAAAAAA68/dXjP8Ii2wAE/s1600/PerrethKatherin.jpg" width="180" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><b>A Conversation
with Katherine Perreth</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">MCW: Katherine, you write with such voice and passion in <i>Making Lemonade with Ben</i>, but you mention early on in the book
that you once gave up on writing it. What did it take to actually get the book
written?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>Katherine:
A phone call from the Madison Children’s Museum in early September, 2011. MCM
asked if I would be willing to write a letter of nomination on behalf of my
son, Ben. The museum was slated to receive a national award in Washington D.C.
and needed to send a community representative. At the same time, the museum
hired Ben – he had been volunteering for over a year as a one-handed juggler. I
figured if they actually did select Ben as their representative, then I would
have the sweet framework I needed to write his traumatic, yet often hilarious,
childhood.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>For
three months I chronicled everything, how the trip to D.C. unfolded. I was so
obnoxious with my accuracy that my sixteen-year-old daughter commented
snarkily, “Oooh, look, Mom. It’s another conversation. Better write that down!”
She will also tell you that for 18 months, as I buckled down writing and
re-writing for what seemed like ad infinitum, I wore four outfits. And that
included my p.j.s.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">MCW:
What do you hope people take away from your book?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>Katherine: One
reviewer said I succeeded in removing the stigma that comes with mental
illness. I’m not sure that’s true, but I’m gonna take it. If </i>Making Lemonade With Ben<i> can hammer a
dent in stigma, I’m thrilled. </i></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>The sooner we
all understand that mental illness is like physical illness, the better. Mental
illness is nothing new, nothing to be ashamed about, is a global concern, and
can be a killer – just like physical illness. We need to fund what works, for
example Yahara House, Madison’s clubhouse model of mental illness treatment,
support and recovery. Yahara House is all about “What I can!”</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Making Lemonade With Ben</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 115%;"> is primarily a love story with multiple threads. In
the 21<sup>st</sup> century, it’s way past time for stigma. We’re a nation of
can-do fixers, but sometimes we can’t be fixed. Then empathy, understanding,
and love are required.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>Powerful good can happen when a
community values all of her citizens through intentional employers and proper
mental illness treatment and support. Ben’s life bears witness to that.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">MCW: </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">What kind of reactions have you gotten from readers?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>Katherine: “Wow!”
has frequently been the first word in feedback I’ve received from readers.
People have been overwhelmingly appreciative, positive, and expressive –
writing online reviews, tossing me stars on Amazon and Goodreads, and contacting
me via my website and email. I am so delighted, because I didn’t know how the
book would be received and now I don’t have to move to Canada. Although, this
past winter, I thought I had.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>People
are shocked at how much they laugh while reading </i>Making Lemonade With Ben<i>. They expect to cry, given my subject
matter, but are taken by surprise at my use of black, gray, and white humor. As
one of my main coping strategies, I’ll use all the humor available in order to
survive and thrive. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>Many
people struggling themselves with mental illness, chronic disability, or as a
special needs family have contacted me to thank me for writing. As have those
who love someone with those challenges. Because I am so vulnerable in the book,
leaving myself feeling like Lady Godiva minus the hair, these words of thanks
mean the world to me. One woman wrote that my words helped her clarify her own
experiences so she could better explain herself to her therapist and family. It
doesn’t get any better than that.</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">MCW:</span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">What are you doing with your life and work
now that Ben is an independent adult?</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9RsdIN9JWYA/U6hm2_D9AjI/AAAAAAAAA7o/0DPmrQtTEmw/s1600/PerrethBenKath13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9RsdIN9JWYA/U6hm2_D9AjI/AAAAAAAAA7o/0DPmrQtTEmw/s1600/PerrethBenKath13.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>Katherine:</i> <i>I
have been delighted to get back into the paid workforce. As a reporter for the </i>Middleton Times Tribune<i>, I revel in
tooting the horns of my hometown folks. I also continue to lead a reminiscence
writing class for women of a certain age, helping them write their life
stories. Really, their stories should be high school required reading. And
recently, I’ve upped my hours at WESLI, an English as a second language school
on the square. As the behind-the-scenes administrative assistant, I deal in
chalk and paper, oodles of paper, but these days I’ve added culling through
thousands of international student files. Thirty-four years of students. Every
time I finish reorganizing part of the alphabet, I do a jig and drag my
co-workers to the cabinets to, “Behold the files!” (I work with a team of super
women who always humor me.) Sometimes, as with the popular Korean last name,
“Kim,” I take the liberty of dancing early. Took me days to get out of the
“Kim”s. </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">MCW: </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Do
you have another book project of any sort in the works?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>Katherine: I still consider
myself in AA – Authors Anonymous – in book recovery. But that doesn’t mean I’ve
stopped writing. Mostly, I’ve been speechwriting. Recently, I keynoted the
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Dane County’s annual award dinner.
It was a glorious evening. Libraries, faith communities, service organizations,
bookstores, and medical and educational institutions have also invited me to
speak. At the end of July, the UW Department of Psychiatry is hosting me as a
guest lecturer. It is open to the public, I have been told. This year, Ben has
committed to accompanying me, joining me in speaking. People find our
presentation informative, inspirational, and humorous – of course, humorous.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I am also happy to
visit book clubs. Although it’s always a bit disconcerting when I show up and
introduce myself, “Hi, I’m Katherine,” and someone replies with feeling, “We knoooowww!” </span><span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">To contact me,
people can email: makinglemonadewithben@gmail.com</span></i></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Katherine Perreth's book, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1477665161/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1477665161&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=YO6LAMCJ6I5ILKOB" target="_blank">Making Lemonade with Ben: The Audacity to Cope</a></i> won the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Readers’
Favorite International Book Award for 2013 </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">in the “Non-Fiction, Inspirational” category. The book </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">is available from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1477665161/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1477665161&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=YO6LAMCJ6I5ILKOB" target="_blank">Amazon</a>, Barnes & Noble, or your public library.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Please check out my <a href="http://madcitywriter.blogspot.com/2014/06/an-interview-with-ben-perreth-of-making.html" target="_blank">interview with Ben</a> next!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-32652176786213181462014-05-22T18:17:00.001-07:002015-12-22T09:49:27.341-08:00Yoopers Get Recognition, eh...!<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Whoohoo!
We made it into the dictionary—the Miriam Webster Dictionary to be specific.
Who are we? We are Da <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/da-yoopers-merriam-webster-dictionary-article-1.1797804" target="_blank">Yoopers</a>! Natives and expats of the U.P., Michigan’s
glorious Upper Peninsula. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">It
turns out the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/"><span id="goog_39129846"></span>Urban Dictionary<span id="goog_39129847"></span></a> has recognized us since 2005. </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">“<span style="background: white; color: #333333;">Yooper
is a common term for residents of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is
derived from the initials U.P. which is pronounced you-pee. U.P. stands for
Upper Peninsula, as opposed to the lower peninsula of Michigan.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Cqs65Ti5QCg/U36dDca4Y_I/AAAAAAAAA6Q/2CVEtr81yCA/s1600/Upper_Peninsula_of_Michigan.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="138" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Cqs65Ti5QCg/U36dDca4Y_I/AAAAAAAAA6Q/2CVEtr81yCA/s1600/Upper_Peninsula_of_Michigan.png" width="200" /></a><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Oh, yeah…our favorite refrain back in
the—ahem—when I was in college was: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">“You pee, I pee, we all pee on the L.P.!”
L.P., of course, meaning the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. If you are not
familiar with Midwest geography, you might not have ever realized that Michigan
is divided into two large peninsulas, connected by the five-mile-long Mackinac
Bridge.</span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-unD2zEu4gmI/U36e3Em8GcI/AAAAAAAAA6Y/BgqrGeJ2sRg/s1600/Mackinac_Bridge_from_the_air4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="165" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-unD2zEu4gmI/U36e3Em8GcI/AAAAAAAAA6Y/BgqrGeJ2sRg/s1600/Mackinac_Bridge_from_the_air4.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo: Justin Billau</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span>
<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The Urban Dictionary goes on to say, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">“It is not
a derogortory term. It is used mainly by residents of lower Michigan and
Wisconsin.” I don't know about that. Personally, I’ve only ever heard native and
expat Yoopers use the term to refer to ourselves. It’s a source of pride to find another Yooper
anywhere in the world and be identified as such.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span>
<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">As for those that live below the Bridge? Well,
they’re “trolls,” of course. No insult intended.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span>
<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">A few interesting fact about Michigan’s U.P. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span>
<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Size: </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #252525; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">16,542 square miles, more than a
quarter of of the land area of the entire state</span></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Bordered: on the north by Lake Superior, on the
southeast by Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, and on the southwest by Wisconsin,
which isn’t a lake except during flood season (1,700 miles of Great Lakes shoreline)</span></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Climate: cold</span></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Cuisine: pasties</span></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Dialect: eh?</span></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">State Bird: the mosquito</span></span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="background: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Home to one of the world's largest living organisms, </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Armillaria gallica</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">, better known as the </span><a href="http://smellslikescience.com/humongous-fungus/" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Humongous Fungus</a><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">, roughly 37 acres in size </span></span></li>
</ul>
</div>
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<br />
<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Famous movies about the U.P: </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00004TJKI/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00004TJKI&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=7S7JT7HGFKBY7JLT" target="_blank">Anatomy of aMurder</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> starring Jimmy Stewart and </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006HAX7/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00006HAX7&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20&linkId=RKXB4J4EX47MKWDC" target="_blank">Escanaba in Da Moonlight</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> starring Jeff
Daniels</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Say ya to da U.P., Eh!</i></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-8831541749076585922014-04-02T21:21:00.002-07:002015-12-22T09:49:52.721-08:00A Hero in My Eyes: Shannon Watts, Founder of Moms Demand Action<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I
remember where I was when I first saw the “Breaking News” on my iPhone: there
had been a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown,
Connecticut. I was sitting in an
elementary school classroom with a cadre of teachers—we were there to learn new
strategies for teaching reading. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I remember how my heart sank. I remember what
it felt like to be a mom wondering how those moms—and dads—of the fallen Sandy Hook
children could possibly cope with such broken hearts. I wondered how I could
live in a country that lets massacres like the one at Sandy Hook happen, and
Columbine, and the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, and the movie theater
in Aurora, Colorado, and all the countless other tragic places that shootings
have happened.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tLJcyo4E8CE/UzxdCfzg_ZI/AAAAAAAAA5Y/pGfkg9fEJeg/s1600/Shannon+Watts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tLJcyo4E8CE/UzxdCfzg_ZI/AAAAAAAAA5Y/pGfkg9fEJeg/s1600/Shannon+Watts.jpg" width="188" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Apparently
another mom, in another city, had the same reaction. But she turned her shock and horror into
action. That mom is Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense
in America. Shannon, who lives in the Indianapolis area, is a mother of five. A
former communications executive for high powered companies, she was at the time
of the Sandy Hook shootings a stay at home mom.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In
a recent <a href="http://katiecouric.com/videos/one-moms-commitment-to-end-gun-violence/" target="_blank">interview on the Katie Couric show</a>, Shannon described how she started
what would become a national grassroots movement by simply posting a page on
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/MomsDemandAction" target="_blank">Facebook</a>. I remember seeing that page
when it had only several hundred likes. Now it has over 152,000 likes, and the
non-profit organization Moms Demand Action has a webpage and chapters in every
state of our nation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">And
it turns out that determined Moms can have a very powerful voice. When visiting the nation’s capitol building in
Washington D.C. Shannon and her fellow Moms realized that when they had diaper
bags and strollers in the hallways, legislators couldn’t get by without talking
with them and listening to their concerns. “Stroller Jams” are now a strategic
tool to get lawmakers and other stakeholders to listen. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fNKjCWTnZP0/UzzgNoqGILI/AAAAAAAAA5o/KS5Ku-jHPn8/s1600/stroller+jam_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fNKjCWTnZP0/UzzgNoqGILI/AAAAAAAAA5o/KS5Ku-jHPn8/s1600/stroller+jam_1.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">When
they learned that Starbucks had banned smoking outside their restaurants, but were
allowing people to carry guns inside, the Moms mounted a successful <a href="http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-starbucks-moms-gun-policy-20130918,0,4261120.story#axzz2xgloRYy9" target="_blank">campaign to pressure Starbucks to change their gun policy</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">And
more recently, the Moms’ voices were heard by <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/05/facebook-gun-policy/6074229/" target="_blank">Facebook, which agreed to block postings of gun sales</a> that don’t require a background check and to block minors
from seeing postings of gun sales. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Shannon
says she isn't out to take guns away from people; she supports the Second Amendment. But she is adamant that “with rights
come responsibilities.” There is an
“epidemic of gun violence in this country,” she says. The stark statistic is
that eight children and teens are shot and killed every single day. With this
in mind, her goal is to change easy and unregulated access to guns with common
sense laws. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">But
it’s not just Shannon’s fervor and organizational skills that make her a hero
in my eyes. This woman and others in the organization have faced physical
intimidation by armed bullies at rallies and when meeting in restaurants. I guess you know you are making waves when
the opposition turns out toting AK47s and rifles to face you down—you with your
strollers and diaper bags.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">For
one minute after the Sandy Hook tragedy I thought that maybe this country was
doomed. But now I know different.
Shannon Watts and more than a hundred and fifty thousand Moms have
decided they will not live in a country filled with gun violence. And they do
not plan to leave. They plan to make
change. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Check
out <a href="https://momsdemandaction.org/%20" target="_blank">Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America</a>. If you are a Mom, you might
want to add your voice to theirs. And if you are not a Mom, but want common
sense gun laws and an end to the epidemic of gun violence in America, I’m
guessing they won’t turn you away. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-21097527656431076902013-12-14T10:26:00.000-08:002016-01-17T15:31:40.924-08:00Henry S. Miller's 2014 Happiness Calendar<div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">The 2014 Happiness Calendar below came to my email in-box as a free blog post to promote the book <i>The Serious Pursuit of Happiness</i> by Henry S. Miller, a motivational speaker and consultant. I did not write it. But I like the concept of a monthly focus on emotional wellness. Mr. Miller proposes a strategy of daily goal setting; but even if we only attend to each of the monthly themes once or twice during that month--that could still take us a long way on the road to happiness and inner peace. I offer it to you, my readers, to take from it what you will.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><b><u></u></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><b><u>The 2014 Happiness Calendar</u></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">By Henry S. Miller, Author of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1937071006/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1937071006&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20" target="_blank">The Serious Pursuit of Happiness</a></i></span></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ypqDx-ANkqc/UqyguyU--KI/AAAAAAAAA44/eF8HoFdkPfE/s1600/Heart+MorgueFile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="135" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ypqDx-ANkqc/UqyguyU--KI/AAAAAAAAA44/eF8HoFdkPfE/s200/Heart+MorgueFile.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>MorgueFile.com</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Amp
up the amount of happiness in your life each and every month of the
year by intentionally focusing on 12 strategies that the science of
happiness and well being has proven can increase your feelings of
happiness and satisfaction. Even better: know that, if you add these
actions to your life, your feelings of increased positive emotion can
last for days, weeks, and even months!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">If
this is the year you decide to get serious about adding happiness that
lasts to your life, here are 12 happiness strategies for 2014 and
suggestions to make them work for you:</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><b>January: A Month of Hope and Plans</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">The
beginning of the year is traditionally about new years’ resolutions.
This year, write one positive goal you have for the coming year down on
your calendar each morning of each day of January. Also write your plan
to make it a reality. Then, resolve that you will intentionally invest
your time and energy to work on your resolutions during the year and to
live a happier life by implementing these 12 happiness strategies – one
each month. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><b>February: A Month of Gratitude</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Gratitude
is the antidote to greed, envy, and jealously. We feel much happier
when we are being grateful for what we have, rather than envious of what
we don’t. Remember, no one has everything! This month, each night
before going to bed, take a daily gratitude inventory. Write down three
things you are grateful for about your life – your relationships, your
work, your character, your family, your country, the world around you,
your life. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><b>March: A Month of Kindness</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Plato
said, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” And,
if you look around, it’s still true today. This month, find one
opportunity each and every day to perform some kind act for someone else
– even the simplest act of holding a door open for another will do.
And, each day, after your act of kindness, enjoy the feeling that, for
at least one shining moment, you are the personification of all that is
good about the human race.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><b>April: A Month of Optimism</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Each
day this month, be more conscious of your negative thoughts – if you
have any. And every time you do, immediately “dispute” it by
intentionally replacing the negative thought with a positive one. Do
this each time you think a negative thought for a month, and notice how
your thinking might change.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><b>May: A Month of Friendship</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Close
relationships are one of the longest-lasting of happiness-increasing
strategies. But, sometimes, we take our friends for granted – or are
“too busy” to see them. This month, at least one time per week, reach
out to a friend and arrange to spend time with them. This can be as
simple as a walk, a meal, coffee, drinks – whatever you choose. But find
the time to visit with your friends face-to-face this month.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><b>June: A Month of Love</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Traditionally,
June is a month of weddings – and love is all around us. Each day this
month, call, write, or email someone you love or care deeply about – one
per day – and tell them how much they mean to you – and how happy you
are that they are a part of your life – even if you haven’t been the
best communicator up to now. Notice reactions – yours and theirs. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><b>July: A Month of Spirituality</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Studies
have proven that people who have spirituality in their lives – whether
it’s their own secular belief system, their own faith, or some organized
religion – are happier. We don’t know if it’s because of the fellowship
of a caring group of like-thinking folks, or the spiritual beliefs
themselves. This month, make a conscious effort to spend some moments
each day – perhaps during lunch – repeating to yourself at least one
“prayer” or belief you hold.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><b>August: A Month of Health, Fitness, Skill</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Summer
is a great time to focus on increasing your health and fitness – and on
using your skills and abilities to their max. This month, begin some
daily fitness regimen (check with your doctor first if needed) – even if
it’s only walking. In addition, make a list of your top skills,
talents, and abilities and assess if you are using them to their
fullest. If not, take one step per day to begin doing so.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><b>September: A Month of Contribution</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Making
a meaningful contribution to make the planet a better place is one of
the longest-lasting, happiness-increasing strategies known. What are you
contributing? This month is your chance to decide what difference you’d
like to make in the world. Spend a few minutes each day at lunchtime
and write down ideas about how you can make a positive difference in the
world. At the end of the month, decide on a plan of action – and begin!
The world needs you and your contribution! </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><b>October: A Month of Savoring</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Fall
is a season to enjoy the changing foliage in many parts of the world.
Consciously spend at least five minutes each day focusing your attention
exclusively on something of beauty outside – changing leaves, trees,
clouds, sky – something. Five minutes of complete attention to savor the
beauty of life around you – each day, every day.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><b>November: A Month of Forgiveness</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Forgiveness
is a powerful, although a slightly more complicated, happiness
strategy. We forgive others to make us feel better. This month, examine
your life and see if there are any lingering resentments you are holding
on to that are holding you back from joy. If so, do two things: First,
write the apology letter you would have liked to have received from the
person who has wronged you. Second, rise above your desire for revenge,
and write your letter of forgiveness to them. No need to mail it, just
recall the hurt or violation, write about your feelings. End the letter
with your statement of forgiveness. Just this simple act of writing a
forgiveness letter can often grant you freedom from your negative
thoughts and give you increased happiness.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><b>December: A Month of Generosity</b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">The
end of the year is a time for giving – a time to donate your time, your
money if you can, your skills, your positive energy, your attention –
to others to help make their life a little better. Each day, find one
opportunity to give something of yourself to help another – and notice
your feelings.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><b>In Conclusion</b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">For
the best results, remind yourself of each month’s happiness strategy by
adding these topics to your calendar – every day of each month. Then,
each day of the year, find creative ways to act on these strategies –
and enjoy your reactions and your increased feelings of happiness.
You’ll notice that these feelings will last far longer than the
happiness you feel from just partaking of the pleasures of life – and
will be more meaningful to you.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">No
matter what your situation, remain hopeful about increasing your
happiness. The truth is that no one is ever out of the game when it
comes to living a happier and more fulfilling life! As the months of
this year unfold, continue all of the 12 strategies that work best for
you. If you do, a year of happiness can be yours. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><b>About Henry S. Miller</b></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Henry S. Miller is the author of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1937071006/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1937071006&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20" target="_blank">The Serious Pursuit of Happiness: Everything You Need to Know to Flourish and Thrive</a></i>, and <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1937071065/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1937071065&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20%22%3EInspiration%20for%20the%20Pursuit%20of%20Happiness:%20Wisdom%20to%20Guide%20your%20Journey%20to%20a%20Better%20Life%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1937071065" target="_blank">Inspiration for the Pursuit of Happiness: Wisdom to Guide your Journey to a Better Life</a></i>.
He is also the creator of the online membership program Get SERIOUS
About Your Happiness: 20 Transformational Tools for Turbulent Times. As
President of The Henry Miller Group (<a href="http://jacobsoncommunication.dmanalytics2.com/click?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.millergroup.com&i=5&d=08922252-4V70-43Z2-Z238-2VZ39WZVZY63&e=MadCityWriter%40gmail.com&a=85W4YW7V-VV17-446W-9006-06880XW2Z943" target="_blank">www.millergroup.com</a>),
he is a speaker, trainer, and consultant helping organizations improve
engagement, performance, and productivity specifically by increasing
employee well being. In prior careers, Henry was a Senior Consultant for
the Tom Peters Company training and coaching senior management teams
worldwide in leadership and his initial career in corporate America was
with IBM.</span></span></div>
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Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-27618950721595892602013-10-30T14:06:00.001-07:002016-01-17T15:32:00.993-08:00Mystery Writer Christine DeSmet Doesn’t Fudge When it Come to Research<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Set
in a combination live bait and fudge shop in Wisconsin’s vacation wonderland, Door County, filled with quirky, likeable, and energetic characters, and…oh,
did I mention?...mouth-watering! That’s
the new novel by Madison, Wisconsin author <a href="http://christinedesmet.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Christine DeSmet</a> who decided to make
her mark on the mystery writing world by whipping up a batch of fudge. And not just any fudge. Cinderella Pink Fudge. Which, unfortunately, becomes a murder weapon
in her newest book <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451416473/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0451416473&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20" target="_blank">First-Degree Fudge</a></i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-98EvIxDCk-A/UnFxB8sOydI/AAAAAAAAA2Y/URe-jQ-dpQI/s200/Fudge+book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-98EvIxDCk-A/UnFxB8sOydI/AAAAAAAAA2Y/URe-jQ-dpQI/s200/Fudge+book.jpg" width="125" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Now,
the interesting thing to me is how someone who admits upfront that she isn’t
much of a cook and who doesn’t live in Door County can write such an awesome
book about, well, fudge and living in Door County. The key ingredient here, according to
Christine is research. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I had the opportunity
to interview the author recently and here are some of Christine’s thoughts on how research
can bring a book to life. Oh, and
yes! If you go to her book signings, she
does bring fudge—homemade fudge. Murderously delicious fudge…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">MCW: What role does research play in the fiction you create?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><i>Christine: Research creates my stories. I start out a
story with a sketchy outline, and I know in general what the story will
contain, but then after I do research I find many, many new angles and facts
that change or deepen my plot, characters, and setting. There are also many
facts that go into writing fiction; you have to get the facts right. My
protagonist in First-Degree Fudge
(Book 1, The Door County Fudge Shop Mystery Series) for example, enjoys
chemistry and science, though she has no college degree in science; she’s just
fascinated by what makes the world run. But to write about fudge in a
scientific way, I interviewed the head of research and development at DB
Infusions Chocolates in Madison, Wis., for example, and watched their process
of making chocolates. I asked questions about how to handle the “crystals” that
make up chocolate. That crystallization information became a clue in my mystery
plot.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">MCW: Do you enjoy doing research or is it just
part of the job for you?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>Christine:
I love it because it’s like mining for gold and always finding nuggets. I feel
rich and enriched by research. I actually get very nervous writing too much of
a novel without doing research because I know I’m wasting my time and getting
something wrong that I’ll have to change later. Story quality and character
quality always go up when you do research. I’m constantly tinkering on my
stories as a result of my research.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">MCW: What is the most amazing thing you learned or
the most unique experience you have ever had doing research? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NbYcJv0MgfQ/UnFwgv3Oq4I/AAAAAAAAA2Q/mrr5kBaRLGM/s1600/C+DeSmet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NbYcJv0MgfQ/UnFwgv3Oq4I/AAAAAAAAA2Q/mrr5kBaRLGM/s1600/C+DeSmet.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>Christine: There are many amazing things! One thing
that’s amazing about Door County is that it has one of the largest populations
of Belgian immigrants in the United States, and everybody in Door County has an
opinion on what makes good boo-yah and beer. I also got to look inside a roadside
church while there; I’d never done that before. Those tiny churches—big enough
to hold two people maximum usually—dot the countryside in Door County. The
local people are restoring them and creating bus tours in an effort to preserve
the Belgian immigrant history.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Christine
also told me that since starting her new mystery series, she has learned to
make fudge. She experiments and tries out all her recipes—which are included in the
back of her books—on people she trusts to give her honest feedback. And she hasn’t killed off any of her
taste-testers yet. So if you are looking
for a rollicking fun read, that tantalizes and intrigues, and you’d like some
sweet recipes to tempt the taste buds, check out Christine DeSmet’s
<i>First-Degree Fudge</i>, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and in bookstores just
about everywhere. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">A writing
teacher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Christine’s first published novel,
<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0759903913/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0759903913&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20" target="_blank">Spirit Lake</a></i>, was an award-winning, best-selling novel for publisher Hard
Shell Word Factory/Mundania Press. Also a short fiction writer, her humorous
romantic mystery series set in Wisconsin appears in two volumes: <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004I5C038/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004I5C038&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20" target="_blank">Mischief in Moonstone</a> </i>and <i>Men of Moonstone</i> from Whiskey Creek
Press as well as in several anthologies. <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0451416473/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0451416473&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20" target="_blank">First-Degree Fudge</a></i> is the debut novel for her Door County Fudge
Shop Mystery Series.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">You can find out more about Christine at her website, <i><a href="http://christinedesmet.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Christine DeSmet: Author</a></i>.</span></div>
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<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-98EvIxDCk-A%2FUnFxB8sOydI%2FAAAAAAAAA2Y%2FURe-jQ-dpQI%2Fs200%2FFudge%2Bbook.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-98EvIxDCk-A/UnFxB8sOydI/AAAAAAAAA2Y/URe-jQ-dpQI/s200/Fudge+book.jpg" -->Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-36704013842116644172013-09-14T20:52:00.000-07:002016-01-17T15:32:22.810-08:00The Glass Ocean by Lori Baker: a Review<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Czech
glass makers Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka were so taken by the ephemeral,
translucent nature of marine invertebrates that they use the art of sculpted
glass to capture the essence of these complex sea creatures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">American
author Lori Baker was so taken by the story of the Blaschkas and their work
creating glass replicas of underwater life that she used fiction and the art of
the sculpted word to capture the essence of their complex 19th century lives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kaOPp4WXI7c/UjUlYFcj0lI/AAAAAAAAA10/BAS6VVekxwA/s200/GlassOcean.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kaOPp4WXI7c/UjUlYFcj0lI/AAAAAAAAA10/BAS6VVekxwA/s200/GlassOcean.jpg" width="132" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Setting
her book, <i>The Glass Ocean,</i> against the backdrop of Victorian England, a time of great discovery
and exploration but also of upheaval both physical and emotional, Ms. Baker
created characters as complex and ephemeral as the underwater creatures
represented in glass by both the real and her fictional glass makers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Told
from the point of view of Carlotta Dell’oro, the daughter of glass maker
Leonardo Dell’oro and the beautiful but egocentric and untouchable Clotilde
Girard, who never stopped mourning the disappearance of her adventurer/collector
father Felix Girard, <i>The Glass Ocean</i>
is a study in character. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Lori
Baker’s prose is poetic, dreamlike, mesmerizing. A work of literary fiction, this is not a
summer, read-at-the-beach kind of book by any means. The narrative is dense, and what little dialogue there is is embedded in the narrative using italics rather than quotation marks to signify its presence. The first few pages captivated me. Then I
began to wonder, can this author sustain the intensity of such a poetic style? Can I sustain interest? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In
fact, Baker does sustain her intensity. And
just about the time I started feeling antsy with the story, it took a right
turn in terms of plot and I was captivated all over again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I
use the term <i>story</i> loosely here, as
the <i>Glass Ocean</i> is not so much a story in the traditional sense, the way a mystery
or romance novel might be plotted, but rather Baker’s is a study in character.
The glass in her <i>Glass Ocean</i>
is a metaphor for the intricate fragility of her characters’ psyches. It’s as if she spent the 330 plus pages
sculpting her characters, much as the glass figurines in the story were
sculpted. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The
<i>Glass Ocean</i> is not a book for
everyone. Those who love literary
fiction, who enjoy crafted writing, unique styles, complex and multi-layered characters
will appreciate Baker's work. But I recommend that anyone who loves to
read give it a try, because even those who prefer more plot-driven stories may
be surprised and find they can’t stop turning the pages. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Author
Lori Baker has taught fiction writing, journalism, and composition at Brown
University, Boston College, and Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. She currently lives and works in Providence,
Rhode Island. <i>The Glass Ocean</i> is
available through <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594205361/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1594205361&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20" target="_blank">Amazon.com</a> and well as other online vendors and bookstores.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></span></div>
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The glass works of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/science/blaschka-glass-menagerie-inspires-marine-expedition.html?_r=0" target="_blank">Leopold and Rudolph Blaschka</a> can be viewed in various
locations on the <a href="http://blaschkagallery.mannlib.cornell.edu/" target="_blank">Cornell University campus</a>. </span><br />
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<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-kaOPp4WXI7c%2FUjUlYFcj0lI%2FAAAAAAAAA10%2FBAS6VVekxwA%2Fs200%2FGlassOcean.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kaOPp4WXI7c/UjUlYFcj0lI/AAAAAAAAA10/BAS6VVekxwA/s200/GlassOcean.jpg" -->Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-15604416216545545822013-08-25T12:52:00.000-07:002016-01-17T15:32:43.519-08:00Pages for Peace: The Biggest Book in the World (Almost)<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Imagine
a book with pages 10 feet wide by 12 feet tall. Imagine that people from all
over the world contribute content for that book on one subject: peace. Now
imagine a group of kids who work for eight years to make it happen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FyoCV0RiTo8/UhmE5b8urZI/AAAAAAAAA1Q/51AkEnZY-Dg/s1600/BiggestBook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FyoCV0RiTo8/UhmE5b8urZI/AAAAAAAAA1Q/51AkEnZY-Dg/s320/BiggestBook.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FyoCV0RiTo8/UhmE5b8urZI/AAAAAAAAA1Q/51AkEnZY-Dg/s1600/BiggestBook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Three
years ago I wrote an <a href="http://www.examiner.com/article/biggest-book-the-world-will-be-about-peace" target="_blank">article for the online website Examiner.com</a> about a group
of middle schools students from the <span style="background: white;">Groton-Dunstable
Regional School District in Massachusetts</span> who were working to create the
biggest book in the world with the hope of making it into the <i>Guinness Book of
World Records</i>. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">They called the book <i><a href="http://www.pagesforpeace.org/" target="_blank">Pages for Peace</a>,</i> and they called themselves
the Bookmakers </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and Dreamers.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Under the guidance of teacher Betsy Sawyer, these students
invited schools kids and famous adults from all over the world to submit letters,
notes, poetry, songs and art about peace. They received entries for the book
from the Dalai Lama, former President Jimmy Carter (a Nobel Peace Prize
winner), author Helen Caldecott, the late Senator Ted Kennedy, NASA Astronaut
Joseph Acaba, and skateboarder Tony Hawk among others. Students from Afghanistan, Pakistan,
Liberia, Kosovo, Africa, and many other countries also contributed to the book.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">What was cool was how they collaborated with a group of
engineering students and professors at the University of Massachusetts Lowell
Campus to design a robotic page turning device.
Yes, that’s how big the book is!
It needs a robotic page turning device.
And they convinced area businesses to donate the material, ink, and
printing services to make the book into a reality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1INGz_ou7q0/UhmFMS1ZTsI/AAAAAAAAA1Y/KMHUU_KphOo/s1600/BiggestBookMap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="111" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1INGz_ou7q0/UhmFMS1ZTsI/AAAAAAAAA1Y/KMHUU_KphOo/s400/BiggestBookMap.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In an <a href="http://www.wcvb.com/chronicle/It-was-the-world-s-biggest-book-until/-/12523032/15712312/-/3is3tm/-/index.html" target="_blank">interview with Boston’s WCVB news</a> Betsy Sawyer
said, “[These kids] say their mission is as bookmakers they want to break a
Guinness record and make it into the <i>Guinness Book of World Records</i>, but as
dreamers they want to make a difference in the world.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The good news is they finished the book. And I’m thinking
they accomplished their dream goal, if you can measure “making a difference” by
the numbers of people, children and adults, who contributed to and were touched
by the construction of this book, and by the education these students received
along the way. The project took eight years to complete, and many of the
students stuck with it the entire time. That’s some dedication. And passion.
And optimism. And problem solving. You can imagine the kind of adults they will
be in a few short years.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">However,
the Bookmakers and Dreamers did not meet their goal of making it into the
<i>Guinness Book of World Records</i> as the world’s largest book. That record went to the <span style="background: white; color: #333333;">Mshahed International Group </span>of
the United Arab Emirates. Titled <span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #333333;"> </span></span><span style="background: white; color: #333333;"><a href="http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-1000/largest-book/" target="_blank"><i>This the Prophet Mohamed</i>,</a> that book is
a compilation of stories about Islam’s Prophet and focuses on the positive
influence of Islam on the international and humanitarian scene.</span> A worthy topic in its own right. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Possibly the most important lesson these students learned was <span style="line-height: 115%;">perspective—how </span> to balance the disappointment of losing a competition with the pride of an accomplishment hard earned. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ng-geW99b14/UhmHKffc1hI/AAAAAAAAA1k/_gpH1PSFB40/s1600/BiggestBook2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ng-geW99b14/UhmHKffc1hI/AAAAAAAAA1k/_gpH1PSFB40/s320/BiggestBook2.jpg" width="252" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">John
Lennon challenged people to imagine a world of peace:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“You
may think I’m a dreamer, </span></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">but I’m not the only one.</span> </span></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I hope someday you’ll join
us,</span> </span></i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>and the world will live as one.”</i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">I'm guessing these remarkably tenacious students caused the world to move a little closer to living as one. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Check out the</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> </span><a href="http://www.pagesforpeace.org/" target="_blank"><i>Pages for Peace</i> Project on their homepage</a> and on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Big-Book-Pages-for-Peace-Foundation/148071853143?ref=ts" target="_blank">Facebook</a><span style="line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span>Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-15074375221775758432013-07-30T13:17:00.000-07:002016-01-17T15:33:06.215-08:00Review of Chris Eischele's Garden Truths From My Family's Stories<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I
have to admit up front that I know nothing about gardening—I regularly cause
silk flowers to die by over-watering them.
So it doesn’t take much for me to admire those who have the knack. However, Christine Eirschele has more than a
knack—she has achieved the status of a certified Master Gardener.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-De9O___pnb4/UfgajK5ncrI/AAAAAAAAA00/YR27Q65QtMs/s1600/Chris+E..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-De9O___pnb4/UfgajK5ncrI/AAAAAAAAA00/YR27Q65QtMs/s200/Chris+E..jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Author & Gardener <br />
Chris Eirschele</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Chris
loves to garden and she loves to write about gardening. Her awesome blog <a href="http://staygardening.com/">Staygardening.com</a> ranges
from specific tips about container gardening and growing edible plants to
reviews of public, private, and community gardens. She is a contributing writer
at </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.buckettripper.com/" target="_blank">BucketTripper.com </a></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> and has also written for a variety of other
online sites and magazines, as well as offering her expertise speaking to community
groups. A Wisconsin native at heart,
Chris now resides in Arizona, and so her knowledge of plants spans a breadth of
climates. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Now
Chris offers her readers, gardeners, and memoir lovers like myself a new gift. She has compiled a collection of family stories,
memories, and gardening tips into a volume titled</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"></span><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BDV05U0/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00BDV05U0&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20%22%3EGarden%20Truths%20From%20My%20Family%27s%20Stories%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00BDV05U0" target="_blank">Garden Truths From My Family'sStories</a></span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">It turns out that Chris comes by
her gardening acumen via genetics—both her father and her mother were avid, if
perhaps quirky, gardeners.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">So, she begins
her collection of stories describing her “Legacy of Growing up Gardening.”</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>In the house I grew up, soil was
never dirt and the scents of organic compost no more bothersome than the smell
at my nose from a bar of soap.</i></span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"></i><br />
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></i></div>
<i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">
</i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Earthy memories mix with tender
and often comical vignettes of collecting seeds, transporting fruit trees in
the back of a Rambler (that will date you, if you know what a Rambler is!), and
her father hanging oranges and a banana on his brother’s apple tree that was
too young to bear fruit of its own.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ca1KWrkjjz8/Ufgap6dy3vI/AAAAAAAAA08/i5ASTbuLi4M/s320/Garden+Truths.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ca1KWrkjjz8/Ufgap6dy3vI/AAAAAAAAA08/i5ASTbuLi4M/s320/Garden+Truths.jpg" width="237" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I especially enjoyed the chapter “Leaving
Babette for French Gardens,” in which she brings to life small moments like
burying the family’s pet dog in the garden, “his grave planted over with red and
pink sweet Williams.” Reminiscing about touring France as a child with her mother who grew up there, Chris marvels over French container gardens that contrast with “the formal symmetrical well-manicured gardens found
around the castles and estates” of that country. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Garden Truths
From My Family’s Stories</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> is a wonderful and endearing read. It is Chris Eirschele’s first e-book and is available through <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BDV05U0/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00BDV05U0&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20%22%3EGarden%20Truths%20From%20My%20Family%27s%20Stories%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00BDV05U0" target="_blank">Amazon</a> for those who own Kindles. </span></div>
<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-ca1KWrkjjz8%2FUfgap6dy3vI%2FAAAAAAAAA08%2Fi5ASTbuLi4M%2Fs320%2FGarden%2BTruths.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ca1KWrkjjz8/Ufgap6dy3vI/AAAAAAAAA08/i5ASTbuLi4M/s320/Garden+Truths.jpg" -->Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-73588221086937805792013-05-25T21:02:00.002-07:002016-01-17T15:33:35.892-08:00High Flight - a Memorial Day Tribute to My Father<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">My
father, Walter Percy Joque, was an Air Force navigator/bombardier in WWII. He
flew missions over North Africa and Italy, where he was shot down. He spent the last year of the war in a German
Prisoner of War camp. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U-iWTQQwNAw/UaA3N5FuXAI/AAAAAAAAA0M/pcN3XzCGrec/s1600/Dad+Uniform.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U-iWTQQwNAw/UaA3N5FuXAI/AAAAAAAAA0M/pcN3XzCGrec/s320/Dad+Uniform.JPG" width="247" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Dad
learned the <i>High Flight</i> poem and memorized it to recite at military and patriotic ceremonies in the small town of Escanaba, Michigan where I grew up. In the years before he died—at age 95—when
Alzheimer’s had robbed his memory of the war, his youth, and the names of my
mother and my siblings and me, he still could recite this poem. It became like a prayer to him, as he
dramatized the final words, </span><i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;">“</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Put out my hand, and touched the face of God,”</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">reaching out with his own hand and topping
off the poem with,<i>“Amen.”</i></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">High Flight<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">By John Gillespie Magee</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br />
<br />
</span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling
mirth</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and
swung</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">My eager craft through footless halls of air....</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy
grace.</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">Where never lark, or even eagle flew —</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">The high untrespassed sanctity of space,</span><br />
<span style="background: white;">- Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The poem is the work of American poet and aviator
John Gillespie Magee, who died in a mid-air collision while serving in Britain during WWII. He was flying for the Royal Canadian Air Force
at the time. He was only 19. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Various lines of the poem grace the headstones of
many of the aviators and astronauts buried at Arlington National Cemetery. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i>High Flight </i>will forever be a memorial, in my mind,
to my father, a member of “The Greatest Generation,” who didn’t hesitate to
volunteer to serve his country in its time of need.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-34900412552920269742013-05-17T21:18:00.000-07:002015-12-22T09:55:16.840-08:00Dalai Lama Teaches About Happiness in Madison, Wisconsin<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The focus of the morning discussion was on global health and sustainable well-being. The panelists in the afternoon held conversations on science, happiness, and well-being.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">A Buddhist monk, Tenzin Gyatso is the 14th Dalai Lama. In this position he is the spiritual leader of Tibet, but he is recognized world-wide as an intellectual, a Buddhist philosopher and author, and a promoter of peace, non-violence, compassion, and inter-religious understanding. In fact, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. He has been in exile, living in Dharamsala, India, since 1959, after the Chinese takeover of Tibet. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">His Holiness had a busy two days in Madison. The day before the Overture event, he’d had a private meeting with Governor Scott Walker. Later he <a href="http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/dalai-lama-addresses-lawmakers-praises-democracy-compassion-equality/article_2de9c8b3-5fbd-5940-872e-9975097ba64d.html" target="_blank">spoke to the combined State Legislature</a> about democracy, equality, and compassion. In between those two events he spoke for well over two hours to a sold-out audience of 3,500 at the Alliant Energy Center. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The <a href="http://www.investigatinghealthyminds.org/" target="_blank">UW Center for Investigating Healthy Minds</a>, which sponsored the event I attended, was founded by Professor Richard J. Davidson, Director of the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior and the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience. According to the program notes, Davidson had been doing research on depression, anxiety, and fear. In 1992 he met the Dalai Lama who challenged him to use the same rigorous, scientific methods was using to study negative qualities of the mind to investigate positive qualities of the mind, such as kindness and compassion. Davidson took the Dalai Lama up on his challenge, going beyond simply studying healthy qualities of mind to exploring how these positive qualities can be cultivated on an individual and global scale using an interdisciplinary team of scientists. One of their studies has impacted the school at which I work; it is a “kindness curriculum” which is being implemented in our 4K classrooms. The Center also has projects in the Wisconsin prison system and works with returning veterans, cultivating healthy qualities of mind through mental skills training. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The work the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds is doing is immensely important, as is that of the <a href="http://ghi.wisc.edu/" target="_blank">Global Health Institute</a>. And inviting the Dalai Lama to be a participant in a panel discussion was an excellent way to bring attention to their work and their need for public support. However, the two panels, other than the inclusion of the Dalai Lama, were disappointingly lacking in diversity. The six panelists—five men and one woman—are all outstanding and well-regarded in their respective fields. But it would have been interesting to have heard from someone from Africa, for instance, or Latin-America to get a broader perspective.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">However, my goal was to hear the Dalai Lama in person; to experience his wisdom, his personality, his sense of humor for myself. It’s a huge job to attempt to change minds and change the world. But even in his seventh decade, this master philosopher and spiritual leader continually proves that he is up to the challenge. I only hope that those in power, such as the governor and the state legislature, are up to the challenge of listening with an open mind. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-27715279350949975552013-05-13T20:00:00.000-07:002016-01-17T15:34:06.971-08:00The Arsonists, a Play by Caleb Stone<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The intimacy of a small theater tends to create the feeling of being one of the characters in a play, even if just a silent, observant one. That was the feeling I had as I watched the Mercury Players production of Caleb Stone’s play, <i>The Arsonists</i> this weekend. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</span><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vhm66o9z0-k/UZGoCGIoo4I/AAAAAAAAAzs/1wKS_aD6SRg/s1600/ARSONISTS2x500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vhm66o9z0-k/UZGoCGIoo4I/AAAAAAAAAzs/1wKS_aD6SRg/s200/ARSONISTS2x500.jpg" width="155" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That feeling was even more pronounced because the focus of Stone’s story—the reaction of two small town couples to the horrendous murders and mutilations discovered to have been committed by one of their neighbors—is based on a true life incident that took place in Plainfield, Wisconsin in the 1950s.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The <a href="http://www.mercuryplayerstheatre.com/" target="_blank">Mercury Players Theatre</a>, which stages their productions at the Bartell Theater in Madison, Wisconsin, says on their website that they are “dedicated to creating exceptional productions of original, new and unusual plays.” They have made it their mission to “challenge participants and audiences to see themselves and their world with a fresh perspective.” I think they succeeded with <i>The Arsonists</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<code> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="169" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/65793520" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="300"></iframe> </code><br />
<code><a href="http://vimeo.com/65793520">The Arsonists TRAILER</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user5485444">Rob Matsushita</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</code>Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-24481203016407184782013-04-02T20:34:00.000-07:002016-01-17T15:34:26.152-08:00Fantasy Writer Dianne Gardner Kick Starts New Adventure <br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I recently became acquainted with the
work of Dianne Lynn Gardner, author of </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">a YA/middle-grade adventure fantasy saga titled
<i>Ian’s Realm.</i> The three books in the
series include: <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0615679706/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0615679706&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20%22%3EDeception%20Peak%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0615679706" target="_blank">Deception Peak</a>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0615760457/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0615760457&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20%22%3EThe%20Dragon%20Shield%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0615760457" target="_blank">TheDragon Shield</a>, </i>and the soon to be released <i>Rubies and Robbers.</i> The stories chronicle the coming of age of a
boy, Ian Wilson, who follows his father through a portal into an alternate
world where he is kidnapped by a tribe of dragon worshippers.</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-967oP3pLaPQ/UVueRAavJOI/AAAAAAAAAyQ/z0PCVsGIVIk/s1600/DecPeakCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-967oP3pLaPQ/UVueRAavJOI/AAAAAAAAAyQ/z0PCVsGIVIk/s1600/DecPeakCover.jpg" /></a><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What amazes me about Dianne, is that besides
being an imaginative writer, she’s also a fantastic artist. She created the
illustrations for all of her books, including the cover art. In a recent communication with her regarding
the work on her series, Dianne said, ”My research is extensive, including
sailing on a tall ship, walking a mile into a lava tube and constructing a
yurt, all of which I talk about with photos, videos and narrative on my blog.”</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <a href="http://dragontargeseries.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Dianne's blog</a> is presented as a scrapbook, a
visual journey into the mind of a writer and artist. The interactive elements </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pnX-RqwJb_Q/UVueE2x9iTI/AAAAAAAAAyE/tKvFJIUGlJE/s1600/1-me+painting2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pnX-RqwJb_Q/UVueE2x9iTI/AAAAAAAAAyE/tKvFJIUGlJE/s200/1-me+painting2.jpg" width="175" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dianne lives and works in the
Pacific Northwest. Among her other
artistic pursuits, she served as a portrait painter for the Washington
Renaissance Fantasy Fair for several years.
For that gig she was required to produce quality oil paintings in just
twenty minutes. Some people thrive on
working under pressure, but that is just amazing!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">More recently Dianne has taken on a
fund-raising project through Kickstarter, a popular website that allows
creative entities to raise the necessary funds to see their projects through to
completion. In the interview below, Dianne talks about her books, her art, and
how readers can become partners in her own creative saga through <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/960655665/help-us-fund-the-future-books-in-the-ians-realm-sa?ref=card" target="_blank">Kickstarter</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b><u>Interview with Dianne Lynn Gardner</u> </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">MCW:
<i>I understand you did the illustrations for your Ian's Realm Saga books,
including the covers. Which came first, the images or the words? </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0TfaOsTS7m4/UVueT4LPQXI/AAAAAAAAAyY/kKm_mFz7bGQ/s200/DragonShieldCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0TfaOsTS7m4/UVueT4LPQXI/AAAAAAAAAyY/kKm_mFz7bGQ/s200/DragonShieldCover.jpg" width="130" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">DIANNE: Normally, now, I write first and then paint
the illustrations for my books. But before I started writing the Ian’s Realm
series I began painting the dragon. I knew I was going to write a fantasy book
and I had wanted to paint a dragon for years. I guess I needed an excuse to
begin. Once the dragon took form the story came alive in my mind. From then on
I wore a footpath from my house to my studio painting and writing all in the
same day.<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>MCW:
Why dragons? And what do they represent in your books?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">DIANNE:
There’s only one dragon in the Ian’s Realm story. He is somewhat iconic,
representing an all-powerful evil that has mankind confused. However, if you
read the short story Meneka, you’ll discover where this dragon came from and
why there are dragon worshipers in the Realm. Oftentimes the real evil isn’t
what’s outside of us, but rather what is inside.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>MCW:
What age kids are drawn to your books and what kinds of reactions are
you getting from them about your stories?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">DIANNE: I targeted my books for boys 9 to 14 but I’m
discovering that my readers range from ages 9 to 90. Just as many adults are
reading them and enjoying them as the youngsters. What I really love is the
reaction that the boys are having. “Awesome” “Better than Harry Potter” “When’s
the third book coming out?” are quotes from some of my young readers. It’s
thrilling to hear that boys who don’t normally read are staying glued to my
book until they finish it.<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>MCW:
Have you illustrated anything other than your own books? Or would
you like to? </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">DIANNE: I’ve been an artist ever since I was young. I
primarily paint portraits and have done many commissioned pieces that are in
collections all over the world including J.R.R. Tolkein’s grandsons, the former
owner of the WA Renaissance Fantasy Faire and others. I used to be the resident
artist at the Faire in Gig Harbor. I also paint with Plein Air Washington, have
been a member of several organizations such as Oil Painters of America, The
Portrait Society of America and several local groups.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>MCW:
How did you begin/learn to do the kind of art that you do?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">DIANNE: I started with sculpture when I was young,
studied art in college and have studied under several master painters such as
Internationally known plein air painter Ned Mueller, Master Sculptor John Henry
Waddell, and Nationally known official portrait artist Michelle Rushworth and
others.<br clear="all" />
</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>MCW: Do you have other books in the planning
stages? What's next for you? </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">DIANNE: I’m currently working on </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cassandra’s Castle</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, a sequel to the </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>Ian’s Realm Trilogy, which will be published after Rubies and Robbers. It’s a historical
fantasy that takes place in the Realm with a little different flavor than the
other three books. The main character is Ian’s daughter, and she stumbles into
the same world her father did but in a different location and finds herself
wrapped up in a political uprising. The story was inspired by the Portuguese revolution
of 1908 and by the compelling character of Manuel II, the last king of
Portugal. It’s a little bit of a soft-love romance.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>MCW:
Explain how the Kickstarter promotion works and why people might want to
take part in it.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">DIANNE: There is a cutting edge crowd funding
movement going on right now that has sparked the formation of several very
successful entities such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo and several other websites.
The idea behind crowd funding is to introduce a project and ask for funding,
offering the donors certain levels of ‘perks’ for their donations. The artist
or author sets a goal, in my case $3000 and if the project is funded, the
pledges are collected and everyone gets their perks. If there aren’t enough
pledges, then nothing happens.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Many
creative projects are being funded this way. It’s pretty amazing to see the
amount of money that is being offered to get projects off the ground. It’s well
becoming the replacement of grants especially in the field of the arts, literature,
music, gaming and video.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Since
I have so much artwork, I decided to offer the original oil paintings that were
used for the first book Deception Peak, plus the cover illustrations for the
four short stories in the </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A Tale of the Four Wizards series as perks for this project.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There
are also smaller level rewards such as eBook and print book packages and signed
posters. There’s something for everyone, actually.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MCW: Dianne, thank you so much for taking the time
to chat with me regarding your work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I
encourage my readers to check out the <i>Ian’s
Realm Trilogy</i> and to visit <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/960655665/help-us-fund-the-future-books-in-the-ians-realm-sa?ref=card" target="_blank">Kickstarter</a> to see what you are offering to those
who wish to participate. But you’ll want to act quickly! The <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/960655665/help-us-fund-the-future-books-in-the-ians-realm-sa?ref=card" target="_blank">Kickstarter</a> campaign
lasts only through April 13. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0615679706/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0615679706&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20%22%3EDeception%20Peak%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0615679706" target="_blank">Deception Peak</a> </span></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">and<i> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0615760457/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0615760457&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20%22%3EThe%20Dragon%20Shield%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0615760457" target="_blank">TheDragon Shield</a></i> are both available through Amazon. </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-967oP3pLaPQ%2FUVueRAavJOI%2FAAAAAAAAAyQ%2Fz0PCVsGIVIk%2Fs1600%2FDecPeakCover.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-967oP3pLaPQ/UVueRAavJOI/AAAAAAAAAyQ/z0PCVsGIVIk/s1600/DecPeakCover.jpg" --><!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-0TfaOsTS7m4%2FUVueT4LPQXI%2FAAAAAAAAAyY%2FkKm_mFz7bGQ%2Fs200%2FDragonShieldCover.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0TfaOsTS7m4/UVueT4LPQXI/AAAAAAAAAyY/kKm_mFz7bGQ/s200/DragonShieldCover.jpg" -->Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-81720480578665651812013-01-16T18:22:00.000-08:002016-01-17T15:35:02.470-08:00Jennifer Chiaverini Hits the Road with Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Jennifer
Chiaverini kicked off her book tour for her new historical novel, <i>Mrs. Lincoln's
Dressmaker</i>, here in Madison this week.
Jennifer is best known for her <i>Elm Creek Quilts</i> series of books. If you
are a quilter you probably already know of her. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KanT96ToWC8/UPdaho5zXjI/AAAAAAAAAxY/_YezJpIOaJs/s320/Mrs.+L+Dressmaker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KanT96ToWC8/UPdaho5zXjI/AAAAAAAAAxY/_YezJpIOaJs/s320/Mrs.+L+Dressmaker.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">While she was
researching <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NLL9KU/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=musofamad-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B001NLL9KU%22%3EThe%20Lost%20Quilter%20(Elm%20Creek%20Quilts%20Novels)%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B001NLL9KU" target="_blank">The Lost Quilter</a></i>, Jennifer came across a post-Civil War era
patriotic "crazy" quilt that was attributed to Elizabeth Keckley, a
former slave and eventual dressmaker for and close confidant of Mary Todd
Lincoln. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Then when she was researching
<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004BDP070/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=musofamad-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B004BDP070%22%3EThe%20Union%20Quilters:%20An%20Elm%20Creek%20Quilts%20Novel%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B004BDP070" target="_blank">The Union Quilters</a></i>, she came across a memoir written by Mrs. Keckley. Thus was born the idea for this particular
historical novel, which is based on the relationship between Mrs. Keckley and
Mrs. Lincoln. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">If the crowd
at Barnes and Noble is any indication, Jennifer's usual following, made up
largely though not exclusively of quilters who love to read, or readers who
love to quilt -- has just swelled to include Lincolnphiles, history buffs, and
anyone who recently saw Sally Fields and Gloria Reuben in the new Stephen
Spielberg movie, Lincoln. Oh, yeah, and
Daniel Day Lewis was in it, too. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MdK3z5WRjvo/UPdZKHHMiXI/AAAAAAAAAxE/kBAhH6-jzwQ/s1600/Elizabeth_Keckly_UNC.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MdK3z5WRjvo/UPdZKHHMiXI/AAAAAAAAAxE/kBAhH6-jzwQ/s320/Elizabeth_Keckly_UNC.gif" width="185" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Elizabeth
Keckley is an intriguing figure in American history on several levels. First
off, she was born a slave. After becoming a seamstress, she bought her and her
son's freedom while living and working in St. Louis. Several years later she
moved to Washington D.C. where she was introduced to the wife of the newly
inaugurated President. She quickly took
on the role of Mrs. Lincoln's dress designer and maker as well as personal
dresser. That put her in the unique
position of becoming a friend and confidant to one of the most intriguing First
Ladies in our nation's history. She was witness to all sides of Mary Todd
Lincoln's complex moods and personality. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JPg0Hm93Vlw/UPde7o68XDI/AAAAAAAAAxs/KzKJMSmxQ-Q/s1600/MTLincoln.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JPg0Hm93Vlw/UPde7o68XDI/AAAAAAAAAxs/KzKJMSmxQ-Q/s200/MTLincoln.jpg" width="161" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mary Todd Lincoln</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Mrs. Keckley
was also a political activist, working to raise funds for an organization that <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">provided
basic necessities as well as emotional support to recently freed slaves and sick and
wounded soldiers</span>. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">She was a mother who made sure her son was well
education, but suffered his death as a soldier in the Union Army. And she was a
writer whose published autobiography, Behind the Scenes in the Lincoln White
House, revealed much about the private life of the enigmatic Mrs. Lincoln and provided much of the grist for Chiaverini's
novel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GmGBqRK6nYc/UPdY7FY_32I/AAAAAAAAAw8/qvKb1jVpgsc/s1600/Jennifer+Chiaverini.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GmGBqRK6nYc/UPdY7FY_32I/AAAAAAAAAw8/qvKb1jVpgsc/s200/Jennifer+Chiaverini.jpg" width="166" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jennifer Chiaverini</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0525953612/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=musofamad-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0525953612%22%3EMrs.%20Lincoln%27s%20Dressmaker%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0525953612" target="_blank">Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker</a> just jumped to the top of my "must read" list of
books, perhaps along with Jennifer Fleischner's non-fiction account, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0767902599/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=musofamad-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0767902599%22%3EMrs.%20Lincoln%20and%20Mrs.%20Keckly:%20The%20Remarkable%20Story%20of%20the%20Friendship%20Between%20a%20First%20Lady%20and%20a%20Former%20Slave%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0767902599" target="_blank">Mrs.Lincoln and Mrs. Keckley</a></i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://elmcreek.net/" target="_blank">Jennifer Chiaverini</a> has just begun her nine city book tour. But with an early book release, coinciding (not
accidently) with the Lincoln movie hitting theaters and with awards season, you can
bet that book tour will expand quickly.
Watch for Jennifer to come to your city.
She's passionate about her book, and just as entertaining in person as
she is on the page. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-KanT96ToWC8%2FUPdaho5zXjI%2FAAAAAAAAAxY%2F_YezJpIOaJs%2Fs320%2FMrs.%2BL%2BDressmaker.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KanT96ToWC8/UPdaho5zXjI/AAAAAAAAAxY/_YezJpIOaJs/s320/Mrs.+L+Dressmaker.jpg" -->Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-56678929967504122482012-12-06T15:22:00.000-08:002016-01-17T15:35:14.179-08:00Angela England's Backyard Farming On an Acre<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cKT1G4X9Alc/UL14aMEqaiI/AAAAAAAAAus/n7ZhL4TRoAM/s1600/angela+england+head+shot+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cKT1G4X9Alc/UL14aMEqaiI/AAAAAAAAAus/n7ZhL4TRoAM/s200/angela+england+head+shot+%25281%2529.jpg" width="133" /></a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Angela
England has long been an inspiration to me.
I got to know her online through mutual freelance
writing endeavors. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">She is the true
<i>"Renaissance"</i> woman, working with </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">her husband to raise five children
on a small plot of land in Oklahoma where they manage to raise diary
and meat goats, keep enough chickens for eggs and free-range poultry, and foster
an intensively productive garden for fresh fruits and vegetables--all while nurturing a writing and speaking career. Oh, and she's a trained doula (someone who provides education and support to women going through childbirth) and a licensed massage therapist. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> Along with her other freelance endeavors, Angela founded the awesome <a href="http://untrainedhousewife.com/">Untrainedhousewife.com</a> website in the
spirit of guiding others in recapturing the lost arts of rural living. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Her
most recent endeavor is <i>Backyard Farming On an Acre (More or Less)</i>, a book
filled with advice on eating healthy, saving money, and living sustainably in
the space available. The book has just
been released this month by Alpha Books, a division of the Penguin group.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NdA6l11tHU4/UL14lWjVh1I/AAAAAAAAAu0/s0KbCVEgOVo/s320/Backyard+Farming+Cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NdA6l11tHU4/UL14lWjVh1I/AAAAAAAAAu0/s0KbCVEgOVo/s320/Backyard+Farming+Cover.png" width="257" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In
her book Angela provides down-to-earth advice on acquiring land or using
available space, garden planning, info on tools, soil, and maximizing harvest,
including details on cultivating dozens of vegetables, herbs, fruits, and other
popular crops. She gives startup
instructions on buying and raising chickens and other poultry for eggs or meat;
goats and sheep for milk, meat, or fiber; and rabbits for fiber or meat, as
well as the essentials of animal care. Don't have a clue as to how to preserve
the food you plan to grow? Angela's
coverage on preserving is comprehensive. And if you are interested in
beekeeping, she has a year-round guide for that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Following
is an interview with Angela that she so generously participated in via email. Enjoy! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">MCW: <i> What brought you to write the book Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or
Less)?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Angela: A
friend referred her agent to my blog and I was approached about doing a similar
title right before I had Vivian. While we decided not to pursue that title
because of the impending delivery of my fifth baby, about a month after having
Vivian I ended up signing the contract for Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or
Less) and now the book is being released two days before her first birthday.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I
think this book is the culmination of my own continuining journey towards
increasing my family's dependance on the status quo. We certainly aren't where
we hope to be in the future, but we are striving towards that self-sufficient
living model.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">MCW: <i>Describe your one acre (more or less) farm. How long have you been working it?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">We
live on a quarter-acre within the city limits of our rural town. On that plot
we were able to keep backyard chickens, a large garden, and for a time, milk
goats. And of course - room enough for the kids to run amuck and chase the dogs
around. Our set up is very similar to the first sample diagram I show in the
book as a "what-if" possibility for people.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">MCW: <i>What is the best part of small plot farming for you?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Without
a doubt the best part is the unique sense of pride you get when you sit down to
a meal and realize that every single thing came you and your own efforts. It
happened recently when we sat down to a steak, baked potato, asparagus, and
pecan pie dinner. Everything we had either raised, grown, or collected from
wild-harvesting in our local area. Contrast that to the average American meal
which includes foods sourced from 5 different countries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">MCW: <i>Did you grow up on a farm? What is your background?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">My
background is as far from small homesteading as you can possibly be. I grew up
in Anaheim in Southern California, of Disneyland fame. Swimming pool, tire
swing, manicured lawn, bay window. The whole nine yards. After my family moved
to Oklahoma when I was a teenager, I met my husband. Through him and his family
I learned more about the freedoms that come with country skills most people
have long forgotten.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">MCW: <i>Describe what you mean by "intentional and self-sufficient living"
(which is the motto of your Untrained Housewife's Manifesto).</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Intentional
living to me is when you purposefully create the meaningful moments in your
life. I think this is especially important when you have children, but for all
us....you can choose the things that you most enjoy. Sometimes it means
breaking the easy habits - vegging in front of the TV and spending hours on
Facebook in order to free up time to talk a walk with your family through the
local park or wildlife reserve. Other times it takes that step of fear -
putting on a swimsuit no matter how many babies your body has birthed in order
to get your hair wet and splash your kids in the swimming pool. Choosing to
make the moment more important than how we may or may not be judged by others
gives us that intentional living I feel is so important.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The
other aspect is the self-sufficiency. I think that true self-sufficiency is a
misnomer, which I touch on in the Manifesto. Creating a truly fullfilling
self-sufficient life is about decreasing our dependance on faceless corporations,
while increasing our dependance on neighbors and community. Instead of buying
milk from a big box, shipped hundreds of miles, and coming from who knows
where, we drive to the local Amish dairy. We chat about the weather, and marvel
at how quickly the kids are growing. We recognize each other and are recognized
in return. And it doesn't matter much the price of grain in Timbucktoo because
I'm just going to the other side of the county line to get milk at $2 per
gallon from someone who's hand I can shake. That is a priceless feeling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">MCW: <i> In the book you write about everything from growing herb and vegetable gardens
to raising chickens and goats to butchering and building skills. How did you
learn so much about farming?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I
learned a lot of doing a lot. By failing. By trying again. By listening and
watching and spending time with others who are doing it. My father-in-law grew
up with no electricity - in fact the homestead where my husband grew up didn't
get electricity until 1980 and didn't add running water to the house until
1985. So the lifestyle there is very old-fashioned and I learned a lot just by
being respectifully attentive and pitching in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">MCW: <i>Do you think urban and suburban dwellers will find things of interest in your
book?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I
hope that they will feel empowered to try! One the obstacles for a lot of
people I've heard them express is the feeling that they have to do things
"the right way". They can't get started yet because they don't have
"all the stuff". One of the things I say in the book more than once
is that I'm not a purist, I am a get-it-done-ist. If it can be built from the
scraps of wood in the backyard, then that is what we use!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">MCW: <i> You have five young kids. How do you find time to manage even an acre's worth
of farming?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">One
of the best parts of living a hands-on, intentional lifestyle is that you are
doing so as a family. No one is excluded! When Sidney is tilling the garden,
and I am pulling weeds, the kids are having a contest to see who can find the
most rocks and get them out of the garden. I cannot express how much they enjoy
planting seeds, harvesting crops, and hearing what each vegetable is good for
and types of nutrients found in each. I have time because it isn't something
that is done apart from the kids, it is done side-by-side with the kids. Again,
a priceless feeling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">MCW: <i>You also run the website Untrained Housewife. What is that all about?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Untrained
Housewife is really a lot of what this book is about as well - helping people
recapture the lost knowledge of past generations. We have amazing contributors
who are DOING these things and share their wisdom for others to enjoy. It's all
about empowering people to take whatever their next step is with greater
confidence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">MCW: <i>What do you most want people to take away from your book?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">One
of the greatest goals of the book for me is to help people feel equipped for
the next leg of their own personal journey. Whether that is planting their
first ever herb garden, or starting a bee hive, or just eating fresh produce
that is in season, this book will help them figure out that next step. In the
introduction I call it a buffet of delicious choices - they can start with what
tastes good to them first, and then branch out to new selections when they feel
braver.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">MCW: <i> Thank you, Angela!</i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1615642145/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1615642145&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20%22%3EBackyard%20Farming%20on%20an%20Acre%20(More%20or%20Less)%20(The%20Complete%20Idiot%27s%20Guide)%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1615642145" target="_blank">Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or Less)</a></i> is available in paperback and ebook through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other popular outlets. </span></div>
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<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-NdA6l11tHU4%2FUL14lWjVh1I%2FAAAAAAAAAu0%2Fs0KbCVEgOVo%2Fs320%2FBackyard%2BFarming%2BCover.png&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NdA6l11tHU4/UL14lWjVh1I/AAAAAAAAAu0/s0KbCVEgOVo/s320/Backyard+Farming+Cover.png" -->Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-79376426694918277602012-08-28T19:15:00.000-07:002016-01-17T15:36:34.693-08:00What I'm Reading Now: The Heirloom Murders<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Kathleen Ernst is a Wisconsin author who may be best known
for her American Girl books. She had written eight <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/158485989X/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=158485989X&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20%22%3EDanger%20at%20the%20Zoo:%20A%20Kit%20Mystery%20(American%20Girl%20Mysteries)%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=158485989X" target="_blank">American girl mysteries</a>
featuring young heroines who are strong as well as smart. And in September
American Girl will be launching its newest character, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1593698836/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1593698836&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20%22%3EMeet%20Caroline:%20An%20American%20Girl%20(American%20Girls%20Collection)%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1593698836" target="_blank">Caroline Abbot</a>, created
by none other than Kathleen Ernst. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8npwwpEQFWc/UD14v1UyDyI/AAAAAAAAAtc/kyXkA3bENE4/s1600/K+Ernst.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8npwwpEQFWc/UD14v1UyDyI/AAAAAAAAAtc/kyXkA3bENE4/s320/K+Ernst.png" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">However, several years ago Kathleen moved her
mystery-writing skills to include adult novels.
She drew not only on her abilities as a writer, but on her own
experience as an interpreter and curator of the nation's largest outdoor historical
museum, <a href="http://oldworldwisconsin.wisconsinhistory.org/" target="_blank">Old World Wisconsin</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The result of that experience is the character Chloe
Ellefson, the fictional collections curator of Old World Wisconsin who finds
dead bodies and solves their murders. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>The Heirloom Murders</i> is the second in the Chloe Ellefson
series. The plot revolves around the missing Eagle diamond, a true-life gem unearthed
in Wisconsin in 1876. That's my favorite part about reading a book like this
one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k9CXbl6CzQA/UD14GIB9GDI/AAAAAAAAAtU/juEBcDuErBE/s200/Heirloom+Murders.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k9CXbl6CzQA/UD14GIB9GDI/AAAAAAAAAtU/juEBcDuErBE/s200/Heirloom+Murders.jpg" width="129" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As I've said in other posts, I love books that teach me
something new. The great thing about Kathleen's book is how she teaches about the
workings of an outdoor historical museum without being obvious about it.
Everything we learn about the gardens, how important heirloom seeds are (the
fact that they exist at all!), and the various people who work on-site is woven
naturally into the story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>The Heirloom Murders</i> switches its point of view between the
main character, Chloe, and the young small town police officer, Roelke McKenna,
who desperately wants a relationship with her, but doesn't seem to quite know
how to go about getting her to commit. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Both Chloe and McKenna have complex personal histories
that get in the way of a relationship, but also equip them with the skills and
character traits that make them good leads in the kinds of murder
investigations endemic to the "cozy" mystery genre. <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 18px;">The plot is wonderfully tangled and kept me guessing as to who had done what and how the "suspects" were connected. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The fact that I have visited Old World Wisconsin made the
story more personal for me. But for those who haven't been there, Kathleen paints a picture
of the site and the small towns nearby that puts the reader into the
story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/073872758X/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=073872758X&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20%22%3EThe%20Heirloom%20Murders%20(A%20Chloe%20Ellefson%20Mystery)%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=073872758X" target="_blank">The Heirloom Mystery</a></i> is a wonderful read for both mystery
and history fans. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.kathleenernst.com/" target="_blank">Kathleen Ernst</a> is also the author of <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0738720879/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0738720879&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20%22%3EOld%20World%20Murder%20(A%20Chloe%20Ellefson%20Mystery)%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0738720879" target="_blank">Old World Murder</a></i> and the <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0738733075/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0738733075&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20%22%3EThe%20Light%20Keeper%27s%20Legacy%20(A%20Chloe%20Ellefson%20Mystery)%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0738733075" target="_blank">Light Keepers Legacy</a></i>. </span></div>
<!-- Blogger automated replacement: "https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-k9CXbl6CzQA%2FUD14GIB9GDI%2FAAAAAAAAAtU%2FjuEBcDuErBE%2Fs200%2FHeirloom%2BMurders.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k9CXbl6CzQA/UD14GIB9GDI/AAAAAAAAAtU/juEBcDuErBE/s200/Heirloom+Murders.jpg" -->Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-21736857760451638692012-08-22T09:19:00.000-07:002015-12-22T10:04:29.814-08:00Class of 2016 Mindset List<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LNAvSEX5P_c/UDUGGD3pVAI/AAAAAAAAAtA/dO_YCkcLOxY/s1600/M&M's_Plain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LNAvSEX5P_c/UDUGGD3pVAI/AAAAAAAAAtA/dO_YCkcLOxY/s200/M&M's_Plain.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Did you know that today's college
freshmen think blue M&M's have always co-existed with red and brown ones? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In their world Martin Lawrence has
always been banned from Saturday Night Live.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Gene therapy has always been an
available medical treatment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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channel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">These are just a few of the
cultural references that Professor Tom McBride and Emeritus Director of Public Affairs Ron Nief,
both at Beloit College in Wisconsin, have included in their Mindset List for
the Class of 2016.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The popular and widely reported
list contains 75 references intended as a humorous way to clue college
professors into the "intelligent if unprepared adolescent
consciousness" of their newest students. McBride and Nief have been
producing their Mindset lists since 1998--when this group of incoming freshman
were just four years old. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4pOGr2mmK5Y/UDUFcFUxLdI/AAAAAAAAAs4/gVGL1JxsAt4/s1600/Mindset+List+Logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4pOGr2mmK5Y/UDUFcFUxLdI/AAAAAAAAAs4/gVGL1JxsAt4/s200/Mindset+List+Logo.jpg" width="128" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">According to the list, one of the
"<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">cultural touchstones that
shape the lives of students entering college this fall" includes this rather
disturbing gem: A significant percentage of them will enter college already
displaying some hearing loss. Wonder what causes that? Could it be earbuds? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">They
have also never seen an airplane "ticket," and they can't image
people carrying their luggage through airports--everyone knows you roll your
luggage! And this is not news to their
parents: They watch television everywhere but on a television.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">According
to McBride in the promo material for their book, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470876239/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0470876239&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20" target="_blank">The Mindset Lists of AmericanHistory</a></i>, one of the reasons they began the list was "to remind faculty
members and the general public that entering college students have a particular
and limited range of experiences.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But I
think it goes the other way as well. For instance, in the experience of today's
college freshmen, genomes of living things have always been sequenced. What
does it mean when the inquiring minds of tomorrow's scientists begin from the
assumption that they can access the genome of any living organism they wish to
study? And in their world, women have always piloted space shuttles and fighter
jets. Not a bad thing, I think.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">What's even more intriguing than the list itself is the interpretation of the author's finding offered in a "Guide" for college teachers and counselors. The authors seem to find today's entering college students to be tribal, addicted to technology, and nervous when not in touch with their cohorts via that technology. McBride and Nief question whether these young adults are spoiled by their parents or conned by them, having been "</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">sent off to college to pursue the American Dream, only to find out that their career path will be rocky and their debt load burdensome."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">But they do hold out hope as they report that "members of the Class of 2016 are subtly learning some good economic habits. The male members of the class are, not uncommonly, pretty good cooks of inexpensive organic food."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">You
can find the entire <a href="http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/" target="_blank">Mindset List</a> and the Guide in pdf format on the <a href="http://www.beloit.edu/" target="_blank">Beloit College</a> website. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">So…it is true, my dear niece
Samantha, that you and your new roomies have never eaten a tan M&M? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5870486588479143895.post-60110942536606648382012-08-11T18:52:00.000-07:002016-01-17T15:36:16.199-08:00Madeline Island and the Apostle Islands<div class="MsoNormal">
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(too) short vacation to <a href="http://www.madelineisland.com/" target="_blank">Madeline Island</a> this past weekend. Madeline Island is one of the<a href="http://www.amazon.com/mn/search/?_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&field-keywords=Apostle%20Islands&linkCode=ur2&tag=musofamad-20&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks%22%3EName%20Your%20Link%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22https://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=ur2&o=1" target="_blank"> Apostle Islands</a>
up on Lake Superior, just north of Bayfield, Wisconsin. I have no idea why they are named the Apostle
Islands, as there are 22 of them, but what's cool is that--except for
Madeline--the islands are all part of the National Park Service's protected Apostle
Islands National Lakeshore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H10NBfc5XNY/UCbIE5oBgvI/AAAAAAAAAsA/U9W8jaAET4g/s1600/View.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-H10NBfc5XNY/UCbIE5oBgvI/AAAAAAAAAsA/U9W8jaAET4g/s320/View.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View from our balcony on Madeline Island<br />
[Photo: Peggy Williams]</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Who knew there is such an idyllic
vacation spot right in my own state? A
lot of people, apparently. Turns out
Madeline Island is quite popular and you have to plan ahead to get affordable accommodations--at times any accommodations. We
managed a two night stay at the Inn on Madeline Island, which offers a variety
of housing options. We paid way more than we should have for a condo unit on the
lake that could have accommodated my entire extended family if we'd been inclined
to invite them. But this was our private weekend getaway.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Madeline is small, as vacation islands go. It's just fourteen miles
long, and from two to four miles wide.
So we were able to drive around the entire island during an afternoon's
outing. However, very little of the drive included lake views; the roadway is
mostly wooded, and a significant portion of the drive was on gravel. Our question of whether there is much wildlife on the island was answered when a deer ambled out and crossed right at the exact spot where there was a deer crossing sign. Guess the wildlife there is pretty intelligent. We also spotted a bald eagle, sandhill cranes, and a little weasel who had made his home, for better or worse, on the ferry dock. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The highlight of our
drive was Big Bay Beach at Town Park.
The beach is located on a spit of land--the thinnest of peninsulas
jutting out from land on which Big Bay State Park is located. That narrow peninsula creates a natural
lagoon between it and the main island that is fed by the waters of Lake Superior.
The lagoon is lovely and quiet, a perfect place for kayakers. To cross
the lagoon to the beach, you have to traverse a series of wooden foot bridges. The
sandy beach, while narrow, is quite long and lovely for walking. We were there on a Sunday afternoon in August
and there were surprisingly few people scattered along its edge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The Town of La Pointe on Madeline Island is small,
only about 230 people in the off season.
But it hosts a wonderful historical museum, a golf course, bike, moped,
and kayak rentals, shops, and some good restaurants.
We especially enjoyed the Pub restaurant, associated with the Inn on
Madeline Island, for dinner and late night pizza, and Grandpa Tony's for
cheeseburgers for lunch. The specialty in the area, of course, is whitefish. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">An old Ojibwe Indian cemetery across
from the harbor gives an intriguing glimpse into the effects of Father (later
Bishop) Baraga who created missions along much of the Lake Superior area. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">What I thought was especially cool
is that there is a Yoga retreat on the island, and besides all the local artists
endemic to any peninsula/island life, the public is invited to participate in
the Madeline Island School of the Arts, which offers weeklong seminars in
writing, photography, painting and quilting. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The highlight of our weekend was
the three hour sunset cruise around the Apostle Islands. It's amazing to see so many islands of
different sizes gathered all in one location and to think about the geologic
forces that formed and shaped them and to hear the stories of the human forces that interacted with them for better or worse. Devil's island is probably the most intriguing because of its many sea
caves. Kayakers were exploring the watery caves as we motored by. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://bayfield.org/" target="_blank">Bayfield</a>, the community on the
mainland that hosts the ferry dock, is a fun little community in its own right,
and easily twice the size, if not more, than La Pointe. There are quite a few more choices in
Bayfield for dining, but our favorite restaurant there was Greunke's First
Street Inn. The walls are filled with pictures of people who've eaten there (including John Kennedy, Jr.) and other memorabilia. And the food was fantastic, especially the in-season blueberry pie! </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8linPchAACU/UCbIZdvSkAI/AAAAAAAAAsM/uRVy9yortys/s1600/Bayfield.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8linPchAACU/UCbIZdvSkAI/AAAAAAAAAsM/uRVy9yortys/s320/Bayfield.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bayfield, Wisconsin [Photo: Peggy Williams]</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">There are no less than three
bookstores in this little town. For a little
shop, Apostle Island Booksellers had an amazing choice of local and regional
fiction and non-fiction, along with the usual popular and best sellers (I even
saw <i>Fifty Shades of Grey</i> on their front table!). And of course there are plenty of pottery and
art galleries and studios. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Bayfield is where you catch the lake
cruises, both the bigger boats and the privately skippered sailboats, as well as
much of the kayaking rentals. For those
who like musical performances, the Big Top Chautauqua is very popular.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Me…I'm happy to sit on the balcony
or out on the pier looking out over the water and daydreaming, or just strolling the beaches.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OCkC5f-ykDY/UCbI25X2JZI/AAAAAAAAAsc/xGOI7aYddUs/s1600/Sunset2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OCkC5f-ykDY/UCbI25X2JZI/AAAAAAAAAsc/xGOI7aYddUs/s320/Sunset2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunset from ferry dock in Bayfield, WI <br />
[Photo: Peggy Williams]</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I did find out that the little
ferry that runs every half hour between Bayfield and Madeline Island can haul
RV's. So…guess where book number three
of the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006CA06BU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B006CA06BU&linkCode=as2&tag=musofamad-20%22%3EOn%20the%20Road%20to%20Death%27s%20Door%3C/a%3E%3Cimg%20src=%22http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=musofamad-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B006CA06BU" target="_blank"><i>On the Road</i> mystery series</a> will take place…!
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Peggy Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15166681172173197983noreply@blogger.com0