Earthquakes, Hurricanes, and Birthdays

Hey everyone.  Figured I'd give an update since it's been a while and I had a few minutes to spare to let these fingers fly across these keys. I have to say, first, that it's been hard to sit still after nearly two months of constant moving and photographing and doing all kinds of wild stuff.  If I could travel for a living I would.  It's an experience that has ingrained itself into my skull for all time.  It's also hard trying to keep myself from going crazy in my mother's house. Since I am still jobless, because finding a teaching job in the northeast is harder than squishing diamonds with your fist, I am still inconveniently housed beneath my mother's roof. She's an awesome lady and I love her to bits, but I had that urge to leave before the road trip and now that the road trip has been completed I'm just about ready to fly the coop with fire under my tushy.  Unfortunately, it doesn't look like I'll be getting a full-time position anytime soon because of the economy so I'm temporarily still stuck here.  C'est la vie, it could be worse.

On another note, New York has been the center of much hustle and bustle these past few days.  There was an earthquake in Virginia recently that also effected parts of southern NY and although I might have felt it I was not here. I was in Niagara.  Yeah, more photos to edit...I know, you'll never see them until, I dunno...2014...if we're still after 2012. Speaking of 2012, I'm starting to viably believe that those Incas/Mayans/Aztecs might have had something going with that theory.  You know, since a tropical storm made landfall all the way up here.  We had catastrophic flooding in town and many a-tree down.  Thankfully none landed on my car.  I'd be shaking my fists at the powers that be if that happened.  Twice in one year? C'mon!  Anywho, yes, so we're cleaning up after that mess.  It could have been a lot worse and our lovely media hyped it up to epic proportions (typical), so I'm counting myself a lucky duck.

To follow the cycle of my title for this journal, my birthday is upcoming!!  I'll be a whopping quarter of a century old and determined not to slow down a lick for it.  September 2nd is the magical day. I'm looking forward to it just because the Faire goes for three days this weekend since Labor Day Monday means Faire is open then, too.  I'm hoping for nice weather since it's been a wash almost every weekend since opening.  Otherwise I don't think the day will be that big of a deal.  A year older.  Whoopee.  Feel the excitement.

That's my update for now.  Be well, kiddies!

Thanks for reading!

Book Review: Uncle Tom's Cabin by: Harriet Beecher Stowe - Written in response to the Fugitive Slave Act, Harriet Beecher Stowe never imagined that her book would be as popular as it became and continues to be. She plays the part of an omniscient narrator who serves as story teller most of the time and preacher during lulled moments of deep thought. She provides a rather complete view of slavery, involving bounty hunters, true work climates of different kinds, acquiring and selling of slaves, and the trials and tribulations that had to be suffered during this period of American history. Her outspoken ways are seen in more than just her denouncement towards slavery. She, very cleverly, allows females (or feminine-like men) to be the heroes of the book. Powerful females such as Mrs. Shelby, Aunt Chloe, and Cassy riddle the pages with solutions and decisive steps towards a better tomorrow. Eliza Harris leaps chasms to save her son and Eva gives the ultimate sacrifice in a Christ-like death to emphasize the choking conditions of slavery upon the pure. Even Tom, although he is male, has his feminine traits. He is the caretaker for little Eva, he does not engage in conversations of male regard, drink, or have aggressive male tendencies. He lives his life in his Bible and watches over children.

Similar to this above point, Stowe has, effectively, created caricatures out of all of her characters. To cover the extent of slavery through her eyes she had to force traits that are not always found in individuals (rather in groups) into a singular entity. So, for example, Simon Legree is the harsh example of a cruel master. His sympathies do not exist and he only wishes for larger hoards of cotton to further his campaign of sin through life. He lives in a home that reflects his black heart and is generally presented as a man that could be despised by all. This is adversely reflected by the heavenly and angelic Eva who is the epitome of Christian goodness and hope. Her life is full of clean white linen only stained by her thoughts of the "peculiar institution". Even the wild Topsy is tamed under her gentle touch and love. Her father, St. Clare, and characters like Mr. Shelby are somewhere in between. They don't like the idea of slavery, but they do very little about it because they are stuck within it. Their benevolence is only tainted by their ownership of men and women.

Uncle Tom is our main character and Stowe-declares him the "hero" of the story. He is child-like, simple, and as Christian as you can get. Even on the Legree plantation he gets the title of "Father Tom" towards the end of the novel. He gives thanks to the simple facts of life that he is alive and well and relatively happy even if he is separated from his family and those he has known all his life. He never has a poor word to say about anybody and he is so mild that we cannot help but feel for him when he is sent to Legree's plantation. We celebrate his crowning victories of Christian living and regret that they do little to change the world. He is the reminder that individuals cannot change things easily, but groups of people can. His message was carried on the wings of Stowe's novel to a million readers not only in America, but swiftly around the world.

When the book first appeared in serialized form and then was received upon the world as a novel there was much criticism and upset. Southerners raved that Stowe was a liar. Unfortunately it has become a stark fact that a lot of what she spoke of in her novel was true. Whether she received it from a direct source (like Josiah Henson's narrative) or was assumed from stories of helping slaves with the Underground Railroad, she was not a liar. Her characters might have been extremes, but she was not lying about the most important fact of the novel itself: that slavery is and always will be wrong and inappropriate. Even during the terrible years of slavery, Americans have always been uneasy about the contradictory nature of slavery. Here is the country of freedom and liberty and we hold men and women inside the confines of chains, brutality, and removal of certain inalienable rights. Our shame shows in the criticism that follows the novel in some editions of the book. More modern criticism is also provided that investigates the literature more so than just the time period.

My main concern is Stowe's closing comments to her novel where she emphasizes that the slaves should return to Africa, to make it a better land, more civilized and just, instead of staying in America and proving to the world that enslaved them that they are better than what they thought. How many slaves could still speak Nigerian? How many would be able to eke a living in any of the multitude of countries in Africa? Stowe's 'shoving off' of the prior slaves is indicative of a Northern attitude at that time. They would help the slaves, but it would seem that that was their limit. After it was the desire to get them off their land. It's a curious ending to the book considering how firm she was on the subject of emancipation and freedom for all.

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"I've met God across his long walnut desk with his diplomas hanging on the wall behind him, and God asks me, "Why?"
Why did I cause so much pain?
Didn't I realize that each of us is a sacred, unique snowflake of special unique specialness?
Can't I see how we're all manifestations of love?
I look at God behind his desk, taking notes on a pad, but God's got this all wrong.
We are not special.
We are not crap or trash, either.
We just are.
We just are, and what happens just happens.
And God says, "No, that's not right."
Yeah. Well. Whatever. You can't teach God anything."
Fight Club by: Chuck Palahniuk