Reading Lolita in Tehran

 

In 2003 Azar Nafisi's New York Times best selling book,  Reading Lolita in Tehran was published.  It's about a women's book club.  I love this book and I love book clubs and I'm sad I can no longer attend mine.  

In Iran, in 1997, there was a huge government shut down aimed, primarily, at women.  Nafisi taught literature at the University of Tehran but, after running afoul of the mullahs, she was sent home where she secretly formed a book club for young women who had been her students. 

They read banned writers like Jane Austen and banned books like The Great Gatsby, Ulysses, Mrs. Dalloway,  and The Thousand and One Nights.  

Nafisi writes, "They took off more than their scarves and robes...Our world in that living room became our sanctuary, our self-contained universe."  

We, here in the state of Florida, should take note of all of the above. 

Fast forward to this past Saturday.  I finally got to meet Rahman Shahidi.  He's from Iran and loves his country.  He told me how, growing up, his father was very respectful of women and about how his mother is a very strong woman.  He was excited to tell me how a brave new generation is working for change in Iran.  

But, for me,  the most amazing thing he said was that, while he was visiting his family in Iran a few months ago, he read my book Florida, a Love Story, and, after reading my bio, compared me to his "strong woman" mom. Wow!

***

If you want to know more about Rahman's story, listen to The Crossman Conversation podcast titled: The Iran Special with Shirin Taber and Rahman Shahidi.

***

The Intellectual Devotional

 

Many years ago, prior to Google (the source of all knowledge,) I was given a copy of this book.  Let me begin by saying it's not a devotional.  It's a book on the seven fields of knowledge,  History, Literature, Visual Arts, Science, Music. Philosophy, and Religion. 

In other words, hard stuff.  But here's the fun part - each "devotional" is one page long.  So, if you want to learn a little bit - but not too much - about anything - here it is.

I watch an episode of  "Young Sheldon" every night to help calm me down before bed time.  Recently the science brainiac kid Sheldon is driven into a state of depression by a class on philosophy.  As you know, science is driven by facts.  

Skepticism is any set of philosophical arguments intended to undermine our belief in some alleged body of knowledge. It doesn't answer questions.  It only asks them. How do you know your experiences are real?  How do you know that other people have thoughts, feelings, and experiences?

I am a person who needs some daily intellectual stimulation, but not too much. So I'm back to reading my Intellectual Devotional.  

If I don't have much interest in a particular subject in one of these seven fields of knowledge, no problem.  It's only one page long.   The next page is on the Italian Renaissance.

***

Rapture Anxiety

 

The Book of Revelation - Scaring the Hell Out of Us for 2000  Years!

In two weeks, my church is beginning a new sermon series on the Book of Revelation.  

Pastor David introduced it yesterday by discussing "Rapture Anxiety." This is considered by many mental health professionals as a type of religious  trauma.  He shared that he, himself, had Rapture Anxiety due to the way he was raised and asked those in the congregation to raise their hands if they suffered from Rapture Anxiety,  My hand shot up!

The fear of being "Left Behind" is real and has been exploited by various church leaders, writers and movie makers.  Generally speaking, the rapture, a fear based concept, is not a part of main line denominations. 

 In 2006 I was invited to lead a study on the Book of Revelation.  After explaining to Pastor Jayne all of the reasons I could not do this, she told me those reasons were why I needed to lead the study.  So, about thirty of us spent a couple of months studying the book.  And Pastor Jayne was right.  It was a big help.  

It's a difficult, mysterious book that's been interpreted in all kinds of ways.  If you Google it you'll find over 195,000,000 sites!  

Pastor David shared some great insights yesterday, including the fact that the word "Rapture" is not in the Bible.  He also discussed the tree of life in Genesis and the tree of life in in Revelation.  

The Beginning and the End.

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  In his final speech, shortly before he was murdered, he shared that he might not be around to see the Promised Land with us - but that we would see it. He shared,

Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory of the Coming of the Lord...  Words based on the Book of Revelation

*** 

Hugh Hefner and I Are Scrap Bookers

 On September 6, 2013, I wrote a blog entry titled Hugh Hefner is a Scrap Booker. It became one of my readers' all time favorites.  I love it too.  

According to the Guinness World Records - Hefner had the worlds's largest collection of personal scrap books.  At that time he was working on Volume 2,685. 

There are three words you would never use to describe me:  Crafty, spontaneous. or trendy.  

But, about a year ago, some family members cleaned out my attic.  We threw away almost everything but there were some fun surprises,; like photos, paintings and a box containing letters that my husband, Ken, had written to his mom.   A handful were written when he was in college, but the majority were written while he was in the Army and stationed in Germany from 1956 to 1958.  To my knowledge, they'd never been read by anyone but his mother.  

I'm sure one reason was  that Ken's handwriting was notrously atrocious. It ended up being about 80 letters, a few of them twelve pages long.  I began deciphering them in the early spring.  It took months to finish that phase.  Then I started designing two scrape books:  one small, at six pages and one larger, at about thirty pages.

I tried to keep them upbeat and positive, especially, since I was giving the books to my children for Christmas.  I learned so much that I had not known about this man to whom I was married for 44 years. 

The hard part, for me, was shopping at Office Depot for the right books and trimmings, a chore that's not in my wheelhouse. 

When Joel Stein interviewed Hugh Hefner in 2013, Hef was wearing his signature (but bizarre) uniform consisting of a captain's, hat and a red silk robe over black p.j.s and slippers.  But, as Joel Stein said, it was the perfect scarp booking outfit.  

I don't remember what I wore for this project, but I'm certain it wasn't red silk. 

***

 For the first time in at least two decades I am spending Christmas at home.  No traveling.  But all has worked out well and I've had many confirmations that I made the right decision. 

I was looking through some files yesterday and ran across a poem I wrote more than 20 years ago, but it's never seen the light of day - until today. 

All those years ago I first thought I was experiencing a UTI but it turned out to be much more serious and  eventually required surgery and yearly follow ups for ten years. 

I was very ill and in constant pain but I was fortunate to receive excellent care.  However, my urologist was a grump.  Initially it was Christmas time and he complained about having to work so hard.  I learned that many college students, for whatever reason, needed to see a urologist on Christmas break.  

It was hard to get him to understand that something was very wrong with me.  And when he finally did a procedure and discovered what was really happening, he was angry.  But he was an excellent doctor.  Just grumpy. He's been gone now for many years.  The urologist who took over his patients was also excellent - but not grumpy.  I'm grateful to both of them.

WINTER PARK UROLOGY                                

Long ago, when we would suffer with a complicated  leak,  The words that cheered my soul were,   

"... plumber's come to fix the sink."

Now that my plumbing problems are personal I find,   I sometimes wish my doctor was the warm and fuzzy kind.

But I guess I should be grateful he's a uro-techno geek,   and thankful he's the plumber who's come to fix my sink.

***

Famous Last Words

 In my book of prompts for writing, today's quoted Oscar Wilde, whose famous last words were sad. As he  lay dying in a cheap hotel room in Paris he wrote:

"This wall paper and I are fighting a duel to the death.  Either it goes or I do."

He died 1905 at age 28.  Wilde was a gifted poet and playwright. He wrote "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and "The importance of Being Ernest."   But he was not a good human.  His lifestyle destroyed him.

Many decades ago I helped with a production of Tennessee Williams "The Glass Menagerie."  I wasn't in the play but I led discussion groups with theater goers who wanted to stay and discuss what they'd seen,  Several times the discussion focused on how writers like Tennessee Williams and others could write great works giving us deep insight into human behavior, but were not able to translate this knowledge into enhancing their own lives.  

Just because we know and can beautifully interpret life's truths, doesn't mean we can automatically appropriate them ourselves.  

I have spent much of my life learning lessons from great writers and speakers, not just about what I do, but, more importantly, who I want to be.  

A few days ago the writing prompt urged me to write a new first sentence to begin updating my bio or resume.  Here's what I wrote:

83 year old woman seeking a meaningful life.  

***

The Last Holocaust Survivors

 

Ken and Robert

Robert Clary died this week at age 96.  He was one of the last few remaining holocaust survivors.  These people have been living testimony to how horribly we humans can treat each other.  He and his family were in their apartment in Paris one day and the next they were in a cattle car on their way to hell. 

Robert Clary was a young teenager when he and his parents and 10 siblings were sent to the death camps.  All of them, except Robert, died in the camps.  I heard him speak a few times.  He believed the reason he was spared was because he was an entertainer.  Small for his age, he sang and danced for the Nazis.  He was liberated from the Buchenwald death camp by American troops.

He was best known for his role in Hogan's Heroes but. along with acting, he was a singer, dancer, writer and painter.  He married Natalie Cantor, daughter of Eddie Cantor. 

Like many holocaust survivors he didn't go public about his horrific experience until around 1980 when holocaust deniers began to flourish.  

I met him in the 1980s in West Palm Beach when he spoke at an event organized by my husband Ken, bringing Jews and Christians together to remember this evil event in human history - to never forget.  He was a charming, calm, kind man.

Thank you, Robert Clary, for never letting me forget. 

***