Explore the world of parenting with Mei-Ling Hopgood

March 4, 2012 by

FROM THE TOP: Mei-Ling Hopgood’s new book; Inuit Moms with a baby (Mom on left wears traditional sealskin and Mom on right wears caribou); a fish head delicacy for dinner in Asia; a huge dragon-shaped kite; boys playing marbles in Vietnam; and Ache children in the rainforest of Paraguay. Photos from Wikimedia Commons.You’ll Have Fun with Mei-Ling
as Your Global Guide

Mei-Ling Hopgood is a top journalist who now teaches at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. That means she’s a lifelong storyteller, which you’ll discover when you dip into this book of stories circling the globe.

She is famous in her own right. Born in Taiwan and adopted by an American family at an early age, the bittersweet story of her reunion with her Taiwanese family as an adult appears in her earlier book, Lucky Girl. For most of her early life, Mei-Ling was a typical American: She grew up as a smart, enthusiastic Midwest school kid and even got a spot on her high school pom pom squad. When she became a journalist, her award-winning work appeared in newspapers and magazines nationwide. Before moving with her husband and children to the Chicago area recently, they lived for years in Buenos Aires. Given her global wealth of family experiences, Mei-Ling was fascinated by the vast differences in parenting choices as she circled the planet.

As she was completing her new book, How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm: And Other Adventures in Parenting (from Argentina to Tanzania and everywhere in between), two other controversial best sellers in this niche began making headlines and burning up websites: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and Bringing Up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting.
Given Mei-Ling’s background as a journalist, always seeking accuracy and balance, it’s not surprising that Mei-Ling’s book on global parenting now is widely compared by reviewers to Tiger and Bebe as the kinder, gentler book in this trio. Or, as Mei-Ling herself puts it in the conclusion of her book:

“I’ve reached a pretty optimistic conclusion after observing the adaptability and resilience of families in many circumstances and environments. Despite vast differences in beliefs, religion and culture, moms, dads and caregivers in most societies share a common desire: to raise children who can thrive in the reality in which they live. While no culture can claim to be the best at any one given aspect of parenting, each has its own gems of wisdom to add to the discussion.”

If you’ve read Tiger or Bebe, then you know that viewpoint marks Mei-Ling’s book as a distinctively different voice. As a parent myself and as editor of ReadTheSpirit, I was struck by how much fun I had flipping the pages of her new book. Among her journalistic talents, Mei-Ling has an eye for overall pacing, which means delivering those special gems that she promises at regular intervals to keep readers flipping page after page. Among those gems are little sections between chapters that are packed with fun facts. If you’re drawn to this book, it’s because you want to discover a whole Noah’s ark of fascinating stories about families. Mei-Ling understands that desire and delivers lots of gee-whiz stories.

We are publishing our coverage of Mei-Ling’s new book—this opening overview and, later this week, an author interview with Mei-Ling—in the same week that globally celebrated marketing guru Seth Godin has dropped his own new bombshell book about revolutionizing education. Seth’s book is more about rethinking our public schools, but it’s also really a book about parenting—how to raise kids who know more than a collection of facts, how to spark creative thinking in our children and how to make the world a more adaptable and compassionate place for future generations. In her book, Mei-Ling really is doing the same thing from a parent’s point of view.

What’s fascinating in comparing the two new books is that there are many converging conclusions. One of them is Mei-Ling’s and Seth’s recommendation that parents go back to some tried-and-true conclusions in global parenting. We’ll write about one of Seth’s conclusions—about toys and the nature of play—in a separate story today. But here are a few gems from Mei-Ling’s book …

KIDS TRULY WILL EAT ANYTHING
(AND THAT’S NOT A BAD THING)

American parents lose sleep over kids’ picky eating habits, but that’s something they’ve picked up from our culture. In fact, kids around the world eat nearly anything. Mei-Ling gives these examples:

IN THE ARCTIC: Aboriginal children in the Arctic traditionally start at a young age eating the raw meat and blood of deer, seal and other animals their parents kill. On frigid nights, when food supply and preparation is limited, families eat their kill as is in order to survive; raw meat has more vitamins than cooked meat. Anthropologist Nelson Graburn observed the efforts of Inuit parents, who now go to the grocery store as often as they hunt, as they tried to introduce children to niqituinak, an Inuit diet, which includes maktak (whale skin and blubber), qisaruaq (chewed cud in a caribou’s stomach), and foods fermented in oil or served raw. “Inuit uniformly reported that if you do not get a child to eat raw meat by the age of three, they never learn to like it,” he wrote.

IN TAIWAN: Friends and family from my birthplace recall some childhood favorites: fish eyes, salted watermelon seeds, dried cuttlefish, fried anchovies, wasabi peas, bean pops, lotus seeds, jellyfish, sea cucumber and eel.

AROUND THE WORLD, THE OLD TOYS ARE THE BEST TOYS

Seth Godin and Mei-Ling both put in a plug for toys that have circled the globe for thousands of years. One reason, Seth points out, is that these toys are far less structured than the step-by-step games and kits American children often receive from parents today. Mei Ling reports on several toys, including:

KITES: The exact origin of the kite is unknown, but some legends say that a Chinese farmer tied string to his hat to keep it from being blown by the wind. Around 200 BCE, General Han Hsin of the Han Dynasty flew a kite over the walls of a city he was attacking, according to the American Kitefliers Association. The kite, which has been used by adults for everything ranging from carrying bait out to sea in Micronesia to flying military banners and studying weather, remains a popular toy in many countries and cultures today.

MARBLES: Historians believe that this toy dates back to the Harappan civilization in the western part of South Asia (which flourished around 2500 BCE and is one of the earliest-known civilizations); stone marbles were found in an excavation site near Mohenjo-Daro. In ancient Greece and Rome, children played games with round nuts, and Jewish children played games with filberts at Passover, according to iMarbles.com.

TALENTS OF TOTS AROUND THE WORLD WILL SURPRISE YOU

Both Seth and Mei-Ling argue that kids can do far more than parents allow them to do in typical American households and schools. Mei-Ling has a section of her book, called “Talents of Tots,” which includes these examples:

Ache children by the age of eight can find their way in the seemingly impenetrable (to outsiders) trails (consisting of “bent leaves, twigs and shrubs”) in the rain forests of Paraguay. They also get their first bow and arrow at the age of two, though they won’t master the hunt until around ten years old.

Zapotec kids in Oaxaca, Mexico, can name many of the hundreds of local flora as well as some seasoned ethnobotanists.

In the grasslands of Tibet, kids as young as six tend to herds of dzo (a type of cattle), yaks sheep, and other animals.

Read Part 2 of our coverage: our author interview with Mei-Ling Hopgood.

Remember: How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm: And Other Adventures in Parenting (from Argentina to Tanzania and everywhere in between) is on sale now at Amazon.

You’ll also want a free copy of Seth Godin’s new book about revolutionizing education.

Care to read more about worldwide peacemakers?

ReadTheSpirit publishes   ‘Blessed Are the Peacemakers’ by Daniel Buttry, a collection of real-life stories about the men, women and children who are taking great risks around the world to counter violence with efforts to promote healthier, peaceful, diverse communities.

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Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Peacemakers will want to see ‘Enemies of the People’

February 29, 2012 by

“BROTHER NUMBER TWO” (left) admits he was a co-architect of mass murder during the Khmer Rouge regime. After years of investigative work by Cambodian investigative journalist Thet Sambath (right), he talks about his motives in Enemies of the People. Photo courtesy of the film production company.Leaders around the world still are sorting out the aftermath of the vast crimes against humanity that swept through Cambodia in the 1970s. Simply look at today’s New York Times front-page story headlined ‘Mythic Warrior Is Held Captive in an International Art Conflict.’ At the core of the dispute is a sandstone masterwork with a Sotheby’s catalog estimate of $2 million to $3 million that likely was stolen from Cambodia in the lawless mid-1970s. Investigators have found the 5-foot-tall statue’s stone base, including the figure’s original feet, at a temple 60 miles northeast of the world-famous Angkor Wat temple complex.

Even more important than sorting out reparations from art thefts in that era, the first of the Khmer Rouge war criminals was not convicted until 2010 and human-rights investigations continue in Cambodia to this day. Many investigators and journalists—like those you will meet in the historic video record in ‘Enemies of the People’—are still working to pierce the veil of secrecy about what happened during the bloody reign of Khmer Rouge terror. In that era, countless Cambodians who are alive today were brutally tortured—and 2 million Cambodians were murdered. (Some estimates place the death toll slightly higher or lower.)

The fact that few perpetrators have been brought to justice is shocking.

Why do we care? Why should you care? ‘Blessed Are the Peacemakers’ is a major project through ReadTheSpirit to encourage reconciliation efforts around the world. Headed by Daniel Buttry, an international peace activist who works extensively across Asia, we regularly report in our pages on a wide range of global peacemaking efforts. Buttry was not involved himself in the ‘Enemies of the People’ documentation project—that was British filmmaker Rob Lemkin and Cambodian journalist Thet Sambath—but the release of collected ‘Enemies’ materials in an extensive new DVD set is exactly the kind of global peacemaking effort we all want to encourage at ReadTheSpirit.

IN THE FILMMAKERS’ OWN WORDS:
‘PEOPLE TO PEOPLE RECONCILIATION’

In keeping with this important mission, in the summer of 2011, we published ‘4 Reasons We Must Watch PBS’s Enemies of the People.’ That 2011 article featured an interview with Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath, the filmmakers who produced this daring documentary.

Thet Sambath risked his life over many years to find and interview Khmer Rouge killers. His body of work paved the way for the creation of this full-scale documentary film along with Rob Lemkin. Sambath has been a leading investigative journalist for a Cambodian English-language newspaper, the Phnom Penh Post. In 2011, he won the prestigious Knight International Journalism Award. The Sambath-Lemkin documentary, now, has racked up a whole shelf of additional awards and honors. Now, Sambath and Lemkin are working on a second film, as well. Your purchasing and spreading the news about their first project will help them in their ongoing efforts.

What are their motives? In our 2011 interview, Thet Sambath clearly explained why this film differs from many other movies about crimes against humanity. Truth be told, many movies focus more on the horrors, gore and suspense of such crimes throughout world history. The focus in ‘Enemies of the People’ is squarely on reconciliation and peacemaking. Here is part of our Q-and-A exchange between ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm and Thet Sambath in 2011 …

DAVID: Thet, you’ve risked your life to tell the truth about the Khmer Rouge era and its legacy. Now, what do you hope your film will achieve?

THET: We would like there to be people-to-people reconciliation between victims and perpetrators. There are thousands of Khmer Rouge perpetrators in Cambodia and abroad including the U.S. We want it to be possible they can all come forward and confess.

DAVID: Why is that so important?

THET: So the new generation can understand what happened and why. We must never repeat the mistakes of the past. We need to move forward to a brighter future.

DAVID: What do you want Americans to do?

THET: I want them to learn more about the history. If it were not for Nixon and Kissinger’s secret and illegal bombing of my country it is unlikely the Khmer Rouge would have been as harsh as they were. For 10 years after the downfall of Pol Pot, Americans continued to support the Khmer Rouge. That’s because America supported China against the Soviet Union. The same kind of China/Soviet Union split existed inside the Khmer Rouge. And that’s what caused the incredible violence. So I want Americans to understand their government’s role in our tragedy.

GET THE DVD, WHILE IT’S AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLEMENTS

One of the unfortunate truths about today’s media market, as ReadTheSpirit has extensively reported, is the fact that the delivery of movies to American viewers is changing dramatically right now. That means DVD sales in the U.S. are declining and many important DVD titles come and go—and potentially may vanish from the market without warning. We hope that Lemkin’s and Sambath’s supplement-stuffed DVD edition will continue to be on sale indefinitely. We hope so, but word of warning: If this film intrigues you, get over to Amazon now and order your own copy of Enemies of the People (2 Disc Special Edition) while it’s still on the market. This particular edition of the film includes lots of supplemental material that will help orient you to the Khmer Rouge era—and also to the aftermath for survivors of this massive crime against humanity. There’s even a booklet in this current edition that is quite helpful to those who want to understand this tragic era—and the potential road ahead that we all may encourage in seeking peace.

REVIEW by ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm

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Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Ready for a change? Try the ancient Book of Changes.

February 21, 2012 by

LONGSHAN TEMPLE in Taipei City, Taiwan, a world-famous, centuries-old temple for Asian spiritual traditions.Ready for a change this spring? Take a look at the ancient Book of Changes, better known as the I Ching. Today, we are recommending an artful new edition, The Little Book of Changes: A Pocket I Ching, rendered for a general English-language readership by Peter Crisp for Mandala Publishing.

You certainly won’t be alone in reaching for this text. The I Ching is now so popular in the West that Amazon lists more than 2,000 books with “I Ching” in the title.
So, why pay attention to any particular edition of the 3,000-year-old classic? We are recommending Crisp’s edition, because it is a handy little introduction that tucks easily into a pocket and is fun to explore in idle moments in one’s otherwise busy day.

Just how popular is I Ching in the West?
Elements of the divination system are far more widely seen and heard than understood. Remember all of the weird-looking symbols for the Dharma Initiative on the hit TV show, LOST? They borrowed from the I Ching. Enjoy science-fiction writers like Philip K. Dick and Douglas Adams? Then you’ve run across some I Ching references. George Harrison toyed with it. Wonder Woman dabbled in it. Pink Floyd’s 1967 song, Chapter 24, is a free-form rendering of the 24th “chapter” or “reading” in the I Ching. Feeling ready for a change? Both Pink Floyd and the actual I Ching declare that change is good—and is absolutely inescapable in our cosmos—so we might as well get ready for more of it.

Dharma Initiative logos in ABC’s LOST drew on I Ching symbolism.Beyond pop culture, the I Ching’s influence in the West rests largely on the heavy-duty influence of psychologist Carl Jung. It’s hard to find a recent version of the classic texts without some reference to Jung, who discovered the I Ching himself in the 1920s and frequently used it as a teaching illustration of non-Western discernment.

In the 1940s, Jung wrote a famous introduction to an English rendering of the I Ching—an introduction now widely excerpted across the Internet and in Peter Crisp’s handy new paperback as well. If you track down a complete version of Jung’s lengthy introduction in a library or in an online database, you’ll likely be offended at some of Jung’s biased claims about Asian culture. Jung freely admits that he doesn’t know the Chinese language and has never traveled to China, so perhaps we can forgive his sweeping ignorance. (Want an example? In one passage, Jung claims that the Chinese have never understood science—buying into Western assumptions that Asians are mired in what Jung calls “primitive superstition.”)

What makes Jung’s explorations of the I Ching worth revisiting—at least the quotable portion of Jung’s text—is that he really did want Westerners to break free from their linear thinking. In the I Ching, Jung found a system that is packed with what amounts to time-tested, thought-provoking poetry. When he tried it himself, he found that the I Ching breaks through Western notions that wisdom depends on step-by-step logic. So, Jung occasionally demonstrated the system in public talks. He encouraged people to try reflections based on the I Ching’s cryptic signs and phrases that might open new spiritual connections.

Jung’s introduction to the I Ching—as judiciously quoted in Crisp’s paperback—is an argument that’s not easy to dismiss. To this day, millions of men and women across Asia use a complex array of divination techniques to reduce stress and sort out crucial decisions about their lives.

The last time I visited Asia, as Editor of ReadTheSpirit, I filmed a short video clip at the centuries-old Longshan Temple in Taipei. This world-famous house of worship contains shrines and small centers for spiritual practices from several different Asian traditions. The video clip, below, shows a woman casting curved pieces of wood called Jiaobei on the temple floor as part of a divination system called Kau Cim. The wooden pieces have a flat side and a curved side. Watching how they land in several throws either confirms or calls into question the messages the woman randomly draws from a sheaf of tall, slender sticks held in a large metal vase.

In Peter Crisp’s version of the I Ching, he recommends that readers start by casting a handful of coins, then make notes on the patterns as they land to help choose the appropriate page of the I Ching. Of course, these specifics are different than the Longshan casting of Jiaobei, but the principles are similar. Carl Jung himself chose the coin-casting method that Crisp explains to readers.

Does it seem odd to recommend such a book to an American audience that is, by definition, overwhelmingly Christian? As Editor of ReadTheSpirit, I think it’s an inexpensive and insightful snapshot into Asian spiritual culture—essentially the same argument that Jung made. After all, the influence of Asian culture is rising all around us. In these turbulent times, we might as well toss a few coins, flip a few pages—and see if these 3,000-year-old lines might spark a fresh appreciation of change.

No video screen in your version of this story? You can jump to YouTube to watch it there. .

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Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Love Rumi? Meet Hafiz. And, turn, turn through a year

February 3, 2012 by

MOSAIC CEILING inside the pavilion at the Shrine of Hafiz (or Hafez) in Shiraz in southwest Iran.At ReadTheSpirit, we bring readers news about remarkable books and films that raise spiritual questions—and inspire us to connect with our world. The story of Rumi, who is a part of this book review, is profiled online in Interfaith Heroes 1.

No less a giant of American literature than Ralph Waldo Emerson called Hafiz “the prince of Persian poets,” so Hafiz’s poetry certainly is no flash-in-the-pan discovery. At this point, Hafiz is not as famous as the great Rumi, who these days journalists describe as “the world’s best-selling poet in English.” If you’re reading this review, you almost certainly know a bit about Rumi’s short, mystical poems with spiritual yearnings that often seem to ache long after you’ve finished reading his words. Well, if you have come to appreciate that general style of Persian poetry, then you’ll find Hafiz another delightfully scented breeze from the East. You’ll enjoy Daniel Ladinsky’s A Year with Hafiz: Daily Contemplations.

Rumi’s eloquent lines on love tend to wind up on greeting cards, calendars, posters and other media designed to lift one’s spirits and express one’s love for others. Of course, Rumi’s range was far larger than thoughts of love. To explore the grand vistas of Rumi’s work, we also highly recommend Coleman Barks and his Big Red Book collection of Rumi in English.

Hafiz, in this new collection from Ladinsky and Penguin, comes to us fully flowered in 365 selections. For Emerson, and many other Hafiz fans down through the centuries, the attraction in Hafiz’s works is a relentless quest for his own spiritual voice. Especially in these English-language renderings of Hafiz by Ladinsky, Hafiz comes across as downright defiant and sometimes darkly funny in that quest for truth, wherever that journey might lead.

Hafiz’s tomb with its distinctive pavilion in Iran.If you’re confused by the one-word name in the book’s title, it’s possible that you’ve run across him as Hafez, another way of transliterating the Arabic into English. His full name and title sometimes is given as: Khawaja (which means Master) Shamsu d-Din Muhammad Hafez-e Shirazi (meaning that he was born in Shiraz, which today is in southwest Iran). He lived and died in the 14th Century. (Rumi lived in the 13th Century.) You may recognize that Hafiz, the core of his name, is the same word used to refer to someone who has memorized the entire Quran. Tradition holds that this poet called Hafiz also accomplished that feat, but little historical detail can be documented about his life.

In the 19th Century, Emerson wrote that one of Hafiz’s greatest gifts was “his intellectual liberty, which is a certificate of profound thought. We accept the religions and politics into which we fall; and it is only a few delicate spirits who are sufficient to see that the whole web of convention is the imbecility of those whom it entangles—that the mind suffers no religion and no empire but its own. It indicates this respect to absolute truth by the use it makes of the symbols that are most stable and revered, and therefore is always provoking the accusation of irreligion.”

More than a century after Emerson wrote that assessment of Hafiz’s spiritual wisdom, that passage still stands up as a good summary of Hafiz’s appeal. If you’ve tasted Rumi and you’re restless for more from this branch of global culture—then spend a year with Hafiz. Sure, the daily entries all are marked with dates on the calendar, but start your year anywhere and circle back around. Rumi, Hafiz and their friends would smile at the turning.

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Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Want hope? Peacemakers caught the world’s eye in 2011

December 26, 2011 by

“CARDINAL SIN” Banksy’s latest prophetic artwork. Image courtesy of Banksy’s own public domain website.

Our new book, Blessed Are the Peacemakers by global peace negotiator and teacher Daniel Buttry, is packed with 80 inspiring profiles of men and women who staked their lives on the hope that peace is possible. Many of the heroic peacemakers whose stories appear in Buttry’s book wound up in front-page news in 2011. That’s a testament not only to their lives—but to the world’s deep desire for peace. These figures move us, often in stunning ways. Here are a few of the men and women profiled in Buttry’s book who made headlines in 2011 …

WORLD CELEBRATES VACLAV HAVEL
CONSCIENCE OF VELVET REVOLUTION

As a journalist, ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm landed in Prague so soon after the 1989 Velvet Revolution overthrew Czechoslovakia’s Communist government that a few of the brand new government agencies still were operating out of activists’ apartments, church halls and other temporary facilities. Everything and everyone was in motion.
Traveling Prague’s historic byways to find and interview these successful revolutionary leaders for American newspapers, one image was constant—the friendly photo of Vaclav Havel, shown at right, with the slogan: “Truth and love must conquer lies and hate.” Of course, the posters were all in Czech, but everyone—including millions around the world—understood the slogan. That first word “Pravda” was infamous globally as the name of the Communist newspaper out of Moscow that contained anything but the truth. Havel was accomplishing something far larger than a change of government with his slogan. He was resurrecting our faith in “truth” itself in global relationships. He became the leader of the new, free republic essentially by acclamation and was a shining star to peacemakers around the world. In Buttry’s book, he writes that “a man with an artist’s soul brought down this soul-less system.” Before his death on December 18, 2011, Havel’s proudest accomplishment was that he lived to see a young generation come of age in eastern Europe who, as Havel put it, were never stunted by the “destruction the Communist regime wreaked upon our souls.” You can read Havel’s whole story in Blessed Are the Peacemakers.

ZARGANA, A.K.A. ZARGANAR OR ‘TWEEZERS,’ IS FREE AS A BIRD

One of the most-celebrated news stories among peacemakers in 2011 was the release from a Myanmar prison of the fearless comedian whose name, however it is spelled in English, means “Tweezers.” Here is our story from October about Zargana’s release, including some samples of Zargana’s humor. At that point, the news of his release was hopeful, yet tentative. Might he wind up back behind bars as quickly as he was freed? Zargana refuses to tame his tongue. Then, in December U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Burma and the situation in this harsh military dictatorship continued to look brighter. The most famous of all Burmese peace activists, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, is becoming ever more active in politically challenging the country’s military bosses. By late December 2011, Zargana carried the story of oppression in Burma around the world. Granted his first-ever passport by the military government, and with assistance from Clinton, Zargana made multiple stops in his global tour.

BANKSY ENDS 2011 PROPHETICALLY RATTLING THE POWERFUL

Banksy is famous for the prophetic use of his art—far beyond what other popular artists attempt. His outdoor art often is illegal. He gives away his imagery with abandon. He has rattled the cages of the rich and powerful over and over again. You can read Havel’s whole story in Blessed Are the Peacemakers. In March 2011, ReadTheSpirit reported on Banksy and reviewed the startling new documentary movie about him. With his Oscar nomination for that movie and showers of praise around the world, we might have expected Banksy to close out 2011 cruising comfortably on his fame. Then, in December 2011, Banksy is back in global headlines for unveiling an angry artisitc rebuke of Catholic leaders’ secrecy in the sexual-abuse scandal. Called “Cardinal Sin,” Banksy has taken a traditional bust of a Catholic cardinal and overlaid the face with squares of tile. From a distance, the effect is the pixilated obscuring of the cardinal’s face that is common in many TV news reports about criminals. This literally in-your-face piece is on display at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool as 2011 closes.

OTHER PEACEMAKERS IN THE NEWS: GBOWEE AND MORE …

As 2011 closes, with so many global conflicts unresolved, billions of men, women and children around the world yearn for peace. As a vocation, peacemaking is a noble if dangerous calling. So, as 2012 dawns, peacemakers will continue to be headline news. Please, help Daniel Buttry’s worldwide activism on behalf of peace. Buy a copy of Blessed Are the Peacemakers. And, please, feel free to email [email protected] when you see headlines about peacemaking in 2012.

Among others in the news in 2011 …

Churchgoers across the U.S. celebrated the Nobel Prize for Leymah Gbowee. Millions of church members know her story through grassroots showings of the stirring movie, Pray the Devil Back to Hell.

Buttry was honored at a major seminary and closed his 2011 schedule of public appearance with the Good News that the prophetic claim of old—“a child shall lead them”—is still true around the world.

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Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

Two new DVDs on tragic (and not so tragic) childhood

December 4, 2011 by

Actors portray Hana and George Brady, living in Czechoslovakia, as their family was caught up in the Holocaust in the 1930s and 1940s. Image courtesy of Menemsha Films.HOLOCAUST LESSONS FOR AND ABOUT CHILDREN
FLOW FROM NEW-TO-DVD INSIDE HANA’S SUITCASE

Menemsha Films, which earlier brought us the delightful Nora’s Will, has released a remarkable DVD that is both a celebration of the endurance of Jewish hope for religious freedom—and a stirring reminder of fresh connections we can make even 70 years after WWII.

What makes Hana Brady’s story so remarkable in its reach is that this true story circles the globe: Hana’s life story—nearly extinguished in the gas and flames of Auschwitz—winds up connecting children at a Holocaust educational center in Japan with the lives of the Brady family, who were devastated in the Shoah and later scattered to North America.

Most importantly, this is a pitch-perfect choice to use with children in educational programs about World War II, the Holocaust—or in classes with general themes on war, peace, remembrance and reconciliation.

In fact, the core of this story involves a diverse circle of school children who narrate much of the movie. The Japanese group that began this global quest is dubbed The Small Wings. These were children who wanted to find a project that they and their teacher could undertake to help the world remember the Holocaust and the horrors of World War II. Along the way, a woman who is a Hiroshima survivor comes and helps at the educational center. Anyone familiar with educational efforts on these complex issues will be pleased to hear that the Hiroshima survivor also gives a pitch-perfect description to the children of the major differences between the horrors of nuclear bombing and the Shoah. Clearly, someone with great experience in teaching these lessons had a strong hand behind the writing and final editing of this documentary.

THE BASIC STORY: A real-life Japanese school teacher, who appears throughout the film, sparked this entire story by gathering artifacts for a Holocaust educational center she was developing along with a group of girls and boys called The Small Wings. After applying to receive Holocaust artifacts, a large box arrives with a handful of artifacts, including a battered brown suitcase labeled with Hana Brady’s name. The teacher and her students begin searching for the story behind the suitcase. What they discover will surprise you. They wind up unlocking—and showing us in the film—a whole series of deeply moving memories and other related artifacts and photos. Finally, Hana’s surviving brother George travels to Japan to meet the Japanese students. Eventually, books about Hana—and now this documentary—circle the world to help children learn the real cost of unchecked horrors against humanity like the Shoah.

PURCHASE THE DVD FROM AMAZON: Inside Hana’s Suitcase: The Remarkable True Story Comes to Life is available for ordering now from Amazon.

VISIT MENEMSHA WEBSITE: There’s a Study Guide under the Downloads link in the left margin. Plus, more information on the documentary and Hana’s brother.

A STARTLING MOVIE NOT FOR KIDS: DADDY LONGLEGS
TELLS TRUE STORY OF AN OUT-OF-CONTROL BUT LOVING FATHER

Now for something quite different, but also concerning the ironies, wounds, adventures and potentially inspiring memories flowing from childhood: Daddy Longlegs, released on Dec. 13 by Zeitgeist KimStim, is based on the true childhood experiences of independent filmmakers Josh and Benny Safdie.

The best way to envision this movie is to imagine Cosmo Kramer from the hit comedy series Seinfeld suddenly finding that he will become the full-time caretaker of his two small sons for a two-week period each year. Of course, Kramer never was married and never had children in the Seinfeld series, but Ronald Bronstein (who plays the father in Daddy Longlegs) could easily be Kramer’s long-lost brother. Like Kramer, Bronstein’s “Lenny” is tall with a long, funny, deeply lined face and an uncontrollable shock of hair on top. Like Kramer, Lenny is full of wild schemes that should produce a happy life—and often backfire in the gritty streets and high rises of New York City.

For anyone who is a fan of Seinfeld, and “gets” that style of wild-and-inventive urban humor, then Daddy Longlegs is a sometimes-amusing and sometimes-moving look at what a real-life Seinfeld world would do to children. You’ll laugh. You’ll worry. You’ll cry. Lenny is far less funny than Kramer when two “real” kids’ lives hang in the balance!

Nevertheless, for anyone who went through a traumatic childhood with a truly out-of-control parent, this can be a healing film. Especially watching the “extras” with the adult Safdie brothers working on the production of this movie, one realizes that—for all the weirdness their father showered down around them—they loved this always-down-on-his-luck Dad. Even in the film’s final scenes, you won’t know whether to be angry, to shed a tear or to smile in delight. Perhaps all three responses are appropriate as the final credits roll—and that’s the mark of great filmmaking.

PURCHASE THE DVD FROM AMAZON: Daddy Longlegs will be released on Dec. 13 by Zeitgeist KimStim, but is available for pre-order now.

WANT MORE ABOUT GREAT NEW MOVIES?

We just published reviews of 3 new-to-DVD and Blu-ray movies that are perfect for holiday gift giving.

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Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

How your congregation can capitalize on class warfare

October 13, 2011 by

Iraq War scene from the new documentary The Shock Doctrine.Class warfare!?!
At ReadTheSpirit, we report on religion, diversity and cross-cultural issues—so, for example, we just published a week-long OurValues series exploring Americans’ attitudes toward the Occupy Wall Street protest movement. One major question keeps arising: Is this class warfare?

Our answer: While no one is firing actual bullets, the war of words clearly is raging on both sides. Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements both have marched in our streets. Most recently, we’ve seen the Wall Street protest banners. And, as OurValues just reported, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is dismissing Wall Street protesters as “jealous” of wealthy Americans. Cain doesn’t even credit the protesters with legitimately trying to speak for America’s growing millions of poor people. Meanwhile, a top Wall Street Journal editor appeared on National Public Radio saying that the two sides facing off across the income gap were “winners” and “losers”—not wealthy and poor people. Those millions of losers are just sore that they’re not wealthy and they should get over their griping, the WSJ editor sniffed.

Our recommendation: Congregations nationwide have a golden opportunity to discuss these issues in small groups, promoting civil dialogue and digging deep for underlying spiritual values that may provide a pathway toward some resolution. Jesus said far more about wealth than nearly any other subject he addressed. That focus in Jesus’ ministry sprang directly from his roots as a rabbi well-versed in Torah study. Judaism, to this day, has a great body of moral teaching about wealth and social justice. Right now, start organizing your small group. Feel free to copy the OurValues series to spark discussion.

TODAY: We also are recommending two sure-fire discussion-starting documentaries that you may want to watch with your small group.

CHARLES FERGUSON’S AWARD-WINNING INSIDE JOB

Inside Job is available either in DVD or Blu-ray from Amazon. In 108 minutes, this PG-13-rated documentary takes us on a supersonic-speed journey through the network of top players on Wall Street, into the halls of power in Washington D.C. and even down into some less-savory corners of high-rolling culture in America. Charles Ferguson’s basic thesis is that many of these power brokers are predators, even amassing wealth at the expense of their own clients and constituents. Why is Ferguson qualified to make such a film? He began his career by earning a doctorate in political science from MIT. In the mid 1990s, he founded and later sold a successful Internet company. In recent years, he has returned to his first passion and has been working on documentaries exploring social-justice themes.

We are not alone in recommending Inside Job as a discussion starter. Roger Ebert gave the film 4-out-of-4 stars and called it “an angry, well-argued documentary about how the American financial industry set out deliberately to defraud the ordinary American investor.” The New York Times’ A.O. Scott praised the movie, too. Scott said that the movie feels “like a classroom lecture at times, but by the end Mr. Ferguson has summoned the scourging moral force of a pulpit-shaking sermon. That he delivers it with rigor, restraint and good humor makes his case all the more devastating.” Then, of course, there’s the fact that Inside Job won the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

NAOMI KLEIN AND THE SHOCK DOCTRINE

The Shock Doctrine is newly available from Amazon on DVD. Because of the Oscar and rave newspaper reviews, Inside Job is well known nationwide. In contrast, The Shock Doctrine: Disaster Capitalism in Action is a less-well-known film by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross, based on a book by Canadian journalist and social activist Naomi Klein. (The 78-minute film is not rated and does contain some violent images from news footage.) The book by Klein is still available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. Ebert, Scott and other top American news publications, so far, haven’t posted full reviews of Shock Doctrine. But, again, we are not alone in recommending this documentary as a great choice for small groups in congregations. Our colleagues Fred and Mary Ann Brussat at the website Spirituality & Practice also identified the potential for great discussion. The Brussats write, in part: 

If you are troubled by the growing gap between the rich and the poor in America and elsewhere, this documentary will clear some things up for you about how the powerful have rigged the political game to give themselves even more wealth. If you were angered by the use of torture by the U.S., you will see how it has been used for years as an instrument of oppression in various houses of pain around the world. If you have been turned off by American imperialism, you will see how the so-called spread of freedom has resulted in staggering profits for the favorite corporations of political leaders in Washington, D.C.

You can tell from this opening paragraph of the Brussats’ review that, compared to Inside Job, Shock Doctrine is a far broader examination of injustice and oppression in the 20th century. Klein and the filmmakers begin by taking us to Chile in the 1960s, where top American advisors helped Chilean military leaders roll out some of the late-20th-century’s most devastating strategies for toppling unpopular regimes and terrifying political opponents. Then, the film connects the dots with leaders inside President George W. Bush’s administration, the War in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the eventual Wall Street implosion.

Obviously, not everyone in your small group will agree with the arguments presented in these documentaries. That’s the whole point! Dig deep into scriptures. Encourage civil conversation. Your small-group members are likely to thank you for a refreshing opportunity to weigh these issues without … well, without actual Class Warfare.

Please help us to reach a wider audience

Conversation is far better than the dangerous shouting matches we’ve been witnessing in our global culture. So, please, tell a friend to start reading along with you!
We welcome your Emails at [email protected]
We’re also reachable on Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Huffington Post, YouTube and other social-networking sites. You also can Subscribe to our articles via Email or RSS feed.
Plus, there’s a free Monday morning Planner newsletter you may enjoy.

Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online journal covering religion and cultural diversity.