Parents, teachers, volunteers: Get ‘Foreign Letters’

August 5, 2012 by

Click the cover to visit the book’s Amazon page.

REVIEW by
ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm

Parents, teachers, community leaders and youth-group volunteers—listen up!
Here’s an inspiring film to enjoy with kids—and it’s a DVD you won’t spot on the shelves of your Target or Walmart store. Amazon sells Foreign Letters—but you’ll also want to learn about the Film Movement series, at the end of this review.

What’s more? You get two versions of the movie in the same DVD case. That’s because Israeli-American filmmaker Ela Thier first produced a 15-minute version of this story, called “A Summer Rain.” Her short film was so highly praised that Thier summoned the resources to produce a 99-minute feature film, “Foreign Letters.” This dual-version DVD presents all kinds of possibilities for viewing. By far, the feature film is the most fun and the most powerful, in the end, but the short film is delightful and underlines the same basic message about the wonders of cross-cultural friendship in a very brief viewing.

The movie plots revolve around two immigrant girls—one who arrives in the U.S. from Israel and one who comes from Vietnam. In the short film, they are 11. In the longer film, produced later, they are 12—which reflects the fact that the same girls play the roles in both movies. (Director Thier plays the Israeli girl’s mother and her performance signals how much she loves this movie.) The story is set in the 1980s, so that we have letter-writing pen pals, a manual typewriter and the plot doesn’t get mixed up in a tangle of cell phones and Facebook groups. Ela Thier wants to focus the story on the day-by-day way these two girls find each other and build an unlikely friendship. The 1980s setting slows everything down to just the right pace. Viewers also will be pleased to know that Thier doesn’t feel any need to draw on the stereotypes of Hollywood suspense. There is no violence here—except for some verbal bullying at school—and no one dies.

Another eye-opening sub-plot of the feature film involves experiencing English as a Second Language (ESL) classes through the eyes, ears and mouths of kids trying to conquer a new language. In years of reporting on cross-cultural issues, I can’t recall another film that shows us such scenes in ESL classes.

When this movie is funny, it’s funny because it’s soooo true. Many scenes are absolutely “spot on”—especially if you can remember being a kid or you are a parent now. For example, the two girls break through their initial shyness, then they declare themselves best friends forever. Then, they sit down one afternoon and write up a solemn all-time friendship pledge—which is precisely the moment when they have a huge argument and things go awry! Too true, hmmm? Makes you smile and nod your head just reading this simple description of the scene.

I won’t spoil the major plot points by revealing them in this review, but—as a film reviewer, I really do urge you to get this film—so I will tell you the concluding theme: Nothing can destroy a true friendship. When we see these two little girls in a dramatic urban setting in the film’s final scene—both proud and happy at last—your eyes are sure to glisten and you may even want to clap.

There is so much to discuss with kids in this film: Why do you think the pretty little blond girl and her creepy looking “friend” would say such a hurtful thing to the Israeli girl? Why did the Vietnamese girl refuse to let anyone but her Israeli friend ever step inside her family’s home? And what was the Vietnamese mother doing on the floor? Has one of your parents ever cooked anything like that mother was cooking? Was the Israeli girl’s mother also having a hard time adjusting to life in the U.S.? There are so many great scenes that the conversations with kids could roll for quite a while.

Plus, there’s so much to do with kids: During the film, we see the girls writing letters, drafting a plege sealing their friendship, jotting down their fondest hopes, drawing pictures and even designing their own logo for their friendship. We see them saving things in keepsake boxes. There’s an easy transition from watching the movie to asking kids to try one of the projects the kids undertake in the movie.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FILM MOVEMENT SERIES

Based in New York City, Film Movement is a popular distribution network for foreign and independent films, featuring a huge array of award-winning films. Click here to learn about Film Movement’s monthly DVD series for home viewing. Or, if you are a librarian or are interested in a group showing of Film Movement movies in your part of the country, click here to learn about Film Movements various options for “Non-theatrical Screenings.”

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

Wander with us? ER to Blade Runner … Jiggity Jig

August 2, 2012 by

Want some fun? Wander with us!
Here at ReadTheSpirit, we call columnist Rodney Curtis the Spiritual Wanderer. It’s the title of his first book that you can order in his section of ReadTheSpirit. The title describes the way he … well, he wanders. And, he invites us to wander, which is why so many fans love his writing. And, pssst! He’s got two new books coming out by the end of this year—so you might want to aquaint yourself right now with one of our most popular writers.
How does this wandering work?

PART 1: THE ER PART

Rodney’s newest column is a great example. It’s a simple story about how Rodney—who readers know is a survivor in an epic battle with cancer—was called by his Mom to take her to the ER. This was role-reversal in caregiving, something millions of us experience each year, right? But then, you’ll notice “Jiggity Jig,” the name of this particular column and … well, reading over the column as the Editor of ReadTheSpirit, that phrase—that phrase—it started bouncing around in my own memory. Where did it originate?

PART 2: MOTHER GOOSE

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig,
Home again, home again, jiggety-jig.

We all know that originated with Mother Goose hundreds of years ago. Of course—assuming no impressionable children are reading this—we all can admit that Mother Goose never existed. She’s a mythic archetype for nursery rhymes and for beloved illustrators of children’s books to envision. Still, I was thinking of that phrase and wandering … and as I wandered through some references to children’s literature I discovered that, in fact, there was no actual pig in the earliest 1805 version of Mother Goose’s Rhymes for the Nursery. And that meant … there was no jiggity-jig. No need for a rhyme with pig, so no jig in 1805.

In fact, the 1805 version went like this:
To market, to market to buy a penny bun,
Home again, home again, market is done.

To that, I said: Rubbish! This must have been a bizarre mistake in that 207-year-old edition of the book! Then—alas—I kept trolling through literary history until I came to the original version. That’s John Florio’s, A Worlde of Wordes, or Most Copious, and exact Dictionarie in Italian and English, published in 1598. John Florio etched that nursery rhyme in moveable type, ink and velum without a pig or a jig. That meant: Somewhere in the middle 19th century enough parents had swapped the bun for a pig and the “done” for a “jiggity jig.” Certainly, by the 20th century, all children got the correct version with pig and jig.

But, I was wandering … and, in fact, as my memories rolled, I didn’t recall that particular phrase from Mother Goose. My own family home was piled high—literally piled floor to ceiling in some rooms—with books. But we weren’t big on Mother Goose. No ….

PART 3: TO CLOVERFIELD FARM

My late Aunt Helen, in one of her book-filled rooms on her big farm in Indiana, had the Cloverfield Farm books from the 1920s by Helen Fuller Orton. I never asked Aunt Helen about this collection of books on her shelves. Perhaps she collected them, as a girl, because the author and she shared a name. Today, I have no idea where those books may be. She probably sold them in the huge public sale she organized when she retired from the farm. Amazon was little help. A handful of Orton’s books are available in used editions from resellers—but not the particular classics I recalled. So, I wandered over to Project Gutenberg and—Bingo!

Project Gutenberg has Bobby of Cloverfield Farm, just sitting there online for free. I recognized the red cover immediately. But as I searched the text, Orton only gave us the rhyme in an off-kilter way: “jigglety, jigglety, shakety, shake.” It must have been another Cloverfield novel. And, yes, Gutenberg also has Prince and Rover of Cloverfield Farm. Yes, in that story, Orton recalls it the right way:

As they drove along, Bobby was silent for a long time.
At last he said, “I know what this is like, Mother.”
“What is it like?” asked Mother.
“To market, to market, to buy a fat pig. Home again, home again, jiggity jig.”

Clearly, Helen Fuller Orton had that phrase rattling around in her head throughout her career. But … I was still wandering … There was something else about that phrase … And then it hit me … Toys and Teddy Bears and a very strange toymaker!

PART 4: BLADE RUNNER AND BACK HOME AGAIN

It’s in Blade Runner! If you’re not familiar with the obsession that many fans have with the mysteries of the 1982 movie, based on a novel by Philip K. Dick, then suffice it to say: There are at least a half dozen distinct versions of the movie—each with advocates and each one the basis for different arguments about the final meaning of the film. But that wasn’t what finally “clicked” in my memory. No, I wasn’t thinking about the DaVinci Code-like mysteries of the movie and its many versions.

I was remembering J.F. Sebastian! He is the mysterious toymaker in Blade Runner, played by the melancholy character actor William Sanderson. A lonely genius, Sanderson built all kinds of artificial life forms—including toys. To warm his otherwise gloomy home just a bit, he programmed a toy soldier and a Teddy Bear to greet him at the front door each evening, after work, and recite: “Home again! Home again! Jiggety-jig! Goood evening, J.F.!”

And I realized … I had wandered over to cult movies—fan-favorite films—and I had come full circle. That was the subject of Rodney’s previous column: Let’s Talk About Films Again, Shall We?

We were home again … Come on! You know it! … Jiggety-jig!

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

How the Cottingley fairies fooled Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

July 29, 2012 by

Click the book cover to visit its Amazon page.Nearly 100 years ago, the world-famous creator of Sherlock Holmes—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—pushed aside his detective tales to publish a non-fiction book that he thought would change world history and become his most famous work by far! Thanks to photographs taken by two little working-class girls in the village of Cottingley about 200 miles north of London, Sir Arthur thought he was making history by proving the existence of fairies!

This is not a joke.
This is not a fictional tale.
In Sir Arthur’s book, now virtually fogtten compared with the enduring fame of his Sherlock Holmes stories, claimed that he had “actually proven the existence upon the surface of this planet of a population which may be as numerous as the human race.” Sir Arthur meant: Fairies.

Until today, there have been a few fanciful books and films loosely based on this world-famous case. In 1997, for example, Peter O’Toole and Harvey Keitel co-starred in a feature film, Fairy Tale: A True Story. Although the movie is entertaining and we can recommend it for family fun—unfortunately, there’s a lot of fiction in the movie script. The major fakery in the movie version is that somehow Harry Houdini gets involved in the international news story—which is not true. We won’t spoil the movie for you, but the movie’s ending is fictional as well.

To this day, tourists show up in the village of Cottingley to see the spot where the little girls fooled the whole world. And a common question since the 1990s is: “Where did Harry Houdini stay while he was here?”
The answer: Houdini never set foot in Cottingley.

Of all the myths surrounding this sensational story, veteran journalist Mary Losure says the biggest myth was this: Until now, most people think the story of the Cottingley Fairies is all about adults. According to reams of journalism published over the past 100 years, the main characters in the tale are Sir Arthur, then all the famous journalists who stepped into the story themselves—and then a long parade of journalists after the story resurfaced in more recent decades. For many years, Losure was a reporter for Minnesota Public Radio and a regular contributor to National Public Radio. After considerable trans-Atlantic research into the story of the Cottingley fairies, Losure corrects the record in her new book. After all that work, her main correction is this: The Cottingley story is fundamentally about the children who made all those adults run in circles for so many decades.

That’s why she calls her new book, The Fairy Ring: Or, Elsie and Frances Fool the World, and retells the entire story from the point of view of the two young cousins: Frances (whose photo is on the book cover with a fairy) and Elsie. Most of Losure’s Fairy Ring centers on their lives and experiences. In the middle of her book, however, Losure does explain why Sir Arthur was so eager to accept this crazy story as a sciencific breakthrough.

A FEW WORDS FROM THE FAIRY RING BY MARY LOSURE

Cottingley Beck, today. “Beck” is a term once used to describe a stream. It was in the woods around this stream that Elsie and Frances had their fun with fairies.Sherlock Holmes was a keen-eyed, hawk-nosed man who had made detective work into a precise and rational science. Sherlock Holmes could put the tiniest clues together to find the truth. He was almost impossible to fool. So it might seem surprising that his creator, Sir Arthur, believed in fairies. But he did.

To Sir Arthur, fairies were part of a spirit world that coexisted with the everyday world he saw all around him. The spirit world was invisible, though. Only special people could see it or hear the voices of the spirits who lived in it. Those spirits included the ghosts of dead people, Sir Arthur believed. His own son, who had died of sickness after being wounded in the Great War, was one of them.

(Then, Losure tells how Sir Arthur heard about the snapshots taken by girls in the distant village. He got his hands on the photos. The book resumes with …)

Sir Athur went to his men’s club, the Athenaeum, and showed the fairy pictures to a friend of his, Sir Oliver Lodge, an expert in “psychic maters.” Sir Oliver was skeptical: he suspected the ring of fairy dancers had been somehow imposed on a different background.

Sir Arthur didn’t agree. “I argued that we had certainly traced the pictures to two children of the artisan class, and that such photographic tricks would be entirely beyond them,” he wrote. Working-class children, surely would not be able to pull off such a sophisticated trick.

In fact, they could—even though the girls had two strikes against them back in Sir Arthur’s judgment. The girls were just “working class” (Sir Arthur, in his day, called them “artisan class”) and just “little girls” as Sir Arthur kept emphasizing in his own writings and talks about the Cottingley fairies. Losure shows us in her book that it was these strong biases, universally accepted in that era, that allowed the girls to keep their fanciful story going for decades. And, in fact, the little girls didn’t think of the whole experience as fraud. They were simply … Well, to find out more, we recommend that you order a copy of The Fairy Ring: Or Elsie and Frances Fool the World.

Continue by reading our author interview with Mary Losure on her search for Elsie’s and Frances’s true story—nearly a century later.

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

Family fun: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again

July 22, 2012 by

When we heard that Candlewick was releasing a sequel to Ian Fleming’s world-renowned children’s book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, ReadTheSpirit turned for help to Fleming scholar Benjamin Pratt and asked him to review this attempt to extend the Fleming legacy for a new generation. Then, Pratt wisely turned for help to a reader who knows even more about kids’ perspectives on books …

A Girl & Her Grandfather Review
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again

By BENJAMIN PRATT and MADDIE

Click the cover to visit the book’s Amazon page.Ian Fleming, the author who wrote the 007 tales, created the story of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for his son, Casper, when he was quite young. Fleming recorded the story years later while recovering from his first heart attack in 1961. The ever-popular story of Caractacus Pott’s family and their flying car was published in 1964. Recently, the Fleming family commissioned Frank Cottrell Boyce to write the sequel, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again.

I reread the original along with Boyce’s sequel with the intent of writing a comparative review of the books. But, in the midst of my preparation, I noted that only adults had commented on this new novel, so far. That seemed off point, so I asked my 12-year-old granddaughter, Maddie, a rising 7th grader, to read the books and discuss them with me. The following exchange shows my lines in bold face and Maddie in plain text.

Maddie, thank you for joining me in this conversation. I know you read many books and have always been a good student. You told me earlier that you are currently re-reading The Help and that certainly is considered an adult book. What do you think of The Help?

Maddie: I like it and I like seeing how it was in the 1950s and ’60s. I can see how times and laws have changed in such a short amount of time. It is remarkable.

Yes, it is remarkable! I grew up in that era and I am amazed and grateful how far we have come as a people. What are some of the other books you have read?

Maddie: I have read The Twilight Series, The Hunger Games, The Lightning Thief series and most of the Harry Potter books plus some other adult books like The Glass Castle.

You’re well read! I am impressed. I chose the right person to discuss the Chitty Chitty tales. Tell me what you experienced reading these books.

Maddie: For some reason, I had trouble getting into both books. Once I got into the original story I started to like it—it has mystery, suspense and it is well written. It took me even longer to get into Flies Again, but it reminded me of the Baudelaire children in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Both stories remind me of how each one of the children was good at a different thing as they tried to escape from someone who was trying to kill them. I really liked how the car had a mind of her own—it just happened to go where the family also wanted to go. I liked both books.

So, Maddie, what do you think your resistance was to getting into these books?

Maddie: These books just didn’t captivate me to begin with. This new book especially drags at the beginning. In both stories, once the car was taking over I began to get quite interested.

So, once you pushed yourself beyond the slow start, the story kicked into gear just like the car did. I, too, had much more difficulty getting into Flies Again—it was a long time until I began to recognize the rebuilding of Chitty Chitty. Did you notice that the first book is dedicated to Count Louis Zborowski?

Maddie: Yes, and in Flies Again his name was on all the parts—the engine, the headlamps, the wheels—as the car was reconstructing itself. Yes, I noticed that. It was imaginative. It gave the story a good foundation.

There are some details in Flies Again that young people may not recognize. One is the Aston Martin, a car driven by 007.

Maddie: I looked up the Aston Martin DB5, but I didn’t know that it was a James Bond car. Now that you tell me that I understand more about the story. When the parents are driving the Aston Martin they are always getting fired at as if they were James Bond. Are there other connections I might have missed?

People who love the James Bond movies will recognize the scene when a tarantula crawls across someone’s body. And the scene with the colossal squid? James Bond fans will think of Dr. No. The Bond movies always are full of clever inventions and gadgets; and Flies Again has some scenes that are quite, ahhh—

Maddie: Inventive! Like stealing the Sphinx and living on and steering a Giant Island—I did not see that coming. Or Tiny Jack being actually big or the Lego Helicopter and the Lego Bombs. Once you get into it, it captures your imagination. A kid could read this and imagine himself in a world with flying Lego cars. It was a fun book that—with the hard times of today—can be an escape for a lot of young readers. It helps us imagine another world where anything is possible.

That’s helpful to hear, because my greatest criticism of Flies Again was the almost overwhelming array of gadgets and gimmicks. I prefer the simpler plot of the original Chitty Chitty. You’re telling me that you enjoy all the clever twists and turns in Flies Again. Am I hearing you correctly? You’re recommending both books?

Maddie: Yes, I recommend both books but for different reasons. Flies Again is very inventive. It is just out there—sometimes outrageous and far-fetched. But Fleming’s first book? Chitty Chitty followed more of a mystery story line—it had a better plot.

In Flies Again, I think the most interesting quote is, “One day you will come to appreciate the romance, the glamour, the fineness of things that have outlived the moment.”

Maddie: Yes, you may not appreciate it now but in the future you will understand how special certain things are—like the beauty of the old car as it is recreated.

Or like having the opportunity to discuss books with your grandfather.

Maddie: Oh, that is one of the special moments I won’t outlive. Thank you for asking me.

Catch Up on All Things Bond … James Bond

We recommend Dr. Benjamin Pratt’s Ian Fleming’s Seven Deadlier Sins and 007’s Moral Compass. In addition to his long career as a pastoral counselor, Pratt is a literary scholar who has studied the work of Ian Fleming—and uncovered Fleming’s own plan to explore what Fleming himself called seven even deadlier sins in his spy novels. For those who know Fleming’s complete body of work, that was not a far-fetched leap in his literary career. Fleming actually published a 1962 collection of essays by top British writers that he called The Seven Deadly Sins. Pratt’s book has been enjoyed by small groups in several countries around the world (including New Zealand and Panama); and his book has been used in discussion groups among U.S. troops, led by a small group of Army chaplains who found the book helpful in preventing depression. It’s a pefect choice for an autumn discussion series and Bible study in your congregation—drawing extensively on the New Testament book of … what else? James.

Share this column with friends: Click on a blue-”f” Facebook icon, “Like” this column and get a discussion going in your congregation. Or, click the small envelope-shaped icon and email this to friends.

King Arthur’s Very Great Grandson … makes peace

July 14, 2012 by

Click the book’s cover to visit its Amazon page.We love violence!
Come on! Be honest, now! We absolutely love murder, explosions and fights with all manner of weapons and super powers. After all, our biggest Hollywood blockbusters celebrate superheroes. Cop shows dominate prime time. Murder mysteries have all but swallowed up the best-seller lists for adult fiction. And Young Adult best sellers? Now you’re looking at the ultra-violent Hunger Games, the Twilight Saga and all manner of mayhem.

But, stop and think for just a moment about a child you love. Perhaps your own. Perhaps a grandchild. Perhaps a child you teach in pre-school or Sunday school. What stories do you want to lovingly share with them?

At ReadTheSpirit, our readers always thank us for spotting picture-book treasures like the Mouse and Bear series or Bob Graham’s startling A Bus Called Heaven or Ted Kooser’s haunting A House Held Up by Trees. We all know that these books are as much for the delight of the adults who buy them as they are for the children who first hear someone read the text. With repeat readings, these picture books can become a beloved part of an adult’s life story. As Editor of ReadTheSpirit, I’ve been a tough-minded journalist all my life, but the most precious corner of my extensive library is the little shelf holding a dozen dog-eared picture books published in the 1950s.

King Arthur’s Very Great Grandson knits together all of these threads: an echo of the stirring tales of brave knights and magical challenges, a gorgeously illustrated picture book format and a surprisingly peaceful message that families can share through the years.

What is the message? I don’t think it’s spoiling this short tale to say that the heavily armed young knight in this story charges into one life-changing surprise after another. He confronts some of the world’s greatest demons: a “terrible Dragon” (there are also many friendly dragons in world literature), “the dreaded Cyclops” (taking us all the way back to Greek epics), a “grim Griffin” (complete with twisted claws perfect for slaughtering its prey), and even “Leviathan” (who the Bible calls “the coiling serpent,” “the monster of the sea” and a creature so fearsome that anyone who wakes the beast will surely curse his fate forever.)

Horrors!!! Shudder!!! One can feel the reader of this book pitching the voice deeper and drawing out the lines in ominous suspense. The pages flip ever so slowly. Will blood spill? Will our hero survive? Instead, our young knight discovers quite the opposite of violence in some creatively twisted encounters.

Perhaps there’s something in our origins that moves an author and artist like Kraegel to craft a book like this—and me, as a reviewer, to notice the book’s genius. (And I’m not alone in my praise, by the way. The New York Times also highlights and recommends this book!) Kraegel was born in Mishawaka, Indiana, and I was born just to the east of him—just past Elkhart, Goshen and Shipshewana—in LaGrange. That’s Amish country. And, while enjoying Kraegel’s book, I began to wonder if some of that region’s Anabaptist pacifism rubbed off on us from our births. In any case, despite this heroic young knight’s blood-dripping and flesh-ripping heritage—something peaceful and graceful is born within him in these pages.

There’s more in this creative mix than origins, though. I should underline that all of the books I have mentioned in this review come from the bright minds at Candlewick Press, surely a publishing house that must feel like heaven to first-time authors like Kraegel. Candlewick has a strong taste for producing peacefully twisted books like these—and bravo to the crew for thinking like that.

Now, it’s your turn: Don’t wait. Not all picture books remain on sale forever. Tell a friend about this review. Share the news on Facebook. Snap this book up now, as it is debuting on Amazon. Then, you’ll have many years to read and savor it as a dog-eared gem in your own favorite corner of the family bookshelf.

Review by ReadTheSpirit Editor David Crumm

Please help us to reach a wider audience

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 magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

We’re connecting readers with Native American stories

July 9, 2012 by

We’re serious about connecting readers with Native American stories, especially because there are some news events this year that can help raise awareness of Indian culture. (Yes, Indian leaders and writers tell us both terms are appropriate—“Native American” and “Indian.”)

The photos, today, come from the Ocmulgee National Monument near Macon, Georgia, which we highly recommend if you are traveling along the I-75 corridor this summer. The park is a very short drive from the main freeway. ReadTheSpirit editors David Crumm and Celeste Dykas were in Macon to attend the wedding of mutual friends and, as always this year, looked for nearby Indian culture we could highlight. Top Photo today was taken on the soaring wooden walkway that leads to the 55-foot-tall Great Temple Mound at the site, which historians say was for ceremonial and not burial purposes. The Great Temple Mound is unique because of its original winding ramp that led people to the top for ancient ceremonies. The second photo shows the park’s famously reconstructed Earthlodge. Historians believe that tribal leaders used this particular lodge. The pit lit with red lamps once was the lodge’s fire pit.

The Great Temple Mound was never used as a burial site, so it is appropriate to hike to the top and spend some time walking around this grassy plateau that spans American history at a glance. In one direction is a nature preserve where water, green growth and teeming wildlife show Georgia’s distant past. But, 180 degrees to the other side of the mound is the skyline of Macon, today, complete with church steeples and the Mercer University medical center. The experience is stirring as a real-life viewpoint on millennia of change across North America.

The entire site is a reminder of some of the first well-intentioned efforts to preserve Native American culture—after centuries of systematically destroying Indian populations. The people who once inhabited this remarkably sophisticated town were forced to march West like other Eastern Indians by soldiers who wound up killing a lot of the people through the brutality of slogging across thousands of miles on foot. Nevertheless, this entire site was reconstructed in heart of the deep South in the period before World War II and long before the civil rights movement. Historians, architects and builders elaborately reconstructed the central earth lodge. To this day, there’s an other-worldly aura as adults must crouch low and walk slowly down the sloping entryway into the lodge.

Note, if you plan to go: The National Park Service museum and introductory films can take up to an hour. Simply walking to all of the main mounds and ancient sites in the park can take a couple of hours—but the access points to the major mounds also are reachable by car, if you’re more interested in briefly stretching your legs at the key sites. Extensive nature trails, including a long walk along a swampy area (a portion of that lush and water landscape is behind us in the photo at top), are great choices for bird watchers.

WHY IS NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE SO TIMELY IN 2012?

Kateri Tekakwitha, first Native American recognized as a Roman Catholic saint:
In April, we reported on the life of “Bl. Kateri” Tekakwitha (the Catholic way of designating “Blessed Kateri,” the current Vatican designation of her worthiness to be remembered and venerated). That same story in April reported on the Vatican’s progress toward canonizing her later this year as St. Kateri.

Jim Thorpe and the Centennial of the Decathlon:
In June, we reported on the upcoming Centennial of the Decathlon, already marked by some athletic groups and certainly a part of the 2012 summer Olympics. We urged people not to forget the famous Indian at the dawn of the decathlon—the world-famous athlete Jim Thorpe.

CARE TO READ MORE ABOUT NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE?

ReadTheSpirit publishes the memoir of Native American elder and teacher Warren Petoskey, called Dancing My Dream. Warren is nationally known as an advocate and lecturer about the traumas suffered across the U.S. when federal policy removed Indian children from their families and forcibly placed them in abusive boarding schools. “Dancing My Dream” includes a section about this important chapter in Indian history that affects huge numbers of Indian families to this day.

Interested in discussing a Native American book in your church group? A large number of Native American people, today, are Christian and Warren talks about how his own Christianity meshes with his Indian culture. This makes his book, Dancing My Dream, an inspiring choice for small groups to discuss in their congregations.

Also, our very popular American Journey series in 2010 included some Native American stories.

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

The Best of Ray Bradbury Remembrances

June 8, 2012 by

He expanded our dreams by expanding the possibilities in our own back yards. He was an artist as much as a technician and, wielding that great talent, he reminded us of the sacred value of the word. He did this in very practical ways—from his strong support of public libraries as pillars of a healthy community to his eloquent novels themselves.
Ray Bradbury is dead at 91.
TODAY: We bring you the very best Bradbury remembrances from across the Internet.

Why salute him in our pages? The journalists at ReadTheSpirit bring readers “spiritual connection for everyday living.” We say that the most important spiritual questions in a person’s life are: Why should I get out of bed this morning? How can I make it through another stressful day? And, at the end of the day, what matters in my life? Ray Bradbury understood that those questions truly animate us as humans. He described this in many ways. In Fahrenheit 451, he expressed it this way: “We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy. Something’s missing.”

Did Bradbury think in spiritual terms? Absolutely. It’s no accident that Fahrenheit 451 is, by far, his most quoted novel to this day. In fact, the headstone he chose for his grave in Los Angeles is inscribed simply: “Author of Fahrenheit 451”

The final lines of the 200-page novel bring readers full circle from a horrifically secular culture, bent on burning all books to stamp out individual thinking—to the little band of people who are committed to memorizing these vanishing books. Montag is the latest convert to this brave band and, as he searches for a book to preserve, he turns to the final chapter of the Bible. Here are those lines from Fahrenheit 451:

Now there was a long morning’s walk until noon, and if the men were silent it was because there was everything to think about and much to remember. Perhaps later in the morning, when the sun was up and had warmed them they would begin to talk, or just say the things they remembered, to be sure they were there, to be absolutely certain that things were safe in them. Montag felt the slow stir of words, the slow simmer. And when it came his turn, what could he say, what could he offer on a day like this, to make the trip a little easier? To everything there is a season. Yes. A time to break down, and a time to build up. Yes. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. Yes, all that. But what else. What else? Something, something—“And on either side of the river was there a tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
Yes, thought Montag, that’s the one I’ll save for noon. For noon.
When we reach the city.

RAY BRADBURY, BILL TAMMEUS: ‘ALL ABOUT LOVE’

In a short-and-sweet farewell to Bradbury, religion newswriter Bill Tammeus sums up this theme for readers (and Bill provides a link to a very fine San Francisco Chronicle piece on Bradbury also echoing these ideas). Tammeus writes in part:

Bradbury was all about love and was willing to shine a satirical spotlight on those aspects of life that were in tension with love. His novel Fahrenheight 451 anticipated much that remains distorted about our popular culture, so much of which is in tension with the very eternal values Bradbury promoted.

RAY BRADBURY, LA TIMES: ‘INTO THE REALM OF LITERATURE’

Ray Bradbury adopted Los Angeles as his hometown and one of the best commentaries on his life comes from LA Times writer Lynell George. The LA Times article also has links to some wonderful photos related to Bradbury’s life and work. Writing for the Times, Lynell George says, in part:

Author of more than 27 novels and story collections—most famously “The Martian Chronicles,” “Fahrenheit 451: A Novel,” “Dandelion Wine” and “Something Wicked This Way Comes“—and more than 600 short stories, Bradbury has frequently been credited with elevating the often-maligned reputation of science fiction. Some say he singlehandedly helped to move the genre into the realm of literature.

“The only figure comparable to mention would be [Robert A.] Heinlein and then later [Arthur C.] Clarke,” said Gregory Benford, a UC Irvine physics professor who is also a Nebula award-winning science fiction writer. “But Bradbury, in the ’40s and ’50s, became the name brand.”

Much of Bradbury’s accessibility and ultimate popularity had to do with his gift as a stylist—his ability to write lyrically and evocatively of lands an imagination away, worlds he anchored in the here and now with a sense of visual clarity and small-town familiarity. …

He offered a set of metaphors and life puzzles to ponder for the rocket age and beyond, and has influenced a wide swath of popular culture—from children’s writer R.L. Stine and singer Elton John (who penned his hit “Rocket Man” as an homage), to architect Jon Jerde who enlisted Bradbury to consider and offer suggestions about reimagining public spaces.

RAY BRADBURY, BEN PRATT: COMPASSION SOFTENED BY ACCIDIE

Benjamin Pratt is the author of two books that interpret the ancient concept of accidie: Ian Fleming’s Seven Deadlier Sins & 007’s Moral Compass and A Guide For Caregivers: Keeping Your Spirit Healthy When Your Caregiver Duties and Responsibilities Are Dragging You Down. Upon Bradbury’s passing, Pratt sent ReadTheSpirit these thoughts:

Our Sunday Afternoon Reading Group toasted Ray Bradbury with dandelion wine. I don’t urge you to go out searching for it. We had read Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine, a year ago but could not find a bottle of the wine until now. The tale provides glimpses into Bradbury’s early life in his childhood home in Waukegan, Illinois. The main character of the story is Douglas Spaulding, a 12-year-old boy, patterned loosely after Bradbury, revealing the simple joys of life in small town, Midwest America.

Ray Bradbury, a writer’s writer, often claimed that he was a man of deep gratitude and joy, but he was also a man who experienced what I have described as accidie in both of my books. Accidie is reflected in the following clip from Dandelion Wine, “Some people turn sad awfully young. No special reason, if seems, but they seem almost to be born that way. They bruise easier, tire faster, cry quicker, remember longer and, as I say, get sadder younger than anyone else in the world. I know, for I’m one of them.” I am grateful for the life, wisdom and curiosity of Ray Bradbury.

RAY BRADBURY, CHICAGO TRIBUTE / VARIETY: ‘MAGICIAN OF WORDS’

Peter Debruge of Variety writes in the Chicago Tribune, in part:

Before the movie bug bit, I owed nearly all my fantasies to Ray Bradbury. A magician of words, the science-fiction author took me to Venus and Mars, to the bottom of the sea and to dinosaur-infested jungles. He wove tales that began in a backyard just like my own and bloomed into possibilities never before dreamed, where robot grandmothers watch over lonely kids and a crushed butterfly might alter the path of time. … It was Bradbury who taught me that metaphor—not stereoscopic 3D glasses—make a story come to life, that only sentiment, sincere and undiluted by irony, truly has the power to move. It was Bradbury’s writing that made me want to write. I am hardly the only wordsmith inspired by the master. Everyone from Neil Gaiman to Stephen King credits Bradbury with catalyzing his desire to tell stories.

RAY BRADBURY, JANE WELLS: ‘PERMISSION TO CREATE’

Jane Wells is the author of Glitter in the Sun: A Bible Study Searching for Truth in the Twilight Saga. Bradbury’s passing summoned deep, personal memories of her long-range friendship with the author through the connection of libraries and books …

I grew up in rural Northern Michigan, a region rich with beauty, but poor in most other categories. My one-horse hometown of Alanson had a tiny library shoehorned into a small former office space in the community building/firehouse. Every week, all summer long, from probably the age of 13 on, I made that 6-mile round-trip on my bike to return the “empties” and restock a fresh batch of science fiction and fantasy. Ray Bradbury was one of my very favorites.

His mechanical houses, men with prescient tattoos, and Martian landscapes took me millions of miles away from my dusty backyard where I perched on a swing or in a tree and read for hours. It was during those timeless summer days I came to the realization that this was something I wanted to do to. I wanted to write books, and the definition of “book” by default was synonymous with science fiction.

It is clear now I will probably never write about Martians—although that was my initial most fervent desire. I’m afraid Mr. Bradbury completely owns that topic. I can however write about political strife in a steampunk world and be fairly certain I’m breaking new ground of my own. However, for that permission to write, to create something completely new and unseen by anyone else before, I am undyingly grateful.

RAY BRADBURY, BOSTON GLOBE: ‘MADE NORMALCY FANTASTIC’

First edition cover of Martian ChroniclesCultural historian and author Carlo Rotella opens his Globe salute to Bradbury this way:

I’m always 8 years old when I read Ray Bradbury, the great American writer who passed away Wednesday. Eight is the age at which I discovered “The Martian Chronicles.” I was too young and didn’t understand most of it, but I got the general idea:

“One minute it was Ohio winter, with doors closed, windows locked, the panes blind with frost, icicles fringing the roof, children skiing on slopes, housewives lumbering like great black bears in their furs along the icy streets. And then a long wave of warmth crossed the small town. A flooding sea of hot air; it seemed as if someone had left a bakery door open. The heat pulsed among the cottages and bushes and children. The icicles dropped, shattering, to melt. The doors flew open. Windows flew up. The children worked off their wool clothes. The housewives shed their bear disguises. The snow dissolved and showed last summer’s ancient green lawns. Rocket Summer.”

I remember the hair standing up on the back of my neck the first time I read these opening lines of “The Martian Chronicles.”

RAY BRADBURY, THE PLANETARY SOCIETY: ‘RAY’S PASSION’

Ray Bradbury was a friend to The Planetary Society, a nonprofit formed by scientists including Carl Sagan back in 1990 to promote planetary exploration. Mat Kaplan, the host of the group’s radio show, interviewed Bradbury many times and was struck by his personal humor, passion and kindness. In his remembrance of Bradbury, he recalls:

I remember, with special fondness, a birthday party we threw for Ray here at the Planetary Society. It was August of 2003.  Mars was closer to Earth than it had been for many years. After conducting yet another interview, I asked Ray for a favor. My daughter was in her high school’s theater adaptation of The Martian Chronicles. Would he record a message for the production? No hesitation. He launched into a lovely, entirely improvised welcoming speech that brought tears to my eyes, as it would later bring tears to the eyes of the cast and audiences.

Mat Kaplan’s salute to Bradbury includes links to several Bradbury audio clips from Planetary Radio.

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