We just came home from Thayer Street to the news that Harper Lee has died. Few books were more a part of my childhood as was To Kill a Mockingbird (1960). I likely read it four times before I was out of high school. And also, Gregory Peck's superb performance as Atticus Finch in Robert Mulligan's Oscar-winning 1962 film adaptation. To Kill a Mockingbird was a part of my cultural landscape, growing up in Alabama, only a few years after desegregation. Growing up, this novel was integral to the shaping of my moral compass. Thank you, Miss Nelle. Thank you Atticus and Scout, Jem and Dill, Calpurnia and Boo.
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” ~ Atticus Finch
This winter just keeps on shedding my heroes.
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“Reading is the finest teacher of how to write.” ~ Annie Proulx
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Sunny today and cold. Currently 35˚F. A chilly morning that I was actually out and about in. It's rare I'm up and dressed and out of doors before noon, but there was the business of our P.O. Box being moved to the post office on Thayer Street to attend to, and so there you go.
No work to speak of yesterday. Germination. On Facebook I posted, "Trying to make a story come together in my head. A 21st Century murder mystery involving a Neanderthal woman and Hollow Earth conspiracy theories?" I haven't moved much beyond that. Also, I've decided to set the McKean story aside and write something for Sirenia Digest #121 first, so I don't wind up getting behind again. I also need to get the text file for the forthcoming reissue of Tales of Pain and Wonder cleaned up and off to PS Publishing.
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Re: Jerry Falwell's defense of Trump against the Pope (what a surreal sentence). I did a double take at Falwell's assertion that “Jesus never intended to give instructions to political leaders on how to run a country.” And this is the same Jerry Falwell who's spent the past four decades trying to legislate morality and inject Fundamentalist Christian morality into the American government? I just want to be sure I'm actually reading that right.
"The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country." ~ Jerry Falwell (Sermon, Lynchburg, Virginia, 1976-07-04, quoted in William R. Goodman Jr.; James J. H. Price (1981). Jerry Falwell: An Unauthorized Profile. Lynchburg, VA: Paris & Associates. p. 91.).
Jesus, the American politics have never been weirder...and that's a bold fucking claim.
TTFN,
Aunt Beast
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” ~ Atticus Finch
This winter just keeps on shedding my heroes.
---
“Reading is the finest teacher of how to write.” ~ Annie Proulx
---
Sunny today and cold. Currently 35˚F. A chilly morning that I was actually out and about in. It's rare I'm up and dressed and out of doors before noon, but there was the business of our P.O. Box being moved to the post office on Thayer Street to attend to, and so there you go.
No work to speak of yesterday. Germination. On Facebook I posted, "Trying to make a story come together in my head. A 21st Century murder mystery involving a Neanderthal woman and Hollow Earth conspiracy theories?" I haven't moved much beyond that. Also, I've decided to set the McKean story aside and write something for Sirenia Digest #121 first, so I don't wind up getting behind again. I also need to get the text file for the forthcoming reissue of Tales of Pain and Wonder cleaned up and off to PS Publishing.
---
Re: Jerry Falwell's defense of Trump against the Pope (what a surreal sentence). I did a double take at Falwell's assertion that “Jesus never intended to give instructions to political leaders on how to run a country.” And this is the same Jerry Falwell who's spent the past four decades trying to legislate morality and inject Fundamentalist Christian morality into the American government? I just want to be sure I'm actually reading that right.
"The idea that religion and politics don't mix was invented by the Devil to keep Christians from running their own country." ~ Jerry Falwell (Sermon, Lynchburg, Virginia, 1976-07-04, quoted in William R. Goodman Jr.; James J. H. Price (1981). Jerry Falwell: An Unauthorized Profile. Lynchburg, VA: Paris & Associates. p. 91.).
Jesus, the American politics have never been weirder...and that's a bold fucking claim.
TTFN,
Aunt Beast
- Current Location:Providence, RI
- Current Mood:a little sad
- Current Music:distant traffic
Comments
The first one I was aware of was the 1969 elections. I was five.
I hadn't known until now.
Her memory for a blessing.
It appears he was right.
Thank god for good writers like yourself to take my mind off human events. I write a bit myself.
So now the Pope and Trump are having a verbal altercation. This world is stranger than most fiction I read. One of my other favorite writers is Paolo Bacigalupi.
Just rambling; I'll shut up now.
2016 is really rolling up the score on departing icons.... depressing.
I trust the box I sent arrived safely? Hopefully it will be of some use to both of you!
The Presidential election... oy. I think I'm as or more concerned w. the number of senate and house seats and there being a change over away from the fundalmentalists. It is not going to matter much who gets the chair behind the desk in the oval office if we continue w. the obstructionist politics we've been under since Pres. Obama was elected.