To Die for an Idea...

 It has been over five years since I have read the moving writings of Willa Cather, since I turned in my senior thesis and walked across the graduation stage. What a fickle friend it appears I have turned out to be.

I am glad that I have been able to find her again, and like old friends continuing an interrupted conversation, I have enjoyed her poignant words over morning cups of coffee and felt a homesickness for the smell of cut hay and overturned earth.

While many books on this literary journey have impacted me, this one has touched me like no other. Winner of the Pulitzer in 1923, One of Ours was Willa Cather's fifth and lesser-known novel about a young man, Claude Wheeler, trying to find meaning in his life.

The son of a wealthy Nebraskan farmer, Claude dreams of life outside of the fenced-in fields he so diligently plows. He catches a small glimpse of other worlds at the community college he attends in the fall and spring. His brief visits with the cultured Erlich family only increases his desire to know  there is more to life than cows and wheat.

His chance to live his life came due to the fact that others were losing theirs. World War I raging overseas, and though America wasn't in the battle yet, young men were enlisting; there's a limit to the dirt that can get under a farm boy's skin. Claude enlists in the army and travels to France, finding his purpose in life through fighting and dying. Perhaps I have said to much. But I do not feel that I have cheapened the experience for you, dear reader. For meaning is in the story, not in the ultimate destination.
     
Cather writes:
            

             "As the troop ship glided down the sea lane, the old man still watched it from the turtle-back. That howling swarm of brown arms and hats and faces looked like nothing by t a crowd of American boys going to a football game somewhere. But the scene was ageless; youths were sailing away to die for an idea, a sentiment, for the mere sound of a phrase... and on their departure they were making vows to a bronze image in the sea."

In a way, it seems foolish. Picking a fight, a war, over ideals, over the mere sound of a phrase. But people have been doing it for centuries, and it will continue long after I am gone. But in a way, if you are not willing to fight for an idea, a belief, then what are you willing to fight for?

"Life was too short that it meant nothing at all unless it were continually reinforced by something that endured; unless the shadows of individual existence came and went against a background that held together."

Thank you, my friend, for this brief but comforting reunion, for taking me "home" to hay, earth, and hard farming people, and for finding meaning in life in the midst of the meaningless. May it not be too long before we meet again.

 Next in the queue is The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder (1928 winner). I am excited about this one as my father, a man whom I dearly love and respect, loves and respects this book.

Until then.. Happy Reading.

Breathing Lessons

Every once and a while, you stubble across something truly great. Something that resonates within you, and you say, "I get it."

Well, dear readers, I get it. But I get it without knowing how or what, almost as if it surpasses all conscience thought. What I do know is that one this journey of award winning books, I have found few authors from whom I would like to glean more. However, in some ways, I feel that I have found a kindred spirit in Anne Tyler upon reading Breathing Lessons, winner of the 1989 Pulitzer.

Anne Tyler once said "It is very difficult to live among people you love and hold back from offering advice." That pretty much sums up Breathing Lessons, which covers a single day in the life of Maggie Moran.

You first meet Maggie preparing to go with her husband, Ira, to the funeral of her oldest friend's husband. Before they can leave, she has to walk to the shop to pick up the car. In leaving the shop, Maggie hears what seems to be a familiar voice on the radio declaring that she is getting remarried, this time for security. Distracted, Maggie pulls into the road, crashing into a passing vehicle.This single event creates a domino effect, derailing Ira's best laid plans into an uncharted exploration of past grievances and new attempts at redemption.

I immediately feel in love with the character of Maggie Moran. Perhaps it is because she reminds me a little bit of my mama and a little bit of me.  A hopeless Romantic to her very core, Maggie seeks to make everyone happy. Plotting her little disastrous plans, she tries desperately to  reunite her son with his estranged wife and daughter, and her sporadic efforts to rekindle her husband's affections are heartbreakingly humorous.

Anne Tyler is exquisite insight into the vase realm of human emotions and the uncanny ability to accurately depict the depth in the human existence. Her characters are so relatable - so human - because they are flawed people. Flawed, but all the while trying to become better, hoping to become better.

Yes, Ms. Tyler, it is difficult to live with the people you love and hold back from offering advice. I struggle with that daily. Like Maggie, I offer advice with the best of intentions, but the road to Hell is also paved with them, so I am told. I just pray that, in the end, Adah will forgive me.

Up next, One of Ours by Willa Cather, winner of the 1923 Pulitzer.

Until then... Happy reading.