Thursday, May 29, 2008

The Peregrinations of a Reader


If I read something that grabs my attention I'm off and running to find out more information—to be subsumed by the latest item to attract me. A New York Times columnist wrote about lost prairie lands and the reclamation of 40, 000 acres by the Nature Conservancy. Readers commented on the article and many spoke about growing up in Kansas or North Dakota or Oklahoma—and the big sky. One woman had recently been East and wrote that she couldn't wait to get away from the claustrophobic feeling engendered by the Eastern landscape. I've seen the big sky in New Mexico and Arizona and yearn to see the expanse in the Dakotas. I want to hear the wind blow in Kansas.

Then I browse through an article about the Kurds and their state of being stateless. What do I know about these people who live in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran?

I happen upon a book by a teacher who went to Alaska to teach in a very rural setting—higher wages and adventure drew him to this outpost . We're not talking about a job in Anchorage. He went to a tiny village on an island in the Bering Sea. He learns something I had to learn when I taught in an urban school in the midst of a big city. You need to understand the culture to create common ground.

And what did I know of Wang Pang? After a visit to Tibet she said, "My mind changed there. I shed all desire for material things. "

I have a short list for my summer's reading—but it will grow and grow .

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