If you watch my wife take pictures, many times she’s bent over, with the camera focused on something small. She can really capture the details of life, like these three shots of a spider and its victim!
Then of course there’s the ubiquitous squirrels in the neighborhood – What me? I have no acorn!
Finally, there are times that she’ll just take a picture that is magical, like this one of Delaware River at Amico Island!
Magical did I say Magical, hum maybe it’s a Magical Connection that my wife and I have!!
So I went to the library today, like I need more to read, anyway. I took two books back that I have read Kent Haruf’s Plainsong and Deborah Hick’s The Road Out– two others I did not have time to read Crossroads a book about BLues and Rock music and Chi Marathoning – running what’s running??? Then I checked three out and we'[l see how I do at reading this set of books:
The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend
by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin
The history of the American Indians and the Indian Wars has been an interest of mine forever. Maybe it stems from being in Indian Guides when I was little or maybe all he Westerns that I was raised on. whatever the reason is I find that time period in American history interesting and tragic. I always rooted for the Indians! I look forward to learning more about Red Cloud.
Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Foraged a Nation
by John Ferling
Another time period in US history that intrigues me. Jefferson has always been a favorite of mine and this book certainly looks interesting!!
A powerful and haunting meditation on human nature told from the dual perspectives of a Vermont family that has adopted a chimp as a surrogate son, and a group of chimpanzees in a Florida research institute
A Beautiful Truth is an epic and heartfelt story about parenthood, friendship, loneliness, fear and conflict, about the things we hold sacred as humans and how much we have in common with our animal relatives. A novel of great heart and wisdom from a literary master, it exposes the yearnings, cruelty, and resilience of all great apes.
My literature read for the month. Anyone care to join in???
Ok so I have my reading cut out for me – now all I have to do is see if I can successfully block out the time to read them!!
Stories from family life, music memories, and the generational journey
Last night at Target, as I worked through my usual shift, my thoughts drifted to Andrew, Meaghan, and little Oliver and the perilous but wonderful journey of parenthood they’ve begun.
We’ve taken that trip four times—maybe we’re still on it—and somehow, I think we’ve done pretty well so far. But raising kids isn’t easy. There are so many opportunities to say the wrong thing or take the wrong action. All you can do is:
Keep them safe
Guide them toward strong moral character
Love them unconditionally
I used to tell my kids, “You know what’s right and what’s wrong—so do the right thing!”
And through every mistake and misstep, one truth never changed: you may not like every choice they make, but you never stop loving them.
So to Andrew and Meaghan, I say: Good luck! I know you already know the right things to do to create a loving and nurturing environment for Oliver. Beyond that… you hope, you guide, and you love.
Roots – Songs That Shaped My Parenting Journey
Certain songs have been with me through every stage of this journey. They’re part of my life’s roots—reminding me what it meant to be a child, a parent, and now a grandparent.
1. The Younger Generation – John Sebastian / The Lovin’ Spoonful
Back in college, a little rebellious, this song always made me stop and think about life from the parent’s side.
2. Father and Son – Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam)
By the mid‑70s, this song felt like my own inner dialogue—remembering my father’s words while thinking about my own kids.
3. Child’s Song – Tom Rush
As my kids grew, this song became the soundtrack to letting go, trusting that the roots we gave them were enough.
Leaves Update – 11 Years Later
Time flies. That tiny little Oliver I wrote about back then?
– He’s now 11 years old,
– Taller than his mom,
– And quickly catching up to his dad!
And you know what? Andrew and Meaghan have done a wonderful job.
The advice, hopes, and songs I shared all those years ago seem to have taken root—watching Oliver grow into the next branch of our family tree has been pure joy.
Another Leaf – “Child’s Song” in Real Life
Thinking back, Child’s Song wasn’t just an abstract lyric for us.
When we dropped Andrew off at Kean University, our first to leave home for college, I cued up Tom Rush’s Child’s Song in the car.
Halfway through, my usually stoic wife turned to me and said, “Please… turn that off.”
And she was right.
– That song hits differently when the moment is real.
– Letting go is never easy, even when you know it’s the right thing.
It’s one of those moments where music stops being just a song and becomes the soundtrack to life—painful, beautiful, and unforgettable.
So sometime this month, my wife and I will become grandparents for the first time, when my son Andrew and his wife Meaghan have their baby, Oliver Edward Karn!!
Well, it’s actually Meaghan doing all the work right now and Andrew just gets the congratulations!! A couple of weeks ago, they had Meaghan’s baby shower.and Oliver’s gifts from Andrew’s brothers and sister and my wife and I were books and not just any books, but ones that were special to us.
The kids picked ones that were read to them and my wife and I picked either ones that were read to us or ones that we read to the kids! After my wife, whose idea it was first announced the idea. Peter immediately said “I’ll get Where the Wild Things Are” – though Bossy Boots may have been a better choice! What surprised my wife and I, was the first book that Elizabeth picked, which was Abiyoyo! The picture book based on the Pete Seeger song….
Four out of the five books that I gave Oliver were ones that I read to the kids. The only one that I could think of from my childhood was The Little Engine that Could. I remember that my mother’s mother always read that one to me!! Here’s my other four….
In the Night Kitchen – Maurice Sendak – I always loved to read this one to the kids and I think that the controversy over the nudity of Mickey is ridiculous!
Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola – I always enjoyed the mayhem created by Strega Nona helper Big Anthony when he does what he is not supposed to do!
The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher – Beatrix Potter – I had to include a Beatrix Potter book on my list I think we wore out all the copies of the many books that we had!! This one was always a favorite but they are all great!!
Runaway Bunny – Margaret Wise Brown – Now this pick was a little controversial only in that when my wife told me that it was one of the books I had on my list. I didn’t believe her. I thought that the fifth book on my list was Ezra Jack Keats’ Maggie and the Pirate and it wasn’t until she showed me my list that I believed her!! But I’m glad it is on the list because it’s a great book that talks of parental love!!
Other books included Ezra Jack Keats. The Snowy Day from Elizabeth. Gregory the Terrible Eater and The Tomten from Nick and Noisy Nora, Max’s Toys, and The Tale of Miss Moppet another Beatrix Potter favorite!
So Oliver we hope you enjoy these books, which are the start of a library that I know will get bigger and bigger, because you know Oliver, you can never have too many books!!
Now the reason that this all came to mind today is that I was looking at videos of Doc Watson’s music because today is his birthday (video to come soon) and while I was thinking about Doc – the other folksinger that came to mind was the late ( I hate to write that) Pete Seeger and I went and found this video taken from the show Reading Rainbow with Pete telling his tale of Abiyoyo!!1
https://youtu.be/uVGbgJqXuPc?si=iqhyQ5wBW4UQiotW
Postscript, 2025: My daughter recently read In the Night Kitchen to my granddaughter Emma — and, true to form, Emma didn’t bat an eye at Mickey’s lack of clothes! Some things age better than the headlines.
Ok so which of these men do you recognize?? I know that I would probably have a hard time identifying any of them. Each of these four men disrupted American politics between the years 1865 to 1912. Three were successful in their assassination attempts and assassinated an US President, while the fourth made an unsuccessful attempt to kill a candidate for President. They are clockwise from 3 o’clock – Charles_J_Guiteau assassin of President James Garfield, John Wilkes Booth – President Lincoln, Leon
Czolgosz assassin of President William McKinley and finally the subject of Book 5 for 2014 -Gerard Helferich’s Theodore Roosevelt and the Assassin: Madness, Vengeance, and the Campaign of 1912, – John F. Schrank. I really don’t remember learning much about this assassination attempt. I guess it was because Teddy was a candidate at the time and not the President, but the book was an account of eastern half of the US as he tries to find a location to do the deed. After missing Roosevelt during his trip across the southern part of the US – Schrank meets up with him in Milwaukee. Much of the book is based on the notes that Schrank left behind and eyewitness accounts of the people he ran into on his quest.
What was interesting to me throughout the book was the similarity of the economic conditions between then and now – overall it’s still a fight between the haves and the have nots! Back then the haves lost – today I think the haves are winning and the political clout that the haves possess now because of the Citizens United ruling may just allow them to keep on winning until there are only Princes and Paupers left in our county!!
Anyway I thought that the book was a good glimpse into the mind of John Schrank and the 1912 election. Roosevelt’s action after the shooting was particularly interesting! I think my next historical reads my be Doris Kearns Goodwin’s The Bully Pulpit or one of the newer Woodrow Wilson biographies!!
Ok so it’s not exactly Noah’s flood, but when I went to the basement this morning to exercise I discovered that the hot water heater had sprung a leak! Which meant moving boxes vacuuming up water, separating damaged from undamaged junk, and now I’m waiting on a friend to come look at it, to see what I need to do!
So as sit and wait for what I am sure will be bad news, I think I’ll listen to a little Chris Knight and the song that comes to mind ……”Send a Boat”
Ok so now he’s come and gone and given me the bad news that it’s going to cost a lot more than I thought…..now the song that comes to mind…….Ray Charles ” Busted”!!!
Let’s see we can go on with the mix maybe “Born Under a Bad Sign”?? Who has the next one????
Maybe to feel better I’ll go back to reading “The Orphan Master’s Son” and think about how we don’t have it as bad as some people in North Korea!
At the beginning of his novel Plainsong author Kent Haruf provides a definition of Plainsong
the unisonous vocal music used in Christian church from the earliest times; any simple and unadorned melody or air
And that is just what Haruf’s 2000 novel Plainsong (and Book 4 of 2014) is the simple unadorned story song of a period of time in the lives of seven main characters living in the fictional town of Holt, Colorado. These characters are: the Guthrie’s, schoolteacher Tom Guthrie and his two boys, Ike Bobby who are nine and ten years old respectively, the pregnant seventeen year-old Victoria Roubideaux,Raymond and Harold McPheron, and Maggie Jones.
The story chronicles a time in their lives from the fall in the year the Victoria discovers that she is pregnant to the spring when the baby is due. During those months these characters and their lives intertwine in ways as they face problems and situations like one would find in any small town in America. Tom and his boys are dealing with a wife and mother who is so despondent that she spends her days in her room and eventually leaves their family. Victoria, after she discovers that she is pregnant is thrown out of her house by her mother. The McPherons are two elderly farmers who have spent their entire lives, alone together on their farm 17 miles away from town. Maggie Jones is a school teacher at the same school as Tom, is dealing with a father slowly sinking into dementia. Victoria after being thrown out by her mother turns to Maggie, Maggie takes her in,but things don’t work out because of her father she turns to the McPherons, who in turn take Victoria in. One of the treats of the book for me was the development of the relationship between the McPherons and Victoria,from the early days when they explained futures and pork bellies to her, to the buying of her crib and to their worry when she leaves.
Once again this is a book that I am reading as part of my attempts to read more deeply and get more out of a book than just a good story. As such I’ve read several of the available book club study questions, which I again struggled with, however, I did look at some study guides which spoke about the themes of the book. Two of them stood out to me one was the loss of innocence, which certainly applied to Ike and Bobby, Victoria and also the McPhesons, who were innocents when it came to having a woman around particularly one who was seventeen and pregnant! The other was family which I think is certainly a strong theme in the book! At Barnes and Noble’s website I found this quote in a piece about Kent Haruf!
In a 2000 interview about Plainsong. “What I want to suggest at the end [of the book] is that at this point, at least this day and this point in their lives, all these people have found a place in a small community — it may even be an extended family — in which they can connect with other people and find solace and communion.”
So I have to wrap this up now and get to work at Target. If you’ve read the book and would like to add a comment, please do, and if not give it a read while I move on to Eventide!
A few days ago at Socialstudious I wrote a post about Books 3 and 4 for 2014. Those two books are Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann and Plainsong by Kent Haruf, neither of these books are anywhere close to the type of books that I normally read. The genre that I normally read is reflected in the title of this blog. But last month after reading The Road Out by Deborah Hicks. A book about her attempt as a teacher to give a group of at risk adolescent girls a way to see their lives reflected in literature, and realize that there may be hope to attain their dreams, I thought hey am I missing out by not reading literature. So i decided that this year I would read at least one book a month that is considered literature. For the other books (I read about 3-4 books a month) I would include one history and.or political book, and one mystery or thriller. With that being said, because I have been on hiatus from work, due to lack of work, I have finished in addition to the two books already mentioned a third book Theodore Roosevelt and the Assassin.… which I will write about shortly.
But let’s get back toLet the Great World Spin, which won the 2009 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction and the 2011 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, one of the most lucrative prizes in the world.
The book opens on an August morning in 1974, with a man perched atop the north tower of the Twin Towers in NYC. People stop and stare wondering what he is going to do, will he jump, or parachute from the tower. Soon they realize that he is a tightrope walker and he is going to walk a tightrope between the towers!!The tightrope walker though never named in the book is based on the famous walk of Philippe Petit. The world then spins in time and place and the reader is in Ireland, where he meets the Corrigan brothers, John and Ciaran. When the reader first meets John (called Corrigan through the rest of the story because John just does not fit him) as a youth, he has given away is blanket to a homeless man. Throughout the rest of his life this is what Corrigan does helps those less fortunate than himself. The world than spins again and Ciaran is on the way to New York City to join his brother which had joined a religious order and was working in NYC.When Ciaran arrives he finds his brother lies in the Bronx and provides care for the hookers who work under the Major Deegan Expressway and help at a nursing home! Ciaran eventually finds a job tending bar and tries unsuccessfully to get his brother to move. On the same day as the walk, the world spins again and this spinning affects the lives of all the protagonists of the book. In total the novel is to though the individual voices of eleven people whose lives all intertwine on that fateful day.The characters include Claire and Gloria who are members of a group of mothers grieving over the loss of their sons in the War in Vietnam. Tillie one of the hookers that works under Deegan, Adelita a nurse at the home where Corrigan works and others. They like the tightrope walker move through life on a tightrope only theirs is a little lower but with one wrong move the effect can be just a deadly.
I’ve probably already written enough about the book and should now just close. It is a great book, duh, if it wasn’t it wouldn’t have won all those awards!
Now, the reason that I’m reading literature is so I can learn to read more deeply and get more out of everything I read. But since this is my first attempt, when I went to read some of the book club guide questions, I had trouble answering them. So if there is anyone out there who has read the book and partaken of any reading group studies of the book,who would like to provide some of what they got out of the book I’d be most appreciative!! You can leave a comment here or at the Me, Myself, Music and Mysteries Facebook page! More to come about Books 4 and 5!!!
P.S. Currently I have started another fine piece of literature – The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson – so if anyone would like to read along and explore it with me let me know!!
Today Polish jazz pianist, Pawel Kaczmarczyk celebrates his 30 birthday. Pawel was born in Krakow of Feb 8, 1984. By the time he was in high school Pawel and his band, began to participate in jazz festivals, winning first prizes and awards and he hasn’t stopped since!
In 2001 he founded the KBD trio with Michael Barański and Paul Dobrowolski. Were inspired music in the style of Bill Evans , Herbie Hancock andWayne Shorter . A year later, the trio took first place at the 26th International Competition for Young and Debuting Jazz “Jazz Juniors”, and he was recognized as the best instrumentalist of the competition. Trio won the Grand Prix at the 40th Wroclaw Jazz Festival Jazz on the Oder in the same year.
Pawel has become one of the most renowned pianists of the younger generation od European jazz artists.and is known for his virtuosity, creativity and extremely mature technique. Here’s a partial list of the awards that he has garnered…
2002 – 1st place at the 26th “Jazz Juniors” International Competition for Young and Debuting Jazz Groups (with Kaczmarczyk/Jaros/Dobrowolski Trio)
2002 – the title of Best Instrumentalist at Poland’s Jazz Juniors competition
2004 – Grand Prix at the 40th “Jazz on the Oder” Jazz Festival in Wroclaw (with KBD Trio)
2004 – several medals at the “Kultursalen Horbiger” competition in Vienna (with Kaczmarczyk/Nowicki/Traczyk/Dobrowolski Quartet)
2004 – “Key to a Career” prize at the “Pomeranian Jazz Autumn” festival
2006 – 1st place at the “JUNIOR JAZZ 2006” International Competition for Jazz Groups in Usti nad Labem (Czech Republic)
Album of The Year (2007) in Jazz Forum Magazine’s “Jazz Top” readers’ poll (for “Audiofeeling”)
Fryderyk (Nomination) (2008) (for “The Songs From A New Place” by Rafal Sarnecki)
Pianist of The Year (2009) in Jazz Forum Magazine’s “Jazz Top” readers’ poll
Album of The Year (2009) in Jazz Forum Magazine’s “Jazz Top” readers’ poll (for “Complexity in Simplicity”)
“Melomani” Jazz Society’s Jazz Oscars Grand Prix in the Artist of The Year 2009 category
“Melomani” Jazz Society’s Jazz Oscars Grand Prix in the Album of The Year 2009 category (for “Complexity in Simplicity”)
Fryderyk (Nomination) – the Jazz Musician of the Year 2009
I am still working my way through the 2009 release from Pawel Kaczmarczyk Audiofeeling Band Simplicity in Complexity and it is really good!! The Chicago Tribune writes….
To hear Kaczmarczyk dig deeply into the keys is to understand what full-bodied, wholly committed jazz pianism is all about
Here’s the playing “Get More Chicks” at the Garana Jazz Festival So Happy Birthday, Pawel!! Check out his music at….
Years ago I was moved by Death at an Early Age Jonathan Kozol’s award-winning book chronicling his first year of teaching, and the plight of poor children in the Boston school system. Forty plus years later, I am moved again this time by Deborah Hick’s book The Road Out (Book 3 of 2014) The Road Out chronicles Hicks attempt to give several at risk girls in the Cincinnati school system a road out, through a top quality literature education. For several years Hicks conducts a special literature class for these girls in trying to give them something that they didn’t have hope and dreams, Dreams about where they could go and what they could be, by using the power of the written word. Seven girls Blair, Alicia, Adriana, Jessica, Elizabeth, Mariah,and Shannon. Seven girls growing up on the wrong side of the tracks in Cincinnati.Children whose parents and grandparents came from the hills of Appalachia to the industrial centers of Ohio, to chase the American dream only to have that dream crushed.They watched their jobs be shipped out of the country, have the factories close, and their communities turned into ghettos with rampant unemployment, and drug use particularly Oxycontin…
As I read this book, I said damn, children in America should not have to live like this. They shouldn’t have to watch good mothers descend into the black hole created by prescription drug use, and then join the women standing on the street with other who sell their bodies for the drug they crave. Or worse yet, get pulled out of class because their mother was found dead of a drug overdose. And then have to face a school system that does little except teach to the test. I asked myself, knowing the answer, who stole the American Dream? W/hat did we do to get to this point throughout our great land that once was a beacon of hope throughout the world!! This thought has led me to Hedrick Smith’s book appropriately titled Who Stole the American Dream!!
But Hicks stepped into this world determined to give these girls something that she felt she never had growing up a first-rate education and a chance to live their dreams. Through literature she had these young girls, who struggle in their regular classrooms, examining their lives, finding themselves in the pages of many books, and then writing about their lives and dreams. They even produced their own magazine! She had them thinking and dreaming about attending college and creating a better life for themselves. As I read the book I started to think about my reading and education. I tend to read only for the story and rarely think about what deeper message the book may contain. The mysteries and many of the thrillers that I read have a single character be it Dave Robicheaux, Cork O’Connor, Mitch Rapp, or earlier in my reading days a Dirk Pitt battling evil. Is that because I am an only child??? Throughout my lifetime, I have shied away from literature especially classic lit! The result is, I don’t think I’ve ever analyzed literature the way that Hicks had these girls analyzing the books they were reading, looking for connections to their lives in the story, identifying with the heroine. So I was off to the library, first I picked up How to Read Literature Like a Professor. I figured any help I can get on deeper reading is a plus!! Then I picked up Plainsong by Kent Haruf. I had already put Let the Great World Spin on my Kindle. Neither of these books are my typical read, but maybe they can provide some insight into the world around me!!
But back to Hicks and the girls. One of the books that she had the girls read and analyze was Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison. Several of the girls immediately identified with the book just based on the title!
“I’m a bastard!” said Alicia.
“I’m a bastard” echoed Mariah “I’m bastard. “I’m proud to f…in’ say it, I’m a bastard”
You know my only cousin that is not a bastard,” said Alicia, “Is the baby that Margie is carrying right no, ’cause her and Xavier are married. That’s my only cousin that’s not a bastard.”
Remember these girls are pre-teens and early teens! Anyway, here’s what Allison writes about the book…
“The Road Out is a terrible wonderful read – terrible for the hard painful lives that it shows so closely and wonderful for the sense of hope and purpose that comes through so powerfully”
While Carol Stack the author of All Our Kin and Call to Home writes:
“A wrenching extraordinary tale. The Road Out is not a story of victims but a story of passion and literacy. With authority and vulnerability, Hicks uncovers unexpected insights and offers new ways to bring a love of reading along with hope into the far corners of urban life on the margins”
Both of those quotes sum up my feelings about the book better than I can! So check it Out! In closing the last thing it did was piss me off even more at the politicians who cut taxes for the rich and cut needed services for the poor and children like these girls who are living on the edge through no fault of their own!!
