Small Wonders

I understand the author's intent.  It is a personal essay.  I would love to grow up and be a professional essay writer!  It would be a lot of work to try and connect with everyone, but the personal experience part would come easy.  I love writing about myself and my life and connecting it to what I know.  I see how Kingsolver went from the bear, to where she was geographically, the events happening their and then the events effecting the whole world.  I'd have a hard time relating my personal world to the real world or it's events; past or present.  I am history and governmentally deficient; i seriously suck.  I can't keep up with politics, and I have no personal preference.  I am very patriotic girl, but I have not idea what our country is going through; it's pretty sad.   I believe when I grow up, I will feel more obligated to learn.  I loved her connections with mothers.  It is universal, you are a mother, will be a mother, have or had a mother.  Even father's know motherly instint, it's Paternal.  They connect to their kids too.  I did enjoy learning all the weaving that went through this essay.  It is cool to see it all connect in the end.

How Reading Changed My Life

This is just a short story but it is packed with author Anna Quindlen’s feelings of love for and joys of reading books. Her love of books began as a young child and many chronic readers will say “Yes, yes, I did that too” or “That’s my favorite book as well.”  I enjoyed reading until the 5th grade; then it got less recreational and more educational.  I hated being forced to read; i'd rather sit on my bedroom floor and read Goosebumps.  Quindlen explains that the history of how the written word has changed governments and religion.  How it is a unifying factor which puts many diverse people on the same playing field.  I like this aspect.  She affirms that reading is not a dying art and books are not dead, they are strong and alive and the many book clubs that have formed throughout the world attest to that fact. Ms. Quindlen chose her career in writing partially due to the fact that “words on a page could make my father laugh and my mother cry.” She wanted to be a part of that world which she so deeply loved and others were so affected.  I know i've cried when reading books before, but I don't recall which ones.  Books make me laugh and think on a whole different level.  That's what makes books and literature so amazing.  If you can understand it, you can become emotionally affected. 
The coolest thing she said was “We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming.”
Though I don't find myself reading for pleasure as much as I'd like to, I am a crazy dreamer!  I have the weirdest dreams, I could seriously write a book about them.  I know during the day, if I could get my hands on a good book, it'd be like dreaming; which I love so much!

Small Wonder

I really enjoyed this story.  The way it is written, is like the author is talking to me, in a conversation.  The word choice isn't difficult and she referes  to herself sometimes, making it intimate.  Barbara is very wise.  I can connect with her and her beliefs, it's so refreshing.  She says " God is in the details "  I agree that the little miracles of life are not just luck, something is watching out for us and provided us with an opportunity.  I think it's cool she finds stories and keeps the ones that she finds some truth in.   She sees the "big picture"  Kingsolver says "  A mirror held up to every moral superiority will show its precise mirror image:"  She knows that even the most ruthless people are loved by their mother, as she loves her son.  She goes on " We are all beasts in this kingdom, we have killed and been killed, and some new time has come to us in which we are called out to find another way to divide the world.  Good and evil cannot be all there is."  I wonder what is in the middle of the two.  There is so much goodness in this essay!  I hope I get more out of it in class tonight.

The Hours ( extra credit )

The lives we live are not always lived for ourselves.  We find life is lived by us, but not to please us, as it should.  In the hours women struggle to live life for themselves.  You have Clarissa who lives life for Richard, and for parties.  You have Laura Brown who lives for society, only having a family because she has to, and it's what war veterans deserve.  Lastly you have Virginia Wolf who is forced to live a somewhat normal charming life of being a women writer, when she really wants to jump off a bridge.  This movie made me realize that life is short.  My life is about 1/5 over already, and I've spent it pleasing everyone around me. Trying to be a "good girl" for mommy and daddy, trying to be the best friend you could ask for, trying to the best student for the professors, and trying to be a gracious girlfriend to my Johnny boy.  Though these things have there rewards, are they truly what I want?  Do they please me?  I have decided that yes, I have grown into desiring these things which ultimately make me happy.  If others are happy, I am happy.  But it might be time to work on my own happiness.  Then others will be happy for me.  I really enjoyed the hours, I would totally watch it again.  I am thankful I got to see this, because it has brought a lot of light into my life.