Book Review: "Keeping Faith"

Three years ago, one of my brothers joined the Marine Reserves.  It was a move that surprised everyone in my large, close-knit family of eight siblings, and a move that no one understood or wanted him to take.  As a matter of fact, several of us tried fervently to talk him out of the making the commitment.  

When he started boot camp in San Diego, six months later, all of us were resigned to his choice and supportive of him.  As a family, we support each other and this meant overwhelming my brother with letters during his weeks in boot camp.  He struggled to write everyone back, and when we received his letters, we struggled to wrap our brains around the experience he was going through.  Even more than that, when we saw him at graduation, we struggled to understand the things that had suddenly changed about him and the fact that he wouldn't hardly smile.

During the months following, when my brother was attending the rest of his training for his MOS, my co-teacher, a former Marine himself, recommended this book to me.  Not only did he recommend it to me, he also brought up his copy for me to borrow.  

As a busy teacher, I stuck it on the pile of a dozen books I wanted to read in the near future.  It sat there for over two years.  I duly moved it from house to house (I think there were three moves during that time), and I even moved it to the top of the stack a few times.  

When I finished reading "The Good German" a few weeks ago, I looked at my stack of books, trying to decide what aroused my interest in reading.  I pulled this book out of the stack.  I wasn't sure I wanted to read it yet, but I figured I'd give it a shot, as nothing else was looking interesting.

It's a step by step narrative, in the first person, from both the perspective of the father and the son, of the son's experience in boot camp.  Like my brother, John Schaeffer joined the Marines out of the blue and against the will of his family.  Also like my family, John's dad (and the rest of the family) rallied around him and supported him once he had joined and departed for boot camp.

Reading "Keeping Faith" enlightened me.  It helped me understand what my brother went through, why it was hard for him to find time to write letters, why he told us not to send packages or write on the outside of his envelopes, why he was different when we saw him again at Family Day and graduation.  As a loyal big sister, I had tried my best to understand.  While I cannot say I fully understand now, I understand a little bit more of what my brother went through in boot camp and the reasons for his change in personality.

This book touched my heart, mostly because the relationship between my brother and I is a sore spot right now.  It speaks volumes to the loyalty and love of family, even when they disagree over a life path one of their number has chosen to take.

I would recommend this book to several people.  First, to those who have family in the Marines.  It helps you understand, a little bit more, what they struggle so hard to put into words when they tell you the experience is hard but the best thing they have ever chosen to do.  Second, I would recommend this book to young people who are considering the Marines.  It seems to give you a small snapshot of what you are contemplating doing in joining the Marines.  Third, I would recommend this book to anyone who needs a reminder of how important the unconditional love of family is, whether you agree with the choice your family member made or not. 

"Keeping Faith" isn't really about keeping faith; it's about keeping the loving bonds strong in a family.

An Embarrassing Moment

I am clumsy by nature, so I have no shortage of potential embarrassing moments; however, the flip side of this is that I have a personality that doesn't get embarrassed by much.  When I look back, there aren't a lot of moments that stick out to me as embarrassing.  As I contemplated this topic, the first moment that came to mind was an event that happened only last year.

My boyfriend and I had just been dating for a month or two.  He had bought a house about six months prior to me, and I was currently looking to buy a house.  Our discussions often centered around home ownership and home decorating.  He told me about a store he thought I would like and find helpful in decorating a new home - At Home.

We were out on a date one evening, and we were near the store.  We decided to go in and have a look.  We were wandering around, exploring the garden aisles, when I picked up a huge, two or three feet long, set of wind chimes.  I had always wanted wind chimes for my back patio and being this close to home ownership, I was starting to look for those items I'd always wanted and knew I'd put to use very soon.

Everything was fine until I went to place the wind chimes back on the hook.  The hook was overly full of those huge wind chimes, and even though I tried to hook the set I had securely, it fell off and hit the floor with a loud clang as soon as I released my hold on it.

I'm pretty sure this is the only time I've ever been embarrassed in the nearly year and a half that he and I have been dating.  My face turned red, I scrambled to pick up the chimes and replace them, and I looked around fully expecting a sales associate to appear to investigate the ear-splitting noise.  I stuttered to explain it to my boyfriend, who I liked very much, but didn't know very well yet.

He wasn't embarrassed at all; in fact, we still laugh about this event to this day.  Surprisingly enough, despite my embarrassing moment, I even still shop at At Home.

The Best Trip of My Life

I mentioned it before - the best trip of my life.  I have a whole blog about this trip.  It's been almost three years since this trip ended, and I still talk about it monthly, if not weekly.

It started as a distant, foggy dream.  It started when I read books like "Travels with Charley" by John Steinbeck and "A Walk Across America" by Peter Jenkins.  These authors explored America - it's cities, it's small towns, and most of all, it's people.  Their writing made me hungry to do the same.

First, I wanted it to be a walk across America.  I wanted the leisurely pace to really explore and soak it all in.  Then, I realized that I would never have the time to walk all the places I wanted to explore in America.  Plus, it might not be too safe to walk across America as a young single woman.  My next plan was to bike across America.  I got farther on this plan.  I did the research on the kind of bike, the saddle bags, the packing list, how to train, where to stay, even routes.  That was my plan: one day I would bike across America until that day in 2011.

I had graduated with my major in English in 2008.  I had immediately enrolled in an alternative teacher certification program at about the time Texas began making budget cuts in the department of education.  As an alternative certification teacher looking for an internship, I was at the bottom of the totem pole.  Meaning, I was the last person they looked to hire.  Everyone else on the playing field would get hired before me.

I spent every year from 2008 to 2011 looking for a teaching job.  By the time the summer of 2011 rolled around, I was about to give up on my dream and I knew I needed a change of pace.  I decided since life was handing me lemons, I would make lemonade out of them.  I looked at my bucket list and saw the trip across America.  I knew that was the lemonade I would make out of these lemons!

I spent six months working two jobs.  One paycheck went to my living expenses; the other paycheck went into the savings account for the trip.  I set the leaving date for March 2012.

There was one change, though.  I knew I didn't have the luxury of enough time and money to bike across the U.S.  I knew it would take too long.  Instead I sold my truck and bought an aging, but still in good condition, Toyota Corolla.  My mechanic brother looked it over, I made a few repairs, and she was ready to go.

My apartment lease expired on February 29 of that year, and I resigned from both of my jobs a day or two before that.  I put everything in storage, and then I loaded the absolute necessities in the little Corolla and took off.

I traveled until the middle of October - nearly eight months.  I made a big loop up through the midwest and then turned east until I hit Florida and drove across the south back home to Texas.  I took a week break at my parents to earn a little more money before taking off for the second loop - up through  the midwest again, then turning west.

I spent nights in my car and at campgrounds.  I spent too many nights to count at homes of generous friends and family, who not only put me up for the night, but fed me and often took me sightseeing.  In the entire eight months, I only spent one night at a hotel - a rainy night in Lancaster county, when I was too tired to try to fight the rain camping and I had a coupon for a discounted hotel room.

Those are the logistics, but I can hear you asking, "Why was it the best trip of your life?"

Perhaps it was the freedom and independence.  Every day was a new adventure without a lot of structure.  I could stop at Gettysburg National Park and tour it for five hours if I wanted.  I didn't have a lot of time constraints.  I could stop at a random roadside seafood restaurant in Maine to enjoy crab cakes if I wanted.  I could stay up late sharing heart-to-heart talks with old friends.

Perhaps it was all the time to think on my own.  I kept a blog, which helped me record a lot of my personal growth during that time.  I spent many hours on the road or on my own sightseeing and camping.  There was a lot of time to think during that time - time I used to think about my future, where I was going, what my goals were going to be when I returned home, if I wanted to change my career direction, etc.

I think it was all of the above.  I know I came home with a renewed vision, purpose, and goals.  I know I came home feeling refreshed and ready for the fray of life once again.  I know I miss those days in the little Toyota Corolla - just me and the car and the road.  I look back on them very fondly.  This is how I know it was the best trip of my life.

Book Review: "The Good German"

A few years back, I went to the Scholastic warehouse sale with a teacher friend.  It is a well-known fact that teachers cannot resist books - multiply that times about ten and you have me, an English teacher, who cannot stay away from books, much less resist them.  Anyway, we went to this sale looking for bargains.  We ended up stuffing a box as full as we could get it and buying the whole thing for $25.  It was a good deal.  One of the books I stuffed in that box was "The Good German" by Joseph Kanon.

For the last two and a half years, this book has lay on my pile of books to be read.  Somehow, this pile seems to grow over time, rather than diminish.  I think the pile has at least a dozen books on it right now.  Every break and every summer I tell myself that I will finally get to the bottom of the pile.  Every so often during the school year, when I feel like I am losing my sanity from working sixty hour weeks, I tell myself I'm going to start frequenting a coffee shop and reading once a week again.  Then, I will get to the bottom of the pile of books.

The pile still remains, but I am on summer break and on a renewed resolve to read, both for personal enjoyment and professional development.  Almost two weeks ago, I was packing for a weekend trip, and I decided to take some reading material.  I perused the pile and pulled out "The Good German."  I stuffed it in my bag, along with a book for professional development, and figured neither one would be touched, as I expected to be busy the whole trip.  

I got to the hotel room and had some unexpected time to read.  I didn't feel like thinking about school, so I pulled out the novel.  It is a historical novel, set in the aftermath of D-Day in Berlin, and told from the perspective of an American journalist.  It has all of the requirements for today's novels: mystery, murder, love.  It has the power to make you keep turning the pages.  Those are all the prerequisites for a "good" novel these days.

As I read it, my mind had subconsciously checked off these things and was wondering if this novel had anything more to offer than any other bestseller on today's bookstore shelves.  While I'm not a renowned book critic, I will tell you two reasons I thoroughly enjoyed this book, even if it remains a book that I will only read through once.

I picked up the book because it was a historical novel.  I still like it for being a historical novel.  What's more, I find it to be an unusual historical novel in the fact that it is set in a time period and place that I have never heard of another novel being set in.  I have read an abundance of novels set during the war in Germany, in the concentration camps, all over Europe, but after the war?  I have heard the history of how terrible it was for the German people, but even history books are sparse on this point.  This book treats a time period and place that I have not seen other authors treat, perhaps because it is a difficult, uncomfortable time to discuss.  The author isn't always favorable in the picture he paints of any group: the Germans, the Russians, the English, or the Americans.  He reveals flaws in all the groups, and he helps you feel a minute amount of the pain the German people were probably undergoing at that time.

I suppose the purpose of a historical novel is to help you, the reader, walk in the shoes of the people of history for a little while.  Kanon does just that.  Mostly, you are walking in the shoes of an American journalist as he uncovers a scandal, but you also get short walks in the lives of German citizens after the war - both Jewish and non-Jewish.

The other thing I liked about the book is the perspective from which it is told.  As I mentioned before, the author reveals the failings of all nationalities involved in Berlin.  Although it is told from an American's standpoint, this American journalist comes to realize that even the Americans are not faultless in their dealings.  The author doesn't paint anyone, not even the Americans, as perfect heroes.  He reveals the humanity and the corruption in everyone.  I believe this is why he created the main character and narrator as a journalist because the nature of a journalist is to investigate and to discover things that don't meet the eye.  

You could discuss many themes for this book, but the one I walked away with is "everything is not always as it seems."  The author teaches this lesson in multiple places in the book, helping the reader to see that stereotypes for any nationality, any people, in any time or place, are never always true.

Movie Review: "For a Few Dollars More"

Back in the 1960's, when movie acting actually required talent and screenwriters knew how to write plots that involved more than the predictable plot line, a man named Sierra Leone produced a trio of movies starring Clint Eastwood.  Known as "spaghetti westerns," these movies are far from predictable - they will keep you on the edge of your seat, and your mind racing trying to unravel the plot and predict an ending.

The scoop?  Spaghetti westerns means that these movies don't follow the typical plot - they have no discernible exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.  Just like spaghetti, everything is all interconnected and interwoven, but there is no real ending.

My boyfriend got me started on these several months ago.  We started with "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," then moved to "A Fistful of Dollars," and two days ago watched "For a Few Dollars More."  Out of the three, "For a Few Dollars More" has the most predictable plot.

It's a western movie set in beautiful, desolate country.  Clint Eastwood, with his cigar constantly hanging out of his mouth, calmly serves justice, as a bounty killer, against all odds.  I'm sure you can go to any movie review site to read all about this movie in the most technical and academic terms, so I'm just going to tell you what I like about the movie.

First off, the setting, as I mentioned before, is breath-taking.  It's desolate country, yes.  Country that I would not want to be stranded in, but country that takes your breath away.  It builds the suspense in the movie, because surviving in that country is an art and sometimes you aren't sure your favorite character is going to survive.

Secondly, I love the plot - or rather, the lack thereof.  I greatly dislike predictable.  My favorite books and movies are all devoid of your standard plot - they contain non-linear plot, no plot at all, or they have a plot line that is hard to discern.  I don't like movies, books, and songs that I can put my brain on autopilot through; I like having to think below the surface and to have to dig deeper to find the meaning.  While all three of Sierra Leone's movies make the cut for me in this area, I will say that "For a Few Dollars More" was my least favorite in this regard, because it actually has a very discernible plot line, once you reach the end of the movie.  It also actually ends like you think it will.  The other two movies don't end predictably, and I like them better for that quality.

Thirdly, you  cannot beat the acting of Clint Eastwood.  His calm manner, always unperturbed even when facing certain death, won me over quickly.  He isn't a man of many words, his facial expression rarely changes, but you always know his brain is one ahead of his enemy and that his character will come out alive.

All that to say, if you are going to watch one of Sierra Leone's movies, I recommend starting with "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."  If you like that one, you will like the other two.  They are not for the faint of heart, though.  If you like the easy fare of movies that we are so used to these days, the tangled plot lines and long movies (all over two hours) of Sierra Leone might not be your thing.