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I never knew about this project, but during the Great Depression, one of the work projects was sending people out to interview others who had been slaves prior to the Civil War. They were all in their 80's and older (duh!) and their stories were recorded and transcribed. Although we all know about slavery, reading these first person accounts has been fascinating.
Now I'm reading "Grain Brain" written by neurologist David Perlmutter. The key idea he is presenting is that gluten is probably bad for everyone - not just people who have celiac disease or gluten intolerance. Basically, even if you have no obvious symptoms of gluten intolerance, you could still be putting yourself at risk for neurological problems by eating gluten (primarily wheat, rye, and barley). Permutter also advocates a low-carb diet for essentially the same reasons. I think his research and conclusions are good, but I am annoyed by some occasional slippage into what I guess I'll call "pop talk" - a hyped style of writing that feels more like "sales talk" than professional neurological advice. Luckily, these lapses are only occasional. Overall I think this book is going to tip the balance in of public and profession opinion in favor of low-carb - and perhaps even gluten-free - diets.
I finished the third edition of "Pilgrim's Regress," by C.S. Lewis this morning. I state the 3rd edition because it includes an Afterward from Lewis describing his remarks after re-reading it ten years after its original publication. It was interesting to me that he found it "unnecessarily obscure" as I did. (Don't we all just LOVE being validated? )
Goodreads lists the book's original title as: "The Pilgrim's Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity Reason and Romanticism." After reading it I understand why the title was changed: 1. It is definitely not an apology for Christianity. It describes allegorically his path to Christianity, but does not apologize the conversion. More or less, it is an allegorical "road trip" to that destination. 2. As he describes in detail in the Afterward, his definition of "romantic" is more the classical definition, and even at the time of his publication (1933) most readers' definition of the term would be far different.
It was clever, even with the obscurity. I found myself mentally tuning out whenever he "waxed poetic" about one or another (insignificant to the "story") aspect that I felt was obscure. In the end, even with the glossing over, I came to more or less the same conclusion as his characters:
1. Life is meant to be a series of trials and challenges which we must face and work THROUGH to be truly alive.
2. One cannot hold onto anything in life because as soon as it's moment is past, it is dead.
3. Don't count on another chance but live this moment while it's here for the taking.
If you are like me and believe in a soul separate from the physical presence, and the One Spirit that manifests within each of us individually but all the same, you will find rewards in reading this book. If you don't, you still might enjoy it for just the story.
What an amazing part of the world! That is my second favorite place to hike. My hands-down favorite is Yoho Park (Lake O'hara). Enjoy!
Have either of you hiked in utah ? most of that is awesome to hike in also some parts of sedona arizona are awesome too ...those are some great places to hike ....just a suggestion . take care fellow hikers .
Just finished The Little Friend by Donna Tartt. Loved the book, loved Tartt's writing style. However...
Spoiler
Was really disappointed at the end of the book when the main "mystery" never
got solved. Commentaries online said that Tartt did that to show how most
of our "mysteries" we encounter in life never get solved, and learning that is
part of becoming an adult. Blah, blah, blah. But it sure pissed me off
since I was not expecting it!
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