Native American – Peaceful Reader

Beautiful Books

I’ve struggled with getting back into writing over the last few months. I’m tired after school, I don’t feel like I have much to say, or I can’t think of what I wanted to say…

There is such a thing as surgery brain and I feel like I still have it. I’ve been reading some very good books and cooking a lot especially for tomorrow’s family day. We are having a full vegan spread with Tristan and Japhy. I’m in the middle of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz which is so interesting.

Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2022) : This was an intense story of competition and family connections. Carrie is a not some cute little tennis player that you adore. She’s fierce and not interested in making friends on the tennis circuit or in life for that matter. I read this book awhile ago but Carrie has stayed with me. I loved Daisy Jones and the Six which had a different style but just as interesting. Reid goes all in for her characters.

This Must Be The Place by Maggie O’Farrell (2016): I just finished this for book club and enjoyed the story. O’Farrell wrote Hamnet which I loved and so we picked another one of her offerings. This story has a crazy amount of characters but the story of Daniel is well-told and traverses continents.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler (1993): I’ve wanted to read this for quite awhile but I’d read a few reviews of how real this one was so I waited until I was in the right space. Election time seemed to be the perfect time! It freaked me out and I was fascinated with the main character Lauren and how right Butler was about the direction our American society has gone. I want to read the rest of the series when I have time.

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley (2022): This was beautifully written but so glaringly real and heartbreaking. It’s a tough story about Kiara and her brother Marcus who are trying to live their lives in East Oakland after their father’s death and their mother’s arrest after a terrible grief-driven crime. This story was hard to read but well-worth it as it shined a light on how deep the lack of privilege is for young women.

If you are in need of a good story any of these will do very well. This week I also found a beautiful Native story Keepunumuk; Weeachumn’s Thanksgiving Story by Danielle Greendeer, Anthony Perry, and Alexis Bunten. This is such a great story for understanding the real story of tomorrow’s holiday celebration. I’ve decided we are going to forever more refer to it as our Harvest Festival. Enjoy…

Caste: the origins of our discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

I finished this after 4 months. It just wasn’t a book I could rush and I needed to take a break after sections to think about it ALL because there is so much in here. I very much enjoyed her writing style. At almost 400 pages and seven sections long the book dissects all that you would ever need to know about the social construct of the caste system in these United States, Nazi Germany, and India. I only want to present a few highlights that stood out to me. I encourage anyone interested in understanding better how the conquering men stole the land, crushing the original inhabitants, and built this country up using enslaved people from the continent of Africa.

“Colonial laws herded European workers and African workers into separate and unequal queues and set in motion the caste system that would become the cornerstone of the social, political, and economic system in America. …triggering the deadliest war on U.S. soil, lead to the ritual killings of thousands of subordinate-caste people in lynchings, and become the source of inequalities that becloud and destabilize the country to this day.” (41)

For slavery to have existed here in the “land of the free” is horrid enough but after the Civil War was fought collectively people and our government should have stood up for actual freedom. Civil War generals should have been put on trial in the North and been tried for treason instead of celebrated. Freed slaves should have been offered education and training instead of sharecropping. Even as they fled north they were given minimal opportunities. Jim Crow laws continued this mindset and paved the way for the equity issues we struggle with today.

Wilkerson shares many personal stories of racism from her own life and of others that help to shine a light on the difficulties black and brown people experience daily. People from the dominate caste feel they have the right to dictate, bully and get involved in situations that have nothing to do with them. She shares a story of her encounter with a plumber who isn’t interested in helping her find the source of her wet basement until she humanizes the situation for him and about airline attendants who doubt her first class status.

I read each word, each sentence, each chapter slowly as to fully absorb the emotion and meaning I often had to walk away from the book to regain some composure. While it is brutal and often left me chilled; this book is a must read for anyone seeking enlightenment on how we got here. Understanding the why is important. We have got to do better. My biggest take away is that we have to step in and say something as these situations happen both on a grand scale for racist policies and on a more personal scale to the Karens we encounter.

Gratitude for us

I’ve been feeling all kinds of thankfulness and not just because tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I celebrate the coming together of family to dine together over a special meal that I’ve taken weeks if not months to plan and make. You hope it is one free of argument and that all the kids will like what you’ve created. This year I’m making cauliflower tacos, potato vindaloo, a lentil dish, mashed potatoes with Jaime’s vegan gravy, cranberries with oranges, naan bread, and Vegan for Everybody vegan pumpkin cheesecake. This is a mish-mash of Indian flavors and some old standby favorites and it probably will look nothing like most Americans more traditional turkey and stuffing. You do you. This is more us. We all have our own identities and the food we eat is part of that; a mish mash of flavors, personalities, likes, and dislikes, allergies, and food politics.

I’m glad my son is vegan because he’s in it for all the right reasons; he cares about animals and their rights. He’s empathetic and is doing his part for the environment. My husband is a meat eater but he takes care of that himself. I am a vegetarian and my daughter is allergic to tomatoes which is a fairly new discovery after her elimination diet this summer. That adds a kink into lentil dishes and soups but after some research I discovered this person’s blog, Delishably, and she has the same allergy and shared ideas about substitutes that will work for my lentil dish. Bravo!

I’m grateful my family pushing me in new directions for I love to cook and cooking the same way or things all the time is not me. I live by the motto “Try new things…whatever they may be”

I’m grateful for a husband who works hard to make our house up-to-date with fresh paint and new looks.

I’m grateful, especially right now, for our continued good health. It’s hard to say this with so many falling ill with Covid, like cancer, it comes in so many different forms.

I’m grateful for all my people that have kept me sane during this difficult time of lockdowns and crazy politics. I appreciate the friendship everyday.

I’m grateful for a job I love that is more passion than drudge work. I love sharing the love of books with my students even though some of them do not care for my love of books and enthusiasm. It’s okay. I love them anyway.

I finished an extraordinary book this morning, This is how it always is by Laurie Frankel, and I just marveled in her storytelling! She’s a person worth exploring more about and I plan to recommend this book to my book club. I was thankful that I had the morning to “laze” away reading so I could finish. I look forward to celebrating tomorrow’s Native American Heritage Day because for me it is far better to spend the rest of November celebrating in prayerful meditation the ancestors of our land that came before us.

In gratitude to my readers! Thank you.