Books Read

Hello,

I just read the Kabul Beauty School set in post war or continuing war Afghanistan. I am starting to read Call the Midwife set in 1950’s tenement housing in London. I find both of these books have much information that I had not known before. What I really want to know is why some human’s lives are such a wretched existence from the beginning and some human lives go through life with barely a bump in the road? Or it looks smooth from the outside. In both books, the person telling the situation has tried to make a better life for those people around them. It seems that one of the helpful traits of the people who make a difference is their sense of humor. At least there have been things to laugh at in both books. Is that what carries them through the rough times? I must develop my sense of humor. The two women also had a sense of the rightness in what they were doing whether it was delivering babies or styling hair. I had no idea that such divergent careers could lead to satisfaction helping some of the poorest people in those times and places. They were very courageous people going to places that they had not originated from as they both crossed cultural boundaries.

I feel that I have led just a safe little life without a goal or purpose at times, but I too have had some amazing experiences. I just do not see instant results such as delivering a baby or sending someone out with a new look.

Our book club is going to read The Help which I read a number of years ago. I will have to read it again since I have surely forgotten some or much of it. Certainly it would make a discussion easier if I visit it again.

Tonight Leroy and I will work in the community garden because he will be in Des Moines tomorrow night and cannot meet at the usual Monday evening time. I am amazed at how busy our lives have become here.

Paula