Juvenile Thinking

 How does one mature in an immature environment?  My "cloistered brothers" were telling me that they feel sorry and don't know how to help the 18–25-year-olds, in prison.  How can they ever grow up in prison?  After they've served their time and go outside back home, how will they fit in?

Thinking about it, I don't know if they ever will.  They will always be that juvenile delinquent and think like one.  I say that because I had an experience that cements my opinion.  

When I was about 35-years-old, I took a class to obtain a real estate broker's license.  Sitting in the classroom, I found myself "checking" out the guys that entered the room.  After a bit, I stopped myself and asked, "What am I doing?  I am 35 years old, married, and the mother of three children!" 

Why was I thinking like that?  I think it was because the last time, I was in a classroom was when I was in college and would have been "checking out" the guys, as they entered the room.  Even though I was 35, I was thinking like I was 18.  

How in the world, could excons think any differently?  They would just pick up where they left off, before they became incarcerated.

God help them.

Reliving the Past

 The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark is a mystery, thriller, and a study in character development.  The gist of the story is that Olivia Dumont is a ghostwriter who needs money.  She is estranged from her father-- you will understand in the story.  Her father, Vincent, is a successful mystery thriller writer.  However, he has Lewy Body Dementia and needs to get a story out.

As a teen, Vincent survived a murder trauma in his family.  Consequently, the townspeople always thought he was guilty of murder.  The court system, however, said he was innocent.  However, a cloud always hung over his head.  Now that he is dying, he wants his side of the story to come out.

Fifty years ago, Vincent's brother and sister were murdered.  That night is revisited-- eventually relived in the story Olivia is writing. Olivia learns about each sibling through diaries, films, still photos, and interviews with the victim's friends.  At first, it seems that Vincent was guilty as hell.  However, a different side of each character is displayed, than public perception thinks. 

It is an interesting "who dun it."

Wind Phone

 What is a Wind Phone?  It is a device to give comfort to those who need it.  Usually, it is an old fashion rotary phone that isn't connected to anything. People symbolically call their deceased loved ones and converse with them.  Grieving people call whomever they want.  People say they feel solace.  There seems to be some kind of cosmic connection.  People who use these Wind Phones feel better, somehow.  

The story of the Wind Phone begins in Japan by Itaru Sasaki.  He missed his cousin who died of cancer.  He purchased a phone booth and installed an old phone that was not connected in it.  Whenever he missed his cousin, he went into the phone booth, lifted the phone receiver and talked into it.  He called this The Wind Phone.  The next year, 2011, an earthquake resulted in a tsunami the obliterated the coast of northern Japan.  Many people died and felt overwhelmed with grief.  Itaru Sasaki moved his phone booth to the devasted area with the most missing people.  He welcomed mourners to visit his Wind Phone to call to talk to their lost loved ones, hoping they would be comforted, somehow.  Some people said the Wind Phone did help them cope.

Don't knock it until you try it.  Here is a link to Wind Phones in the USA.  Map | My Wind Phone

Who would you call?

What would you talk about?

Where would you like to see a Wind Phone?

Discernment

"My cloistered brothers" are getting closer to the answer to "What do you expect to happen when you pray?".  We are reading Tomes Halik's Is God Absent?.  The discussion brought up the question.  We tied it to the Olympics, which is presently taking place.  We asked, "Is everybody praying to win?"

We decided asking God for things is like hoping magic happens.  Rather, our prayers should be contemplative, in trying to discern God's Will.  We should ask to understand God's plan for us. 

What Happens on the Island Stays on the Island

 The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club by Martha Hall Kelly is a relaxing read.  Surprisingly easy because it actually is an historical novel with romance.  I always enjoy reading books with local venues.  Martha's Vineyard is a swim away (for good swimmers, not me) from Seacoast Blvd.  I judge the weather by looking at the island from the end of Seacoast Blvd.  Heat fog, rain, misty, or a clear day.

The story takes place in 1942.  There are soldiers all over the island practicing for "D" day.  Again, I can identify.  Right across from my beach, are remnants of a paved road on Washburn Island, because this island, also, was used for "D" day practice.    This island, I really can swim to, in fact just float across.  Washburn has my family's favorite beach.  It's not crowded.  You don't need a beach sticker.

The characters are the Smith family and their farm.  The women are left to tend to the property.  Briar, the teenager sees U Boats off their beach.  No one else does.  But she's correct.  A man from the U Boat swims ashore and Briar rescues him.  He wants to defect.  Briar takes him home and hides him.  They have seen what happens to German prisoners and they don't want that to happen to him.  

Briar's sister Cadence is a would-be-writer.  She falls for one of the soldiers on the island.  Grandma is ill and is in the hospital.  Bess is pregnant with the girls' brother baby.  Don't forget "Briar the Liar."  This is the family trying to hold onto the farm.

There's a couple of murders around them.  There's also a spy but who?

  Oh, the Book Club--it's a planning session for the girls and a few friends.  They plan to distribute books to the soldiers.  It isn't easy but they make a skinny book that is easy to carry and it's accepted.  They help with the farm, with whatever they can.

This is a time of confusion and sadness.  The story gave me pause for reflection.  I am happy to have been after the war.  Thank you, Daddy.

Spaghetti Pie

 What to do with leftover spaghetti?  I found a recipe for spaghetti pie and made it my own.  Here's the recipe.  First you need leftover spaghetti.  

a pie plate

about a pound of ground meat

half an onion chopped

1 glove of garlic chopped

3/4 tsp. oregano

salt to taste

pepper to taste

1 can crushed tomatoes

1/4 cup parsley

1/2 cup mozzarella

Spread the leftover spaghetti into the pie plate, going up the sides of the plate.  Cook the ground meat with salt, pepper, onion, garlic, and oregano.  When the meat is cooked add the tomatoes and stir.  Add parsley.  Taste.  Adjust with salt, pepper, as needed.  

Put the meat mixture in the pie plate, over the spaghetti.  Spread it evenly.  Sprinkle mozzarella liberally over the top.

Bake at 350 degree oven until the mozzarella is melted--about 20 minutes.  Enjoy

Curses Can Be Broken

 A friend of mine recommended Fairy Tale by Stephen King.  I tried it.  I found it odd that every time I was going to quit reading it, the story became interesting. As it came out to be, I read the entire book.  It is ridiculous, but it is a fairy tale and they are ridiculous.

The narrator is the main character.  Charlie Reade is likeable, strong, honest, and everything a hero should be.  Since Charlie's mother died, his father became a drunk.  Charlie prayed to God to have his father to stop drinking.  Being in a similar situation, I know praying to get someone else to change doesn't work.  Free will!  But Charlie made a bargain with God that if his father stopped drinking, Charlie would dedicate his life to doing good deeds.  Again, I know from experience, that making bargains with God results in outcomes that aren't what you want.  However, they are in a way.  I guess God is just smarter than us.

Anyway, back to the story of Charlie Reade. Charlie's good deed was helping a grouchy old man and his dog.  Through this man, Mr. Bowditch, Charlie finds gold (literally).  A hole in Mr. Bowditch's shed leads to another place and time.  Remember this is a fairy tale.

Charlie's adventures in this new land is the story.  They're hair raising, but this is not a scary Stephen King book.  I did not have nightmares.  I found how the two worlds, above and below the ground come together, interesting.  It was a different type of book for me, and Stephen King.