What I'm Reading Now

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Brian Stevenson

Finished this yesterday. A timely book exposing unjust sentencing of the poor, children, mentally ill, and African Americans.The background story follows Bryan Stevenson as part of the Equal Justice Initiative as he uncovers and presents new evidence to free an innocent African American man on death row in Georgia, convicted in spite of multiple witnesses that he was at home during the time of the murder and evidence that the main witness for the prosecution lied in response to police intimidation. In the course of telling this story, Stevenson tells his own story and attempts to free or reduce sentences for those unjustly accused or sentenced: a 13-year-old boy convicted to life without parole in an adult prison who lived in uninterrupted solitary confinement for 18 years, and a woman living in a FEMA trailer as a result of Hurricane Katrina sentenced to life without parole for smothering her premature stillborn based on the allegation of a pathologist who had a history of declaring homicides without sufficient evidence. "By 2010, Florida has sentenced more than a hundred children to life imprisonment with parole for non-homicide offenses, several ...thirteen years old..All of the youngest condemned children--13 or 14 of age---were black or Latino." p. 153-4 "Most incarcerated women--nearly two-thirds--are in prison for non-violent, low-level drug crimes or property crimes...Approximately 75-80% of incarcerated women are mothers with minor children." p. 236 "In 1996, Congress passed welfare reform legislation that ...included a provision that authorized states to ban people with drug convictions from public benefits and welfare...formerly incarcerated women with children...can no longer live in public housing, receive food stamps, or access basic services. In the last twenty years, we've created a new class of 'untouchables' in American society, made up of our most vulnerable mothers and their children." p. 237 Along the way, Stevenson advocates for reform of the criminal justice system and pleads for  mercy: "the many ways we've legalized vengeful and cruel punishments, how we've allowed our victimization to justify the victimization of others. We've submitted to the harsh instinct to crush those among us whose brokenness is most visible." "...each of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done."p. 290

"Older people of color in the South would occasionally come up to me after speeches to complain about how antagonized they feel when they hear news commentators talking about how we were dealing with domestic terrorism for the first time in the United States after the 9/11 attacks. An older African American man once said to me, 'You make them stop saying that! We grew up with terrorism all the time. The police, the Klan, anybody who was white could terrorize you. We had to worry about bombings and lynchings, racial violence of all kinds.' " p. 299

Upon closing the book, I thought of Micah 6:8:

"God has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

Thanks, Eleanor, for lending me this book.

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

A well-written young adult novel about a boy with a facial deformity finding friendship in spite of middle school bullies. Reading this for book club and the discussion will make reading it worthwhile.

Small Victories by Anne Lamott

Her usual black humor based on her own life experiences.

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

A novel from the author of Still Alice about a woman who faces rehab after a car accident leaves her with left neglect, trying to compensate for a brain injury that causes unawareness of the left side of her body and the world. Not the novel of the year, but I liked it.

Finders, Keepers by Seamus Heaney

Musings on poetry and Irish dual identities by an Irish poet. Not a quick read, but worth it. Needs thoughtful, meditative reading.

The Book of Unknown Americans: A Novel by Cristina HenrÍquez

This is the Pasadena 2015 One City, One Story choice. Latino/a immigrant experience novel told through multiple characters. It's o.k., but I've read similar stories that went deeper or were told better.

Back in Claremont, California - Village Pipers Concerts on the Queen Mary in Long Beach

We arrived at LAX at 1 a.m. Aug.14. John picked us up in our old car and drove us back home. By the time we hit the hay it was 2:30 in the morning, but, still on European time, I woke up early and got to work by 9:00. That afternoon I rejoined my recorder ensemble for the dress rehearsal for a concert on the Queen Mary ocean liner. One of the members had emailed me the music, so I'd been practicing hard to be ready to play with them again.

Queen Mary Lifeboats with Cruise Ship in Background

Queen Mary Concert, Village Pipers

More Iceland pictures

O.K., it's hard to stop posting pictures of Iceland. Like New Zealand, everywhere we looked was stunning. However, when we arrived on Friday late afternoon, we peered through misty gloom trying to read strange road signs, knowing that the ocean and mountains were somewhere nearby, but not able to see much further than the side of the road. As we walked around looking at sulfur vents and bubbling mud pools, we were cold and getting soaked by that fine driving rain that seems to seep through the seams in raincoats, familiar from Scotland days. I was worried that during our expensive layover, we wouldn't be able to see anything.

Krýsuvík Geothermal Area: Bubbling, Steaming Mud 

We woke up Saturday morning to much better weather. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were the best weather all year, according to the locals, reaching a high of 15 (59 degrees Fahrenheit) on Sunday and clear enough to see a volcano that is usually shrouded in cloud.

Hekla: the gateway to Hell in the Middle Ages

There are several glaciers, one Vatnajökull, is really an ice cap, a giant ice field with several tongues of glaciers that flow down through the gaps in the mountains. The outflow of all these glaciers creates a bumpy plain of volcanic gravel and rocks with myriad braided streams called a sandur, a flat lava wasteland almost like a desert. Driving along the sandur reminded me a bit of driving through Wyoming with its high treeless plains with snow-capped mountains. Lots of the lava flows were covered with this weird green moss.

Moss growing over lava flow

Reeds on a pond on sandur 

In the visitor center at Skaftafell, we saw dramatic footage of the results of a  

jökulhlaup, when a volcano erupted under the glacier, causing massive melting that eventually broke through the ice dam to flood the glacial plain below. Big ice chunks and boulders smashing bridges to bits. I love the word--sounds like a volcanic-glacier hiccup.

Volcanic cone with Mýrdalsjökull glacier in distance



View of braided streams on the glacial plain with Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands) in background

Vik Church

Ruin of Traditional Icelandic House - turf roof, built half underground 

We went to visit the site of the first parliament, the Althing. Every year Icelanders gathered and the law was read from the law rock and justice dispensed. They make a big deal of the beginnings of democracy, but some of the justice wouldn't please us, e.g. throwing women and their out-of-wedlock children off a rock to drown in the waterfall below.

Alþingi=Althing: World's First Parliamentary Site - 930 A.D.

Rock formations behind Althing

Yet another volcanic cone with Langjökull glacier

Evening walk in Rekjavik -town lake

We had a nice sunset walk in Rekjavik from our flat down to the harbor to see the boats. Usually, when I see boats, I wish I could sail, but sailing in Iceland looked formidable. No natural harbors, lots of rocks, cold ocean. Downtown Rekjavik had some pretty houses and a stunning new concert hall right on the harbor, but most of the modern housing is pretty ugly--rectangular grey multi-story apartment blocks cluttering up the gorgeous scenery. If you get to go to Iceland, I would recommend spending your time by waterfalls and glaciers instead.

 

Iceland: Waterfalls, glaciers, volcanoes

Our first sight in Iceland: the Blue Lagoon

The Germans have a saying Klammer auf, Klammer zu, open parentheses, close parentheses. We thought traveling to Iceland would make a nice bookend to our sabbatical, since it has some of the same features as New Zealand, waterfalls, glaciers, and volcanoes, but puffins instead of penguins, sparse stunted birch and pine forests instead of lush subtropical forests with towering ferns. Both stunningly beautiful.

Puffin in flight

Both have lots of one-lane bridges, but we haven't yet figured out who has the right-of-way here, whereas the signs in New Zealand made it clear. The words on this sign made me think of Irn-Bru, Scotland's orange soda drink. Well-paved two-lane roads with no shoulder, so it's hard to find a place to pull off to take pictures.

One-way bridge sign

Both have volcanoes on plate boundaries producing lots of black basalt, but New Zealand's volcanoes are caused by subduction zones while Iceland is where the mid-Atlantic ridge comes to the surface, where the North American and European plates are moving apart and new crust is being formed. Sunday we saw swarms of cracks in the earth where the crust is splitting in this fissure zone. We walked into the mouth of a lava tube. We asked somehow how to find it and she asked why we would want to go there. She described it as dark, wet, and dangerous. But a 1500-meter-long lava tube is a rarity.  We had to be persistent to find it. The maps and road signs were frustrating, especially if you wanted to go beyond the Golden Circle tourist route.

Öxará River flowing through basalt rift

Crack in basalt above the lava tube Vidgelmir

Both have dramatic black sand beaches with confusing names. And it turns out that both Maori and Icelandic names are compounds of simple words, so if you take the trouble to learn some of the little words (e.g. vik for port or harbor and foss for waterfall in Icelandic), it's easier to parse and remember the place names. But Maori has a surfeit of vowels, while Icelandic seems to specialize in consonants and lots of accents and little dots. Rich remarked that it's good that their word for waterfall only has 1 syllable instead of 3, since there are so many. At one point I could see 14 waterfalls at once, all rivals to Bridalveil Falls.

Sea stack and beach seen from Dyrhólaey

Ice on the black sand beach at Jökulsárlón 

Glaciers floating in lake: Jökulsárlón 

Glacier

Cliffs and sea stacks at Vik

It's hard to choose just one waterfall picture. It was pretty neat to walk behind the Seljalandsfoss, pelted with the mist and watching the water rebound after hitting the pool below with such force.

Behind Seljalandsfoss

 

Behind Waterfall Seljalandsfoss

Skogafoss

In both places, you see lots of sheep, but in Iceland there more horses than sheep or cows.

In both places, people eat lots of fish. We ate fish stew and seafood soup, both yummy, better than their names. Icelanders have a yogurt-like product called styk, very like quark. In both places, food is frighteningly expensive, but in Iceland pretty much all produce is imported. No buying local there.

Bakery Sign - Opid=Open



I'm posting this from Claremont. No internet access Monday night in Iceland. When I woke up this morning and looked out the window at all the trees, I felt glad to be home and excited to see old friends and family. John picked us up at the airport last night. Sarah is taking her 2nd qualifying exam today, so we won't see her till after her 3rd one of Friday. My cousin John and his wife Nancy are kindly bringing our dog Iona home tomorrow.

 

Copenhagen

2 days in Copenhagen. Tuesday evening we found a grocery store to buy cereal and milk and then walked into town. We went to the door of St. Ann's Church and were allowed to slip into a mezzo soprano and organ concert halfway through. Thursday morning we took the bus out to see the Little Mermaid Statue, surrounded by tour-bus-loads of tourists taking pictures. I enjoyed much more the statue at the other end of the harbor of a bear + looking at the boats, one with these perfectly coiled lines on the bow. Lots of beautiful sailboats along the waterfront and the canals.

Perfectly Coiled Lines

We walked along the waterfront, stopping to see a replica of a Viking ship and the royal yacht across the water. We walked across a bridge and through the guardhouse into the 5-pointed kastellet (fort) and up on the ramparts.

Ross & Rich Kastellet

Kastellet - Lots of old houses are this typical red.

Then we spent several hours in the Danish Design Museum: British textiles after WWII, Danish chairs and pottery. But we found interesting Danish design everywhere. 

Danish Lamp hanging in the foyer of the Design Museum

After finding a bakery for bread and pastry, we sat on a bench for a picnic lunch, too tired to do much else. Too far to walk home and back, so we spent an hour reading Time magazine (Ross and JLFM) and an encyclopedia about Danish history in the library in the Black Diamond (a modern building that matches its name). I liked these carts with book holders and bookends to borrow.

Library Cart with Book Racks and Book Ends to Borrow

Book rack in use

My Danish relatives took us to Tivoli for dinner and to wander around while their girls went on the roller coasters and other rides. Christina and I sat on the grass and talked while watching a ballet of the Steadfast Tin Soldier. None of those Hans Christian Andersen tales ends happily.

Sunday we spent several hours in the art museum, walked through the Botanic Garden, and were too tired to do anything else, but Rich wanted to stop at the National Museum to see the Viking exhibit. Of course, it was great, and we stayed till it closed. I especially liked a Viking weather vane & the rune stones. Plus I saw the best St. George and the Dragon statue ever: Medieval wood, the knight life-sized. Not sure how big dragons are supposed to be, but very dramatic with both the horse's and the dragon's tails whipping out behind. I always like the dragons better than the knights.

Medieval St. George & the Dragon Statue, National Museum

Copenhagen has lots of great towers, mostly brick with copper tops.



Brick and Copper Church Tower

Copenhagen Street

Boats on a canal

Overall, I didn't love Copenhagen, in spite of the boats and bicycles and wonderful bike paths and neat design ideas. It seemed too sterile, not enough street life compared to Hannover, and not enough greenery. I missed trees and grass and gardens. I know that there are hidden courtyards behind these 6-8 story apartment blocks, but I rarely glimpsed them from the street. It didn't help that the prices were so high that it hurt to buy basic groceries. Christina said they pay more taxes than either Sweden or Germany. I did love the guards and train conductors, helpful and with a sense of humor, unlike the steely bureaucratic seriousness of the German ones. When I asked a guard at the art museum if I could take pictures, he told me that I couldn't "take" anything, but I could use my camera freely. When I didn't smile or laugh, because I was taken aback that the guard would actually joke with me, he told me it was a joke, thinking I didn't get it. Guards at the Viking exhibit at the National Museum and at the Design Museum were also helpful and friendly. One explained all about the Jelling Stone when I asked. Similarly, the conductor on one of the trains was a pregnant, pretty Danish woman with a white shirt and a skirt. However, she was tough enough to throw a scary man who didn't have a valid ticket off the train. The sign below in the botanic garden was typical of the more relaxed attitude of the Danes.

Sign in Botanic Garden: You are welcome to sit on the grass here

Well-designed grocery basket with wheels and a handle to pull it (with expensive groceries)

On Friday we took a quick walk back into town to walk along a canal and see boats. We passed some people in coveralls fixing bikes. I asked them what they were doing and they explained that they were a volunteer organization based on a U.N. environmental resolution offering free coffee and bike repair on the corner to bike commuters. There's a great idea I'd like to take home to Los Angeles.

Free coffee and bike tune-up on a busy commuter corner



Gullbranna, Sweden

We left Hannover early Saturday morning and took 4 trains to spend three days with Kjell and Annika and their kids at their summer cottage on the west coast of Sweden. It was a perfect interlude between packing up and leaving Hannover and the rigors of figuring out how to approach Copenhagen. Good conversation. The weather was perfect: blue skies, upper 70s, lower 80s, and the water was warm (73 degrees). We spent most of the time walking on the beach and around a harbor, the little village, and the Christian camp next door. We ate all our meals outdoors on the porch and on the lawn. We swam every day. The ocean was curious; it reminded me more of swimming in a lake than the ocean, since the waves were tiny and  it didn't taste very salty. Very clear and no tide to speak of. A few crabs and shells, but not much seaweed and not much in the tidepools. The rocky parts of the shore were all composed of big blocks of beautiful metamorphic gneiss with red feldspar, very pretty and smooth to walk on. I enjoyed looking at the feldspar-rich veins and folding.

 

Swedish breakfasts are great. My favorite was the blueberry drink: intense essence of blueberry. Also, yoghurt  and thick milk that you pour onto müsli or cornflakes, cheese, ham, boiled eggs, bread, and rye crackers. There is also a strong Swedish tradition of fika, what the Brits call elevenses, coffee and something sweet (cake or pastry) at 11:00 a.m., mostly a time to gather for conversation. Even though we ate breakfast late after runs (K. & A.) and our walks on the beach and were still nursing our tea from breakfast, tradition called for observing this very civilized gathering.

Swedish Breakfast

Small bay near the point

Nice Gneiss

Point with fishing huts and boats

Typical red with white Trim Swedish House in the village

Watch out! Children Playing sign in the village

Outside Our Window

The Leibnizhaus staff came this morning to count the dishes and glasses before we move out. I still don't know the names of all these household items in German and haven't used all of them: various buckets and basins and a floor brush (which I thought they were saying was to scrub the floor, but it turned out they meant the dustpan). Their literal translations into English weren't always helpful. Anyway, I'm trying not to panic and instead pack calmly and enjoy the last two days. My brother comes mid-day on the train. We finally booked the last night in Iceland. Even the youth hostels there are frighteningly expensive and already full for the nights we needed. The pictures of glaciers and beaches are enticing though.

I'm trying to take pictures I've neglected to take. Or maybe I took them in March or April with snow on the ground. Now it's summer and actually is supposed to be 92-94 degrees tomorrow. Fortunately, Sarah took my winter coat home. However, the high in Iceland today is 57 F.

We never get tired of the view out our window. There's a kinetic sculpture we can see from our living room window in front of the Historical Museum. The top curved sections turn in the wind.

Kinetic Sculpture

There's the fountain, which we've sent pictures of before. We can hear the water flowing all day if it isn't drowned out by traffic or tourist guides talking about it. On the railing for the fountain there is a metal ring. If you turn it, you are supposed to get your wish. I've turned it for my kids this year and for my job interview yesterday. I don't really make a wish so much as take a moment to pray while I turn it. You can see it's been polished by repeated rubbing against the metal of the railing, like the toes of statues of saints in churches polished by people touching them as they pray.

Good-luck Ring on Fountain

 

Early Saturday morning we take the train to Sweden to spend a few days with Swedish friends who were on sabbatical in Claremont. Then we have 2 days in Copenhagen before we catch our flight to Iceland. We have plans to see waterfalls, glaciers, volcanoes , beaches, and birds. It seems a nice bookend to the beginning of our trip in New Zealand. Hope it doesn't rain every minute. We arrive back at LAX at 1 a.m. August 14, just 2 weeks to move back into our house and prepare for orientation and the beginning of fall semester, exactly 8 months since we landed in Sydney.