Monday, January 23, 2012

Goals for 2012

My first goal of the year was to read some classic novels rather than the dodgy rubbish I have been coming across lately. So the first one I read was Persuasion by Jane Austen. I had never heard of the book nor seen the movie, so I read it and really enjoyed it. In some things I found myself identifying with the main character, Anne Elliott. After that my flatmate and I went hunting for the dvd and bought it. The guy who plays the male lead is gorgeous. The second book I've read is called "What Katy did" by Susan M. Coolidge. Its quite a moralistic book about how to deal with trials but I did really like some of the thoughts that the author put into it. The next book I'm planning to read is the Water Babies by Charles Kingsley, which I read when I was a kid. I was in Coromandel the other day and found a second hand store which had quite a few books I hadn't read in years so I ended up buying a heap of them. Good stuff.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Recap

Just went back through my blog posts of the last 3yrs or so which was quite interesting to me, and it amazes me how much I talked about food and detoxing over that time.

I have been feeling quite good in general since summer started properly (over the last 2wks) and the sun has been out. I've gotten burnt a few times and been to the beach a few times, just in little short spurts, its been great.

Have had a pedometer on my hip since October, have been aiming for 10,000 steps per day, some days I make it, some I don't. Some days I've made 20,000 steps. The saturday before last I went to do the Tongariro crossing with my aunty and friend. We got a quarter of the way up before we had to turn back due to gale force winds and my aunty hurting her ankle. And to be truthful, I think I would have had hypothermia if i had continued since it had been raining all morning and my back was soaked. I would like to go back another time and finish the walk properly though.

Spur of the Moment Voyages

Last week I decided on my last day of work before my days off to go away on a trip all by myself. I don't usually like to do this because I tend to worry that things will go wrong and I won't enjoy myself, but I had the best time. It was awesome. The weather was perfect, the beaches were golden, the water was a lovely turquoise colour and I had an amazing time. I didn't socialize much at all, I wasn't really in the mood. It was a great introspective time, time to ponder and reflect on different things, while driving and stopping. I went to Tairua, climbed up Paku Hill and saw the stunning view from the top. Then I went swimming at Hahei which I'd never been to, but it was great, my favourite part. It was like heaven. I'd wished to stay there longer but i was anxious to get to cathedral cove which I hadn't been to since I was a kid. It was really tricky finding a park but once I did I was off taking photos and swimming, and pretending like I hadn't seen the sign warning of rockfall danger, do not go under this archway.

That night I stayed in Whitianga at a very cute hostel. The next day I went around the coast to coromandel, stopping in Whangapoua on the way. Walked around the rocks over into New Chums Beach which was empty when I arrived but was soon packed out. Spent a hour body surfing and was exhausted when I got out. It was a lovely beach, reminded me of the Abel Tasman.

Headed around to Coromandel Town to have hot fish and chips and go looking for my ancestors brothers headstone at the nearby cemetery but no luck on that one, so headed back home, happy and content.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

How the Bestsellers killed the Classics

The following words are not mine, I received them in an email, but they did have a strong impact on me over the last couple of weeks. They are by Victoria Boutenko a russian lady heavily involved in the raw food movement and expounder of green smoothies for health. After reading what she had to say on the subject I made a new years resolution to try and read one classic novel per month this year. Will see how I go with that.

The discovery of what I am about to share with you began when I decided to buy some classic stories adapted for children for my two cute grandchildren, Nic and Lily. When I was six, my father read me an adaptation of Robinson Crusoe with beautiful illustrations, White Fang, Gulliver’s Travels, Huckleberry Finn, Alice in Wonderland, and Hans Christian Andersen, as well as Russian children’s classics by Tolstoy, Pushkin, and many others. I grew up in a poor family under a communist government. Reading classical books struck the highest chord in me and kept tuning my spirit to kindness, honesty, courage and a life of creativity. I can easily say that I owe the best in me to the books I read during childhood.

Naturally, I wanted to read these books to my precious grandchildren. That is when I found out that there are very few good children’s books available in this country and they are very hard to find. Most books in stores are cute and fun, but there are almost zero books with depth adapted for young children. Check for yourself- Go to amazon.com and look at the top one hundred bestsellers in children’s books. The majority of these books are aimed to become popular by any means. For example, many of these books are adventures, detective stories, and mystery stories—addicting to read but lack depth. I think it is fine for children to read these books, but only in combination with the other kind of books, namely classical books. Classic books teach human virtues, discuss psychology on a personal level, especially in today’s world where our direct communication with other humans is so limited due to our many hours of watching TV and playing video games.

According to Merriam Webster, a classic is “a work of enduring excellence”. Wikipedia defines classic as “something with a timeless quality.”

You may say that maybe some of today’s adventure books will become classics eventually. I believe that very few of them could possibly last that long considering that the bestselling list changes daily. The authors are competing to become bestsellers, pushing yesterday’s most popular reads down below.

According to Merriam Webster, a bestseller is a book “whose sales are among the highest of its class.”

Do we really consciously choose “higher sales” over “enduring excellence?”

What makes a book a classic is the supreme honesty of the author. I believe that inside we are all very similar, so when we read a book written with honesty we can recognize our own feelings and emotions and thoughts. By reading such books, we learn important things about ourselves. We learn that we are good, kind individuals, as well as that other people are also good and kind, except sometimes confused. We learn that there is not even one person in the world who intends to hurt others consciously. I believe that such books are fundamentally important for children and young adults, to help them develop into strong, kind beings.

When I went to school in Russia, we were required to read world classics, including great American classics by Theodore Dreiser, Rockwell Kent, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Mayne Reid, James Fenimore Cooper, William Faulkner, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Jack London, O. Henry, Mark Twain and others. I would love to see my grandchildren become friends with these books’ characters and cry when the book is over. I observe that in the case of books we are manipulated to accept what is advertised to us, instead of the best. Our culture of brainwash marketing keeps dictating for us to eat fast food instead of whole foods, to drink soda instead of pure water, to wear synthetic clothes instead of natural fibers, to listen to the hits instead of good music, to watch violence on TV instead of walking in nature, and so on.

One of my favorite books when I was a little girl was Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. In that book the author describes the “Fool Land” where nobody has to work or make any effort, but they could eat, drink, ride carousels and have unlimited fun. When people hear about the Fool Land, nobody can resist, and everyone goes there. However, after they spend a certain time in this land they grow donkey ears and later turn into donkeys. Then they are converted into slaves and do nothing but hard work. In a way, that Fool Land represents the society where everything is portrayed for us by advertising. It’s so easy to believe that whatever is promised is real, however, later we might find ourselves trapped in credit card debt, sickness and despair.

How can we find the way out of Fool Land? I believe it will be a battle for everyone in their personal life. However, we can equip our children with wisdom, kindness and courage by exposing them to the best people in human history, who wrote the classical books that moved the hearts of generations.