A Boy and a Bear In a Boat

 The American cover, the one I have

Only twice in my life have I finished a book, taken a big deep breath, and then reopened it at the first page to read again. The first book was Charlotte's Web and I was only nine or ten. I so badly wanted Charlotte to be alive again that I started the book over. And cried the second time. I almost restarted Kushiel's Dart when I finished it but regained my sanity as I stared at the 800 or 900 pages before me. On Sunday I read a book called A Boy and a Bear in a Boat. I put the book down, smiled, and instantly picked it back up to start rereading. The first reading had taken me 2 hours. The second one was shorter.

I'm not sure how to describe Dave Shelton's book. The plot, quite simply, is about a boy and a bear and the boat trip that they take together. The boy wants to cross to the other side and the bear is the captain of the boat. They set off on their journey but before long the boy realizes that they are lost. Hopelessly lost, unless you ask the Bear. He knows exactly where they are at. He even has a map (it looks like the image below). So they keep going. And from that, a number of adventures happen. They find sea monsters, The Last Sandwich, tide anomalies, and abandoned ships. It's a book with both a comic no one understands and a ukulele. It's an odd story (blissfully odd). But that's only part of it. It's a story about attitude, friendship, and the unwillingness to give up.

The UK cover, which is so perfect that I will need to find a copy, no matter what cost. 

The book Siddhartha by Herman Hesse always leaving me with an incredible feeling of peace whenever I finish it. I've read it many times over the course of my life. Always when I need to be mentally cleansed. It's a book that restarts my brain. A Boy and a Bear in a Boat might become my new cleansing book. The lessons that this book teaches are simple but I remember feeling completely changed after reading it. It's a bit story, a bit zen koan, and a bit magic. We never find out the boy's name or the bear's name. The boat is named but that's about the only character that has one. We learn what we need to know about the characters though. When I finished I loved Bear the same way I loved Charlotte all those years ago. He was a wonderful character. And the boy grew so much during the course of the book that I wanted to cheer for him. I closed this book (I won't tell you the ending) and I felt completely at peace. It's a magical book, even if I'm still trying to puzzle it out.

Order Out of Chaos

I'm am disorganized to the extreme. Some would say that I've turned disorganization into an art. I have piles of things stacked all over the house. I have books sitting on my stairs waiting to go upstairs to be shelved in my library. My desk is piled with articles I've meant to read, story ideas that haven't been fleshed out yet, and plenty of knickknacks. My laundry is either in the hamper waiting to be washed or in the hamper waiting to be hung up. I'm not what you would call an amazing housekeeper.

Most of the time I don't have any problem with my regular bits of chaos. Every couple of years though I decide that I need to clean house. And this is one of those times. Both Jeff and I are pack rats. We collect things. We buy things for hobbies that never get used. I wish I could count the number of origami books that I've bought over the years and never used. And it's the same with every other hobby I've tried.

So this week I'm going to start going through my books and my clothes and my knickknacks and hopefully getting rid of some things. I'm trying the three box trick (one box to keep, one to throw, and one to give away). Everything in the "To Keep" box has to find a place in the house. I guarantee that I will evaluate things quite a bit more if I know that I have to find a spot for them. There aren't a lot of spots left. Wish me luck. This should be a monstrous task.

Accentuate the Positive

This is just another cleansing post. I promise to have something better soon but my head is really not in it tonight. I don't want to talk about the fiasco that is my work situation right now mostly because I don't want to think about it. So tonight is more pictures. More images that make me happy. More nothingness. Enjoy. I'll try to have something of substance tomorrow. Hopefully things will be a little more stable tomorrow.

This is the image that is my wallpaper at the current moment. It is my favorite hummingbird picture that I took last summer.

A pumpkin to usher in the fall

And last year's firework display to send the summer out properly.

Again sorry all. I'll have something better tomorrow.

Cleansing post

I spent a good deal of yesterday researching the egg industry in the United States. Part of my job includes putting aside my personal feelings about something and learning as much as I can about a specific topic. Most of the time I can be slightly impartial. This was not the case with this topic. I could only do any serious research in 45 minute increments. Then I would be so sick that I would have to find something else to look at. As a semi-vegetarian, yesterday was enough to almost push me straight into vegan. Or at least make sure every egg I eat is from a free-range humanely treated chicken.

Actually I will make a plea to support California egg growers. California passed Proposition 2 in this last election that requires that all animals raised for food must be held in spaces that allow them the freedom to lie down, stand up, and stretch their legs. For many cows, pigs, and especially chickens, this has not been an option in the past. The egg growers are saying that this will bankrupt the California egg industry. If we can prove to them that humanely raised animals can still be profitable, there is a chance to move that legislation nation-wide.

But I didn't start this post to talk about the terrible things I saw and read yesterday. Instead I wanted to talk about one of the fun artists I found while looking for something to cleanse my head. With eggs on the brain, I happened to stumble upon Jeff Koons and this sculpture.


I love the glass and the delicate nature of this sculpture. Koons is a very interesting artist, using mostly pop culture references. I remember when the Des Moines Art Center purchased one of his pieces. There was a huge uproar. The art center had paid several million dollars for three shop vaccuums stacked on top of each other in lighted boxes. Similar to this.

But I love Koons' sense of fun. This has to be one of my favorite sculptures.

I love how he uses unusual materials to create his art. The glass instead of the balloon. The use of shop vacs as art. Modern art for me has always been about finding new materials and using them in a way not used before. Koons definately does that. Plus how can you not smile when you see these.