JANUARY REFLECTIONS
Turning the calendar page into a new year brings to mind the crafting of resolutions, everything from eating a healthier diet to being a kinder person. January is also a time to pause and reflect on both past and future. Entering a whole new decade seems a bit momentous, a moment of drama, and 2020 particularly so. Perhaps it’s the ring of the two twenties side by side; possibly it’s that the fate of our government lies in the upcoming presidential election; or maybe it’s just that we as individuals are marking significant events in our own lives.
For me, 2020 marks my 50th college reunion as well as the Chief Penguin’s and my 50th wedding anniversary. Compiling favorite college memories and then summarizing my life in just 400 words for the reunion book, reminds me of how much life I’ve already lived, and that much less life remains ahead. That’s a sobering thought. Contemplating one’s mortality is hard to do, but after seventy, as one loses dear friends, one realizes anew that time is both limited and precious. Each day of good health must be appreciated and savored.
Certainly, the most significant relationship I developed at college was that with my future spouse. I met Greg the end of my first year, and we have been connected ever since. We were fortunate that we had the opportunity to live in San Francisco after years on the east coast, that we worked successfully at the same institutions, and that we produced a wonderful son who has a marvelous wife and two delightful daughters. Along the way, partly because of career and later just for pleasure, we did a lot of international travel. This included two trips to China when our son was small, three weeks in Madagascar with a noted botanist in 2009, and after retirement, trips to Vietnam and Cambodia as well as Chile and New Zealand. Travel is broadening; I believe it expands your mind and alters your perspective.
In this milestone year, we will again travel, first to Ireland, where we’ve never been, and then in the fall to France for Normandy and Bordeaux and a return to the Dordogne and Provence. This January especially, I value my past and all that I’ve experienced, while still eagerly anticipating a future rich with new adventures.
VIEWING AND READING-–BIG SCREEN
1917
If you’ve ever wondered what trench warfare was really like, 1917 does an amazing job of portraying it. Dirty, claustrophobic, and terrifying. During the battle of Ypres, two British soldiers are sent on a mission to the front lines with an urgent message for a general that will affect the outcome of the next encounter with the Germans. The men selected (the one who chose his partner thought it might be an easy assignment) must race against the clock, travel cross country through rough terrain and behind enemy lines, always struggling to stay undiscovered and alive. Based on a true incident, it’s a tale of courage and loyalty, coupled with sheer guts and grit. At one point, I did wonder how many more obstacles would have to be overcome and were they all real or added for cinematic effect. Gripping and almost painful to watch.
SMALL SCREEN—FAMILY SAGA
From Father to Daughter (Acorn + Amazon Prime)
For a change of pace, my treadmill fare is an Italian series about a wine-making family. Giovanni is the bull-headed, domineering, and abusive patriarch, who, in partnership with a friend, makes grappa. When the series opens in 1958, he has two daughters and very much wants a son to join him in the business. He is blessed with twins, a boy and a girl, but promptly exults in his son, Antonio, while ignoring Sofia, the daughter. As his family matures, his wife Franca laments the suitor she left behind in Brazil; his oldest daughter, Maria Theresa leaves for Padua against his will to study chemistry; while Elena, the middle child, gets pregnant at 16 and marries a local boy. How life unfolds and unravels over the decades for this dysfunctional family has its soap opera moments, but it’s good entertainment and keeps me striding along!
ON THE PAGE—BIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL
Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan
When I was growing up, the earlier works of C. S. Lewis such as The Screwtape Letters were popular with adults including my parents. An Oxford don, Lewis wrote both fiction and nonfiction about religion and faith in the context of Christianity. In the 50’s, he published the Chronicles of Narnia for children, the first one of which I read aloud to our son. Lewis was a celebrated author, but he became even more famous after the early and untimely death of his wife, Joy. Their story was the subject of several books, a play, and eventually a movie, Shadowlands, which I saw years ago.
Callahan’s novel is a fictional account of the relationship between Joy Davidman and Jack Lewis. It began as an epistolary friendship as they exchanged letters. She had read an article about Lewis and began the correspondence. They were a most unlikely pairing. He was a reserved British bachelor in his 50’s and she American, Jewish, then an atheist, now a Christian, 38 years old, and married with two young sons. Her marriage to an alcoholic was imploding and she wrote to Lewis for advice.
After several years they met. She subsequently spent significant blocks of time in England with her sons and eventually was forced to divorce her husband. Despite their love, Jack was reluctant to acknowledge his feelings and become a bridegroom. The novel is told in the first person from Joy’s perspective and is full of emotion and at times seems overwrought. But this is perhaps an accurate presentation of her personality. Joy was passionate and outspoken, and her life was messy. She was also a talented writer and poet whose work, given the times, was underappreciated.
Callahan captures this woman brimming with life, but some readers may be put off by the many theological and philosophical conversations that inform her conversations and letters with Lewis. (~JWFarrington)
Note: Header photo is of the Roman god, Janus (all-to-human.blogspot.com)
