Book 9

Atonement by Ian McEwan


Atonement simply defined means satisfaction or reparation for a wrong. This book is about a sister seeking such atonement and never finding it.

I've always wanted to read this, having seen the movie, and it has been on my list of books for several months, but this past semester it was tucked into a shelf where it was forgotten until just a few days ago. The verdict: I really enjoyed it. Being able to feel what all the characters feel was a treat as I haven't read many books that let you into multiple-antagonists' heads.

Also, truly it is a creative story, that a single lie can change the plans laid before an individual and that regret is as strong an emotion as love. I recommend it for those of you who do read my blog, if you haven't read it already. And, of course, if you do in fact read my blog at all!

Oh, deer.

Last night my sister and I, linked arm-in-arm, walked home from downtown. As we turned the corner onto our street - our boots crunching against the snow - we saw a deer. We walked closer and then poof! Nine deer! A doe and her fawn who very clearly showed its unfamiliarity with a white winter, several other does and two bucks. They walked quietly past us, unafraid of Jenn and I as we stood to watch them not more than 10 feet away. They were absolutely beautiful and completely in their element, eating berries from the trees and exploring the dark yards of Fernie when everyone else is asleep. It was quite magical, though perhaps only appreciated by those who too have an appreciation for quiet, and family.

Santa Clause is real.

Quiet roads, frosty windows, Christmas carols and red lights reflected on silver tinsel on the tree. I love Christmas and all that encompasses it. I love the quiet of home, where Christmas eve on main street means running into six old friends from high school and snow is packed hard onto the road.

I love the chill of the air, though I dislike how the dryness of it chaps my lips. I love Christmas morning, waking up under the blankets than have trapped all of my body heat, and knowing it's Christmas!

I love surprises you never expected, like a macro lens for my Nikon. I love sitting around with my Mom, Dad, sister and boyfriend and watching their reactions as they open their own gifts, and playing cranium which leads to dancing in the kitchen which leads to hysterical laughter.

Coming home makes me feel as though I should never leave it, because it's so comforting and so certain. But at the same time, it's okay to leave it because whenever I come back, it's the same. It is certain; certain that I'll run into old friends and have time to sit and read a book, or cuddle with my Dad on the couch just like I did when I was five.

Home is great and I'm glad I have one to come to.

one is the loneliest number.

Playing with food.

TV Dinner

I'm sitting in a nice restaurant called the Banana Leaf in Vancouver, eating my green-bean stir fry with rice tonight and I look to the family that has just sat down adjacent. A mother, a father, a daughter, a son... but wait. There's something else. Between the two children is an iPad and playing on the iPad is the Incredibles.

When I was young, no such thing existed. If my parents were nice enough to take my sister and I for dinner (usually to the town's Chinese restaurant) we sat quietly, drew animals with wax crayons, and ate our dinner. If we were too hyper to sit quietly, mom and Dad would play games with us or we'd be required to bring our favourite book and read.

Twice in the past month have I been sitting at a restaurant and then, low and behold, a child comes in with his/her family and begins playing on whatever sort of new technological device she/he has with them. It angers me. Partly because I wonder if it's the parents who have consciously decided it's just easier to plunk a movie down in front of their children then it is to converse with them?

In all seriousness, to those people who are parents out there, PLEASE do not become like this. Challenge your children, teach them that dinner time is family time and not time to watch another Disney flick. It's quite despicable, in my very honest opinion.

blue shoes.

Can't shake the cavernous creep
With these insecurities.
They pull, seize inconsistently,
Run deep. They do, within my veins.

Hands-on.

Learning can be fun, especially if you get to wear hip waders and balance on slippery rocks while doing it.

...White as snow geese: last years fotes...

"But she's a Jewess!"

I'm taking a European history (1900-1939) course. Recently, we've been focusing on Hitler's rise to power in Germany. I could go into extreme detail, but I won't. I will however, tell you a small story that to me shows that Hitler and his Anti-Semitic views, along with many who supported and were a part of the Nazi party, was nothing more than a desire to hate. It was a load of crap.

Marta Appel was a German Jewish woman living in Germany in the 1930s with her family when Hitler's dictatorship was slowly, but very strongly, influencing the German people. The Nazi party began integrating into education a new curriculum, a curriculum that would teach young German children about the Jewish race. But Jewish children were still required to attend school and would have to sit for hours and listen to the persecution of their people.

Appel's daughter was at school one day when an official from the Race Policy Office came to speak with the students about "high and low races." Below is an excerpt from her memoir:

"I asked the teacher if I could go home," my daughter was saying, but she told me she had orders not to dismiss anyone. You may imagine it was an awful talk. He said that there are two groups of races, a high group and a low one. The high and upper race that was destined to rule the world was the Teutonic, the German race, while one of the lowest races was the Jewish race. "And then, Mommy, he looked around and asked one of the girls to come to him." "First we did not know," my girl continued, "what he intended, and we were very afraid when he picked out Eva. then he began, and he was pointing at Eva, 'Look here, the small head of this girl, her long forehead, her very blue eyes, and blond hair,' and he was lifting one of her long blond braids. 'And look,' he said, 'at her tall and slender figure. These are the unequivocal marks of a pure and unmixed Teutonic race.' Mommy, you should have heard how at this moment all the girls burst into laughter. Even Eva could not help laughing. Then from all sides of the hall there was shouting, 'She is a Jewess!' You should have seen the officer's face! I guess he as lucky that the principal got up so quickly and with a sign to the pupils, stopped the laughing and shouting."

This story warms my heart a little bit, as it shows the Germans couldn't even distinguish themselves what the real difference between them and a Jew was. And yet, more than 6 million were murdered in a span of six years.