Into Another Level - Reading and Historical Understanding

Red Scarf Girl is a historical memoir
by Ji-li Jiang about her experiences
during the Cultural Revolution of China,
with a foreword by David Henry Hwang.

This story, told in the first person by Ji Li Jiang, raises awareness of what can happen in a country when an ideology of a dictator who achieves power uses the government to control the population. Ji Li's story does so in a way similar to what a reading of George Orwell's 1984 does, with the added emphasis of it being an actual memoir. Both titles shed light on the human desire for power and the natural tendency of governments to move toward institutional power and control if they are not kept in check. Both stories can also give us useful insights into the current context in the USA and around the world. Red Scarf Girl does so in an authentic way told from the perspective of someone who has lived through the kind of tyranny we in USA all thought we were (some still think we are) immune to.  

Red Scarf Girl was published in 1997. It foreshadows what we are in many ways seeing transpire today across the US and the world. One very important tactic described and currently being used to control the citizenry is the revision of history. Ji-Li's experience of historical revision reaches deeply into her personal and family life. Her understanding of her family's past is totally revised externally and in her own mind based on the propaganda of the Communist Party during Mao's cultural revolution. Students were given the definitive description of each class of people and every individual within that class. Each was determined to be an enemy or an ally to the regime based on the class status of their ancestors and other family members. No discussion. No nuance. No reality. You are who we say you are. There is no escaping your class background.

If you have any interest in studying this phenomenon or the history of it, you can read a stack of high level academic works (I'll list some below that I have found worthwhile) and of course George Orwell's work, but honestly and especially for your own children and students (depending on their age) there may not be a need to read a highly emotionally charged and/or advanced reading or difficult text when we still have valuable first person accounts like this one from Ji Li Jiang. 

1984 is emotionally hard to read and even more so is Brave New World, in my opinion. Red Scarf Girl is geared towards readers of about a 6th-7th grade reading level. Red Scarf Girl presents the facts of one persons life, which do in fact carry an emotional charge, but not to the extent that the reader (unless highly sensitive) will find the need to turn away from the story. However, please, do be available for discussion and processing as it will certainly raise intensely important questions for students.

Amazingly though, this recount of the author's life in China lays out in many ways the techniques of censorship and manipulation. Most pertinent to the discussion in my view is that we are currently  experiencing the same techniques in the West.

I'd say this is a must read and given the reading level it will be a quick read for most, especially adults. It provides a window into history, worldview ideology, politics and opportunities for learning and  discussions involving each of those subjects. And if you are interested in a deeper dive, have time and the reading aptitude, below is a more extensive list:

In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park - A story similar to Red Star Girl from Korea.

Animal Farm by George Orwell 

1984 by George Orwell - Both Orwell titles should be a warning not a blueprint.

The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx - We might as well hear it from a sources of communist ideology.

The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - This one is a more personal experience & more intense, a long hard read.

Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity―and Why This Harms Everybody by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay - Important scholarly work from these two accomplished academics.

Words, words, words...

Actions speak louder than words. It is common to place importance on action over speech. We all speak to it on occasion. We admire people who's actions reflect the spirit of the words they speak. We want our people, especially our leaders with any power or authority to walk the talk. We also know that due to human nature it easier to say the right thing than to do the right thing. From the simplest commitment, "I'll call you." to the biggest, "I'll never leave you." saying the words are just the very beginning. Even with the commitments we make to ourselves, the words flow like water from the faucet but the work often requires the digging of a well.

The right words sell products. Politicians use the words we want to hear to sell themselves. In the last several decades, generally and right now in the months before an election specifically, words reign over action.

 

Attempts are constantly being made to convince us or manipulate us with words. 

Even the very meanings of words are being manipulated, often in a covert way. There is a new (or maybe not so new, perhaps I've been unaware) media marketing genre, if you will, the intentional misuse of words. Words that are generally assumed to mean one thing actually being used with an different meaning entirely, as a calculated means to get agreement or to confuse listeners. In many cases this has gone to the extreme, up means down and down means up. Truth is obscured, we are lied to. If we hear them enough, lies become the truth. We are expected to live by the lies whether they are our own or the tall tales of others spoken loudly and publicly.

This works to enlist others into something (a product, a service, an idea), they think they understand, but truly know nothing about. And who of us isn't hesitant to admit not knowing the meaning of a simple word or an often used phrase for fear of outing our own ignorance. If we discover the discrepancy, we are likely too far in to admit our own gullibility, misunderstanding or stupidity.

I think we have all likely noticed the tendency these days in media, in politics, sadly even in the pulpits, for people to cover facts, especially personal facts, regarding the lack of meaningful actions. Maybe even in ourselves, to please people, to win favor, to get elected. The route to giving the appearance of walking the talk these days is as likely to be to change the words and their meanings over demanding more of ourselves in our understandings, in our communications or in our actual behavior. 

Actions may speak louder than words but how we use and understand words influences our thoughts and behaviors. 

So use and listen to words wisely. Improve your own vocabulary and commit with me to asking others (in spite of feeling dumb) to clarify what definitions are being used, to clarify that we are using mutually agree upon terms so that we can truly and honestly communicate, so that our conversations foster understanding and contribute to the most prosperity for the most people by maintaining a free and open market place of ideas respectfully shared.

More to be posted soon - on improving our vocabulary so that we can increase our understanding of the people around us and the topics that interest us. 

Cheerio.

Parenting Young Athletes - Part 1

First published in 2016.

Like most people, I am inspired by the amazing accomplishments of athletes who have achieved excellence and world class status in sports. Watching an Olympic event can bring tears to my eyes as I realize the possibilities inherent in human talent and commitment. For an athlete to become part of an Olympic team and compete on a world stage takes dedication to a single goal beyond what many of us have or are even witness to very often. It is truly amazing what can be achieved through focus and commitment.

I am even more likely, brought to tears, by watching my own children perform in their selected sports. It is, naturally, the modest performances of my own, that strikes a cord of awe and pride most deeply in the heart of their mom. The background knowledge of the support and love required to even attempt greatness in athletics brings home certain universal aspects of being human and what it really takes to achieve a dream.

At bat.

We currently have three serious athletes in our immediate family. One baseball player and two gymnasts. Our daughter is a gymnast and we are also currently hosting an international student gymnast. As parents, we walk a fine and demanding line of supporting their pursuits in sports and helping them achieve a balance in their lives.

Our goals for our children include taking into account all other areas of life and achievement, most importantly long term health and happiness. While sports participation can contribute to those ends, it can also overtake them. It can displace them, distort them or focus them more sharply.





As a mother of young athletes, I am a witness to the daily effort needed for even the most basic involvement in a sport. It takes a committed family to enable a young person to follow the dream of athletic participation, at any level. What it takes for the highest levels of achievement is incomprehensible to me at times, when just getting my child to the field or the gym requires me to do back flips (metaphorically) given the other responsibilities of raising children and maintaining a household.

USAG Eastern Nationals 2016

Sports achievement, requires first and foremost a committed, driven athlete and a supportive family. It also requires a team of knowledgeable and talented coaches and athletic trainers.

There can be the need for expertise in sports related counseling sessions, injury prevention or injury recovery. On occasion, there is the need for physical therapists, sports doctors and surgeons. High level sports participation requires the constant struggle of single purpose against the odds of circumstance and available resources.

High achievement requires a heavily resourced band wagon.

As sports parents, we have the responsibility of providing healthy nutrition on a daily basis, providing the required apparel for practice, games and competitions, (there is lots of laundry), scheduling, driving, oversight of academic achievement and creating an environment of support that includes the opportunity for rest and downtime. The sourcing of all of this falls squarely on the shoulders of the parents, to find, provide, utilize and fund. High achievement isn't cheap.

Healthy daily nutrition is a must.

There are times, when it is difficult to address the needs of other individual family members while supporting a driven young athlete. For the athlete, there is a constant demand of staying focused and committed while living a life of balance. For parents, it requires the constant outlay of resources to the endeavor. In some families this may place limitations on other activities for siblings. Maintaining an intense practice schedule and allotting the resources for it takes creativity while continuing to consider the needs of other family members. For some sports, such as gymnastics, the longest time off from practice in an entire calendar year is only one week. Trying to juggle that in a family of athletes with working parents, who have employer dictated vacation weeks, has meant short and sweet family vacations that are more accurately described as extended weekends.

What really matters...

As we continue supporting our children as athletes, I have come to realize that for our family, the discipline that is most important is beyond all of the athletic training. For the young athlete with high aspirations, there is the need to focus so much on ones own pursuit that the consideration of the others living with and around them can be easily overlooked. It is important to me to emphasize the value of family, friends and loved ones for their own sake. I try in word and deed, to remind our driven athletes of the value of others in their lives, beyond the contribution they make to the personal sports goals of the athlete.

Wherever our children end up in their athletic adventures, whether it be culminated in high school sports participation or beyond, hopefully their participation and learning will contribute to the growth of more well rounded, disciplined and aware people (parents included). The real goal in sports participation is the growth of people who know what it takes to love and support others, are better able to contribute to the well being and lives of others and to effectively improve the world in which they live.

For an amazing look into the gymnastics life of Olympic champion McKayla Maroney as she reflects on her career, watch her fascinating interview on GymCastic.

Or for a very personal and revealing coming of age story set in the demanding world of elite gymnastics read Chalked Up by Jennifer Sey. Available on amazon.

Sports Participation Builds Character and a Heartwarming Little Leaguer Story Video

After so many years watching my boys play in Little League and the dedicated hours my husband spent coaching and encouraging players throughout the years, I love seeing positive stories from the games and especially from the Little League World series in Williams Port, Pennsylvania. We never had the luck and fortitude to make it there as a competing team but there were many years that we went as spectators. Those little fields are gorgeous and the all volunteer event is run smoothly and with friendly enthusiasm. I saw this heartwarming video on https://worldwatch.news yesterday morning. Watch and see just one sweet example of how sports participation can help build character.

Reading A Hillbilly Elegy

I love learning new words. I didn't know the meaning of the word elegy when I picked up Hillbilly Elegy to read. And I still didn't when I finished reading it. Just now as I sat to write my response to this honest description of growing up in working class poverty by J.D. Vance, did I finally look up the definition. As a reader who grew up in a working class family, I suspect J. D. would understand that order of fulfilling my curiosity. I love learning new words. My interest in incorporating new vocabulary into my speech is just one small example of how this story resonates for me. I relate personally to this memoir on many levels, the most obvious simply the familiarity of the experiences described. 

elegy

[ el-i-jee ]

a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.

a poem written in elegiac meter.

a sad or mournful musical composition.

It isn't actually my interest in learning new words that provides one of many connections to J.D. Vance's story, but more accurately the experiences of being rebuffed for trying to use any new vocabulary in my day to day speech in a working class neighborhood as a child. The culture I grew up in was not Kentucky "hillbilly" the label J.D. Vance uses for his own family background but the experiences of my own raised poor working class upbringing would be recognizable to the folks in Vance's childhood community. 

I made a new acquaintance recently during my reading of the book, carrying it along on a recent trip. Having already read the title she saw I held, she said it was hard to read. After sharing her thoughts of dismay and shock about events in the story, she asked my reaction to the book. I launched into my own disturbing family stories. My retelling of similar family experiences was probably more than she expected. My own life is filled with crazy poor working class substance abuse stories passed down from earlier generations of my family and lived through in my childhood. 

Addiction, co-dependence, domestic violence, teen pregnancies and limited higher education were all a part of my life growing up, but fortunately so was a reasonably good public education system, a neighborhood of families who kept an eye on each other's kids and accessible public libraries. Those community resources were contributing factors in being able to rise above the disfunction I was raised in, but so was my own innate curiosity about the lives of others and the options I had a glimpse of. It was books filled with words of the life stories of others, books with promises of more somewhere else, sometime in the future, books that offered a mental escape. Holding those promises in my heart was a way to get through it all with the hopes of more and dreams of peace intact.

Hillbilly Elegy presents the hardships suffered by the working class in a specific part of our country but I've lived through and seen similar problems in other geographic locations in the US.  Despite the hardships presented, Hillbilly Elegy is a story of hope and the accomplishments that can be made by one individual with the right love, encouragement and support to back them. 

In just the last few days, I've learned that J.D. Vance is currently making an attempt to spread that hope further by running as a candidate for the US Senate in Ohio. Based on what I've come to know about him, I'd say he'd be an excellent voice for the people he would represent.

Year End - Into 2022 Reads

For me, 2021 ended with the luxurious opportunity for some cozy long days of reading. I plowed through two titles by a writer I recently discovered. Rod Dreher is a Christian writer whose words in these works provide an analysis for a deeper understanding of our current times and for encouragement I've been in need of. New directions have been brewing both spiritually and geographically for me as I've struggled with the new realities of post modern, post pandemic living. Both The Benedict Option and Live Not By Lies include thought provoking ideas for personal spirtitual consideration and what to consider going forward in communty.

Rod Dreher's The Benedict Option provides a potential guide for Christians during these times and place of what he describes as a post-christian nation. Not neccessarily a welcome description of where we are as a country but it is always a relief to read or hear the words of someone as they describe what one has been witnessing but unable to articulate for oneself.

The second title I dove into immediately after finishing The Benedict Option holds even more direct relevance to the immediate events in our times. The acknowledgement by more and more Americans of the similarities of what is currently happening in our country in the name of safety to the tyranny that our countrymen fought to eliminate in the past. As stated inside the jacket cover, Live Not By Lies is the wake-up call we need. Whether drawn to the Christian aspects of Dreher's work or not, I hope many will find their way to this title in particular with it's poignant examples of immigrant citizens who have experienced the drama, fear and horrors of living through and escaping from totalitarian governments.

My own experience includes hearing stories from survivors of authoritarian regimes, as well. Their recollections have remained with me, in some cases for decades now. Their knowledge and insights demand that we heed their warnings. Rod Dreher has put together the intellectuall reasoning as well. His writing is worth your time to read whatever your personal spiritual approach is.

Another enlightening story that reveals current lived reality from around the world is In Order to Live, A North Korean Girl's Journey To Freedom by Yeomi Park. Yeomi Park's first hand experiences of living in and risking an escape from North Korean is told in her recent book. Her real life story is a fast and dramatic read that is another important title to aid in the understanding of what tyranny still exists and where it has the potential to develop further. To raise awareness of the fact that totalitarianism could indeed happen in the USA, I highly recommend this memoir.

I anticipate 2022 to be a year of contiunued adaptation and learning for all. My reading goals for the New Year will include catagories that stretch my mind and improve my understanding of history. With courage and God's leading I pray I will be able to learn to be a greater influence in my community.