A Quote, a Reading List, and a Confession

"A lot of the people who read a bestselling novel, for example, do not read much other fiction. By contrast, the audience for an obscure novel is largely composed of people who read a lot. That means the least popular books are judged by people who have the highest standards, while the most popular are judged by people who literally do not know any better. An American who read just one book this year was disproportionately likely to have read ‘The Lost Symbol’, by Dan Brown. He almost certainly liked it." ~ The Economist

Thank you, Economist, for helping to validate my personal reading choices.

I'm not intending to write about the New York Times Bestseller List (note the self-important capital letters), although I definitely could if I wanted to. The problem with bestseller lists is that the character of the average American reader (to use the term lightly) is put on parade, and often what is paraded isn't so lovely. I'm afraid that the quality of the books which America has deemed "good" has now has grown rather sloppy - or passed by sloppy altogether and deeply face-planted into a dank vat of vampire dung. Yes, I'm referring to Twilight, and that's not the meanest thing I could say about it.

I have recently found myself ranting a lot about how poorly-written Twilight is (please see previous post "Emo-Vamp Sucks on the Big Screen" for my opinion on the matter), and about how the majority of the world seems to think that Stephanie Meyer has god-like writing skills - especially the pre-teen population who sadly hasn't been as exposed to some of the great writers as have previous generations - writers like George Eliot, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Charles Dickens, Jane Austin, Mark Twain, and Shakespeare, just to name a few of the more well-known...

One of the problems is that schools are no longer choosing to teach these authors to students, or teaching them in a way that doesn't interest the students. (And that's another rabbit trail I could take right here - force-feeding kids information rather than getting them involved and excited about the information...but seriously, don't get me started.) Another problem is that parents don't spend as much time (or any time) reading books to their children, and so the children aren't finding good books compelling anymore. In fact, most kids label the classics "boring," which actually reveals the boring state of their minds. They don't want to discover these books by themselves. Now I'll be fair - some kids love to read, and to read really good books, no matter (or perhaps in spite of) what they were exposed to as a child. I love this kind of kid!

I hate it when people say to me, "I don't care what my kids read, as long as they are reading!" Seriously??

But I'm way off topic...I hadn't intended to write any of that.

Here is a list of the books I've read (or reread) in the last few months:

1. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (fascinating little book, more so every time I read it)
2. The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo (not one of my favorites, but definitely worth reading)
3. Death in Venice - Thomas Mann (late 19th/early 20th century German writer - recommended, and partially read, to me by Josh, my well-read boyfriend)
4. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde (will never be tired of this one)
5. Murder Must Advertise - Dorothy Sayers (Love, love, love, and that's all there really is to say)
6. Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I Am? - John Powell (little common sense book about being who you were meant to be)
7. The Poetical Works of Cowper - William Cowper (Oxford Editions of Standard Authors. Cowper = longtime favorite poet)
8. Idylls of the King - Tennyson (fabulous, simply fabulous)
9. Heretics - G.K. Chesterton (sent to me last April by Josh, along with its companion book "Orthodoxy")
10. The Reason for God - Timothy Keller (very readable apologia of the Christian faith)
11. Just Walk Across the Room - Bill Hybels (compelling book about personal evangelism)

Oh - and I also read "Diary of a Wimpy Kid," by Jeff Kinney, also on the New York Times Bestseller List, and maybe rightfully so, at least in its age bracket. My thoughtful mother gave it to me for Christmas. Believe it or not, I'm not going to give it a bad rating. Jeff Kinney has insight into the mindset of the average middle schooler (a difficult thing indeed), and for that, I applaud him.

The books I'm planning to read next are:

1. The Island of the Day Before - Umberto Eco (Italian professor of semiotics. Looks totally fascinating. Recommended to me by...guess who...Josh)
2. Orthodoxy - G.K. Chesterton (a must after "Heretics")
3. Thank You, Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse (long ago recommended to me by Aaron Profitt, and recently given to me by...you guessed it...Josh)

And a couple of my friends here and I are going to take on the "read the whole Bible in three months" challenge. I'll probably post more about that in February.

And from there on out I'm open to suggestions.

Now for my confession:

Two weeks ago, I finally read "The Lost Symbol," by Dan Brown. Did I like it? Well, yeah, it was entertaining. At least Dan Brown writes about more intelligent things than the high school vampire lovefest which has the world reveling in the ecstasy of glittery blood-suckers and shirtless teenage werewolves. At least he has gotten past simple he-said, she-said sentence structure.

To take my confession one step further, I will admit that I own at least one copy of every previous Dan Brown book, including illustrated editions of both "The Da Vinci Code" and "Angels and Demons." But I digress...let's get back to his latest.

In a very tiny nutshell, "The Lost Symbol" is about a search for a "missing word," which, if found and properly understood, will reveal Ancient Mysteries and lead its finder into much knowledge and wisdom. At the end of the novel, the missing word is actually discovered to be the Word of God, the Bible itself, which does indeed reveal the wisdom that God loves to shower on those people who love, follow, and attempt to understand Him. A Treasure indeed.

Sounds good, right?

Dan Brown, however, goes on to state that "God" is merely a powerful energy found in each of us, that, if properly understood and harnessed, will lead to miraculous events that will stun the world of science. We humans have created ourselves in the image of this energy, and furthermore, we have the ability to become gods if we choose. Quite a message.

Starts out so right, and ends by sounding...well, by sounding good, to be honest, and very appealing to those people who haven't a solid foundation in the Word of God.

Do I need to say more? Isn't it obvious what the theology splashed across the bestseller lists has the potential of doing to the minds of unprepared individuals?

Should these books be read? Yes, absolutely. That's the only way to be aware and to have a ready defense. (And, quite honestly, some of them are thrilling and fascinating despite the theology.) But parents and Christian school teachers need to soak their children in the Scriptures, so that when kids read these books, as they surely will, they will be able to read them with the wisdom of God in their hearts.

Well, I got a bit carried away with my writing tonight. I had been going to post only my reading list. But thank you for reading. :-)

Cheers, Readers,
That girl in Switzerland

P.S. Stay tuned for my newest rant about New Moon, the latest installment in the mindless vampire craze!

New Year's Post a Few Days Late

I would say that at the turning of the year, I've grown retrospective, but that wouldn't entirely be true. Not a day of 2009 has gone by without my engaging in some sort of melancholy reflection. Here's a short overview of my 2009, and a couple of wishes for 2010.

In 2009, I added these cities to the list of European places I've visited:

London - UK
Milan, Venice and Rome - Italy
Salzburg, Obertraun, and Hallstatt - Austria
Prague - Czech Republic
Munich and Füssen - Germany
Interlaken, Lauterbrunnen, Anzère, and the Jungfrau (Top of Europe) - Switzerland
Peillonnex and La Clusaz - France

In 2009, six people that I knew died, among them two of my uncles - a hard reality for me to face all alone in Switzerland.

In 2009, I lost my best friend, something that continues, and will continue, to haunt me. The prospect of 2010, in which we won't speak once, has become the saddest realization of my life.

In 2009, I lost nearly forty pounds, mostly from two extremes - months of (very literally) sleepless nights, and way too much stress.

In 2010, I hope nothing is quite the same as 2009. I want to be finished with the sadness, bitterness, pain and anxiety.

In 2010, I want to lose forty more pounds - this time the right way.

In 2010, I hope nobody I know dies.

In 2010, I wish to become even closer to God, and I want to continue to learn His plan for my life.

As you can see, I have high hopes for 2010. Lol...

Let the games begin!
That girl in Switzerland

A Swedish Playdate

This morning, as luck would have it, Sanna and her small charge William were free for a playdate! Sanna is my Swedish friend from down the street, and William is one of Jules' little friends from school. They live very close to us. Thus, they quickly arrived at our house, and thus began our playdate - a playdate which started innocently enough, but which ended up becoming...well, actually, it stayed innocent, but turned out to be a whole lot more fun than we had originally planned...

First, whilst drinking English Breakfast tea with Sanna, I was suddenly prevailed upon by my spontaneity to make Christmas cookies, it being that time of the year in which baking Christmas cookies is generally accepted as an appropriate thing to do. This idea was met with much enthusiasm by all involved. I was, moreover, prevailed upon to add a great deal of food coloring to part of the cookie dough, managing (as you will see) to turn the dough brilliant shades of red and green, a procedure which made Félix very happy and caused his eyes to twinkle.



With much gusto, Félix, Jules and William, decorated the cookies with lots of colorful sprinkles.



The cookies went into the oven looking rather yummy...



...but came out of the oven looking rather pathetic; in fact, the red and green cookies were completely disturbing.



The boys loved the cookies anyway, although the red ones somewhat resembled the treats we give our dogs. When this was pointed out, Jules refused to eat any more red cookies.

So I said, "It could be that the green cookies taste better than the rest." This was said so that Sanna and I could eat the cookies which were not red and green. Félix declared that the cookies "didn't taste green at all." And although the flavor we were actually going for was not so much "not green" as "incredibly yummy," Sanna and I decided that our Christmas cookie endeavor was a success. As it is, tonight as I write this post, most of the cookies - red, green, or otherwise - remain uneaten.

After lunch, we broke a marmite with the boys. The marmite has an interesting story, as you shall hear...



Back in 1602, as I understand it, Geneva was being invaded by the Duke of Savoy. For those of you who never read anything more informative than blogspot, Savoy is an historical region located in what is now parts of France and Italy. Geneva was an extremely wealthy city-state, and the duke wanted to make it his northern capital.

But as the duke's soldiers climbed the walls of what is now "Old Town" (but was then just "Town"), one woman had a solution to the problem. Her name was Catherine Cheynel, and she was boiling a seriously huge pot of vegetable soup. The reason she was boiling so much vegetable soup was that she and her husband, Pierre Royaume, had fourteen children, and I'm guessing that meat for that many people wasn't cheap even back then.

So she took her pot of soup, right, and dumped it on the soldiers who were climbing the walls, thereby being heroic, but not really helping out that much. She did kill one man, and also helped cause a good commotion. Her kids also went hungry that night, which once again proves that it's hard to be a hero both inside and outside the home. Catherine Cheynel is now generally referred to as "Mère Royaume," or Mother Royaume.

But anyway, there's a song about the Escalade now, because "L'Escalade" is what the event is called, "escalader" being the French verb for "climb." The song has sixty-eight verses, and no, I can't sing it.

So back to the marmite to finish up this delightful story of soup and death...

The marmite is a small chocolate pot filled with marzipan shaped like vegetables and fruit, made to represent Mère Royaume's pot of soup. The youngest and oldest person in the room are supposed to hold hands and triumphantly exclaim, "Ainsi périrent les ennemis de la République!" ("Thus perish the enemies of the Republic!"). Then, still holding hands, they smash the chocolate marmite in one fell swoop - and then in the second fell swoop, all the children grab the candy and run. :-P Well, that last bit wasn't all that accurate, but the candy and chocolate are usually devoured fairly quickly, by children and parents alike.

Here is a picture of us devouring the marmite:



Adjö! Ciao! Bye!
That girl in Switzerland

P.S. Ok, so the only thing Swedish about the playdate was Sanna (and William is half Swedish too)...but my title got your attention, didn't it? Besides, when I named it that, I was actually in the process of failing to upload a video of Sanna teaching me some Swedish words. Quite funny, actually.

Happy Birthday, Jules!

Firstly, a random mood update!! Today I am feeling sardonic. *Heather sneers at the computer screen.*

And now for the next several completely unrelated things...

Today was Jules' birthday. He turned five. He is very proud of himself, what with having reached an important age and all. Charlotte and I made cupcakes, completely from scratch. They were very fluffy. And Yummy! Here are pictures.




Tonight for Jules birthday, they had a Chinese fondue, which I love. They followed it up with chocolate cake and Armagnac (adults only...haha...can you imagine..."Mom, now that I'm five, I think I'm ready to drink hard liqueur"). Me? I was at French class while all this partying was taking place.

Also, Geneva has up CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!! *Heather sings at the top of her lungs, "It's the most WONDERFUL time of the year!!"* Here are two pictures I took tonight in the Jardin Anglais by the lake:




Cheerfully sardonic, and also paradoxically,
That girl in Switzerland

Some Fun :-D

Here are some pictures of Jules. :-D






Hehehe
That girl in Switzerland

Perspective + Some Autumn Crafts

This morning, whilst feeling musical, I turned on some Charlotte Church music on my ipod and began singing loudly. My Charlotte Church imitation is nothing to be sneezed at. Jules and I were doing some craft projects at the time. So after a few songs, I asked Jules if he liked my singing.

"Yes," he said, "but you know what? If you keep singing really high and a bird comes, he's going to get bigger and bigger and EXPLODE!"

I'm assuming he's seen "Shrek" recently, but his comment was no ego boost, let me tell ya.

Here are some pictures from today:

Jules's depiction of the neighborhood's animals...He's not much of a drawer, but he does try. There are our two dogs, Jenny (blue) and Teacake (large brown), and also two more dogs, Bo (larger black) and Filly (small brown), and also a cat, Raffy (very small black):


Our spiders ("art" for boys...hah):


Jules making designs with those little plastic pieces (no clue what they're called):


Jules with our scary spiders:


Being crazy:


Jules being...well...Jules:


Moi (photo courtesy of Jules):


Cheers!
That girl in Switzerland

Five Minute Rhyme

Today was a big day -
Was a lot to be done.
I made a huge list
And accomplished a ton.
I wired some money
And went to the Poste,
I managed three children,
And cooked artichokes.
I studied for French class
Until my brain ached,
Then took a short break
Down by the lake.
I walked two big dogs
That needed to GO!
They walked quite quickly;
I walked quite slow.
I traveled three hours
To Nyon and back,
And studied my Bible
To pick up my slack.
Had coffee at leisure
(It's never a rush),
Said hi to a friendly
Old man on the bus.
Of things needing done,
I think I did most,
But writing a poem...
This project's burnt toast.
Tomorrow I might write
Something quite new,
Something inspired
That impresses you.
But now I'm so tired,
I'm going to bed
'Cause more of my brain cells
Are obviously dead.

(...must have been the coffee...)

Goodnight!
That girl in Switzerland

Just Me. And That's All.

Dear Readers,

Last February, somebody asked me to define myself. "Who is Heather?" they asked. And after scratching my head and feeling bewildered and realizing that I had nearly no idea, I came up with a trite little answer, emailed it away, and thought nothing more about it until tonight.

Tonight I was thinking about God. And about me. And about who I am as God made me to be. And I was thinking about the unique path that God created for me even before I existed. And I was thinking about how I don't know exactly what that path looks like, and how it's scary to trust what you don't know. And I was thinking about how it's so easy to get distracted from following that path because I'm too busy trying to live up to somebody else's idea of who I should be.

Tonight I was asked the question, "What would it look like for you to completely trust Jesus when He says, 'You, follow me'?"

And I realized that the answer to this question lies in two places - who I am, and who Jesus is.

Jesus is love, loyalty, bravery, sacrifices, patience, hope, light and righteousness. I am the sum of my choices and experiences, and hopefully some of the characteristics of Jesus. Jesus takes all of my successes and failures and joyful times and broken dreams, and turns them around into lessons and growth and love and peace. He takes the best and worst parts of me, and turns them into something beautiful, something that reflects Him.

Jesus came to give life, and life more abundantly, life to the fullest. The only one getting in His way is me.

Jesus wants me to be who I am and to look a little more like Himself every day. He wants my heart to reflect His heart. He wants me to find my identity in Him. And that's all.

I might not know my path, and that might be scary, but I do know Jesus, and He takes all the fear away.

It's just a simple truth. So obvious.

So after taking a second look at my "trite" definition, I've decided it isn't so bad.

"What makes me, me? It's quite simple really: my failures, successes, fears and insecurities, confidence, family, friendships, opinions, beliefs...a passion for people, a couple of failed relationships, about one and a half severely broken hearts, a tendency to reflect on everything in words that never get spoken to anyone, and a strong love for God that actually does leave me speechless; essentially, I'm me because of my ability to embrace human experience and turn around a better person."

I'm just me. Me enhanced by Jesus Christ. And that's all.

Love,
That girl in Switzerland

To Those People Windsurfing on Lake Geneva in November

I should have thought that
The now-perpetually snow-covered
Mountain peaks, or the
Glistening orange and red horizon
Below them, or even the
Very chill in the November air
Would have clued you in.
Shouldn't you be waiting for spring again -
Polishing your boards,
Buying new sails,
Storing away wet suits,
And then anticipating warmer winds?
Now it's time to exchange scenery -
To move to the brilliantly white slopes,
To the boards that need no sails,
To the glaring sunlight that bounces
Off of goggles and ski poles,
To the winter hats and scarves and gloves.
What drives you to the less-forgiving,
Shockingly cold, breath depriving
November water of Lake Geneva?
Is it merely the enticing wind and waves,
Or is it also the needing to know you're alive?

Pondering,
That girl in Switzerland

Trying to find a new style...

Anniversaries

I wrote that email at eight thirty
On a cold January morning
After a sleepless night in which
The weight of a dark, wet dawn
Hung heavily over my tear-rimmed eyes.
(The footprints of those filthy memories
Which used to haunt my nights
Have now carved deep pathways through
My waking thoughts where
Every day they tread.)

It's nearing November again,
And I dread the death, the cold,
And the chill in my heart.
(Not forgetting the sixteen weary ways
Of reminding myself of how
I never quite measured up.)

I wish summer were beginning again,
But if it were, I would have
To relive Memorial Day.
(And then I would have to picture
A scraggly tree, and hear
My own nervous, breathy laughter,
And wonder why the familiar strains
Of that now-memorized song
Won't stop playing its
Endless soundtrack in my mind.)

But my waking nightmare is okay for now.
It reminds me to pray for you every day.
(It's comforting to think that
We might be friends again
Someday in Heaven,
Even though you don't believe
I'll make it there.)

I'm trying to enjoy this new autumn.
(But April thirtieth was last night,
Eight thirty on a January morning
Was just the other day,
And November sixteenth has wrapped itself
Around me like a badly-fashioned
Faux-fur winter coat.)

The bottom line is -
Some anniversaries just aren't worth celebrating,
But it hurts much worse to forget.

Trying to find a new style...
That girl in Switzerland