It's The Coffee, Not The Cup

[paularoid]

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

After all the former students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said:

“If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up early, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

Be assured that the cup itself, adds no quality to the coffee in most cases, just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups . . . and then began eyeing each other’s cups.

Now consider this: Life is the coffee, and the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us.”

God brews the coffee, not the cups . . . enjoy your coffee.
.

[DaveM]

Will Durant once wrote something to the effect that history is a blood-stained river running through a deep canyon and upon which people are usually fighting in disagreement over something or other. Meanwhile, on the banks of the canyon, people are doing their jobs, taking car of their families, playing baseball, making love, and generally going about their lives.

The problem with most historians, he continued, is that they tend to write only about the river, and completely ignore the banks.

[Bat]

You're so right DaveM...and that is why most of the boys liked history in school, and I hated it...until one teacher finally incorporated Bach and Mozart and Beethoven, etc., into the historical timeline and made it come to life, not death. That is when history started to come alive for me.

[Eva]

What I missed in historylessons most were things about the lives of ordinary women. It seemed that there hadn't been any women or ordinary people. Only people in power. And 99% male. Very disturbing. And soooooo untrue.

Eva

[snakegrl]

A book y'all might find interesting is titled The West,by Geoffery C Ward.
It's full of "the people on the bank", their letters to each other, pictures, and a fair amount of narrative by Native Peoples.
Eva,you are so right. History is exceedingly unbalanced with the male pov.
I get a visual of the fat kid on a teeter-totter.
Check out the PBS website- Secrets of the Dead.
There is an amazing DVD about the real Amazons and the woman archeologist who discovers them, her research with DNA and present day Mongols. There is even a facial reconstrution from the skull of a 2,000 yr old warrior-priestess. How cool is that?
Turns out that Homer wasn't far off.

[Eva]

There is an amazing DVD about the real Amazons and the woman archeologist who discovers them, her research with DNA and present day Mongols. There is even a facial reconstrution from the skull of a 2,000 yr old warrior-priestess. How cool is that?

Thanks for posting this, Snackgirl. I will look it up. They never told me about these women in school...

Eva

[DaveM]

I quite agree, Eva. During my own journey through the American public school system, I can recall only two women being mentioned in history class: Betsy Ross and "Molly Pitcher". Sigh.

Much the same was true in high school. As I recall, most of the history classes were so obsessed with WWII that I aced three courses with the same term paper. Used a paper on the Ku Klux Klan for three different course as well (Black History, Black Literature, and The Civil War).

I think we might have gotten to read Maya Angelou briefly but that was about the time the school board decided she was an evil influence and her books went into storage. Where, I have little doubt, they still repose.

[Dee]

Eva,

You might find this of some interest:

SISTERS IN THE WILDERNESS
The Lives of Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill
by Charlotte Gray

The story of pioneer writers Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill is one of ambition, passion, staggering hardship and remarkable success. It is the ultimate “Survivor” story.

Growing up in early 19th century England, sisters Susanna and Catharine Parr Strickland dream of becoming famous writers. Their role models are the Brontes. Their peer is Jane Austen. They publish poetry, children’s books and short stories. Unwilling to live a life of genteel poverty in England, the sisters and their husbands make a decision that dramatically changes their lives forever. In 1832 they emigrate to Upper Canada.

Educated and wealthier than most other immigrants, they expect to easily rise to the top of colonial society. Reality quickly crushes their dreams. With little money and even less skill as farmers, the Moodies and Traills must learn to survive in this harsh new country.

As former soldiers, John and Thomas are eligible for free land in the backwoods of Upper Canada. Unfortunately, they are better suited to the literary salons of London than to clearing land for farming.

Catharine and Susanna’s elder sister, Agnes Strickland cannot understand why anyone would want to move to a country without great libraries, theatres, or museums. She stays in England and becomes a celebrated biographer of European Queens. She tries to help her sisters, but has little understanding of the hardships they face.

Slowly Susanna and Catharine build lives and homes.

Despite illness and poverty, at times near starvation, the sisters never stop writing. They turn their personal experiences into literature that has endured, inspired and provoked generations of readers and writers.

Catharine’s early letters to her sisters and mother in England become her first book, The Backwoods of Canada. It is a huge success, but earns her almost no money.

Catharine Parr Traill, The Backwoods of Canada
I suppose our scientific botanists in Britain would consider me very impertinent in bestowing names on the flowers and plants I meet in these wild woods: I can only say, I am glad to discover the Canadian or even the Indian names if I can, and where they fail I consider myself free to become their floral godmother, and give them names of my own choosing.

From her earliest days in Canada, Catharine’s deep appreciation for nature helps her cope with her difficult circumstances. She devotes herself to learning about the plants and flowers of her new country. Her most satisfying successes come in old age with two botanical guides: Canadian Wild Flowers and Studies of Plant Life in Canada. Catharine dies peacefully at age ninety-seven.

Susanna Moodie’s most important book, Roughing It in the Bush, is published in London in 1852. It is a record of her experience as a settler in Upper Canada—what she calls “this great epoch of our lives”...

Susanna dedicates her book to her famous sister Agnes Strickland, perhaps hoping that the family connection will help book sales. Agnes is initially thrilled with the dedication, but when she reads the gritty details she is horrified and insists the dedication be removed. Agnes much prefers Catharine’s cheerful books to Susanna’s descriptions of the worst of times in Upper Canada.



And here's an excerpt (http://www.penguin.ca/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780140276749,00.html?sym=EXC) from the book's opening. pages.

I have a copy myself and it is available through amazon.co.uk (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0715630644/202-8899785-9070200?v=glance&n=266239).

[snakegrl]

You are quite welcome Eva.
I'm impressed guys. Thanks for the reading suggestion Dee.
DaveM, your term paper story is a hoot. Hat's off to you for the kahoonies to pull it off. But, it also shows the sorry state of our educational system. What a great lesson for everyone. We should recruit a cross-section of several hundred high schoolers to try the same thing, then submit the results to NPR.

[DaveM]

Now THAT would be hilarious. On a more adult level, I recall the story of a creative writing professor who decided to do an experiment with his class in order to demonstrate how difficult it can be to publish a book. He had each member type out the first chapter of Jerzy Kosinski's "Steps" (published by Random House with wide distribution and an eventual NationBook Award) along with a synopsis and submit "their" manuscripts "over the transom" to a number of large-scale publishers.

Every one of the submissions was rejected without comment. And one of the publishers involved....was Random House.

[sister rose]

Thanks, Dee...I'm going to check about that one!
Another excellent book is "Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey" by Lillian Schlissel (http://www.amazon.com/s/104-6456328-8747930?ie=UTF8&index=books&rank=-relevance%2C%2Bavailability%2C-daterank&field-author-exact=Lillian%20Schlissel).
Eva...I think you would like that one.

[Eva]

Dee, Sister_Rose, thank you for your booksuggestions. I will look into them. I always have the feeling that books like you mentioned tell the daily lives of ordinary people. It gives me a much better look on those times as to know what army slaughtered who in what year.

Eva

[DaveM]

Another fascinating book which provides a rare first-person account of a part of American history everyone wants to gloss over is: "The Bondswoman's Narrative". It purports to be a novelization of largely firsthand experiences as written down by one Hannah Crafts, an escaped slave. While it is fiction, and the question of how genuine the original manuscript it, it is nonetheless a fascinating and previously unavailable look into one of the darker corners of our past. It is, very possibly, the oldest existing manuscript by a black woman.

Might be worth noting that of the various unknown authors of the Old Testament, one, "Writer J" is believed by some to have been a woman. An intriguing, if speculative, treatment of the subject can be found in "The Book of J" (alas, I have forgotten the author's name).

It is truly bizarre that for the better part of thousands of years, established history has virtually ignored the accomplishments of 52% of the human race.

[snakegrl]

DaveM, about the publishing experiment, why am I not surprised?
J K Rowling was rejected by just about everyone, due to tiny pea-brains that couldn't dreg up enough imagination to plug a pore. Now look at her.
The publishing industry, for the most part, is like any other industry- there to make money, not art.
And the #1 selling genre today is romance. So, there's the public's interest to contend with, as well as how that becomes influenced by industry whether it be literature, music, fashion, ect.
Hey y'all, let's start a book thread. This could be interesting.
What am I saying, it already is.

[DaveM]

I've often wondered how well romances would sell if the readers were aware how many of the authors were men writing under pseudonyms--Victoria Holt and something like half a dozen other names were the work of a gentleman named Tom Huff (I think). Of course, roughly one third of the READERS of romance fiction are men, so perhaps a few male bylines wouldn't hurt.

Some ages ago, I remember encountering one of the works of Rebecca Brandewyne (none of which I have read, but she certainly does seem to sell a lot of books) and being positive that she was a pseudonym. "NO ONE," I figured, "would ever name their child Rebecca Brandewyne". Then I met her at a Mensa conference....yep, it's her real name.

Which got me to work cooking up a pseudonym, though I have yet to come up with a plot, much less a book. Anyway, should Christiania Llewellyn ever hit the best-seller seller list, you'll know that a Rudie made it in the Romance market. A friend and former model even provided me with some great photos to appear on the jacket covers.

[paularoid]

..... into something completely different than it was originally. At least you haven't turned it into a food thre..... OH SH-T! Now what've I done?! :rolleyes: :D

[hoops]

wouldn't it be some thing if we had a sense that "sees" a person's heart like we have senses that taste and smell. i wonder if we'd want to know or want others to know us? hmmm
peace
hoops

[paularoid]

wouldn't it be some thing if we had a sense that "sees" a person's heart like we have senses that taste and smell. i wonder if we'd want to know or want others to know us? hmmm
peace
hoops
You can. It's called an "aura" and you can train yourself to see it if you can't already. Everyone has the ability if they'll just pay attention. Do a search for "aura" and see what pops up. You can even tell a person's state of being both physically and emotionally just by noting the color and the radiance of the thing.

If "the heart" can be or is thought of as the same thing as or similar to "the heart", then it can definitely be seen.
.

[Eva]

Interesting Paularoid. I don't see them. No colours. But I do sense in what state someone is. I feel 'cracks' around someone if something is wrong. It works best if I meet some one face to face of course. But sometimes I can also feel it in someones writing. When someone is doing well I detect 'fullness' and that something about someone is whole, not broken. I guess it's just being able to read between the lines or empathy. But detecting 'cracks' and 'fullness' feels different, somehow. No idea what it is. It came in handy when I was a social worker. And it works well to get an idea what the people I care about are going through.

Eva

[Agnes]

Comes in handy many a time indeed, Eva. Can be a burden as well. :o

[snakegrl]

Sorry Paularoid. We did pirate your thread. This means a good lashing for us all. Whoo-hoo! Er, I mean oh no, help, help.
I've never seen an aura, although I try. Maybe that's the problem, trying too hard. I do see colored orbs relating to people, situations and myself when I have an idea, observation or question about something. I'm not sure what all the colors mean, some are more obvious than others and have been helpful as guideposts in certain situations. I did not try to make this come into being. It happened all on its own. So, I cannot tell anyone how to do it.
What I feel is most important for anyone who wishes to see better, is to get out of their own way. Quit thinking so much and simply practice feeling things, make connections to living beings and places in this way.Let go of fear and anger and all of the baggage we all shlep around because this is the only way one can ever know these things, much less one's self on a deeper more complete level.
Hoops, I find most people are terrified of someone "seeing " them. That's why our walls are so thick. Years ago, I used to do physical analysis for folks. Most of the skeptics I read- so to speak- got very frightened, angry and lied.
Even some of those who were not so sceptical pulled away. I find it easier and less of a waste of time to work with animals. If they are ill, they just want to feel better.
DaveM, I'll keep my eyes open for your book.;)