2011 reading challenge: a banned book.

My 2011 reading challenge pick in the “Banned Book” category is John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, which according to the American Library Association is consistently ranked among the top ten most frequently challenged books for a variety of reasons including violence, cruelty to animals and the lack of strong female characters. But my guess is that what really ends up getting the book banned is the way it ends -- because it clearly makes the case that mercy killing can be the form that compassion takes.


Compassion is one of several themes that run through this depression era short novel, originally titled Something That Happened and later changed to Of Mice and Men – a line taken from a poem by Robert Burns: “the best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agley.” It’s the story of two migrant workers whose dream of someday owning their own little farm where they can settle down to “live off the fatta the lan’ is impossible to attain. But the novel is really all about the bond between a child-like, developmentally disabled man and his loyal friend who has taken on the responsibility of looking out for him.


Classic pieces of literature are those that tell us something timeless and true about life and human nature in a way that engages our understanding and empathy. Steinbeck has done that here. Of Mice and Men deals with classic themes: courage vs. cowardice, strength vs. weakness, innocence vs. experience, loneliness and the longing to belong, alienation and isolation, duty, the burden of being responsible for others, the task of mercy, and the weight of compassion.

John Steinbeck, who is said to have preferred writing with pencils, and often used as many as 60 each day, is one of America’s finest writers. He didn’t graduate from college, and most likely he never enrolled in a writers workshop or signed up for a course in creative writing. He did try his hand at free-lance writing in the 20’s but failed at it and eventually turned his attention to novels. His first success was in 1935 with Tortilla Flat filled with rough and earthy humor. Of Mice and Men was published in 1937 and The Grapes of Wrath, widely considered to be his best work, appeared in 1940.

Steinbeck’s sympathies for migrant workers and the struggles of working-class people didn’t set well with everyone. In 1942, an unidentified informant complained to J. Edgar Hoover: "For some time past I have resented books by Steinbeck, for they portray such unrepresentative pictures of our American life in rural districts. I live near the Everglades farms district and most of the migrants out there live better than I do, while they are here for the picking season."

In 1962 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature “for his realistic as well as imaginative writings, distinguished by a sympathetic humor and a keen social perception.” In 1979, John Steinbeck’s portrait was featured on a commemorative stamp.

And in 1996 John Steinbeck’s widow created the Steinbeck award given to artists whose work reflects her husband’s democratic ideals and concern for the common man. Past recipients include Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, Arthur Miller and Sean Penn.

The National Steinbeck Center, located in his hometown of Salinas, California, provides opportunities for visitors to learn about literature and history, agriculture and art, as well special events and educational programs.

This is What Democracy Looks Like!

Here we are at the Capitol...



Here's why we were there...



Now that we qualify as "elders" we figured it would be a good idea to be there for the "Elder Rally" ....



...along with a lively crowd of people of all ages who were there outside and inside the Capitol to continue protesting the shameful things our Governor and his fellow Republicans have been doing to the people of Wisconsin....







Here's the sign Denny made to take to the rally....



....and here's the letter he wrote:

Dear Governor Walker

Because your actions over the past few weeks have signaled your distain for the citizens of Wisconsin, I suspect that you will not read this message or, if you do, that you will ignore me as you have tens of thousands of other Wisconsin citizens. When I sat down to write this letter to you, I had thought of making a rational appeal to you. However, as I thought it over, it became apparent to me that I would be appealing to one of you major short-comings--namely, the ability to rationally address the issues that face you.

Mr. Walker, you have demonstrated not only a signal lack of social concern for our children's education, the poor and under-represented, and those who must work for a living, but a lack of moral concern as well. Were your actions but the result of deeply held political beliefs, it would be one thing. But your actions have demonstrated to me that it is not political beliefs that motivate you, but rather the two major evils that invest our political system today: the thirst for absolute power and the need to satisfy those whose dollars have brought you to the office you inhabit.

Your unwillingness to negotiate and to compromise, even when faced with overwhelming evidence that the citizens of this State do not support your extreme actions, is evidence of a blind and angry man. You do not deserve any claim to "democratic governance" since your actions are neither democratic nor do they suggest in any way that you are trying to be of service to the citizens of this State. Yours appears to be a personal agenda, supported by those who will benefit most from stripping rights from the under-privileged and those who have to work for a living.

For this reason, Mr. Walker, I will do everything within my power over the next weeks, months and years to see that you are removed from office. If that can be accomplished through recall, then the social and moral evil that you have unleashed will all the sooner be addressed. If I must wait for the next election, then I will dedicate my labor and my support to seeing that you are defeated.

Dennis Day

Snow on Ash Wednesday

The word "Lent" comes from an Old English word that means springtime. And it's good to remember that on this Ash Wednesday morning as I look out my window...

...because I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about the difference between faith and belief and somehow I think there's a connection here. There's more to faith than trying to believe what we've been told we must believe. There's more to hoping for spring than being put off by the fact that it's still snowing. There's more to Lent than fasting.

I think faith has to do with what I know in my heart even if isn't in sync with what other people believe. It's what Richard Rohr means when he says "Your deepest intuition is real." No matter what anyone else may choose to believe about today's forecast when I look out the window I know in my heart that spring is already happening underneath all the snow that is filling up our back yard.



And so what on earth does this has to do with Lent? Quite a bit, I think, because there's more to it than what so many of us have always been led to believe we must do in order to observe it appropriately. Lent is a time to examine our priorities and take a closer look at where we spend our time and energy, as well as what we need to do (or not do) in order to nurture the spiritual side of who we are. The traditional approach of combining fasting, prayer and almsgiving can be one way of doing that - but only if we know in our hearts why we're doing it.

“…our self-imposed sacrifices are likely to be pretenses, symbolic gestures without real interior meaning," says Thomas Merton who obviously gave a great deal of thought to this very subject...



"Sacrifices made in this formalistic spirit," continues Merton, "tend to be mere acts of external routine performed in order to exorcise interior anxiety and our attention will tend to fix itself upon the insignificant suffering which we have piously elected to undergo, and to exaggerate it in one way or the other, either to make it seem unbearable or else to make it seem more heroic than it actually is. It would be more sincere as well as more religious to eat a full dinner in a spirit of gratitude than to make some picayune sacrifice of part of it, with the feeling that one is suffering martyrdom."

I'm thinking about Merton's words as I look out my window on this snowy March morning as Lent gets underway. Last year as summer was ending I brought in all my geraniums so I could keep them trimmed back and alive through the winter. Now, just as Lent begins, the cuttings I've taken are already thriving. By spring they'll be ready to plan outdoors.



This Lent I'll be doing some fasting, some alms-giving and some praying, just like I always do. But I'm also going keep my geraniums well watered and be grateful for what I carry in my heart - a sure and certain faith in spring.