I just finished a novel written by my former department chair, Dr. Nancy Kaufman. It is the first novel I have read by someone I know rather well. I keep having questions that will never be answered about what really happened and what is the story constructed by a story-teller.
https://www.amazon.com/Girl-Menekaunee-Nancy-J-Kaufman/dp/B08TQGG59T/ref=sr_1_1
The novel is The Girl from Menekaunee and it is the story of the author's mother. As you know, I have never been a mother nor a daughter. I had a mother and a father and a stepfather and I liked them all and I still do. I have not lived as long as either of my actual parents but I feel that the older I get, the more respect I have for any lived life. It is not that easy to become an embryo and to grow to a baby and to emerge as an infant and to grow up. It is not that easy to face middle school and high school and what to do after high school. It is tricky finding a partner and living with a partner, trying to amass adequate funds, exercise appropriately, respect others, love some others, have and keep friends - the list just goes on and on.
Then, when you feel that you see how to live the rules, the possibilities and the abilities change. One wrinkles up, the doctor recommends less salt or more salt. Important people leave this life, along come smartphones and scams, online banking. I just got James Nestor's "Get High Now", which says it lists 175 ways to get high without drugs. I can't decide whether to get high or not.
A friend asked me recently what quotes have influenced me during my life. The general idea is to find a statement, not too long, please, that offers guidance or comfort or inspiration at all or most stages of life. The one that first came to mind was from Psalm 100, King James version, "It is He that hath made us and not we ourselves." I also think of Henry Thoreau's comment that the old have nothing to say to the young.
I realize that we have no evidence that He had any ideas of birth control and artificial hearts and that sometimes a word from the old is of some value to those younger. Still, it is not only difficult to know just what either parent experienced at any point in life but also hard to recall what we ourselves did and are doing.
