In the Heart of the Sea

This book was passed on to me by a neighbor a few months back. He is one of the most positive and endearing people I have met in a long time in spite of many afflictions. In the course of two years his wife has been diagnosed with cancer, he has been diagnosed with cancer, lost his father-in-law, had his own mother diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, been laid off from a job he held for over 10 years, and most recently had his only son diagnosed with Asperser’s syndrome. Most remarkable is that in no way does he seek sympathy and no matter how much you commend him for his courage he remains as humble as anyone I have ever met. Obviously he has been through many trials and in discussing them with him one night I discovered he was an avid reader (to the tune of finishing 2 – 3 books in a week). I asked him if he had one book to recommend what would it be and he sneaked away to his house and returned with a book titled In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick.
The book chronicles one of the most amazing tales of human will in history. I know we are all familiar with tales of survival such as the stranded Argentinean soccer team and the recent movie “127 Hours” and each time are amazed at the perseverance and fortitude of humans facing the most harrowing of circumstances. We are also all familiar with Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick, the story of a salty Captain scouring the seas in an attempt to avenge the whale which attacked and sunk his whale ship. In the Heart of the Sea is an almost unbelievable true story which served as the inspiration for Melville’s masterpiece. Centered on the whaling industry of the early 19th century based almost entirely out of the New England island of Nantucket, the book follows the Tragedy of the whale ship Essex.
Philbrick does an excellent job describing one of America’s first lustful pursuits for oil at any cost, albeit whale oil. Also interesting is the barbaric yet incredibly adventurous manner in which the early whalers brought these beasts of the ocean down. Anyone who has a gripe (PETA) with the seemingly inequitable tactics of the modern hunter and/or fisher who would also like to see a sport where the animal actually has the upper hand would be highly intrigued at the prospect of bringing down a whale in the open ocean 200 years ago. Nonetheless, when successful the whales provided a large profit and many a young seamen set sail in pursuit of the sperm (no pun intended) whale.
The tragedy associated with the whale ship Essex begins when the primary boat, the Essex, is struck down by a whale in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Against inconceivable odds the men attempt to sail to South America facing the brutal heat and endless waves the open Pacific. For 94 days the twenty-one man crew is stranded in three tiny whale ships (each about 24 feet long) battling the ferocity of the Pacific. Without going into too many details the men are well short of the needed supplies to live even 60 days at sea and the protection provided by their whaleboats is at best minimal. Tragedy ensues, but in spite of the overwhelming circumstances, there is also triumph. Philbrick does an excellent job of portraying the story without making the oft-attempted effort of creating larger than life heroes who are in reality just the deserving victims of their own insidious decisions prompted by the pursuit of money. He highlights their poor decisions with no attempt to cover it up as bad luck but also gives fate a fair shake for its part. He openly addresses the fact that no black members of the crew were among the few survivors and goes as far as making bold but altogether believable speculations as to why none survived.
After finishing this book I pondered for a while with astonishment at what humans are capable of when pushed to their limits. While the narrative is nothing exemplary the story surpasses expectations in the end and leaves you with a sense of just how relative of a thing that despair really is.

JFK and the Unspeakable

I've never been big on conspiracy theories.  In college, I picked up Holy Blood, Holy Grail, the book on which Dan Brown based The Da Vinci Code, and knocked it out in a matter of days.  However, after a brief enchantment, I began to note the wide gaps and assumptions made by the authors and easily dismissed them, just as the scholarly community had decades before.  I don't believe in aliens and I think Bin Laden is dead.  So the grassy knoll JFK stuff was not really up my ally.  However, given that I had gotten to know the author's wife, and given that he'd spent 12 years on the book, and given that Jim is a Ph.D. and former university professor, I thought I would give the book a try.  It didn't hurt that names like Oliver Stone had given strong reviews.

JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters by James W. Douglass quickly drew me in.  However, in contrast to the medieval lore and mystery of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, Douglass captured my attention with thoughtful reflections on Christianity and the military-industrial complex.  The book is told through the lens ofThomas Merton, a Trappist monk from Kentucky, who as a poet and writer championed peace and faith.  In 1962, not long before the Cuban Missile Crisis and only a year and half before Kennedy's assassination, Merton wrote these haunting lines regarding nuclear war:

"What is needed is really not shrewdness or craft, but what the politicians don't have; depth, humanity and a certain totality of self-forgetfulness and compassion, not just for individuals but for man as a whole; a deeper kind of dedication. Maybe Kennedy will break through into that some day by miracle. But such people are before long marked out for assassination..."

Douglass writes with tireless consistency, and provides a feasible rationale as to how Kennedy would have beeen marked for death.  Using the resources that have been made available in the last decades, Douglass also provides a coherent and detailed narrative for how the event occurred.  Striking contradictions are neglected by theWarren Report, the government's official investigation of the case, which involved Allen Dulles, the former CIA director who was fired by Kennedy.  From Lee Harvey Oswald's intelligence connections to the remarkably similar plot uncovered by Chicago investigators only a few weeks before the assassination, Douglass brings to light numerous loose ends worth considering.


More than the how of the story, the why of the narrative is where Douglass invests most of his time.  He chronicles Kennedy's conversion from a hawkish presidential candidate running on the platform of "closing the missile gap with the Soviets" to, at times, the lone voice against preemption in his cabinet.  In the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis, perhaps the moment nearest to apocalypse in the history of the world, Kennedy turned from his cold-warrior mentality in pursuit of lasting peace.  He engaged in secret correspondence with his chief "enemy," Nikita Khrushchev.  He stood against leaders in his government advocating for deceit and violence as a means of winning the Cold War.  He championed Third World liberation, and was ultimately marked as a traitor by those who could not see peace as a viable option.

Can I say for sure that Douglass's postulate is the absolute truth?  No.  But the theory he unfolds is remarkably thorough and consistent.  Even with the critical eye that quickly dismissed previous theories, I have a tough time refuting much of his information.  It has re-shaped the way I comprehend national defense, intelligence and the workings of the military-industrial complex.  The book is certainly worth your consideration.  Highly recommended.

By the way, if you have some time, check out this interview.

Underdog Team. Underdog Town...A book review.

"All you have to is show up. Everyone with balls makes the team, I don't mean the family jewels. I mean guts, I mean backbone, I mean heart."


excerpt from Blind Your Ponies written by Stanley Gordon West

*I wrote this up for the other blog and just pasted it here.  After rereading it, it sounds like I am detailing one of those Matt Christopher books.  Something like: The Catcher with No Legs.  This book is nothing like that.*



Blind Your Ponies follows the Willow Creek Broncs; a basketball team with a reputation for failure. Willow Creek is a small town set underneath the shadows of the Tobacco Root Mountains in southwest Montana. Stanley Gordon West admits that this book is fiction, but has a lot of truth interspersed. The year is 1991 and the Broncs are facing another season with the memory of 5 win less seasons in the immediate past. But as much as this story is about a team, it is about a town- a town that seems to have the same reputation as the team. You see, the winters in this part of the U.S. are brutal. Cold, windy, snowy...constantly. The surrounding towns have very little to do or look forward to so they turn to their town's team. Nothing makes for a long winter like a losing team. And this team of 6 has little hope of an early spring.



The story wouldn't be all that interesting without the characters involved. West sucks you in from the start with tragedy that strikes the head coach years before Willow Creek is even a thought to him. Most of the characters involved have their own difficulties to deal with and use basketball as an escape. Its neat how the town itself is a character; fading away with its own losing.



Sam Pickett is the head coach and believes that is life is a record of how to become and stay a loser. It started in middle school when a port-a-potty was turned over while he was inside. These events have created a closed off soul unwilling to let himself love or believe.



Tom Stonebreak, 6'4", is a senior and has never won a game. He is a true cowboy. The kind of guy you may be afraid your wife would leave you for. He decides to forgo his senior season and prepare for the rodeos coming in the spring. His drive and toughness seem to be perpetuated by a longing to prove himself to his abusive, alcoholic father.



Peter Strong, 5'11", has just showed up to live with his grandmother; leaving Minneapolis following his parents divorce. Neither of his parents could keep the guy so they shipped him out; his girlfriend in turn found her another man. I like the way West puts it as his grandma describes his situation: facing "the howling void of eternity alone".



Olaf Gustafson, 6'11", flies in as an exchange student from Norway. The buzz around town is filled with hope when they hear of his size; but are sorely discouraged when they find out he has never played before. He has a Yoda-like grasp of the English language and has the basketball skills of a child learning to walk.



Grandma Chapman is the redemption in the story. Full of hope and optimism, she believes things are looking up. Alot like the town, she has seen some tough years. However, a certain event in her life has given her perspective. One line says it all: "She never again valued herself by the opinion of others, wishing she had been strong enough to live her whole life that way."



The book is full of ups and downs. It will give you hope one minute and leave you in a funk the next. I guess that is what I like about good books: they put you in a place, leaving you with the emotions felt in the story. This book takes you to Willow Creek. You'll feel the coldness of the winter and smell the mustiness of the old court and find yourself gripping the pages like a fan on the edge of your seat.

A New Vision

Greetings Friends,

Given that we are a year into this, I think it is an appropriate time to re-evaluate our efforts.  We've tried one book together, which everyone seemed to enjoy, though certainly in their own time.  Thus I suggest we convert the plan of a book club into a "What I've been reading lately" club.  I'll continue to submit reviews on books I have finished, and I encourage you all to do the same.  Perhaps we will eventually be able to give it another shot with the same book, but until that day, I would love to know what you are taking in.  More importantly, I'd like to hear your thoughts.  What say ye then, brothers?

Will

The Souls of Black Folk

"HEREIN lie buried many things which if read with patience may show the strange meaning of being black here in the dawning of the Twentieth Century. This meaning is not without interest to you, Gentle Reader; for the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." - W.E.B. Du Bois

A cornerstone of African-American studies, The Souls of Black Folk is a series of essays spanning from religion to economics, and from politics to music.  W.E.B. Du Boishad a unique perspective of the meaning of being black in America at the turn of the century.  Raised as the lone black child in a New England town, Du Bois claims he didn't realize the significance of his skin color until he was an elementary student barred from a playmate's home.  His higher-education opportunities were limited by that same skin color, and thus he headed south to study at Fisk University in Nashville.  He spent time teaching in rural schools for a time before moving back north to become the first African-American to graduate from Harvard.  He studied at the University of Berlin and held teaching positions at Wilberforce and UPenn before returning to the South to teach at Atlanta University.

Du Bois writes in a style that will strike today's reader as remarkably humble regarding his race.  His ideas at the time, however, were far from mild.  Booker T. Washington was the leading black voice of his day, and he advocated social policies of "separate but equal" standing among the races, working to ensure blacks had access to trade schools and agricultural policies that would provide the race an opportunity to accrew financial and social standing before moving towards integration.  Du Bois, however, was adamantly opposed to Jim Crow and segregation, challenging that equal rights are essential to the progression of African-American, and ultimately American, society. The Souls of Black Folk laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement that ensued a half-century later.

The book is well-written, and provides insight into the challenges afflicting African-Americans in the South over a century ago.  Sadly, many of the same issues remain.  While legislated racism fell during the civil rights movement (Though some are pointedly calling the wave of Arizona-style immigration legislation "Juan Crowe"), racism and disparities still remain a blight on our country.   The overt, explicit racism of a generation ago is slowly dying away, but it is being replaced with a much more insidious implicit racism that is often imperceptible by its perpetrators.  Implicit racism occurs in subconcious attitudes that we hold that affect the way we treat other races.  For instance, while I would never use an ethnic slur (I am far too P.C. for that), I will (unconsciously) apply an unfair stereotype to an obese, slightly unkempt African-American patient with a chief complaint of "abdominal pain."  While I may not perceive my racism, the patient suredly will.

Du Bois's topics range from reconstruction to education, and he does a masterful job of using story to convey injustice.  The book also details some history I find interesting, none more than the last chapter which provides an anthropological history of the "Negro Spiritual."  Another essay details the conflicted grief he suffers in the death of his child, whom was denied entry to an all-white hospital before succumbing to illness.  Importantly, Du Bois introduces the concept of "the Veil" through which blacks separated from the general population and a common symbol employed in African-American discourse.

The End of Poverty

One of my winter reads was Jeffrey Sachs' The End of Poverty, a book promoting a worldwide plan to end extreme poverty by 2025.  The head of Columbia University's Earth Institute, Sachs is an economist who stumbled somewhat backwardly into the realm of international economic development.  He has since become a leading voice calling for debt forgiveness and other policies aimed at freeing the poorest countries from the cycle of poverty.  Sachs plays an interesting role: on the one hand, he is a harsh critic of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the wealthy countries that use foreign aid to accomplish their political ambitions, and on the other hand he is an unashamed capitalist singing the praises of industrialization and free-trade.  He is a firm believer in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (he helped draft them), and much of the book is dedicated to calling rich countries to fulfill their promises to the rest of the world.

Most Americans believe that upwards of 20% of our federal budget is dedicated to foreign aid.  With disasters like we've seen in the Haiti earthquake and Indonesian tsunami, the US is on the forefront in promising emergency relief.  However, Sachs points out that despite all of our promises, the US gives only approximately 0.2% of our Gross Domestic Product to international economic development.  In fact, the US agreed in 1993 to raise expenditures in foreign aid to 0.7% of GDP, a standard that the rest of developed nations agreed to in the 1970s.  Since pledging that number, foreign aid has actually declined, and much of that which is given funds "consultants" from the World Bank or IMF.  For those of you who prefer visual aids, the budget office provides a lovely pie chart here.

Sachs also does a brilliant job of outlining the need for economists who think like physicians.  Economic emergencies require experts that can examine a country, develop a diagnosis and apply a specific treatment plan for the country.  He outlines how this model was used with success during the Bolivian tin crisis and in Poland during the fall of the Soviet Union.

While my optimistic/pragmatic side agrees with many of Sachs' assertions and his overall plan, I must confess that his relentless industrial capitalism is a bit concerning.  My thoughts immediately return to the voice of Wendell Berry:

"We must see that the standardless aims of industrial communism and industrial capitalism equally have failed. The aims of productivity, profitability, efficiency, limitless growth, limitless wealth, limitless power, limitless mechanization and automation can enrich and the empower the few (for a while), but they will sooner or later ruin us all. The gross national product and the corporate bottom line are utterly meaningless measures of the prosperity or health of the country."

Despite my fondest affections for philosophy of Berry, I will admit that his calls to agrarianism are, unfortunately, unrealistic.  But I do believe his call to reflection is a critical component of any plan for development.  Sachs' unashamed cry that capitalism holds the answers left me uncomfortable throughout the book.  Over the years, he has been a voice crying for justice, fighting against the structures and powers of oppression.  And while his plans couple the words development and sustainable, I question whether the marriage between the two are realistic.  I think the fundamental question lies at how one defines development in the first place.

All in all, the book is challenging and encouraging, and despite my mistrust of some of his underlying premises, I believe he raises important issues and calls for movement in a necessary direction.  What say you?