RUNNING FREE

I forgot my kindle at home this week so I didn’t get to read any more about Jane.  I mostly read the newspaper, caught up on my William and Kate happenings, and my husband’s Runner’s World and Bicycling magazines.  Runner’s World had an article I found very intriguing, titled “A Fresh Start” about a running club called Running Free, for women prisoners at the Topeka Correctional Facility in Kansas.   They train on the basketball court running laps and even have races including a marathon on a .8 mile prison track.  One prisoner named Michelle Eicher commented, “When I first got here, I was pretty resentful…but the club let me see that maybe there is some humanity left me after all.”  No taxpayer money has been used to pay for this running club and the inmates raise money for local charities from their prison jobs and they pay for the races entries just like other runners do.  The inmates have raised $35,000 for the local charities.  Bill Cummings, the deputy warden explained, “The women are learning things that those of us who run have known for years…How to connect to the community, handle set-backs, build up for an event – these skills have been of incredible benefit to the women.”   It’s one of those stories I can’t get out of my mind.  I am really glad that running and the discipline of running are bringing hope and “humanity” to women who took a wrong turn in life.  It’s the kind of thing we need from our prison system. 

PICTURE BOOKS

This week Jane saves Mr. Rochester’s life when someone tries to kill him by setting his room on fire.  Mr. Rochester suspects that it is one of the servants, but has asked Jane to keep their suspect a secret.  This is driving Jane crazy and she doesn’t know why he wants to keep it a secret.  My friend gave me his National Geographic and my husband and I were arguing over who got to read it first.  Even though I won the magazine I had a hard time meeting my pleasure reading minimum, I just wasn’t in the mood to read what I had.  Normally, I am quite the opposite; spending too much time pleasure reading and not getting to read everything I want to read.  I spent most of my time reading half of the articles mostly looking at the pictures. 

MY BUMMEL

 This week I think Jane is starting to “like” Mr. Rochester, as in maybe love him.  I still don’t like him even though she her perspective about him is changing.  I am really enjoying reading on my kindle, especially since I bought an overpriced cover and am now not so worried about dropping it. 

What I really want to talk about is a book called, “Three Men on the Bummel,” by Jerome K. Jerome.  But let me start somewhere else…last night my husband and I went to my parents’ house for dinner to catch up on the Tour de France.  (If you don’t already know the Tour de France is a bike tour across France with rides, called stages, almost every day over a variety of terrains with an average of 100 miles per stage.  It’s exciting to watch the cyclist get up to 60mph going down sharp switch backs and there are the most beautiful helicopter aerial views of France’s beautiful mountains, country-side, castles, churches and chateaus.  It’s the only sport I know that you get the thrill of competition as well as a feeling of being cultured simultaneously.)  Anyway after we finished our tour talk, my parents said they were excited to tell me about something.  They said they were listening to this book on CD called, “Three Men on the Bummel.”  First, a bummel, is a journey without an end my parents explained.   It’s about three British men who are biking across parts of Europe during the early 1900’s, with one man on a single bike and the other two on a tandem bike, taking turns.  The reader has a British accent and my parents said they’re not sure if the story would have the same effect if they had just read the book.  They described the book so well and with such enthusiasm that Zach and I were ready to start listening to it right then.  In the book the author describes how human intention always surpasses what humans actually do.  For example, the evening before riding the men discuss how they want to rise at five in the morning, eat breakfast and ride before the heat of the day.  However, when five am arrives, temptation leads one man to sleep to six and dally until seven for breakfast.  My father noted that when he biked across Kansas last year, every night they would state their intentions and the next morning someone would sleep in so they would end up riding in the heat of the day.  “You battle the same biking problems in 1900 as you do today, over 100 years later,” my dad humorously, half seriously noted.  So I went home and bought the book and got the auto, so I can compare.  It starts off a bit slow, but it’s worth the detail to hear the joke.  Sorry, for all the tour talk I just wanted to illustrate what a fun evening it was with lots of colorful discussion. 

NO MORE BOOKENDS

It’s been an exciting week for me because my pleasure reading has just gone to the next level!  I got a kindle for my birthday and I love it!  Especially since I didn’t ask for it and it was a total surprise (I love gift surprises) I am pretty sure I gasped when pulled it out of the wrapping.  And the cherry on top was a night light that attaches to it so I can read before bed without bothering my husband.  After uploading my bible, I was on the search for the books I am currently reading.  Many of the classics are free and to my delight Jane Eyre and Tess of the d’urbervilles, and next on my list is Little Dorrit!  I’ve been exploring using my Bible and keeping up with Jane.  This week Jane is frustrating me.  Jane’s student is French and French is her first language so she often speaks to Jane in French.  However there is no translation provided (not in the back of the book either).  I will admit I have not researched this any farther than flipping to the back of the book, but just that over and over again is disruptive to my flow of reading.  Also, Jane responds to her in French and Mr. Rochester also speaks French.  I guess there is a bit of context clues but not much to go off of.  My mom said she read Jane Eyre in her book club and the French without translation frustrated her group as well.

A LITTLE TOO CLOSE TO HOME

Another royal week for me!  With Will and Kate coming state side next month, Kate was on the cover of People magazine so I picked one up at the grocery store to enjoy with my salad at lunch on Friday.  I love looking at her fabulous outfits and beautiful fascinators.  Since I have been able to travel to England I have been relishing in the recent focus on the royal family and London.  And People magazine has one of the few cross-word puzzles I can actually finish.

            Even though in my Jane Eyre readings this week the story took a bittersweet turn I couldn’t help, but laugh.  I love Jane’s perspective on things and how she talks to the reader.  It kind of reminds me of myself except older English.  Jane writes, “Have I not described a pleasant site for a dwelling, when I speak of it as bosomed in hill and wood, and rising from the verge of a stream?  Assuredly, pleasant enough: but whether healthy or not is another question.” Reading this passage is not funny per say, but when I relate it to myself it’s pretty accurate.  It’s like when I go into great detail to tell my husband a story about something that has happened to me and he gives me the “Get to the point” look.  Then I get hurt feelings and say something like, “I am trying to make you feel as if you’re there so you can appreciate my story.”  And we agree that we’re just at an impasse in our storytelling.

In this chapter Jane started to speak more directly to the reader than in previous chapters.  When I was in college I took a creative writing class.  And although I loved my class and we called ourselves “The Piranhas of Love” the class just made me realize my limited writing abilities.  I had a difficult time writing stories in third person; and truly being descriptive from an outside perspective.  Jane talks directly to the reader and I kind of love it.  It makes me sort of believe if I want to write a great novel I could write it in first person and be descriptive.  At least the girls would like it! 

PASS THE ALOE!

                I guess I could say today’s readings were literally burned into me! This week my husband and I found ourselves pool side and when I am at the pool I like to catch up on my magazine happenings. I was able to get a lovely sunburn and magazine shadow outline on my thigh from my pool side lounging.  Reapply, Reapply, Reapply!  Anyhow, Vanity Fair, featured William and Kate or formally known as The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, catching me up on insider royal wedding details and how they are adding Kensington to their list of homes to be used when they are in London. 

                This week Jane Eyre befriends Helen Burns.  Helen is an older girl at school and Jane looks up to her because of her self-discipline and quick comprehension of lessons.  One teacher is constantly scrutinizing Helen and often publicly humiliates her or gives her lashings across the neck with a switch.  Helen does not cry or blush with embarrassment during these public displays embarrassment.  When Jane questions Helen about how she feels about this her response is, “it is far better to endure patiently a smart which nobody feels but yourself, than to commit a hasty action whose evil consequences will extend to all connected with you; and besides, the Bible bids us return good for evil.”  Both Jane and I are perplexed and did not see this response coming.  Where will Bronte take this character?  Helen is opposite of Jane at this point, Jane resents her cruel aunt whereas Helen endures her injustices.  From where I am at right now in the novel, the question that comes to my mind is when to stand up for injustice and when to endure? 

OUR REALITIES

                I wouldn’t say I had a bad week, but I would say I spent much of it wishing things were different, maybe that I lived somewhere else or that I would not have to work so hard.  In other words I was feeling sorry for myself and even though I am really into my Jane Eyre novel I would read the same page a couple of times before I would finally be able to let go of my daily grind and fall into Jane’s.  This week Jane finally stands up to her aunt and is sent away to a boarding school for girls.  The school is very rigid and the girls are dressed very plainly with terrible burnt porridge, and lots of bible reciting.   I can almost hear Pink Floyd in the back ground singing, Another Brick in the Wall.  Still it is comfort and stress release to be a fly on the wall in Jane’s world rather than my own.

            My co-worker gives me all of his newspapers and magazines after he is finished reading them, and this week I got, National Geographic.  I was excited to open it because the headline this month was, “The Birth of Religion: The World’s First Temple.”  Upon opening the magazine my eyes caught a picture of a young Indian girl looking into the camera being carried by an older man, a very sweet image.  However the sweetness of the picture was quickly changed once I read the caption, “Long after midnight, five year old Rajani is roused from sleep and carried by her uncle to her wedding.  Child marriage is illegal in India, so ceremonies are often held in the wee hours of the morning.  It becomes a secret the whole village keeps, explained one farmer.”  The article went on to explain the lack of education among these young women and so the cycle continues.  I must also include that there are some girls breaking free of this tradition and going to the police and the court systems to get divorces or tell on their parents before they are married under age.  In some areas even though it is illegal it is still considered somewhat acceptable for girls of puberty age to be eligible to get married.  The reason for these young marriages is for families to get out of debt from other families or to be guaranteed into a good family (such as Rajani, “By tradition, the young bride is expected to live at home until puberty, when a second ceremony transfers her to her husband.”)  This really puts things into perspective because my life is quite the opposite of these young girls and yet I expect and want so much more.