Reflections on Teenagers and Their Thirst for Significance in THE CASUAL VACANCY by J. K. Rowling - Part 2

SPOILER ALERT

This post continues my reflections on teenagers and their thirst for signficance in THE CASUAL VACANCY, J. K. Rowling's first novel since her Harry Potter series. This novel for adults is set in the fictional rural English town of Pagford. A "casual vacancy" on the Pagford Parish Council has resulted from the sudden death of council member Barry Fairbrother, due to an aneurysm. The process of filling the vacant council seat reveals the dark underbelly of the seemingly idyllic town of Pagford.

This post will continue my reflections on a prominent theme in the novel: teenagers and their thirst for significance during that in-between time when one is no longer a child but not yet an adult. This theme shows up in the dis-empowering treatment of teenagers in Pagford, in teens' attention to autonomous thoughts, in their striving for authenticity, in the importance they accord to secret places, in smoking behavior, in sexual behavior, in bullying behavior, in the practice of self-cutting, in the ability to act significantly but anonymously afforded by the Internet, in possessing valuable objects, in sports, in family aspirations, and in suicide.

My previous post reflects on dis-empowerment, autonomous thoughts, and authenticity. This post will reflect on secret places, smoking, sexual behavior, bullying, and self-cutting.

SECRET PLACES. Children and teenagers seem to love secret places. Maybe adults do, too. A secret place gives a sense of power. No one else knows where it is. One can be autonomous in one's secret place.

Andrew Price and Fats Wall have a secret place: a cave along the river bank, dangerous to reach. The river bank ends at a hillside, where a very narrow ledge above the rushing river at the bottom of the hill constitutes the only path along the steep hill-face to the cave. One must inch carefully along the ledge, using hand-holds of rocks and crannies in the hill-face until one arrives at the cave's opening. Andrew and Fats are adept at this. They discovered this secret place when they were eleven years old; they are now sixteen. The place is both forbidden and dangerous, increasing its appeal.

A cave that no one else knows about. A secret place of power.

SMOKING. This seems to appeal to many teens, including many Pagford teenagers. This is most unfortunate because smoking is so disastrous for one's health.

SEXUAL BEHAVIOR. Naturally, Pagford teens want to experiment with sex, and do. It's hard to know what a healthy approach to sexual behavior for teens might be. I certainly don't claim to know.

BULLYING BEHAVIOR. Bullying is, most unfortunately, alive and well in Pagford. One target is Sukhvinder Jawanda. Sukhvinder is a middle child with a gorgeous brainy elder sister, Jaswant, and a handsome clever younger brother, Rajpal. Both Jaswant and Rajpal are the pride of their Indian parents, Parminder (the mother) and Vikram (the father), and both are popular among their school mates. Sukhvinder feels awkward and dumb as she endures the scolding of her mother and the bullying of Fats Wall. Fats whispers remarks in Sukhvinder's presence and posts remarks on her Facebook page that question Sukhvinder's sexuality. The remarks liken Sukhvinder to a hermaphrodite, a lesbian, a girl-child covered with hair.

This is a terrible way to feel powerful and "significant" at another's expense. "Here is something significant I can do. I can cause another to feel deep pain. See how significant I am - I can hurt someone else." Terrible as this is, people choose this way to feel significant.

Even more, I believe that people choose this way to feel powerful when they already have power. Sometimes the most popular kids in the school are the ones who do the bullying. These kids are popular, they have power - and they love it. They want more. Bullying gives them more. To hurt someone else, to cause deep pain, to be powerful enough to hurt someone significantly - this can produce quite a rush. And there are people who choose that rush of power they feel when bullying.

SELF-CUTTING. Sukhvinder, the target of Fats Wall's bullying, cuts herself. This is a way of replacing deep emotional pain with physical pain. The physical pain overwhelms the self-cutter so that the emotional pain is blocked out. I can understand this intellectually, but it is not something I can imagine myself doing. I certainly don't enjoy emotional pain, but neither do I wish to experience physical pain. My solution is generally to engage in an activity I enjoy so that the enjoyment takes over. Since childhood, I have done this with reading - losing myself in the world of story.

For Sukhvinder, though, self-cutting is a life-line. On page 147, J. K. Rowling says, "[Sukhvinder] clung to the prospect of her only consolation, as she would have hugged a life belt, waiting, waiting, for them all to go to bed." What this young girl was anticipating so eagerly was the opportunity to cut herself with a razor blade. On page 149, Rowling describes the cutting: "With a slight shiver of fear that was a blessed relief in its narrow, immediate focus, [Sukhvinder] placed the blade halfway up her forearm and sliced into her own flesh." Later on page 149, Rowling explains, "The blade drew the pain away from her screaming thoughts and transmuted it into animal burning of nerves and skin: relief and release in every cut."

How much emotional pain one must be in to feel such immense relief when the emotional pain is overwhelmed by the physical pain. To think that one would actually welcome physical pain, actually inflict it on oneself by cutting one's flesh, so as to be briefly free of emotional pain.

The amount of pain in the world, even within one human being, is vast. Just the possibility that a child of mine might experience such intense emotional pain as to want to relieve it by self-cutting makes me so grateful that I have never brought a child into this world, where such pain is possible.

My next post will continue with reflections on the anonymity afforded by the Internet and how this is used by teens in THE CASUAL VACANCY.

Reflections on Teenagers and Their Thirst for Significance in THE CASUAL VACANCY by J. K. Rowling - Part 1

SPOILER ALERT

THE CASUAL VACANCY is J. K. Rowling's first novel since her Harry Potter series. It is a novel for adults. The novel is set in the fictional rural English town of Pagford. A "casual vacancy" on the Pagford Parish Council has resulted from the sudden death of council member Barry Fairbrother, due to an aneurysm. The process of filling the vacant council seat reveals the dark underbelly of the seemingly idyllic town of Pagford.

My previous post gave an overview of THE CASUAL VACANCY. This post will begin to offer reflections about a prominent theme in the novel: teenagers and their thirst for significance during that in-between time when one is no longer a child but not yet an adult.

This theme shows up in the dis-empowering treatment of teenagers in Pagford, in teens' attention to autonomous thoughts, in their striving for authenticity, in the importance they accord to secret places, in smoking behavior, in sexual behavior, in bullying behavior, in the practice of self-cutting, in the ability to act significantly but anonymously afforded by the Internet, in possessing valuable objects, in sports, in family aspirations, and in suicide.

This post will discuss dis-empowerment, autonomous thoughts, and authenticity.

DIS-EMPOWERING TREATMENT. Teenagers in Pagford are dis-empowered, but no more so than are teenagers anywhere else. To my mind, teens need graduated opportunities to shoulder more and more responsibility under the guidance of mentoring adults, who extend more and more autonomy to the teens as they show themselves capable and mature. With appropriate guidance, teens can take responsible positions in the work place, author books, report for newspapers, undertake scientific research, excel as athletes, initiate projects that address community needs, produce plays and films, and so much more. This doesn't happen in Pagford, nor does it happen in many communities. Teens are forced through a school curriculum that appears meaningless to them, and they find no meaningful outlets for their energy and creativity. Feelings of anger and alienation build up and eventually burst forth in ways that can be quite destructive.

ATTENTION TO AUTONOMOUS THOUGHTS. Andrew Price is a teen who uses his own hidden thought-life to counter the dis-empowerment he faces in the larger world. Andrew's father, Simon, is very abusive to his two sons, Andrew (about age 16) and Paul (about age 12). Simon belittles his sons, calls them names, and beats them at will. Their mother, Ruth, also suffers abuse at Simon's hands; unfortunately, she refuses to acknowledge the seriousness of the abuse, makes excuses for Simon, and tries ineffectually to placate her husband when he rages. The family lives in constant fear of Simon, never knowing when he will strike. As is the case in most dysfunctional families, Simon's wife and sons never speak of the terror that reigns in their home or of Simon's rageful behavior. Andrew is silent about all this even with his best friend, Stuart "Fats" Wall.

Andrew correctly deems it unsafe to confront his father outwardly, so he endures Simon's abuse in silence. But inwardly, he constantly tells Simon what he thinks of him. No one can read or censure Andrew's thoughts; he is completely free to think at Simon with impunity. And this is what Andrew does.

We see this in our first encounter with the Price family, when Simon learns about Barry Fairbrother's death due to an aneurysm and about the resultant casual vacancy on the Pagford Parish Council. Here is part of the scene, with Andrew's unspoken thoughts, on page 13.

     "He'd had a bad headache for a couple of days, apparently," [said Ruth].
     "Ah," said Simon, chewing toast. "And he ignored it?"
     "Oh, yes, he didn't think anything of it."
     Simon swallowed.
     "Goes to show, doesn't it?" he said portentously. "Got to watch yourself."
     That's wise, thought Andrew, with furious contempt; that's profound. So it was Barry Fairbrother's own fault his brain had burst open. You self-satisfied fucker, Andrew told his father, loudly, inside his own head.

I remember engaging, myself, in these sorts of autonomous thoughts with my own father, who was given to rages and abusiveness similar to that of Simon Price. I remember standing silently before my rageful father while thinking my anger at him, and I remember the power of realizing that I was in some way more powerful than he was. My father, in his visible rage, was revealing his emotions for all to see, while I was expressing my emotions covertly in my mind, where no one could see. My father wasn't fooling me at all, but I had the power of fooling him with my outward submissiveness, hiding the inward angry thoughts I was sending at him, thoughts of which I kept him ignorant. I understand Andrew Price and the power and autonomy he surely felt in sending angry thoughts toward his father, who remained ignorant of those thoughts.

STRIVING FOR AUTHENTICITY. Andrew's best friend, Stuart "Fats" Wall, finds a different sort of self-expression. Both Fats' parents work at the school Fats attends - his father, Colin or "Cubby," as deputy headmaster, and his mother, Tessa, as guidance counselor. For Fats, authenticity is very important. Fats absorbs himself in efforts to distinguish his own authentic feelings from his conditioning and to act on his authentic feelings. Here is how Rowling explains Fats' devotion to authenticity on page 74.

The difficult thing, the glorious thing, was to be who you really were, even if that person was cruel or dangerous, particularly if cruel and dangerous. There was courage in not disguising the animal you happened to be. . . . Lately, [Fats] had been experimenting with acting on what he thought were his authentic impulses, and ignoring or suppressing the guilt and fear (inauthentic) that such actions seemed to engender. Undoubtedly, this was becoming easier with practice. He wanted to toughen up inside, to become invulnerable, to be free of the fear of consequences: to rid himself of spurious notions of goodness and badness.

To me, this sounds like a fine way to turn oneself into a sociopath. Actually, I wonder if Fats doesn't have some sociopathic tendencies. As a child in kindergarten, upon hearing that his friend Andrew has a serious peanut allergy, Fats had slipped Andrew a peanut hidden inside a marshmallow just to observe dispassionately what would happen. Fats also seems to enjoy bullying certain other students in his high school class, and even his good friend Andrew becomes uncomfortable with Fats' lack of empathy for fellow teens whom he is hurting. In addition, Fats has sex with a girl his age, having no feelings for her but simply wanting a certain kind of experience. Fats' attitude seems to be that he will act on his "authentic" feelings, no matter what the consequences for himself or others.

Fats also seems to have the idea that authenticity contradicts traditional morality. On page 76, Rowling explains:

What Fats wanted to recover was a kind of innocence, and the route he had chosen back to it was through all the things that were supposed to be bad for you, but which, paradoxically, seemed to Fats to be the one true way to authenticity; to a kind of purity. It was curious how often everything was back to front, the inverse of what they told you; Fats was starting to think that if you flipped every bit of received wisdom on its head you would have the truth. He wanted to journey through dark labyrinths and wrestle with the strangeness that  lurked within; he wanted to crack open piety and expose bloody hearts; he wanted to achieve a state of amoral grace, and be baptized backwards into ignorance and simplicity.

Although Fats' lack of empathy for others is disturbing, his idea that "if you flipped every bit of received wisdom on its head you would have the truth" (page 76) has some merit. This is the way my sister Maria has proceeded - though, unlike Fats, she has allowed empathy to inform her behavior choices. Maria has often chosen to do the opposite of what our parents, the Catholic Church in which we were raised, and conventional society admonish her to do. She is very much her own person, with unconventional attitudes toward sexuality, money, work, living space, spirituality, and other life matters. As a small example, Maria was raised with the maxim, "Don't talk to strangers"; she has tossed that idea away, makes it a special point to speak to strangers, has a much wider than usual circle of friends and acquaintances, and has befriended a number of homeless people.

Tempered with empathy, the idea that "if you flipped every bit of received wisdom on its head you would have the truth" (page 76) may work. Fats does not temper this idea with empathy; Maria does. In the end, though, when Fats understands that his "authentic" actions are in some way responsible for the death of a small child and the suicide of a teenager, he is overcome with a guilt that he cannot shake.

I would say that this striving with authenticity, tempered with empathy and including the questioning of previously unquestioned received wisdom, is a good thing at any time in life. I would further say that authenticity takes account of what one feels like doing in the moment and of what one deeply desires to accomplish with one's life. Sometimes these are at odds. One may feel like lashing out in the moment at an irritating person, but one may choose to act from compassion instead because of one's deeper desire to bring more compassion into the world. 

My next post will continue with reflections on the thirst for significance among teenagers in THE CASUAL VACANCY.

Overview of THE CASUAL VACANCY by J. K. Rowling

I was very excited to read J. K. Rowling's first novel since her Harry Potter series, a novel for adults titled THE CASUAL VACANCY. I have read it twice and just love it! This post will provide an overview of the novel.

THE CASUAL VACANCY is set in contemporary England in the fictional rural town of Pagford. A "casual vacancy" opens on the Pagford Parish Council when Barry Fairbrother, a council member, dies suddenly and unexpectedly of a brain aneurysm. Efforts to fill the casual vacancy reveal the dark underbelly of the outwardly idyllic town, as all sorts of hidden tensions surface.

The novel doesn't have a main character, but follows the lives of several characters and families through the campaign and election for the newly vacant Pagford Parish Council seat. In most families, we see two generations (the teenagers and their parents) and sometimes three (the teenagers' grand-parents) and even four (one family has an active great grand-mother).

THEMES

The novel includes the following themes that I find interesting and even fascinating.

THE "DESERVING" POOR VERSUS THE "UNDESERVING" POOR. A current controversy on the Pagford Parish Council revolves around the Fields, a poor area adjacent to Pagford and within Pagford's jurisdiction. Many in Pagford would like to give up jurisdiction over the Fields to the larger town of Yarvil to the north. Having jurisdiction over the Fields means that Fields children may attend local schools, and Pagford sees many Fields families as the "undeserving" poor, or poor people who are perceived as lazy free-loaders and whose children are perceived as undisciplined trouble-makers. By contrast, the poor within Pagford itself are perceived as the "deserving" poor, who work.

The recently deceased council member, Barry Fairbrother, however, grew up in the Fields, improved his circumstances by dint of industrious effort, and became a contributing member of society in the town of Pagford. Barry Fairbrother's heart was with the Fields and he wanted to extend a helping hand to the poor there so that they, too, might move out of poverty as he had. While the people of Pagford admire Barry Fairbrother and his family (his widow and four children), many see him as an exception to what they perceive as the more common slothfulness of Fields residents.

SOCIAL SERVICES. Another controversy on the Pagford Parish Council revolves around the Bellchapel Addiction Clinic in the Fields. Many in Pagford see this clinic as draining resources from Pagford to be "wasted" on people who cycle through the addiction clinic again and again, only to return each time to their drug addition. Supporters of the clinic point to the people who have been and are being helped there.

We are also invited to notice the strain placed on the health care system by an upstanding Pagford Parish Council member, an opponent of the Bellchapel Addiction Clinic, who doesn't take proper care of his own health but allows himself to remain morbidly obese. This drains resources from the health system to treat this council member's many health problems, all preventable with lifestyle changes that he refuses to make.

THE SECRETIVENESS WITHIN ABUSIVE FAMILIES. The frightening rages of Simon Price, father of the Price family, are vividly described, as is his teenage son Andrew's complete silence with even his best friend, Stuart "Fats" Wall, about the daily terror within the Price home.

TEEN BULLYING. This deplorable practice and its consequences are explored in detail.

TEENS TAKING ACTIONS WITH SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES FOR OTHERS. This is a fascinating theme found in the novel. Three teenagers, each acting separately, take actions motivated by anger and alienation, which have or potentially have very serious consequences for others.

INTERNET ANONYMITY. The novel shows how the Internet in the hands of a savvy user can be used with complete anonymity.

THE USES OF TALKING. One would think that talking is used to communicate. Rowling shows in exquisite detail how people also talk for other purposes: to stand out as more knowledgeable than others, to cause and savor the shocked reactions of others by being the first to tell unlooked-for news, to take revenge disguised as a solicitous query or a seemingly innocent remark.

LANGUAGE

I found it worthwhile to read THE CASUAL VACANCY twice. The first time, I was interested in the plot. The second time, knowing what was going to happen, I could savor Rowling's language, her descriptions, her images, and her insights into people's character.

Here is a wonderful example of a surprising and vivid image describing the school career of  Krystal Weedon, a sixteen-year-old from an "undeserving" poor Fields family. On page 58, Rowling writes:

Krystal's slow passage up the school had resembled the passage of a goat through the body of a boa constrictor, being highly visible and uncomfortable for both parties concerned.

There is also this amazing description of the morbidly obese Pagford Parish Council member Howard Mollison, who owns and runs a popular delicatessen in Pagford. On pages 32-33, Rowling writes:

Howard Mollison . . . was an extravagantly obese man of sixty-four. A great apron of stomach fell so far down in front of his thighs that most people thought instantly of his penis when they first clapped eyes on him, wondering when he had last seen it, how he washed it, how he managed to perform any of the acts for which a penis is designed. Partly because his physique set off these trains of thought, and partly because of his fine line in banter, Howard managed to discomfort and disarm in almost equal measure, so that customers almost always bought more than they meant to on a first visit to the shop.

ENDING

The novel's ending is something of a jolt: unexpected, poignant, and realistic.

My next post will focus on further reflections sparked by reading THE CASUAL VACANCY, specifically reflections about teenagers and their thirst for significance in that in-between stage of life when one is no longer a child but not yet an adult.

Thoughts on ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK by Piper Kerman

I have just reread ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK: MY YEAR IN A WOMEN'S PRISON by Piper Kerman, published in 2011. This is a memoir about exactly what the subtitle says: a year spent in prison by Piper due to a drug-related conviction. Piper's memoir is note-worthy because she not only tells her story but also reflects on the larger social implications of the ways that prisons and the criminal justice system function.

PIPER'S STORY

Piper grew up in the northeast, graduated from Smith, and fulfilled her parents' expectations for someone of her social class. After college graduation, Piper was ready for some less conventional adventures. She became friends with a woman in her thirties who was involved in international drug trafficking. Piper traveled around the world with this woman and even on one occasion transported drug money (though not drugs themselves) across international borders.

After this money-transporting adventure, Piper realized that she needed to extricate herself from this dangerous friendship. She moved to the West Coast, got a job, developed a circle of good friends, and found a steady boyfriend, with whom she eventually moved to New York when he took a position with a magazine there. Soon, Piper's boyfriend (Larry Smith) became her fiancé.

Five years had passed since Piper's drug-related transgression. She had put all drug-related involvement behind her, she was now an upstanding contributing member of society, she was looking forward to marriage with Larry - and one day federal marshals came knocking on her door to tell her that she was being indicted for drug-related criminal activity. Piper had to break the news to Larry, to her parents, and to her friends that she would probably go to prison.

Because Piper had the means to hire a top-notch attorney, she was able to plead guilty in exchange for a light sentence of 15 months, of which she served 13 months and was released early on good behavior. Piper served her time at the minimum security federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut.

PIPER'S LIFE IN PRISON

Piper found prison life to be restrictive, humiliating, and sometimes terrifying. The prisoners had to stand at attention to be counted several times during the day and night. To receive visitors, prisoners had to submit to strip searches. And it was always clear that the guards had absolute power, including the power to deprive a prisoner of privileges, to take away a prisoner's good time earned, and to cast a prisoner into solitary confinement.

At the same time, the women in this minimum security prison supported each other. Some women were untrustworthy, but many showed kindness. When a new prisoner arrived, the experienced prisoners offered words of encouragement and helped the new arrival by supplying personal items until the new woman's paperwork went through and she could buy items herself from the prison commissary. Piper actually felt that she developed a circle of friends in prison.

The women imprisoned with Piper included a woman whom Piper calls Yoga Janet, who was calm and centered and who taught yoga classes for the other prisoners, as well as a Catholic nun named Sister Ardeth Platte, who was in prison for civil disobedience to protest the United States' military build-up.

SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS

Piper looks squarely at the social implications of the war on drugs, which took off in earnest in the 1980s, when mandatory minimum prison sentences were put in place. This mandatory sentencing means that judges are not allowed to use their discretion in sentencing but must impose at least the mandatory minimum sentence.

As a result, record numbers of people are now imprisoned with long sentences due to tangential involvement with drug-related activity. Piper encountered a woman in her seventies from the Dominican Republic serving a four-year sentence for passing on drug-related telephone messages for a male relative. Some of the women in prison with Piper were doing sentences of five, ten, fifteen, or twenty years for non-violent offenses. If these women had children (and many did), those children were growing up without their mothers.

Piper also says that what made her realize the full implications of the harm she had done with her drug-related activity was to see the results of drug addiction in the ravaged lives of her fellow inmates. Piper realized that, in transporting drug money across international borders, she had been supporting drug addiction - and in prison she was confronted with the human cost of such drug addiction. The money she had transported came from the sale of drugs that ultimately went to addicts, who suffered greatly from their addiction and caused their families great suffering.

Piper believes, therefore, that the most effective deterrent to crime is to have the criminal confront the human consequences of his or her criminal activity. (This won't work with a sociopath, of course, but it will work with many criminals who simply haven't considered the harm they have done to others by their criminal actions.) Piper sees restorative justice as the way to go - having a criminal confront the suffering caused by his or her crimes and then make restitution.

Piper also saw the huge need for programs to prepare prisoners for the outside world before releasing them. Prison life, Piper says, teaches people how to survive in prison but does nothing to prepare them to live on the outside, where a whole different skill set is necessary. Piper saw the deep anxiety in fellow prisoners with a release date coming up. Some women had nowhere to go and no one to go to. These women were preparing to check in at the nearest homeless shelter. It is very hard to see how these women could be expected to find work and become contributing members of society when all they could hope for upon release was to get into a homeless shelter.

OVERALL

Piper Kerman is a woman of strong determination who was able to go beyond survival in prison by learning to enjoy small pleasures, by giving and receiving support with her fellow prisoners, by closely observing and analyzing the interactions of prison, and of course by receiving the love and support of her family and friends and by having the means to hire a top-notch attorney. Piper is very aware that her upbringing and social class gave her privileges that many other prisoners lacked. For example, Piper had no worries about post-prison employment. A friend had created a position for her in his company that she could move into immediately upon release; the position also came with full health insurance benefits.

Piper's memoir reminds us of the plight of women prisoners, especially those serving long sentences for non-violent offenses. Piper highlights the harm done by separating women from their children and tearing families apart and the uselessness of long mandatory prison sentences for tangential drug-related offenses.

Three Books about Wolves

I have recently read three fascinating books about wolves, their interactions among themselves, and the ways their lives intersect with those of humans. This post will give an overview of the three books, all of which I highly recommend, and will discuss some of the intriguing information about wolves that these books impart.

OVERVIEW OF THE BOOKS

LONE WOLF by Jodi Picoult (2012)

This is a novel in which the family of the main character, Luke Warren, faces the difficult decision of whether or not to remove life support after Luke emerges from a vehicle accident with brain injuries that the doctors believe to be irreversible and that are expected to keep Luke in a perpetual coma. Luke's relationship with his family (his ex-wife, his 20-something son, and his 17-year-old daughter) is complicated by the fact that Luke seems more comfortable with wolves than with his human family. Luke spends much of his time with a wolf pack in captivity, and at one point he left his family for two years to live with wolves in the Canadian wilderness, where he succeeded in being adopted into a wild wolf pack. The novel provides much fascinating information about wolves and draws upon the experience of Shaun Ellis, a real-life man who does live and has lived with wolves.

THE MAN WHO LIVES WITH WOLVES by Shaun Ellis with Penny Junor (2009)

This nonfiction book recounts the experience of Shaun Ellis of England, who does live and has lived with wolves. Shaun spent two years in the Rocky Mountains of Idaho with no human contact so that he could study wolves on their own terms. He was eventually adopted by a wolf pack as a subordinate member within the pack's ranking system. During this time, Shaun lived, played, ate, slept, and interacted with the other members of the pack. This means that he ate raw meat (supplemented with berries and nuts) and used howls, growls, and other wolf sounds and gestures to communicate. Shaun now sees himself as a man between two worlds, the wolf world and the human world. His life task is to bridge those worlds. Shaun works with wolf packs in captivity in England, teaching them the skills needed to survive in the wild so that these captive wolves and their descendants may retain those skills should they ever be released into the wild. Shaun also works with the captive wolves as ambassadors to teach humans about wolves.

NEVER CRY WOLF by Farley Mowat (1963)

This nonfiction book recounts the experience of Farley Mowat of Canada, who was employed by the Canadian government to study wolves in the Canadian Arctic. The purpose of the study was to verify that wolves were killing large numbers of caribou, so as to justify eradicating the wolves. What Farley actually learned was that humans were the ones killing the caribou in large numbers. Wolves killed very few caribou - only what they needed to eat. In fact, wolves strengthened the caribou herds by weeding out the weaker members. Farley learned to love and appreciate the wolves, but his report to the Canadian government was disbelieved and disregarded.

INFORMATION ABOUT WOLVES

INTELLIGENCE

Wolves are highly intelligent. Their sounds and gestures communicate very specific information. Farley Mowat learns that a pack member who has gone out alone may howl to communicate to the pack that he or she is fine but is planning to stay out longer than expected. The howl may even indicate when the pack can expect the wolf to return. Farley also observes that a wolf may howl to communicate the arrival of caribou or of Inuit people, and that this information will be sent over distances by wolves hearing and passing on this howl. The howl for approaching caribou, by the way, is different from the howl for approaching Inuit.

Jodi Picoult's main character explains that the alpha wolf will single out a specific prey animal for hunting and will indicate this to the hunters with tail gestures. The alpha, knowing of a strong rival wolf pack nearby, may even instruct the hunters to terrorize the prey animal so that the meat will be full of adrenaline. When the wolves consume this meat and then urinate around their territory, members of the nearby rival wolf pack will smell the strength in the urine and will hold that wolf pack in greater respect.

Shaun Ellis tells us that the alpha directs the wolves as to what they are to eat to produce needed characteristics. Besides the above example of a terrorized prey animal that produces strong urine in the wolves, the alpha may direct her hunters to kill a nursing calf because the alpha knows that the pack needs the milk contents of the calf's stomach to make the members more mellow after an aggressive mating season. The alpha may even direct her pack to a putrid prey corpse because the pack has contracted worms and the putrid meat will chase the worms out of the wolves' bodies.

Shaun Ellis has observed that wolves regulate their reproduction according to what is needed. If a female becomes pregnant and then determines that conditions are not good for a litter of new pups, she will absorb the pup fetuses back into her body. A female wolf can also delay her reproductive cycle until conditions are right. Shaun wanted to prevent one of his captive female wolves from becoming pregnant, and gave her some contraceptives during the mating season. This female wolf simply held back her reproductive cycle until the contraceptive had worked its way out of her body, went into delayed heat, mated, and became pregnant.

PRAGMATIC BEHAVIOR

Shaun Ellis has learned that wolves are very pragmatic. They do what works for the survival of the pack. They are not sentimental and don't have emotions as we do. They will feed and nurse an ill alpha wolf, knowing that this wolf is necessary for the survival of the pack, but they will send an ill wolf of lesser rank off to die, knowing that this wolf's illness jeopardizes the pack's survival.

Shaun also explains that wolves also don't give up. They are survival oriented. When faced with an obstacle, they work to overcome or get around it. When danger or hardship arises, wolves adjust their behavior.

WOLVES AND HUMANS

Through his friends among the Nez Percé in Idaho, Shaun Ellis learns that Native Americans consider wolves as brothers and sisters. Native Americans do not fear wolves. They see the wolf as a respected fellow predator and an important teacher.

On the other hand, all three authors have observed that many North Americans fear the wolf. These North Americans incorrectly believe that the wolf is a vicious killer, destroying large numbers of prey animals, including farmers' livestock, and ready to attack any human who ventures near. The wolf appears as the villain in fairy tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs. The three authors express or imply the thought that these ideas about wolves are shadow projections. North Americans have behaved destructively but are often unwilling to accept and integrate this self-knowledge; therefore, these North Americans project their own destructive characteristics onto the wolf. In their minds, the wolf is the destroyer, the wolf is to be feared, the wolf must be eradicated. What these North Americans deny in themselves, they project onto the wolf.

All three authors recognize that Native Americans understand that we need the wolf. The wolf's presence sharpens everyone else. Other animals are more alert, more fit, more protective of their young. The wolf keeps everyone on their toes, improves everyone's parenting skills, heightens everyone's awareness, increases everyone's fitness. The wolf weeds out the weaker animals. Farley Mowat explains that, in the Arctic, the wolf eliminates weaker caribou and raises the quality of the herd. The Inuit know that the wolf's presence is responsible for the Inuit's finding better quality caribou for their own needs.

LESSONS

These are the lessons I take from my reading about wolves.

• Take responsibility for oneself. Look squarely at a given situation (whether or not it is ideal), decide the best course of action, and take that action. Wolves do this to survive in the wild. As humans, we can set goals beyond survival.
• Be awake and aware. See and appreciate what or who is actually there, not one's own projection.
• Be more pack oriented. Certainly, humans are not wolves and don't operate exactly like a wolf pack. Yet I believe that the wolf pack holds a lesson for our overly individualistic society. In the United States, we are extreme in our individualism. We would do well to give more attention to the common good. I include myself in this.

Lilly's Cafe for Vietnamese Food

I have discovered a wonderful new Vietnamese cafe--Lilly's Cafe at 1813 Magazine Street in New Orleans. I've eaten there just once so far, but I plan to return!

I had Lilly's spring roll--a very delicious roll containing shrimp, pork, avocado, strawberries, lettuce, mint, and vermicelli--served with a dipping sauce. This was truly the very best spring roll or summer roll or egg roll or any kind of roll that I've ever tasted!

I also had pho, the one with meatballs. The meatballs themselves were a bit chewy for my taste, but I think that's the way they're supposed to be. The broth was wonderful--very warming and comforting. Next time, I think I'll go with the vegetarian broth.

I hope to have many more meals at Lilly's!

Healing in MOCKINGJAY by Suzanne Colllins

SPOILER ALERT

MOCKINGJAY is the third and final book in Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy.

OVERVIEW

After the Quarter Quell, Katniss finds herself in District 13 with her mother, Prim, Gail, Haymitch, and Finnick. Peeta, Johanna, and Enobaria have been captured by the Capitol, but eventually District 13 is able to rescue Peeta and Johanna.

It quickly becomes apparent that Peeta has been hijacked by the Capitol, meaning that his memories of Katniss have been altered and entwined with fear. When Peeta is reunited with Katniss in District 13, he shocks everyone by springing at Katniss and attempting to strangle her. Peeta is treated by the medical team in District 13 and eventually reaches a point where he can begin to separate his real memories from the memories altered by the Capitol.

The rebel districts succeed in overthrowing the Capitol, but not without great loss of life on both sides. Prim and Finnick are among the dead. Alma Coin, the President of District 13, becomes President of Panem, but Katniss kills her because Coin's way of staying in power is too similar to that of the cold and calculating President Snow, who was President of Panem for decades.

Katniss finally returns to District 12, where she marries Peeta. Katniss and Peeta eventually have two children in the new and more gentle world that has emerged from the overthrow of the Capitol.

A STEP TOWARD HEALING--ASKING

When one has been out of touch with reality, it is helpful to ask a trusted person for help. Peeta does this as he tries to sort out which of his memories are real and which have been hijacked. He states what his memory is telling him, and then asks, "Real or not real?" The trusted person's answer helps him reconnect with reality.

Peeta's reconnection with reality reminds me that there are different ways to frame what happens to us. The way we frame what happens to us creates our reality. People we trust can suggest different frames. For example, two frames through which illness has been viewed are (1) that illness is a punishment from God and (2) that illness comes from natural physical causes, such as germs or aged-related degeneration.

FURTHER STEPS TOWARD HEALING

Healing of trauma is possible, but it isn't always complete. Perhaps it is never complete. But life can go on and can bring joy.

Katniss and Peeta marry and have two children. Twenty years after the defeat of the Capitol and the end of the Hunger Games, Peeta still sometimes has flashbacks, and Katniss still sometimes has nightmares. But Peeta and Katniss also take joy in each other, in their children, in their friends, in their memory book, and in nature. They know that the flashbacks and nightmares won't ever completely go away. But that's okay.

On some days, Katniss says that "it feels impossible to  take pleasure in anything because I'm afraid it could be taken away" (page 390). When Katniss feels this way, she says, "I make a list in my head of every act of goodness I've seen someone do" (page 390).

A catalog of goodness, a catalog of gratitude--this is a wonderful healing idea. I think Katniss is saying: I will anchor myself in the reality of goodness as this temporary wave of despair washes over me.

OVERALL

Here are the ways that Katniss and Peeta find healing:

• Asking trusted people for reality checks
• Mentally cataloguing goodness and gratitude
• Recognizing feelings of despair, including flashbacks and nightmares, as the temporary waves that they are--waves of despair in an ocean of goodness
• Anchoring in the reality of goodness when a temporary wave of despair arises
• Taking delight in each other, their children, their friends
• Keeping the memory book of the beloved dead: Prim, Katniss' father, Peeta's father, Cinna, Finnick, Boggs, and so many others
• Spending time outdoors in nature