Amazed

How can a person ever be bored? Truly. Maybe if someone was in solitary confinement or a hospital waiting room with no reading material (there is always people watching) or in a hospital bed unable to move or too sick to do anything. But these are very special circumstances. I am amazed and/or thrilled by something I learn every day. How can I be bored?

I recently watched a Nova program and was surprised to learn about supercontinents that formed North America before Pangaea. I knew the supercontinent Pangaea existed around 300 million years ago, but  Nuna, Rodinia, and Laurentia…. were all supercontinents that pre-dated Pangaea. The land masses on earth are constantly moving and will eventually form a supercontinent again. I’m not a geologist and I know it’s nerdy, but this is fascinating to me. To say I love learning is a serious understatement.  Just when you think you know something….

Some other random things that either thrill and/or amaze me:

Neil deGrasse Tyson talking about the universe. Wow. Talk about what we don’t know.

Watching Gregory Hines dance on film. What incredible talent.

When that guy in the film, Chariots of Fire throws back his head with the joy of running? Don’t you feel it, too?

The beauty of the films of Louis Schwartzberg. 

Even the thought of all the unread books I have yet to enjoy.

People that make their living with music. How incredibly hard. Any art form really. Extraordinary.

The strength and grace of trees. The tiny jewel of a flower that grows out of a crack in the sidewalk.

I could go on and on. I guess all I’m saying is being bored is a cop out. Allow yourself to be thrilled and amazed. It’s wonderful.

Pretty much…. and relationships, of course.

NOVEMBER 2015 BOOK SELECTION- A SPOOL OF BLUE THREAD

This is my first novel by Anne Tyler. I know. Where have I been? I had seen it advertised and randomly picked it up at the library. What a delight, from beginning to end. I knew she was a well-known and respected master storyteller. She has won numerous book awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1989 for Breathing Lessons (next on my listJ). Also a film was made based on her novel, The Accidental Tourist.

This is a story of three generations of an ordinary, flawed, endlessly fascinating family. There is so much about them that is alien yet so much that is familiar. It has been a long time since I didn’t want a book to end.

There are no explosions, no terror attacks, no spies or witches. It is about life and all of its beauty, heartbreak, happiness, confusion, misunderstanding and sadness. The characters are so beautifully drawn you want to shake them, argue with them, then long to know what happens to them after you read the last page. The house where these characters at various times live, move through, and leave is as exceptionally created as any other character. It became as real as the one next door. 

Finally, There is just enough of a sense of things unknown and unseen in everyday life. A question of the mystery of it all. A reminder that no one has all the answers.   

Highly recommend.