Glass of Wine Book Club: Reading For Our Time

 

Over the course of my life, books have been my refuge and my joy.  Each one teaches me things that are critical for analytical thinking and empathy, lessons of character, courage and conscience, or the consequences of the lack thereof.  I have travelled to distant lands and fictional worlds, and even to the stars and beyond, through the lens of every story, from the fairy tales of my tiny years to the present day's more complex reading.

Our whole, little family are big readers.  We purposely read to The Peanut from the time she was tiny, making story time at our house an event that was eagerly anticipated every day, and hand-feeding her books of interest from the time she could start turning board book pages.  It was important to us, and so it became important to her, too -- kids pick up on that message in reading households, and it hopefully follows them for life and to the next generation if you make it fun to learn through reading.  (Side note: I covered how we did this at our house in this older post from my old blog, in case you are interested.)

When the world looked bleak, I always had Pooh Bear's hand to hold.

Needed an escape?  I could follow Bilbo and Frodo Baggins for an adventure.  Or make my problems feel small in comparison to Bob Cratchitt and Tiny Tim.  

Need some advice on how to live a better life?  Merlin in T.H. White's Once and Future King was always a funny fount of wisdom.

Since the election in early November, I have been in a bit of a personal mope.  Your candidate doesn't always win elections - been there, done that, for years of my work in politics.  But this felt so much more personal this year for reasons that are tangible for me, but not so easily explained.  

It's caused me to pull back quite a bit and re-evaluate my strategy, my goals, my understanding of American character and conscience, and where we are or are not in terms of integrity and honesty and a whole range of other issues.  And to ask myself, where I see problems that need solving, how to go about doing that going forward, which is not the easiest question to answer for me right now.  

Do I even want to try?  Or do I need to just be done and move on for the sake of my own sanity?  The fact that I'm even asking myself that is troubling on so many levels, but there we are.

So I have once again turned to books for refuge and solace, and for answers somewhere in the middle of walking in the shoes of some pretty engrossing characters.

While reading last night, I had an epiphany:  maybe there were other like-minded and exhausted souls who could also use a little comfort and consolation while working out their own questions and answers on a whole host of political strife issues milling about in their heads this holiday season, and so the kernel of an idea for a book club for our time was born.

I'm thinking it might be fun to re-read Charles Dickens masterpiece, A Christmas Carol -- a timely read if there ever was one in December -- and then host a discussion with everyone who read it or wanted to discuss at some point during the month of December.  We could discuss in the comments or, better yet, maybe on Zoom over a glass of wine if you like.

But togetherness and intellectual stimulation seem like an awfully good idea at the moment, as does a sense of community with like-minded souls in need of some sort of salvation and joy at a time when the light of the world could truly use a boost of kindness and cheer.  

What do you say?

(Photo by Christy Hardin Smith of The Peanut, reading in her St. Mary's elementary school library, on the bean bag chairs of joy, way, way back in the day.  This picture always makes me so happy.)