Suggestion Saturday: August 31, 2013

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, poems, and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

What to Say Instead of “One Day, This Will All Make Sense to You.”  The only thing I would add to this post is the phrase “I’m sorry.”

With Friends Like These via Lesism. Would you be friends with yourself? An important reminder about what we say about ourselves…to ourselves.

What Do You Call Your Moms?  An essay written by a young woman who sometimes struggles to figure out what to call her moms. This is not at all the same thing, but it made me think of my relationship with my youngest aunt. We spent so much time together when I was young that she feels more like a sibling who grew up in another household than an aunt, and she’s actually the only one of my parents’ siblings that I think of on a first name basis (as opposed to being Aunt or Uncle so-and-so). Titles aren’t as important as the emotional bond two people share, whatever sort of bond that may be.

Wednesday’s Move via carolynlawrence. One of the most visceral descriptions of a break up I’ve ever read.

Grief Magic. A few months ago I recommend this author’s book about parenting a child with a terminal illness to my readers. Her son died at around the same time the book was published, and this essay is about how she has been coping over the past 5 months.

From How to Do What You Love via Silveragerus:

What you should not do, I think, is worry about the opinion of anyone beyond your friends. You shouldn’t worry about prestige. Prestige is the opinion of the rest of the world. When you can ask the opinions of people whose judgement you respect, what does it add to consider the opinions of people you don’t even know?

From She Has Glasses:

“She has glasses,” you’d have to say describing me to your friend so he could spot me in a crowd. “She’s short with glasses and dark hair…yep, that’s her.” You’d just have to mention the glasses first as they became unusual, identifyingly characteristic. That was the thing that set me apart from my other friends, not being the least-thin, not being Cute, which would soon grow to make me feel too young, too. But glasses? Glasses I could deal with. Glasses were my choice.

The Rapture of Canaan is the fictional story of a young girl, Ninah, growing up in a cult who believes she has been given a miraculous virgin pregnancy.

Belief is a powerful thing. It can be used to knit a community together or rip it to shreds. While I found it really hard to believe that supposedly intelligent adults would accept the idea of a 12 year old girl living in modern times becoming pregnant without having sex, I loved the lyrical descriptions of Ninah’s thoughts and surroundings.

I first read this when I was about the same age as Ninah while browsing through my youngest aunt’s home library one day. As an adult I doubt any cult would actually allow its teenage members to do the things that Ninah does, but this book does show a very realistic portrayal of the stage in life in which everyone must decide if they agree with their parents’ religious beliefs or have come to a different conclusion about who or what might be out there.

What have you been reading?

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