A Different America
We recently had a couple of days off in Houston so I spent a good portion of one of those days just sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch or in bed just reading. It was unusual for me to spend that much concentrated time reading but it was a good thing to do on a day off.
In that time I read The Secret Life of Bees. I think this would be considered a book mostly that women would read since the men in it are almost all violent and not very nice, although there are a couple of exceptions. And because it is really a story about a girl and her need for a mother. So I was surprised that I got into it so quick. I've really gotten into learning about bees and keeping hives so that aspect also intrigued me. I was interested to see how the author would weave that into the story.
The story takes place at the moment in American history when African Americans are finally allowed to vote. I finished the book the morning after Obama was elected so I was really in an interesting head space for that day. I spent election day reading this book in which an African American woman is beat up because she wanted to register to vote. Then that night I see America elect its first non-white president.
I went for a run through the warm Houston suburbs shortly after I finished the book. It was Obama's first day as President Elect. Knowing that Barack would soon be the President here and having an idea of what has transpired over the past 40 years made me feel so happy anytime I passed African Americans. I wanted to celebrate with them. It truly feels like a different country.
So I obviously need to go and see the movie now since it is still in theaters. It's always fun to see the differences. - on a side note, Jonah watched James and the Giant Peach after we had read it to him. It was quite different. And much more scary. I don't know if he'll ever want to watch a book-turned-movie again!
This post will be my account to remember when I'm asked by my kids or grandkids, "What were you doing when Obama was elected?"
Special thanks to Rob and Kiki for taking such good care of us the last couple of days. Btw, Rob's brother is the current American Gladiator champion, how cool is that?? And we had a few fire trucks stop by the house while we were there. Check out Kiki's blog for details and pics.
GL
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5 comments:
I'm glad you liked it! And I relate to how you feel here about Obama. I did not vote for him because I don't agree with a lot of his stances, but at the same time, I DO feel like his election really is a momentous occasion in our history and I'm very happy about that side of it. Which makes me feel kind of torn, I guess. Reality is--he's there, so we'll pray for him as our leader and see how it goes!
i REALLY loved The Secret Life of Bees and was so thrilled to hear that it was going to be a movie. . no,i haven't seen it yet, but I will!
Hopefully Jonah won't have any nightmares about those horrid women in the story??! gosh, i remember reading that one when i was in i don't know what grade? it was a l o n g time ago! great story.
I've been wanting to read The Secret Life of Bees for ages.... I hope you get a chance to see it & blog about it.... i'm pretty much always not impressed by books turned into movies!
i've heard the movie is good too though!
in other news... when i was in third grade... James and the Giant Peach was one of my favourite books! the movie was kind of creepy though. :]
Like Kiki said, This election was indeed a huge moment for America, i think, even though i didn't vote for Obama either!
okay, this is a faux pas, but I'm guessing you don't read follow up comments on other blogs, so I'm following up your comment on my blog here. I loved that you responded, though I wasn't trying to signal you through Google updates--but now I will. I'm going to think of it as the bat signal for you, okay? :)
I think most Americans, like I, have not really thought that a politically viable black presidential candidate couldn't get elected... It's not that we thought a black person couldn't do the job, or that we didn't want them to, it's just that all we had to choose from were the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. We're tired of people seeing all of America as a racially divided country; I believe racists are the true minority.
I have heard a lot of people repeating the rumor that some people say somebody will try to assasinate him because of his color, but I think it's just a juicy bit of gossip to try to make Americans look bad.
There have been 20 attempts on the lives of sitting and former presidents and presidents-elect out of 42 presidents (all white, by the way. So the chances that some nutjob is going to try something stupid, and more than likely fail, are always there for a president and that's why the Secret Service is there. One should just not assume that the John Wilkes Booths and Lee Harvey Oslwads represent Americans as a whole.
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