Thou seemest human and divine, The highest, holiest manhood, thou. Our wills are ours, we know not how; Our wills are ours, to make them thine. Our little systems have their day; They have their day and cease to be: They are but broken lights of thee, And thou, O Lord, art more than they. We have but faith: we cannot know; For knowledge is of things we see And yet we trust it comes from thee, A beam in darkness: let it grow. Let knowledge grow from more to more, But more of reverence in us dwell; That mind and soul, according well, May make one music as before, But vaster. We are fools and slight; We mock thee when we do not fear: But help thy foolish ones to bear; Help thy vain worlds to bear thy light. Forgive what seem'd my sin in me; What seem'd my worth since I began; For merit lives from man to man, And not from man, O Lord, to thee. Forgive my grief for one removed, Thy creature, whom I found so fair. I trust he lives in thee, and there I find him worthier to be loved. Forgive these wild and wandering cries, Confusions of a wasted youth; Forgive them where they fail in truth, And in thy wisdom make me wise.-Alfred, Lord Tennyson
6.21.2012
In Memoriam
11.08.2011
Human Sacrifice in the Bible
In Genesis 22, God tests Abraham’s faithfulness by telling him to make the greatest sacrifice of all: He asks him to sacrifice his beloved and only son, Isaac. Abraham has complete faith in God. Abraham intends to do what has been commanded him; however, he is confident that he will not be asked to actually carry it through. This is made clear in verse five, where Abraham says to his servants “I and the boy [will] go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” Abraham has complete faith that God will provide a way out.
It might seem unreasonable for a good God to ask his servant to commit human sacrifice, but this good God is also a just God. Justice requires human sin to be atoned for with human life, but the loving God allows another sacrifice to be performed as a replacement for what is really necessary. God asks Abraham to perform this sacrifice for two main reasons: to show what a faithful servant looks like, and to prove that God will always provide a way out. Abraham learns what it really means to trust in God- to obey Him, even when it seems absurd. He also learns that in those cases when God’s command does seem absurd, there is always a purpose and a way out.
Because Abraham is willing to perform the sacrifice, a substitute sacrifice is provided. If Abraham hadn’t gone through with what he was commanded, God would not have been able to provide! By putting Abraham to the test, God showed Himself to be loving, compassionate, and kind. God Himself supplied a ram as a burnt offering, something that would later be required of the Israelites as atonement for sin.
The story in Genesis 22 does not support, but doesn’t necessarily “condemn” human sacrifice. On the contrary, it makes it clear that human sacrifice is completely necessary. If the purpose of human sacrifice is to atone for sin, then what good would anything but a human sacrifice do? It is human sin, so human blood needs to be spilled. In Genesis 22, God shows grace to Abraham and Isaac. Death is what is deserved, but God does not require it. Similarly according to Christianity, human death is required for salvation, but because God is a loving God he provided Jesus, the perfect and spotless “Lamb of God,” to be a once and for all God-Man sacrifice.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a life for a life is the principle set forth in Exodus, and according to this, one human death would only atone for one human’s sin. If Isaac had been sacrificed, it would have accomplished essentially nothing. The sacrifice of a ram or a lamb is enough not forever, but only for a little while. The fact that God initially demanded human sacrifice proves that it is actually what is necessary. Throughout the Old Testament there are innumerable instances in which the relationship between God and different people, or God and Israel, is comparable to the story told in the Christian Bible’s New Testament.
Necessity of human sacrifice appears again in the books of Moses. In the account of the Exodus, in the tenth plague, God is going to kill all of the first born sons of both the Israelites and the Egyptians. Once again, a way out is provided. This time, it is a perfect and spotless lamb that must be sacrificed by each household, and this is sufficient to save the lives of Israel’s firstborns. As Abraham and Isaac are climbing the mountain to make the sacrifice, Abraham tells Isaac that “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.” Not only is Abraham correct in this instance, but he is also correct in a much larger sense. When the Israelites are in Egypt and God strikes down the firstborns, the Israelite firstborns are saved because God provides a different offering. According to Christianity, all humans are destined to eternal death because of sin, but because of the sacrifice of the Son of God, salvation from that death is available.
As a Christian, I would hold that Isaac’s near-sacrifice experience was meant to be a picture of what would one day happen to Jesus, but for Jesus there was no substitute ram. Isaac was led to the slaughter by his own father, and he was even made to carry the wood for the sacrifice. By this time Abraham was a very old man, and Isaac was at his prime. Isaac didn’t have to obey his father; instead, he could have overpowered him at any moment, but he didn’t. Isaac obeyed and trusted his father, even as a knife was raised to kill him. Jesus, who was fully God and fully man, did not have to be crucified. He could have stopped it at any moment, but He allowed the beatings to continue, and He allowed His killers to force Him to carry the very wood that would become His cross. To me, these stories are inextricably linked. When the ram was provided, Isaac wasn’t completely saved. Salvation didn’t come until God committed the sacrifice himself.
God committed the sacrifice of His own firstborn Son so that Abraham wouldn’t have to. So, is human sacrificed condemned? Certainly not. On the contrary, human sacrifice is absolutely necessary. But is it condoned? By no means! It has already been done. For the Jew, animal sacrifice is salvation, at least for the time being. For the Christian, the ultimate sacrifice has been performed, by God Himself.
It might seem unreasonable for a good God to ask his servant to commit human sacrifice, but this good God is also a just God. Justice requires human sin to be atoned for with human life, but the loving God allows another sacrifice to be performed as a replacement for what is really necessary. God asks Abraham to perform this sacrifice for two main reasons: to show what a faithful servant looks like, and to prove that God will always provide a way out. Abraham learns what it really means to trust in God- to obey Him, even when it seems absurd. He also learns that in those cases when God’s command does seem absurd, there is always a purpose and a way out.
Because Abraham is willing to perform the sacrifice, a substitute sacrifice is provided. If Abraham hadn’t gone through with what he was commanded, God would not have been able to provide! By putting Abraham to the test, God showed Himself to be loving, compassionate, and kind. God Himself supplied a ram as a burnt offering, something that would later be required of the Israelites as atonement for sin.
The story in Genesis 22 does not support, but doesn’t necessarily “condemn” human sacrifice. On the contrary, it makes it clear that human sacrifice is completely necessary. If the purpose of human sacrifice is to atone for sin, then what good would anything but a human sacrifice do? It is human sin, so human blood needs to be spilled. In Genesis 22, God shows grace to Abraham and Isaac. Death is what is deserved, but God does not require it. Similarly according to Christianity, human death is required for salvation, but because God is a loving God he provided Jesus, the perfect and spotless “Lamb of God,” to be a once and for all God-Man sacrifice.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and a life for a life is the principle set forth in Exodus, and according to this, one human death would only atone for one human’s sin. If Isaac had been sacrificed, it would have accomplished essentially nothing. The sacrifice of a ram or a lamb is enough not forever, but only for a little while. The fact that God initially demanded human sacrifice proves that it is actually what is necessary. Throughout the Old Testament there are innumerable instances in which the relationship between God and different people, or God and Israel, is comparable to the story told in the Christian Bible’s New Testament.
Necessity of human sacrifice appears again in the books of Moses. In the account of the Exodus, in the tenth plague, God is going to kill all of the first born sons of both the Israelites and the Egyptians. Once again, a way out is provided. This time, it is a perfect and spotless lamb that must be sacrificed by each household, and this is sufficient to save the lives of Israel’s firstborns. As Abraham and Isaac are climbing the mountain to make the sacrifice, Abraham tells Isaac that “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.” Not only is Abraham correct in this instance, but he is also correct in a much larger sense. When the Israelites are in Egypt and God strikes down the firstborns, the Israelite firstborns are saved because God provides a different offering. According to Christianity, all humans are destined to eternal death because of sin, but because of the sacrifice of the Son of God, salvation from that death is available.
As a Christian, I would hold that Isaac’s near-sacrifice experience was meant to be a picture of what would one day happen to Jesus, but for Jesus there was no substitute ram. Isaac was led to the slaughter by his own father, and he was even made to carry the wood for the sacrifice. By this time Abraham was a very old man, and Isaac was at his prime. Isaac didn’t have to obey his father; instead, he could have overpowered him at any moment, but he didn’t. Isaac obeyed and trusted his father, even as a knife was raised to kill him. Jesus, who was fully God and fully man, did not have to be crucified. He could have stopped it at any moment, but He allowed the beatings to continue, and He allowed His killers to force Him to carry the very wood that would become His cross. To me, these stories are inextricably linked. When the ram was provided, Isaac wasn’t completely saved. Salvation didn’t come until God committed the sacrifice himself.
God committed the sacrifice of His own firstborn Son so that Abraham wouldn’t have to. So, is human sacrificed condemned? Certainly not. On the contrary, human sacrifice is absolutely necessary. But is it condoned? By no means! It has already been done. For the Jew, animal sacrifice is salvation, at least for the time being. For the Christian, the ultimate sacrifice has been performed, by God Himself.
10.07.2011
Julie Nash
“Hi! You must be Sarah!” Julie Nash grinned and extended her hand to me as I swung open the door to her office and gasped for breath. I smiled and nodded as I shook her hand. “How are you?” she asked.
“Good! Embarrassed. I’m so sorry I’m late! I couldn’t find parking, and then I got lost in Dracut, and then,” I paused and looked in my bag. “Oh my goodness, I can’t believe I left my notebook and pen in my car!”
“Oh no!” Nash exclaimed. “Here, have this.” She handed me beautiful canvas binder with “UMass Lowell Honors Program” stitched onto the front. Inside I found a notebook, a pen, and a calculator.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “Just a piece of paper would be amazing. I don’t need to take this from you….”
“It’s no problem! Keep it.”
And with that, I sat down in Julie Nash’s office to conduct an interview.
“I’m very privileged to do the work that I do. To be able to work with my colleagues and teach my students, and that they pay me for it, is an amazing thing. I don’t take that for granted.” Dr. Julie Nash was living in Minnesota with her husband and two small children, finishing her dissertation, when her husband found a job at Suffolk University in Boston. After moving to Boston, Nash knew exactly what she wanted in a job but never expected to find it. She was amazed when she discovered a job opening at the University of Massachusetts Lowell that matched her criteria to the letter. Nash applied and was asked to take the position—the only catch was that she was left with less than a month to finish her dissertation. After a few weeks of hard work, Nash began her dream job at UMass Lowell.
Julie Nash works as the Acting Director of the UMass Lowell Honors Program and an Associate Professor in the UMass Lowell English Department, and has taught British literature and writing at the University since 2002. She has a B. A. in English from Oklahoma State University, and an M. A. and Ph. D. in English from the University of Connecticut. She previously has taught at the University of Connecticut, Eastern Connecticut State University, Gustavus Adolphus College, Merrimack College, and Emerson College. Dr. Nash’s scholarly interests focus on British women novelists, servants in literature, literature of the Industrial Revolution, and 18th- and 19th -century literature. She currently is researching and writing a book about the Lowell Mill girls and the Lowell Offering, the first American periodical written and published exclusively by women.
Julie Nash authored Servants and Paternalism in Works by Maria Edgeworth and Elizabeth Gaskell (Ashgate Publishing, 2007), and with husband Quentin Miller coauthored the literature for composition textbook Connections (Cengage). She has edited two collections of essays, New Approaches to the Literary Art of Anne Bronte (Ashgate Publishing, 2001, co-edited with Barbara Suess) and New Essays on Maria Edgeworth (Ashgate Publishing, 2006). She has published articles on the British authors Aphra Behn, Maria Edgeworth, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Fay Weldon, and she was a guest editor for a special issue on servants and literature in the journal Lit: Literature, Interpretation, Theory.
When asked to reveal her favorite part of working and teaching at UMass Lowell, Julie Nash didn’t skip a beat in answering “the students.” Her real home at the University will always be with students in the English Department, but she feels privileged now to have the chance to get to know students from all majors as the Acting Director of the Honors Program. “Students at UMass Lowell are as interesting and intelligent as students at any other public or private school, but they are completely down to earth and have no sense of entitlement.”
The students that Nash feels so passionately about clearly feel the same way about her. When asked, former students were bursting with excitement at the opportunity to recommend her. Ryan Lambert, a 2007 graduate of UMass Lowell, said “she was by far the best professor I ever had.” 2006 graduate Andre’ Gorgenyi said, “she was an outstanding, out-of-the-box professor. … She changed the way I watch TV and read books. She is genuinely a caring person. She is just awesome.” And Craig Uggerholt, a 2010 graduate and frequent writer for the UMass Lowell Connector said, “she’s the best professor I had at UML. She was such an awesome teacher and so helpful—she’s the reason I got into writing more seriously. She was also my advisor and was always super accommodating and helpful. I have nothing but good things to say about her—which is more than I can say about most people. She rules.”
Julie Nash is currently teaching Critical Methods, which is a gateway course for freshmen at the university. In her free time, Nash enjoys to travel, cook, eat, ski, and run. She lives in Medford with her husband and two sons, two cats, and a number of fish.
“Good! Embarrassed. I’m so sorry I’m late! I couldn’t find parking, and then I got lost in Dracut, and then,” I paused and looked in my bag. “Oh my goodness, I can’t believe I left my notebook and pen in my car!”
“Oh no!” Nash exclaimed. “Here, have this.” She handed me beautiful canvas binder with “UMass Lowell Honors Program” stitched onto the front. Inside I found a notebook, a pen, and a calculator.
“Are you sure?” I asked. “Just a piece of paper would be amazing. I don’t need to take this from you….”
“It’s no problem! Keep it.”
And with that, I sat down in Julie Nash’s office to conduct an interview.
“I’m very privileged to do the work that I do. To be able to work with my colleagues and teach my students, and that they pay me for it, is an amazing thing. I don’t take that for granted.” Dr. Julie Nash was living in Minnesota with her husband and two small children, finishing her dissertation, when her husband found a job at Suffolk University in Boston. After moving to Boston, Nash knew exactly what she wanted in a job but never expected to find it. She was amazed when she discovered a job opening at the University of Massachusetts Lowell that matched her criteria to the letter. Nash applied and was asked to take the position—the only catch was that she was left with less than a month to finish her dissertation. After a few weeks of hard work, Nash began her dream job at UMass Lowell.
Julie Nash works as the Acting Director of the UMass Lowell Honors Program and an Associate Professor in the UMass Lowell English Department, and has taught British literature and writing at the University since 2002. She has a B. A. in English from Oklahoma State University, and an M. A. and Ph. D. in English from the University of Connecticut. She previously has taught at the University of Connecticut, Eastern Connecticut State University, Gustavus Adolphus College, Merrimack College, and Emerson College. Dr. Nash’s scholarly interests focus on British women novelists, servants in literature, literature of the Industrial Revolution, and 18th- and 19th -century literature. She currently is researching and writing a book about the Lowell Mill girls and the Lowell Offering, the first American periodical written and published exclusively by women.
Julie Nash authored Servants and Paternalism in Works by Maria Edgeworth and Elizabeth Gaskell (Ashgate Publishing, 2007), and with husband Quentin Miller coauthored the literature for composition textbook Connections (Cengage). She has edited two collections of essays, New Approaches to the Literary Art of Anne Bronte (Ashgate Publishing, 2001, co-edited with Barbara Suess) and New Essays on Maria Edgeworth (Ashgate Publishing, 2006). She has published articles on the British authors Aphra Behn, Maria Edgeworth, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Fay Weldon, and she was a guest editor for a special issue on servants and literature in the journal Lit: Literature, Interpretation, Theory.
When asked to reveal her favorite part of working and teaching at UMass Lowell, Julie Nash didn’t skip a beat in answering “the students.” Her real home at the University will always be with students in the English Department, but she feels privileged now to have the chance to get to know students from all majors as the Acting Director of the Honors Program. “Students at UMass Lowell are as interesting and intelligent as students at any other public or private school, but they are completely down to earth and have no sense of entitlement.”
The students that Nash feels so passionately about clearly feel the same way about her. When asked, former students were bursting with excitement at the opportunity to recommend her. Ryan Lambert, a 2007 graduate of UMass Lowell, said “she was by far the best professor I ever had.” 2006 graduate Andre’ Gorgenyi said, “she was an outstanding, out-of-the-box professor. … She changed the way I watch TV and read books. She is genuinely a caring person. She is just awesome.” And Craig Uggerholt, a 2010 graduate and frequent writer for the UMass Lowell Connector said, “she’s the best professor I had at UML. She was such an awesome teacher and so helpful—she’s the reason I got into writing more seriously. She was also my advisor and was always super accommodating and helpful. I have nothing but good things to say about her—which is more than I can say about most people. She rules.”
Julie Nash is currently teaching Critical Methods, which is a gateway course for freshmen at the university. In her free time, Nash enjoys to travel, cook, eat, ski, and run. She lives in Medford with her husband and two sons, two cats, and a number of fish.
7.03.2011
Worlds Apart
I felt my Irish skin sizzling as I sat in the back of a tap-tap. I heard a chorus of “blanc! blanc!” coming from all around me. The stench of animal and human defecation, burning trash, and rotting food and flesh filled my nostrils. Billy knocked on the window to get my attention and said, “okay? okay!” He stepped on the pedal, and off we went.
***
“‘elp me?” An aged woman pulled back a blanket to reveal a tiny face, no more than a few hours old. I gasped, horrified, and waited for Sadrac to translate the full story.
“Her neighbor has five babies. HIV. No food. Baby in the trash,” Sadrac told me. I felt breakfast coming up my throat.
I rushed the premature and starving baby in to see Dr. Carter. The clinic had been set up just a week before with HIV testing facilities. Half an hour later our fear was confirmed. She needed care that our little clinic could not provide. In the US she would have been airlifted to the nearest major hospital, but in Titanyen, Haiti, she was bussed and taxied to the only major hospital. Jennifer, a volunteer nurse, a soft-spoken southerner with kind blue eyes and the prettiest blond curls, was sent to accompany the baby on the half-day’s journey to the hospital in Port-Au-Prince.
***
At 5:30 AM the fan in our room turned off, and I woke up instantly when sweat started to pool all over my body. Mosquitoes, no longer warded off by the fan, swarmed around my face. I climbed out of my top bunk and went to get some breakfast. Dr. Carter was sitting at the table talking to Jennifer, who had enormous black circles around her red-tinted eyes.
“What happened?” I asked anxiously.
She looked at me and spoke. “She…,” Jennifer choked on that one word and gasped as tears poured out of her eyes.
Dr. Carter finished for her. “She didn’t make it through the night.”
***
Anitha enunciated every consonant and puckered her lips as she spoke through her thick Creole accent. “Sawah, what do you do at home?” She sorted vitamins on the counter of the Mission of Hope’s pharmacy.
“I work at Starbucks.”
“Eh?” Anitha stared at me, raising her eyebrows in wait for me to actually answer her question.
“I work at…,” Sudden realization must have flashed across my face. “I work at a coffee…,” My eyes looked away as I thought hard. “I sell coffee. And food. Breakfast.”
Anitha nodded. “Oh! You like?”
“Yes… yeah, I like it.”
***
“Can you just drop off these de-worming meds on your way to the beach?” asked Dr. Carter, a wrinkly, retired, seventy-three year-old man with a thick southern accent who spent two weeks every other month volunteering at the Mission of Hope Haiti.
“Sure can!” said Andy, a pudgy New Englander who was, like me, on his first visit to a third world country. On the last day of our trip, our guilt-ridden beach day, Andy, the rest of our group, and I stopped at the same orphanage we’d visited a few days before. We were armed with a Ziploc bag of little white pills, and a party sized bag of Dum-Dums. At their teacher’s command, 45 orphans age 11 months through 14 years lined up for candy. The little ones cried when the medicine touched their taste-buds, but lit up when the flavor was put out by a Dum-Dum.
***
“Sarah! Get in here!” yelled Dr. Carter from the patient examination room.
I poked my head in the door. “Yes?” I asked expectantly.
“Here, take this. You’ve given shots before, right?” He extended his arms, and I saw in his hands a large syringe and vile filled with red liquid.
“What! You’re kidding! You do it. I don’t know how to give a shot.” I held up my hands in protest and started to back out of the room.
Dr. Carter laughed and said, “you have to learn sometime if you’re gonna be a nurse!”
“No I don’t! I’m not even sure I wanna be a nurse!” My eyebrows were raised sternly. “Oh, get over here. It’s easy.” Dr. Carter smiled and beckoned me into the room. Billy, the translator, spoke in Creole to the confused man sitting on the examination table, who laughed. He had yellow teeth and orange hair, a look that meant malnutrition. I stepped into the room, and Dr. Carter handed me the syringe and the vile. “Like this.” He motioned with his hands, and I reluctantly obeyed. I filled the syringe with Vitamin B12 and stabbed the needle into the Haitian man’s bony arm. He covered a wince with a gaping smile and a loud “merci!”
***
“What color is the discharge? And is there any burning or itching?”
Vena had a quick Creole conversation with the young patient, who had the saggiest A cup I’ve ever seen. “Yellow. Itchy.”
I inhaled quickly at the visual in my mind. My nostrils were greeted by putrid body odor. I wrote on my notepad and said, “anything else the matter?”
Vena again spoke to the old woman. “Diarrhea. That’s it.”
“Okay. She can go wait in there and then somebody will come get her.”
***
I wheeled my suitcase around a pile of cow dung and up a steep ladder. The stewardess smiled. “Do you need any help finding your seat?” I shook my head.
***
“I’m starving,” said Andy.
“Chili’s. I want Chili’s,” I said as I stepped into Miami National Airport.
Another member of our team said, “I don’t care where we go, as long as I can get a Bloody Mary.”
***
“Thank you for choosing Starbucks! This is Sarah. What can I get for you?” I spoke into my headset in response to the DING! in my ear.
“Ah, yes, I’d like a Venti Java Chip Frappuccino with whipped cream and extra chocolate drizzle,” said a sickly obese woman from her front seat.
“I’m very sorry, but we’re all out of Java Chips right now, so there won’t be any chunks in your Frappuccino. Is that okay?”
“What do you mean you’re all out of Java Chips? This is ridiculous. Never mind.”
I heard tires squeal, and she was gone.
***
“‘elp me?” An aged woman pulled back a blanket to reveal a tiny face, no more than a few hours old. I gasped, horrified, and waited for Sadrac to translate the full story.
“Her neighbor has five babies. HIV. No food. Baby in the trash,” Sadrac told me. I felt breakfast coming up my throat.
I rushed the premature and starving baby in to see Dr. Carter. The clinic had been set up just a week before with HIV testing facilities. Half an hour later our fear was confirmed. She needed care that our little clinic could not provide. In the US she would have been airlifted to the nearest major hospital, but in Titanyen, Haiti, she was bussed and taxied to the only major hospital. Jennifer, a volunteer nurse, a soft-spoken southerner with kind blue eyes and the prettiest blond curls, was sent to accompany the baby on the half-day’s journey to the hospital in Port-Au-Prince.
***
At 5:30 AM the fan in our room turned off, and I woke up instantly when sweat started to pool all over my body. Mosquitoes, no longer warded off by the fan, swarmed around my face. I climbed out of my top bunk and went to get some breakfast. Dr. Carter was sitting at the table talking to Jennifer, who had enormous black circles around her red-tinted eyes.
“What happened?” I asked anxiously.
She looked at me and spoke. “She…,” Jennifer choked on that one word and gasped as tears poured out of her eyes.
Dr. Carter finished for her. “She didn’t make it through the night.”
***
Anitha enunciated every consonant and puckered her lips as she spoke through her thick Creole accent. “Sawah, what do you do at home?” She sorted vitamins on the counter of the Mission of Hope’s pharmacy.
“I work at Starbucks.”
“Eh?” Anitha stared at me, raising her eyebrows in wait for me to actually answer her question.
“I work at…,” Sudden realization must have flashed across my face. “I work at a coffee…,” My eyes looked away as I thought hard. “I sell coffee. And food. Breakfast.”
Anitha nodded. “Oh! You like?”
“Yes… yeah, I like it.”
***
“Can you just drop off these de-worming meds on your way to the beach?” asked Dr. Carter, a wrinkly, retired, seventy-three year-old man with a thick southern accent who spent two weeks every other month volunteering at the Mission of Hope Haiti.
“Sure can!” said Andy, a pudgy New Englander who was, like me, on his first visit to a third world country. On the last day of our trip, our guilt-ridden beach day, Andy, the rest of our group, and I stopped at the same orphanage we’d visited a few days before. We were armed with a Ziploc bag of little white pills, and a party sized bag of Dum-Dums. At their teacher’s command, 45 orphans age 11 months through 14 years lined up for candy. The little ones cried when the medicine touched their taste-buds, but lit up when the flavor was put out by a Dum-Dum.
***
“Sarah! Get in here!” yelled Dr. Carter from the patient examination room.
I poked my head in the door. “Yes?” I asked expectantly.
“Here, take this. You’ve given shots before, right?” He extended his arms, and I saw in his hands a large syringe and vile filled with red liquid.
“What! You’re kidding! You do it. I don’t know how to give a shot.” I held up my hands in protest and started to back out of the room.
Dr. Carter laughed and said, “you have to learn sometime if you’re gonna be a nurse!”
“No I don’t! I’m not even sure I wanna be a nurse!” My eyebrows were raised sternly. “Oh, get over here. It’s easy.” Dr. Carter smiled and beckoned me into the room. Billy, the translator, spoke in Creole to the confused man sitting on the examination table, who laughed. He had yellow teeth and orange hair, a look that meant malnutrition. I stepped into the room, and Dr. Carter handed me the syringe and the vile. “Like this.” He motioned with his hands, and I reluctantly obeyed. I filled the syringe with Vitamin B12 and stabbed the needle into the Haitian man’s bony arm. He covered a wince with a gaping smile and a loud “merci!”
***
“What color is the discharge? And is there any burning or itching?”
Vena had a quick Creole conversation with the young patient, who had the saggiest A cup I’ve ever seen. “Yellow. Itchy.”
I inhaled quickly at the visual in my mind. My nostrils were greeted by putrid body odor. I wrote on my notepad and said, “anything else the matter?”
Vena again spoke to the old woman. “Diarrhea. That’s it.”
“Okay. She can go wait in there and then somebody will come get her.”
***
I wheeled my suitcase around a pile of cow dung and up a steep ladder. The stewardess smiled. “Do you need any help finding your seat?” I shook my head.
***
“I’m starving,” said Andy.
“Chili’s. I want Chili’s,” I said as I stepped into Miami National Airport.
Another member of our team said, “I don’t care where we go, as long as I can get a Bloody Mary.”
***
“Thank you for choosing Starbucks! This is Sarah. What can I get for you?” I spoke into my headset in response to the DING! in my ear.
“Ah, yes, I’d like a Venti Java Chip Frappuccino with whipped cream and extra chocolate drizzle,” said a sickly obese woman from her front seat.
“I’m very sorry, but we’re all out of Java Chips right now, so there won’t be any chunks in your Frappuccino. Is that okay?”
“What do you mean you’re all out of Java Chips? This is ridiculous. Never mind.”
I heard tires squeal, and she was gone.
COMBAT!
In the early nineties most of our friends watched Saved by the Bell, Full House, and Boy Meets World. Our lack of cable television left us out of the pop-culture loop, but we were blissfully ignorant. My brothers and I, always slightly different or as we thought, slightly cooler than our friends, had a unique favorite television show: Combat! The syndicated 1960s show about a squad of American soldiers in France during World War II scripted our backyard adventures. As often as my brothers Spencer and Rob could manage, our neighbors Chris and Ryan were enlisted to join our ranks. One sticky hot summer afternoon in 1994 while our mother made dinner, our backyard was a bloody battleground. I begged to be Sarge or Lieutenant, or Caje or Kirby. I wanted in on the action. There were krauts that needed to be killed! My chauvinistic oldest brother disagreed. “You’re a girl,” Spencer, age thirteen and therefore in charge, said. His sapphire blue eyes squinted in the sun as he said, “you’re a nurse.” I pouted. There weren’t even any nurses in the show, but Spencer was the sergeant.
After Spencer crawled out of our trench and before he motioned for us to follow, Rob told me, “you can be Doc.” I perked up with a smile at the thought of being one of the show’s regular characters. “He’s important! If we get shot you have to fix us or else we die.” Satisfied, I trailed along after my brothers and Chris and Ryan, intent on doctoring as many wounds as possible. I made sure I had everything I needed in my medical bag. I saw an ace bandage that Daddy brought home for me from his physical therapy appointment, a blue and yellow stethoscope with clear plastic tubing attaching the earpieces to the chest piece, one band-aid, and a bracelet-looking thing that I realized years later was supposed to be a blood-pressure cuff. I wouldn’t be letting my squad-mates die anytime soon.
We crawled through the woods—Sarge, followed by Kirby, Caje, Littlejohn, and Doc. Chris and Ryan’s mom didn’t believe in toy guns, so they made their own. They toted hockey sticks covered in black electrical tape with pieces of two-by-four taped on to fill out the shape of the gun. Our parents were more old-fashioned, so Spencer and Rob had real fake rifles, but Spencer had duct-taped a piece of two-by-four to his to create the magazine of his Thompson submachine gun, also known as Sarge’s Tommy gun. The soldiers clutched their oddly taped makeshift scrap wood rifles closely. I tugged on my doctor bag, and we all tried our best to not lose our camouflage hardhats in the underbrush. We followed Sarge’s lead, crawling on our bellies in order to remain unseen by the enemy.
Sarge suddenly yelled, “duck and cover!” and at that moment we all heard the horrifying, yet strangely exciting sound of an enormous plane flying overhead. Kirby followed Sarge’s order by tackling the straying Littlejohn under the cover of an enormous low-hanging evergreen tree and pulling me and my doctor bag along with him. My heart pounded inside my chest as I reminded myself that I needed to stay safe—I needed to be well enough to help anyone who got wounded. We heard the bomb fall hard and fast only about a football field’s length away—too close for comfort. We found some solace in the hope that it may have hit some nasty krauts.
Our hopes proved to be true—Sarge’s eyes shot from the sky where the plane had been to the grass a short distance away from us. There was a thump and we realized that the arm we saw fly through the sky had been German. The boys grinned and I felt nauseated. All was silent, and Sarge, with a wave and a grunt, gave us the OK to follow his lead and continue on our trek. He waved a hand behind himself—he heard krauts. We all stopped mid-crawl. He quickly held a finger to his lips and we listened intently. They were coming from around the abandoned shack we had been camping out in. Sarge and Kirby raised their rifles, Caje and Littlejohn waited for orders, and I crouched behind a rock to avoid getting struck by a stray bullet.
An incalculable number of German soldiers came into view as their helmets rose above the vast rock that two days later would mark the homerun line of our backyard baseball field. “BANG! BANG! BANG!” Kirby’s rifle fired but was quickly drowned out by the much louder “EH-EH-EH-EH-EH!” of Sarge’s Tommy gun filling the air. Eleven krauts down. Sarge and Kirby, my brothers, were brave and bold, shooting wildly but accurately. Kirby and Littlejohn hung back and stayed low to pick off the sneakier krauts. I could tell the Germans were losing great numbers because my squad mates emerged from their hiding places. Four prepubescent battle cries later, the boys were all up and running, determined to get every last enemy. “I got seven!” yelled Caje. “I got nine!” screeched Sarge. The sound of flying bullets and whooping, warring boys filled my ears. I remained hidden behind my tree while I waited to be needed.
The American soldiers chased the retreating cowards while I during a moment of entirely unwarranted wartime peace ran to tend to the wounded. In an area that my squad mates had already vanquished, I knelt, opened my bag, and urgently drew out my plastic stethoscope. I listened to his fading heartbeat and suddenly his eyes fluttered open. I knew they were the bad guys, but I always thought the German soldiers were so handsome. I could tell it was painful, but he managed a faint smile in my direction. I heard the dying German soldier whisper “danke” as I poured some invisible medicine into his invisible mouth. He sputtered and coughed briefly and then closed his eyes again as the pain eased. I told him “everything’s gonna be okay,” and he breathed his last.
I came out of my trance when I heard “DOC! DOC!” I looked up and I saw the boys running toward me. Kirby was wounded. He had his right arm slung over Caje’s shoulder and his left arm around Littlejohn’s. “He’s been hit!” Sarge called frantically. For the number of enemy soldiers we’d just done away with, a grazed shin wasn’t too bad. “Did you just save a bad guy?” Sarge asked with a mix of shock and big-brother pride in his voice. I nodded my head, relieved that he wasn’t mad. I hopped up to follow the boys along to our safe spot—the house-sized rock that we all thought had once been an Indian grinding stone. I began wrapping an ace bandage around Kirby’s wounded shin. His freckled nose wrinkled with his smile. “You’re a great Doc.” I grinned in response to the type of affirmation that mattered most—the affirmation of a big brother. I continued to wipe away the dirt and the blood from his shin, and for good measure I pulled a band-aid out of my bag and placed it over the wound.
Sarge leaned against the giant rock where Kirby and I were sitting, cleaning his gun. Caje sat on the ground with his back against an old oak tree, and Littlejohn stood a short distance away with a bag of sunflower seeds in his hands. His cheek looked like a chipmunk’s. Littlejohn spit. I looked and saw a growing mound of sunflower seed shells on the oak leaf-covered floor of the woods. “Stop!” Caje glared at Littlejohn after he received one too many sunflower seed shells to the body. He was going to pound his bold younger brother if it continued. “Pooowit!” A sunflower seed hit Caje’s face. He leapt to his feet and as he approached his brother, Littlejohn suddenly screamed.
“Aaaaauuugh!” He clutched his arm and fell to the ground. “We missed one!” Littlejohn pointed with his good arm, and Sarge, Caje, and the freshly healed Kirby immediately bolted in that direction. I rushed toward Littlejohn who was laughing at having so narrowly escaped the wrath of his brother. I listened to his heartbeat, and since I was out of band-aids I placed the blood-pressure bracelet around his arm. Moments later the other boys were back, victorious. “Gimme some of those!” Sarge stuck his hand into Littlejohn’s bag of sunflower seeds. “I’m starving!” I wandered off to pick some flowers. Littlejohn and Kirby began arm-wrestling, and Sarge and Caje watched and argued over who got to take the winner.
Attached to the side of our house next to the backdoor hung a giant copper-colored dinner bell, and the sound of our mother suddenly ringing the bell that evening was one of the most exciting sounds we’d heard all day. Sarge, Kirby, and I yelled “MESS!” in unison. We all ran out of the woods and toward the back porch where our mom stood. “Do you guys want to stay for dinner?” she asked Littlejohn and Caje, who excitedly responded “yes please,” and Caje went inside to call their mom to see if it was okay. I scrambled up the back porch stairs and yelled “Hi Daddy!” when I saw him open the door for me. I ran into the house and leapt into my daddy’s arms and dumped my doctor bag on the floor. “Everybody go wash your hands!” said Mommy. Daddy let me down and I skipped past the washing machine into the bathroom. I squeezed among the crowd of boys around the sink. “I need to refill on band-aids,” I thought to myself as I scrubbed the green and brown from my hands. My stomach growled. I smelled tacos.
After Spencer crawled out of our trench and before he motioned for us to follow, Rob told me, “you can be Doc.” I perked up with a smile at the thought of being one of the show’s regular characters. “He’s important! If we get shot you have to fix us or else we die.” Satisfied, I trailed along after my brothers and Chris and Ryan, intent on doctoring as many wounds as possible. I made sure I had everything I needed in my medical bag. I saw an ace bandage that Daddy brought home for me from his physical therapy appointment, a blue and yellow stethoscope with clear plastic tubing attaching the earpieces to the chest piece, one band-aid, and a bracelet-looking thing that I realized years later was supposed to be a blood-pressure cuff. I wouldn’t be letting my squad-mates die anytime soon.
We crawled through the woods—Sarge, followed by Kirby, Caje, Littlejohn, and Doc. Chris and Ryan’s mom didn’t believe in toy guns, so they made their own. They toted hockey sticks covered in black electrical tape with pieces of two-by-four taped on to fill out the shape of the gun. Our parents were more old-fashioned, so Spencer and Rob had real fake rifles, but Spencer had duct-taped a piece of two-by-four to his to create the magazine of his Thompson submachine gun, also known as Sarge’s Tommy gun. The soldiers clutched their oddly taped makeshift scrap wood rifles closely. I tugged on my doctor bag, and we all tried our best to not lose our camouflage hardhats in the underbrush. We followed Sarge’s lead, crawling on our bellies in order to remain unseen by the enemy.
Sarge suddenly yelled, “duck and cover!” and at that moment we all heard the horrifying, yet strangely exciting sound of an enormous plane flying overhead. Kirby followed Sarge’s order by tackling the straying Littlejohn under the cover of an enormous low-hanging evergreen tree and pulling me and my doctor bag along with him. My heart pounded inside my chest as I reminded myself that I needed to stay safe—I needed to be well enough to help anyone who got wounded. We heard the bomb fall hard and fast only about a football field’s length away—too close for comfort. We found some solace in the hope that it may have hit some nasty krauts.
Our hopes proved to be true—Sarge’s eyes shot from the sky where the plane had been to the grass a short distance away from us. There was a thump and we realized that the arm we saw fly through the sky had been German. The boys grinned and I felt nauseated. All was silent, and Sarge, with a wave and a grunt, gave us the OK to follow his lead and continue on our trek. He waved a hand behind himself—he heard krauts. We all stopped mid-crawl. He quickly held a finger to his lips and we listened intently. They were coming from around the abandoned shack we had been camping out in. Sarge and Kirby raised their rifles, Caje and Littlejohn waited for orders, and I crouched behind a rock to avoid getting struck by a stray bullet.
An incalculable number of German soldiers came into view as their helmets rose above the vast rock that two days later would mark the homerun line of our backyard baseball field. “BANG! BANG! BANG!” Kirby’s rifle fired but was quickly drowned out by the much louder “EH-EH-EH-EH-EH!” of Sarge’s Tommy gun filling the air. Eleven krauts down. Sarge and Kirby, my brothers, were brave and bold, shooting wildly but accurately. Kirby and Littlejohn hung back and stayed low to pick off the sneakier krauts. I could tell the Germans were losing great numbers because my squad mates emerged from their hiding places. Four prepubescent battle cries later, the boys were all up and running, determined to get every last enemy. “I got seven!” yelled Caje. “I got nine!” screeched Sarge. The sound of flying bullets and whooping, warring boys filled my ears. I remained hidden behind my tree while I waited to be needed.
The American soldiers chased the retreating cowards while I during a moment of entirely unwarranted wartime peace ran to tend to the wounded. In an area that my squad mates had already vanquished, I knelt, opened my bag, and urgently drew out my plastic stethoscope. I listened to his fading heartbeat and suddenly his eyes fluttered open. I knew they were the bad guys, but I always thought the German soldiers were so handsome. I could tell it was painful, but he managed a faint smile in my direction. I heard the dying German soldier whisper “danke” as I poured some invisible medicine into his invisible mouth. He sputtered and coughed briefly and then closed his eyes again as the pain eased. I told him “everything’s gonna be okay,” and he breathed his last.
I came out of my trance when I heard “DOC! DOC!” I looked up and I saw the boys running toward me. Kirby was wounded. He had his right arm slung over Caje’s shoulder and his left arm around Littlejohn’s. “He’s been hit!” Sarge called frantically. For the number of enemy soldiers we’d just done away with, a grazed shin wasn’t too bad. “Did you just save a bad guy?” Sarge asked with a mix of shock and big-brother pride in his voice. I nodded my head, relieved that he wasn’t mad. I hopped up to follow the boys along to our safe spot—the house-sized rock that we all thought had once been an Indian grinding stone. I began wrapping an ace bandage around Kirby’s wounded shin. His freckled nose wrinkled with his smile. “You’re a great Doc.” I grinned in response to the type of affirmation that mattered most—the affirmation of a big brother. I continued to wipe away the dirt and the blood from his shin, and for good measure I pulled a band-aid out of my bag and placed it over the wound.
Sarge leaned against the giant rock where Kirby and I were sitting, cleaning his gun. Caje sat on the ground with his back against an old oak tree, and Littlejohn stood a short distance away with a bag of sunflower seeds in his hands. His cheek looked like a chipmunk’s. Littlejohn spit. I looked and saw a growing mound of sunflower seed shells on the oak leaf-covered floor of the woods. “Stop!” Caje glared at Littlejohn after he received one too many sunflower seed shells to the body. He was going to pound his bold younger brother if it continued. “Pooowit!” A sunflower seed hit Caje’s face. He leapt to his feet and as he approached his brother, Littlejohn suddenly screamed.
“Aaaaauuugh!” He clutched his arm and fell to the ground. “We missed one!” Littlejohn pointed with his good arm, and Sarge, Caje, and the freshly healed Kirby immediately bolted in that direction. I rushed toward Littlejohn who was laughing at having so narrowly escaped the wrath of his brother. I listened to his heartbeat, and since I was out of band-aids I placed the blood-pressure bracelet around his arm. Moments later the other boys were back, victorious. “Gimme some of those!” Sarge stuck his hand into Littlejohn’s bag of sunflower seeds. “I’m starving!” I wandered off to pick some flowers. Littlejohn and Kirby began arm-wrestling, and Sarge and Caje watched and argued over who got to take the winner.
Attached to the side of our house next to the backdoor hung a giant copper-colored dinner bell, and the sound of our mother suddenly ringing the bell that evening was one of the most exciting sounds we’d heard all day. Sarge, Kirby, and I yelled “MESS!” in unison. We all ran out of the woods and toward the back porch where our mom stood. “Do you guys want to stay for dinner?” she asked Littlejohn and Caje, who excitedly responded “yes please,” and Caje went inside to call their mom to see if it was okay. I scrambled up the back porch stairs and yelled “Hi Daddy!” when I saw him open the door for me. I ran into the house and leapt into my daddy’s arms and dumped my doctor bag on the floor. “Everybody go wash your hands!” said Mommy. Daddy let me down and I skipped past the washing machine into the bathroom. I squeezed among the crowd of boys around the sink. “I need to refill on band-aids,” I thought to myself as I scrubbed the green and brown from my hands. My stomach growled. I smelled tacos.
3.10.2010
Ey You, Give Me One Dollah
I had been told countless times, but in June 2008 flying over the country into the Port Au Prince airport, I saw for the first time the reality of Haiti’s devastated existence. The island of Hispaniola contains Haiti to the west and the Dominican Republic to the East. From an aerial view, there is a line running through the entire island. The Eastern side is green and lush, and the Western side is a mix of brown, gray, smoky clouds from burning trash. The plane lands in an airport that reminds me of the K-Mart parking lot in my hometown. There is rundown and cracked concrete, bumps and potholes all over. Little bits of grass trying to poke through here and there. The lot is now enclosed by one of those short metal fences that we’re used to seeing around school playgrounds. It’s an attempt to keep cows off the runway. Once the plane stops, the doors open and we slowly make our way down the steps that have been wheeled up to the side of the plane. I step into the sun and instantly feel my Irish skin begin to burn, and the stench of animal and human defecation, burning trash, rotting food and flesh, hits my nose. I breathe in. This is Haiti.
One night we sit around Claudel, intensely listening to the words he speaks in his Creole accent over the soft strumming of his acoustic guitar. He tells us the story of the beginnings of “Aiti,” his beloved homeland. Christopher Columbus was the first well known white-skinned man to step foot on Hispaniola, and his visit was shortly followed by the arrival of other European treasure seekers and settlers, specifically the French. They attempted to use the Natives as a workforce, but they died off quickly from contact with European disease. As a replacement, boats of Africans, immune to European disease because of their proximity, were shipped in and put to work.
The African slaves came from tribes throughout their continent, so communication even among each other was difficult. They developed a new language, combining their different native tongues with French and bits of the Native language that remained on the island. Soon all Natives were eliminated, and the African slaves had their own new identity, language, and culture. In 1810 this artificially created people, led by Voodoo priests, revolted against their French oppressors. According to Haitian legend, these priests made a pact with Satan that if he assisted them in gaining independence, he would be given free reign of their country for 200 years. In an entirely unlikely and unexpected success, the Haitian people gained their own nation. Ever since, famine, hunger, disease, lack of education, unemployment, and just about every bad thing you can think of has plagued the country. More concretely, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has a 30% employment rate, and 41% of its two million people population is under the age of 15.
" Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father… For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
-Matthew 25:31-40, NIV
Christian groups love to do as Jesus commanded, and as you can see above, Jesus commanded that his followers help the needy. So, Haiti has been a hotspot for Christian missions trips, charity work, and all-around help for quite a while, even though it hasn’t really gotten much attention from anyone else in the world. I grew up in a very devout Christian home, so I heard about Haiti in church from the time I was a little girl. Many events and people led me to my eventual decision to take a couple trips there of my own.
Here’s my reaction to my second trip
Claudel told us that he and innumerable Haitians were praying earnestly that in 2010, Satan’s rule would be up. He asked us to join him in prayer that God would take control and make Haiti the great nation that it should be. On Tuesday, January 12, 2010, at 4:53 in the afternoon, the starving island of Haiti was struck by an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0. Three million people were estimated to need immediate emergency care, countless were left dead, and essentially every building in and around the capital was destroyed. In all honesty, you probably know more about the devastating effects of Haiti’s earthquakes than I do. I’ve avoided the news reels and papers at all costs, because it wrenches my mind and my heart to remember the people I grew to love, and the babies who may never know more love than they felt in my touch, and wonder whether or not they’re alive.
One night we sit around Claudel, intensely listening to the words he speaks in his Creole accent over the soft strumming of his acoustic guitar. He tells us the story of the beginnings of “Aiti,” his beloved homeland. Christopher Columbus was the first well known white-skinned man to step foot on Hispaniola, and his visit was shortly followed by the arrival of other European treasure seekers and settlers, specifically the French. They attempted to use the Natives as a workforce, but they died off quickly from contact with European disease. As a replacement, boats of Africans, immune to European disease because of their proximity, were shipped in and put to work.
The African slaves came from tribes throughout their continent, so communication even among each other was difficult. They developed a new language, combining their different native tongues with French and bits of the Native language that remained on the island. Soon all Natives were eliminated, and the African slaves had their own new identity, language, and culture. In 1810 this artificially created people, led by Voodoo priests, revolted against their French oppressors. According to Haitian legend, these priests made a pact with Satan that if he assisted them in gaining independence, he would be given free reign of their country for 200 years. In an entirely unlikely and unexpected success, the Haitian people gained their own nation. Ever since, famine, hunger, disease, lack of education, unemployment, and just about every bad thing you can think of has plagued the country. More concretely, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has a 30% employment rate, and 41% of its two million people population is under the age of 15.
" Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father… For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
-Matthew 25:31-40, NIV
Christian groups love to do as Jesus commanded, and as you can see above, Jesus commanded that his followers help the needy. So, Haiti has been a hotspot for Christian missions trips, charity work, and all-around help for quite a while, even though it hasn’t really gotten much attention from anyone else in the world. I grew up in a very devout Christian home, so I heard about Haiti in church from the time I was a little girl. Many events and people led me to my eventual decision to take a couple trips there of my own.
Here’s my reaction to my second trip
Claudel told us that he and innumerable Haitians were praying earnestly that in 2010, Satan’s rule would be up. He asked us to join him in prayer that God would take control and make Haiti the great nation that it should be. On Tuesday, January 12, 2010, at 4:53 in the afternoon, the starving island of Haiti was struck by an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0. Three million people were estimated to need immediate emergency care, countless were left dead, and essentially every building in and around the capital was destroyed. In all honesty, you probably know more about the devastating effects of Haiti’s earthquakes than I do. I’ve avoided the news reels and papers at all costs, because it wrenches my mind and my heart to remember the people I grew to love, and the babies who may never know more love than they felt in my touch, and wonder whether or not they’re alive.
12.06.2009
Pooh the Transcendentalist
It is very unlikely that A. A. Milne had read Henry David Thoreau’s Transcendental writings or followed them when he was writing Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. It is also unlikely that Milne in writing simple stories for his son ever intended to create a guidebook for living the perfect Transcendental life. Winnie the Pooh is a character who is never exactly right, exactly wrong, or exactly sure of his stance on any level of existence(Arbaugh-Twitty 1). Pooh lives by simple means and by simple rules, and his lifestyle can be contrasted with the lifestyles of his friends Rabbit, Tigger, Piglet, Owl, and Eeyore. Winnie the Pooh is a Transcendentalist and is an impeccable example for anyone who wants to live a happy and harmonious life with him or herself and nature, free from needless worry and materialism.
Thoreau, just like Pooh, lived alone in the woods with quite a few friends not far but not overly close. He lived frugally; he ate only what he caught or grew for himself, built his own home, and spent his spare time walking about the forest and studying nature and gaining insight. Pooh never realizes that he is gaining insight, and he may not actually be doing so, but it doesn’t really matter because either way he is innocent and free from complication unlike his friends(Arbaugh-Twitty 1). Pooh is content as long as he visits his friends every so often, has food to eat, and something to hum to entertain himself. Pooh doesn’t worry about planting a garden and gaining materialistic success like his friend Rabbit, nor does he worry about the endless pursuit of useless knowledge like Owl, constant pessimism and depression like Eeyore, or Piglet’s nervous insecurity that comes from not having a grasp on his true self(Arbaugh-Twitty 1).
Confucius once said “to know that we know what we know and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge”(Thorough 9). Pooh is referred to as “A Bear of Very Little Brain”(Milne 50); and yet his clear and simple thought process gives his plans much more success than Rabbit’s and Owl’s more complicated ideas. Pooh doesn’t have much knowledge at all; however it is Pooh who usually ends up on top(Hoff, Pooh 16). When Eeyore loses his tail Pooh goes out and finds it. First he goes to Owl who babbles on about “customary procedure”(Milne 50) and confuses Pooh with his extensive knowledge of nothing. When Pooh finally goes outside to begin searching with Owl’s plan, he notices that Owl’s bell-rope is actually Eeyore’s tail. Pooh’s naive brilliance always seems to take him farther than Owl’s intelligent ignorance(Arbaugh-Twitty 2). Thoreau had strong dislike for people who have extensive knowledge and yet have no common sense to use it. Useless knowledge is like a luxury that has no place in the natural, spiritual, and intelligent world of the forest. Owl lives in luxurious knowledge, but his spirituality is no where near Pooh’s. Pooh is poor in knowledge but rich in wisdom. Owl is a member of what Thoreau calls “that seemingly wealthy but most terribly impoverished class of all”(Arbaugh-Twitty 14).
Eeyore’s knowledge is for the sake of complaining about something(Hoff, Pooh 16). He is a pessimist and is a constant dark cloud over everyone else’s sunny day. He is constantly pondering and contemplating and the only answers that he finds are negative. “Sometimes he [thinks] sadly to himself, ‘why?’ and sometimes he [thinks] ‘wherefore?’ and sometimes he [thinks] ‘inasmuch as which?’- and sometimes he [doesn’t] quite know what he [is] thinking about”(Milne 45). His constant dark depression is a direct result of his constant thinking about and questioning everything. Eeyore’s attitude toward life gets in the way of wisdom and happiness and prevents any sort of real accomplishment(Hoff, Pooh 16).
In The House at Pooh Corner Rabbit’s cousin Small gets lost and Rabbit spends a large amount of time coming up with search plans. Rabbit’s knowledge is for the sake of appearing clever(Hoff, Pooh 16). He is constantly planning clever and complicated plans, but his schemes never seem to do much good. Pooh comes up with a much simpler plan. His plan isn’t actually successful, but while daydreaming he inadvertently finds Small. Instead of wasting time thinking about the different ways of doing something Pooh just does it. This goes along perfectly with Thoreau’s idea that “[a person] should not play life, or study it merely..., but earnestly live it from beginning to end” (Hoff, Pooh 48). Pooh finds Small with no help from Rabbit’s extravagant planning. If the search had been left to Rabbit and his organization, Small might never have been found.
Pooh’s attitude toward life, like Thoreau’s, seems trivial, immature, and slightly unrealistic, but however childlike and simplistic it is, it is incredibly successful. While in the woods Thoreau and Pooh both live lives free of want. Their lives are full of simple joys, grand thoughts, and lots of friends. Some of Pooh’s friends can even be compared to Thoreau’s, and others can be compared to different groups in society. Owl, the great thinker and genius who never fully expresses himself is Ralph Waldo Emerson. Eeyore, the dark and pessimistic cloud over the peaceful forest who has given up on the world is Hawthorne or Melville(Arbaugh-Twitty 3). Rabbit is similar to the materialistic society which is constantly working and cannot even comprehend of simply doing nothing.
Piglet represents the people who are torn between the worlds of Pooh and Rabbit and are not quite sure where the ideal lies. Piglet is attracted to the natural and more spiritual world of Pooh but he also feels that he should be busy working like Rabbit. More than anything in the world Piglet wants to do what is right, but at the same time he longs for security which is only achieved by constant work and worry(Hoff, Piglet 26). Influenced by Owl’s brain and Eeyore’s pessimism Piglet is confused and a bit lost and ends up going back and forth between each world. Without the constant anxiety Piglet’s life could be the perfect combination of materialism that is necessary to survive in the modern day and the natural spirituality that is a part of every person(Arbaugh-Twitty 4). Piglet is able to embrace the fact that he is very small and use it for the good of others(Hoff, Piglet 50). He accepts that he is not quite as clever as Rabbit or Owl or as simple as Pooh. He simply tries to do the best that he can with what he has, living in a nice medium between the Transcendentalism of Pooh and the materialism of Rabbit.
Pooh never condemns anyone or anything and neither does Thoreau. Thoreau merely points out faults in society, says why he doesn’t agree with them, and offers an alternative solution. He teaches moderation, tolerance, and acceptance. Walden is not so much a handbook to living the perfect Transcendental life as it is a suggestion for an alternative to the materialistic lifestyle(Arbaugh-Twitty 5). Thoreau recognizes that this lifestyle is not for everyone, and the forest needs Rabbits and Owls and Eeyores just as much as it needs Poohs. Winnie the Pooh, like Thoreau, never condemns Rabbit, Owl, or Eeyore; he merely wonders why they are the way they are. He accepts them and their lifestyles and continues living his own life they way that he wants.
The parallels between Winnie the Pooh and Thoreau are unclear at times and yet somehow still strong. Henry David Thoreau’s Walden is timeless, still avidly read over a hundred years after it was written, just as is Winnie The Pooh. Transcendentalism is built upon nature, honesty, simplicity, and love and respect for the self and friends. No one is a closer representation of the Transcendental ideal than Winnie the Pooh(Arbaugh-Twitty 6). Pooh knows many truths that will never come from Owl’s or Rabbit’s brain simply because their minds are filled with self-absorption and materialism. Pooh and the Transcendentalists could change the world if only the Owls and Rabbits of the world would stop studying, working, and worrying long enough to think about what matters and listen to the innate truths that are lying in nature and hidden within the mind behind mounds of materialistic clutter.
Thoreau, just like Pooh, lived alone in the woods with quite a few friends not far but not overly close. He lived frugally; he ate only what he caught or grew for himself, built his own home, and spent his spare time walking about the forest and studying nature and gaining insight. Pooh never realizes that he is gaining insight, and he may not actually be doing so, but it doesn’t really matter because either way he is innocent and free from complication unlike his friends(Arbaugh-Twitty 1). Pooh is content as long as he visits his friends every so often, has food to eat, and something to hum to entertain himself. Pooh doesn’t worry about planting a garden and gaining materialistic success like his friend Rabbit, nor does he worry about the endless pursuit of useless knowledge like Owl, constant pessimism and depression like Eeyore, or Piglet’s nervous insecurity that comes from not having a grasp on his true self(Arbaugh-Twitty 1).
Confucius once said “to know that we know what we know and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge”(Thorough 9). Pooh is referred to as “A Bear of Very Little Brain”(Milne 50); and yet his clear and simple thought process gives his plans much more success than Rabbit’s and Owl’s more complicated ideas. Pooh doesn’t have much knowledge at all; however it is Pooh who usually ends up on top(Hoff, Pooh 16). When Eeyore loses his tail Pooh goes out and finds it. First he goes to Owl who babbles on about “customary procedure”(Milne 50) and confuses Pooh with his extensive knowledge of nothing. When Pooh finally goes outside to begin searching with Owl’s plan, he notices that Owl’s bell-rope is actually Eeyore’s tail. Pooh’s naive brilliance always seems to take him farther than Owl’s intelligent ignorance(Arbaugh-Twitty 2). Thoreau had strong dislike for people who have extensive knowledge and yet have no common sense to use it. Useless knowledge is like a luxury that has no place in the natural, spiritual, and intelligent world of the forest. Owl lives in luxurious knowledge, but his spirituality is no where near Pooh’s. Pooh is poor in knowledge but rich in wisdom. Owl is a member of what Thoreau calls “that seemingly wealthy but most terribly impoverished class of all”(Arbaugh-Twitty 14).
Eeyore’s knowledge is for the sake of complaining about something(Hoff, Pooh 16). He is a pessimist and is a constant dark cloud over everyone else’s sunny day. He is constantly pondering and contemplating and the only answers that he finds are negative. “Sometimes he [thinks] sadly to himself, ‘why?’ and sometimes he [thinks] ‘wherefore?’ and sometimes he [thinks] ‘inasmuch as which?’- and sometimes he [doesn’t] quite know what he [is] thinking about”(Milne 45). His constant dark depression is a direct result of his constant thinking about and questioning everything. Eeyore’s attitude toward life gets in the way of wisdom and happiness and prevents any sort of real accomplishment(Hoff, Pooh 16).
In The House at Pooh Corner Rabbit’s cousin Small gets lost and Rabbit spends a large amount of time coming up with search plans. Rabbit’s knowledge is for the sake of appearing clever(Hoff, Pooh 16). He is constantly planning clever and complicated plans, but his schemes never seem to do much good. Pooh comes up with a much simpler plan. His plan isn’t actually successful, but while daydreaming he inadvertently finds Small. Instead of wasting time thinking about the different ways of doing something Pooh just does it. This goes along perfectly with Thoreau’s idea that “[a person] should not play life, or study it merely..., but earnestly live it from beginning to end” (Hoff, Pooh 48). Pooh finds Small with no help from Rabbit’s extravagant planning. If the search had been left to Rabbit and his organization, Small might never have been found.
Pooh’s attitude toward life, like Thoreau’s, seems trivial, immature, and slightly unrealistic, but however childlike and simplistic it is, it is incredibly successful. While in the woods Thoreau and Pooh both live lives free of want. Their lives are full of simple joys, grand thoughts, and lots of friends. Some of Pooh’s friends can even be compared to Thoreau’s, and others can be compared to different groups in society. Owl, the great thinker and genius who never fully expresses himself is Ralph Waldo Emerson. Eeyore, the dark and pessimistic cloud over the peaceful forest who has given up on the world is Hawthorne or Melville(Arbaugh-Twitty 3). Rabbit is similar to the materialistic society which is constantly working and cannot even comprehend of simply doing nothing.
Piglet represents the people who are torn between the worlds of Pooh and Rabbit and are not quite sure where the ideal lies. Piglet is attracted to the natural and more spiritual world of Pooh but he also feels that he should be busy working like Rabbit. More than anything in the world Piglet wants to do what is right, but at the same time he longs for security which is only achieved by constant work and worry(Hoff, Piglet 26). Influenced by Owl’s brain and Eeyore’s pessimism Piglet is confused and a bit lost and ends up going back and forth between each world. Without the constant anxiety Piglet’s life could be the perfect combination of materialism that is necessary to survive in the modern day and the natural spirituality that is a part of every person(Arbaugh-Twitty 4). Piglet is able to embrace the fact that he is very small and use it for the good of others(Hoff, Piglet 50). He accepts that he is not quite as clever as Rabbit or Owl or as simple as Pooh. He simply tries to do the best that he can with what he has, living in a nice medium between the Transcendentalism of Pooh and the materialism of Rabbit.
Pooh never condemns anyone or anything and neither does Thoreau. Thoreau merely points out faults in society, says why he doesn’t agree with them, and offers an alternative solution. He teaches moderation, tolerance, and acceptance. Walden is not so much a handbook to living the perfect Transcendental life as it is a suggestion for an alternative to the materialistic lifestyle(Arbaugh-Twitty 5). Thoreau recognizes that this lifestyle is not for everyone, and the forest needs Rabbits and Owls and Eeyores just as much as it needs Poohs. Winnie the Pooh, like Thoreau, never condemns Rabbit, Owl, or Eeyore; he merely wonders why they are the way they are. He accepts them and their lifestyles and continues living his own life they way that he wants.
The parallels between Winnie the Pooh and Thoreau are unclear at times and yet somehow still strong. Henry David Thoreau’s Walden is timeless, still avidly read over a hundred years after it was written, just as is Winnie The Pooh. Transcendentalism is built upon nature, honesty, simplicity, and love and respect for the self and friends. No one is a closer representation of the Transcendental ideal than Winnie the Pooh(Arbaugh-Twitty 6). Pooh knows many truths that will never come from Owl’s or Rabbit’s brain simply because their minds are filled with self-absorption and materialism. Pooh and the Transcendentalists could change the world if only the Owls and Rabbits of the world would stop studying, working, and worrying long enough to think about what matters and listen to the innate truths that are lying in nature and hidden within the mind behind mounds of materialistic clutter.
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