On World Literature: Thoughts on Alexander Solzhenitsyn

We are approaching the one-year anniversary of the death of a literary giant of the 20th century: Alexander Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, who reposed in Russia last August. Those who read one of my private blogs may remember that last August I posted briefly on the death of this writer and his relationship with another of my favorite writers: Fr. Alexander Schmemann. In the picture here, they are both pictured with yet another of my favorite writers (though most don't think of her primarily as a writer), Fr. Alexander's wife, Matushka Julianna Schmemann. She recently published this book, which I just love.

Many of my readers know that I am a student of Slavic languages, literature and linguistics and that I teach Russian language, culture and literature at a university. From time to time, family and friends will ask me about certain Russian writers and my thoughts on their works. Though most questions center on the 19th century prose giants (Tolstoy and Dostoevsky), Solzhenitsyn's name comes up quite often. I'm no true scholar of Solzhenitsyn, but I've read a fair amount of his works, some in Russian and some in English translation. So, when asked, I tell people the truth. I have mixed thoughts about Solzhenitsyn. I love some of his works, and I think others are just OK. I agree with some of his worldview, and I think some of it is also a bit too extreme. But I also always tell them this: if you want to read his best work, go find the short story "Matrenin dvor" ("Matryona's House"). It is my absolute favorite of all of his works. In fact, it is tied with three other short stories for my favorite works of all world literature.* So, when last night I listened to a great podcast by Fr. Thomas Hopko about Solzhenitsyn, I was delighted to find that Fr. Thomas and I share many opinions, especially a love for "Matryona's House," which can be found in English translation in this volume.

For those who are interested, take 40 minutes of your time, and listen to Fr. Thomas' podcast here. It's a great overview of Solzhenitsyn's life, works, worldview and his role in world literature and Orthodox Christian faith in the 20th century.

*And, since I know someone will probably ask, I'll go ahead and fill you in on my three other favorite short stories, listed here in no particular order.
"Megalos Masteras and His Work," Borislav Pekić, as found in this collection
"Live and Remember," Valentin Rasputin
"The Gift of the Magi," O. Henry

When it all goes wrong (And why I still love to share ideas)

Sometimes no matter how hard you work to make things perfect, no matter how pretty you dress them up, no matter what you do to paint the perfect facade, it just all goes wrong. You know, it's like last summer when I got my kids all dressed up for adorable beach photos. After taking about 120 shots, I got about 10 perfectly precious keepers which are hanging on our wall today. But there are always a few like this one. Eventually, it all falls apart. (And sometimes from the beginning it falls apart. After all this shot was at the beginning of the photo shoot!) And maybe the trick is to see the humor in the fall. Even more it's to see the redemptive nature of our falls. But sometimes the humor is the best place to start. After all, this picture has become one of my favorites of that summer . . . along with this one.

Good memories. Two-year-olds sometimes lose it. And everyone gets sick of posing after a while. And we all know, moms sometimes lose it, too!

One evening recently as I prepared dinner, my kids were listening to a CD of Judith Viorst stories. You remember, the author of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? They got to the story My Mama Says There Aren't Any Zombies, Ghosts, Vampires, Creatures, Demons, Monsters, Fiends, Goblins, or Things in which the refrain is, "Sometimes even mamas make mistakes." I stopped and asked my boys, "Do you think that's right? Sometimes even mamas make mistakes?"

My then 7yo promptly said, "Oh yeah, it's definitely right. Especially our mama! She makes a lot of mistakes!"

I was a little surprised and sheepishly said, "You think so?"

"Well yeah," he replied. "You say it yourself all the time. Anyway, I think it runs in your family."

There you have it. Perhaps I've been a little too candid with my kids about my insufficiencies. But probably not. Honestly is probably best, right?

The danger of blogging is that we can make our lives seem to good, too clean, too idyllic. After all, who wants to write about the bad? It's more fun to write about the curriculum that you love, the recipe that is easy and delicious, the project that worked perfectly, the wonderful family that you love.

I like to read blogs for that kind of encouragement. I like to get great ideas from others. I view blogs as a treasure chest of ideas from which I can choose. And that's my goal with my blogs. I love to throw out ideas for others and from others. I love for people to send me their ideas to share here. Most of what I know and do I learned from my mom, from my dad, from other great adults and aunts and uncles who helped to raise me, from my siblings, from my husband, from wonderful friends, and from things I've read from others in books, on email lists (back in the dark ages of the 1990s and early 2000s) and blogs.

So, I write this blog just to share ideas. Some are good, some are fair and some might just not work. I hope those who read will enjoy them for what they are: ideas. And I hope those who don't like them, will just exercise the will to not read. I do that with plenty of blogs myself.

Thanks for reading along and for sharing your ideas with me!

Those lectures

I mentioned in my previous post that I've been listening to quite a bit of Fr. Thomas Hopko lately while running (OK, really just jogging) in the summer evenings. Some of my favorite lectures come from a three part series on Teaching Doctrine In the World We Live in Today. They are from a lecture given last June at the Met. Andrey Sheptysky Institute in Ottawa. I've been really convicted to rethink my daily life by these podcasts. Fr. Thomas talks in detail about how we can't teach (or learn) our theology and doctrine without first committing to really live Orthodox lives. This, I think, must be the way we should be educating our children about their Christianity.

I'm on an email list on which lately the conversation has centered a lot on the question of how to teach in an Orthodox home. There has been a lot of discussion about what might be the proper model. The Classical model? Or is that too Western? Some other model? To some degree, it's worth discussing these things. Of course, the concern is that we give our children an appropriate worldview: one that is centered on Christ and teaches them to love the Church and it's teachings.

But really, according to Fr. Thomas, there is only one way to do this. We have to live it. As I apply his lectures to my family's life, this is what I find. On some level, it doesn't matter what textbook we use, what educational model we use, what foreign language we learn, how much art or music we include. Those things are good to consider, but in the end, using something that helps them learn academics is fine. If we want to teach our children an Orthodox Christian worldview, we have to do it by living an Orthodox Christian life. It doesn't really matter which book we read about the Crusades or how many Roman Emperors' names we memorize (or don't memorize). What matters is how we live our life each day. This means reading our Bible daily, praying daily, living a chaste life, caring for others, loving others, confronting our addictions, fasting, and many other things.

In some ways this is so freeing. I feel both liberated and overwhelmed to embrace this approach. I don't have to panic about whether I've chosen the correct spelling textbook, or ever the right children's bible. I'll just choose one and go with it. But I do have to worry about whether my children ever see me pray. I do have to worry about whether I'm reading the scriptures. I do have to worry about whether I was kind to my husband this morning when I woke up too early.

But anyway, Fr. Thomas says it best. Here are the links to the podcasts. He's talking specifically about Teaching Doctrine in seminaries and for catechism, but it really applies to any kind of teaching, and more than that to LIVING.

Teaching Doctrine, Part 1

Teaching Doctrine, Part 2

Teaching Doctrine, Part 3

Enjoy!

"Theology isn't taught. Theology is suffered."

The quote above is from a series of magnificent lectures by Fr. Thomas Hopko on teaching doctrine. Thanks to very gracious grandparents, my kids have been out of town a lot this summer. And I've been at home alone quite a bit. I miss those crazy boys so much, and I'm about ready for the separation to end, but the new and shocking experience of silence has been quite good for me. I've made lots of progress on some pretty exciting projects including translation work, my dissertation and another really awesome organization that is almost ready to really go public. I've significantly increased my exercise regimen, and that feels great. We've got vegetables rolling in from the garden and flowers blooming everywhere. My husband and I have had quite a few quiet nights together to take walks, work in the garden, or just watch a movie.

But the best thing about this summer has been some down time to read a bit, reflect a bit, relax my tense shoulders and process some things about the direction of my life, and especially the direction of the life of our family as a spiritual unit.

My new running routine has given me some time to listen to podcasts from Fr. Thomas Hopko, thanks to my husband's MP3 player and his instructions and help with the buttons. (Yes, I'm behind the times. Not only do I not own an Ipod, I also don't even know how to use one.) I hope to share a few gems from Fr. Thomas' thoughts on teaching and living theology soon.

And I've also been doing some other reading about Orthodox parenting. Some of those jewels have been slowly seeping into my heart as I experience a quiet home and pray to rejuvenate for the coming year. I'll share some of those priceless thoughts here soon, too. So keep an eye out for some beautiful thoughts from the deep well from which I've been drinking this summer. I'll slowly share them here soon. But in the meantime, I'm praying to live these things, and not just to type them!

"You can't be in it to discuss it. You've gotta be in it to do it." - Fr. Thomas Hopko

Quick and Dirty Early American History

In less than a month we're going to take a week-long trip to the DC area. Our trip is primarily to visit various family and celebrate an important 90-something birthday. But, of course, we will have to incorporate at least one day to visit monuments and museums. My youngest has never been to DC, and my oldest hasn't been there since he was really old enough to appreciate the city. I have my favorite DC destinations (not even going to take the time to list them all right now) and my husband has his favorites too. I'm sure we won't even make it to half of the places we'd like to visit. But, I hope we'll hit some highlights at the Smithsonian and spend some more time on the Mall visiting some of our favorite monuments and memorials.

To date, all of our history study with my rising third grader has been in the Ancient and Medieval periods. So, he hasn't really done much American history at all, with the exception of reading Laura Ingalls Wilder books and reading a few fun books about the Revolutionary War and Westward Expansion. So, this summer we're doing some quick and dirty reading to learn a bit about the founding of our nation and the historical figures associated with Washington, DC. Primarily, I'd just like him to know a bit about the people to whom major monuments in the city are dedicated. We're really just focusing on fun biographies to peak his interest in the history.

Here's our reading list we've been working through in the last few weeks. Anyone want to add any other suggestions? Some of these 8yo has read on his own, and others we are reading together along with little brother.

George Washington: Soldier, Hero, President from the DK Readers series

The Revolutionary War, from the True Book series

Tom Jefferson: Third President of the United States from the Childhood of Famous Americans Series (At some point, I'm going to offer a big enthusiastic post on this series, the discovery of the summer in our house!)

The Declaration of Independence, from the True Book series

Abraham Lincoln, The Sixteenth President, by Mike Venezia

D'Aulaire's Abraham Lincoln (At some point I owe this blog an Ode to the D'Aulaires based on a love born in childhood and fueled by my grandmother.)

Neil Armstrong: Young Flyer, also from the Childhood of Famous Americans series (This one he read primarily because of his own interest, but also in preparation for visiting the Air and Space Museum, AND in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Moon Landing coming up next week. Reading the book was followed by watching one of our favorite films of all time: The Dish.)

The classics

There are so many things I love about being a mother. I used to think my favorites things were getting to give birth to a baby, nurse and care for a baby, watch a child learn to walk, learn to talk, learn to feed himself. Those things seem like such huge highlights. But lately, I've decided that really my favorite part of mothering is introducing my children to great literature. In the last year, I've just loved watching my oldest delve into Greek and Roman myths, Narnia, Tom Sawyer, Treasure Island, Encyclopedia Brown, Little House on the Prairie and this week, one of my favorites, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.

But at least as fun is introducing the boys to some of my favorite children's picture books. I just love to see how much they adore Babar, Winnie the Pooh, Max and the Wild Things, Pierre, Paddington Bear, Thomas the Train (yes, from the wonderful series of original books) and many others. One of my goals for this year was to help them learn to also love Beatrix Potter. I have fond memories of my Momma reading me these stories, and so this year I endeavored to help my kids discover the humor and wonderful vocabulary of these little books. I'm delighted to know that I've truly succeeded. Mostly I know this because they frequently ask me to read from our collection of Beatrix Potter, but last week, I knew for a fact that my goal had been met.

A few days ago at breakfast, we were quietly eating and the boys were looking out the kitchen window. Suddenly, my 3yo just got up from the table and walked out the back door. I looked up completely surprised, and he looked back and said, with a confident and reassuring voice,

"It's OK. I'll be right back."

He was outside for a few minutes and then came back in.

"Don't worry, Mommy," he said. "Peter Rabbit was in the backyard and he was going to try to get our garden, but I scared him away. It's OK now."