Savvy Thinker » Inspirational http://savvythinker.com thinking about life, playing with makeup Tue, 22 May 2012 15:37:11 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 A Secret Gift by Ted Gup http://savvythinker.com/a-secret-gift-by-ted-gup/ http://savvythinker.com/a-secret-gift-by-ted-gup/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 11:19:38 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=7485
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    I recently read an author interview with Ted Gup about his book A Secret Gift in The Christian Science Monitor (December 20, 2010.) It sparked my interest, so I ordered the book from the library.

    This is not a review, but a heads up on this non-fiction book, because I haven't finished reading it yet, but I will say that what I've read is 5* out of 5*.

    The story
    In December, 1933, B. Virdot (the pseudonym for Gup's grandfather, Sam Stone) placed an ad in the Canton, Ohio, local paper, offering to sent $10 to up to 75 families who wrote to him telling him of their needs. He got a very large response, so he actually sent $5 to 150 families. $5 in those days is roughly the equivalent of $100 in today's money. He never told anyone about what he had done or that he was B. Virdot. However, it was common knowledge to his wife and children, including Gup's mother.

    Stone knew the power of a philanthropic gesture. Even if he couldn't alleviate all suffering, he could do his part. We know how much $100 would mean to us today, even if our straits are not so dire, so with a little knowledge of what those times were really like, we can catch a glimpse of how much it meant then.

    How did the story come to light?
    When Gup's mother was downsizing, she took him up to the attic and gave him a small suitcase which he didn't immediately go through. And when he did look at it more closely, he still didn't immediately catch the significance.

    The name B. Virdot rang a bell for him, though, and as he pondered how he knew this name, he remembered that his grandfather had named a boat with it.

    Now the book
    Gup makes the depression come alive, with real folks' difficulties, whether they were at one time wealthy then lost it all or were from more modest circumstances and then had even less. With a historian's eye, he reads the letters to his grandfather requesting money and the many letters of thanks his grandfather received afterwards. Gup does his best to track down the various writers' families to see how the gesture of receiving $5 at a time of extremity factored into future events with the writers and their family line.

    He unearths secrets within the townsfolk, as well as in his family.

    I find it utterly fascinating, easy to read, even though the subject is difficult.

    In my own family the depression was not kind to one side of the family. From what I remember of what I was told: While they had once had a home, they lost it during those years and the father (my grandfather) who had been a good provider spent his days playing cards and drinking. His wife, my grandmother, I was told, went door to door selling dresses. I don't know where she got them. Maybe they were her own. Or maybe she sewed them. Or maybe she was selling dresses she got from other people. Those are parts of the story lost to me, as my parent who would remember has died. But it could not have been an easy life.

    Gup's book certainly puts those times and years into perspective.

    Have you read it?
    It is also available for Kindle.

    Buy the physical book here. A Secret Gift: How One Man's Kindness--and a Trove of Letters--Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression

    Buy the Kindle book here. A Secret Gift: How One Man's Kindness--and a Trove of Letters--Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression

    Sam Stone is a man worth remembering. May his name be for a blessing.

    Karin
    www.savvythinker.com



    Originally posted 2011-01-27 14:34:03.

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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/a-secret-gift-by-ted-gup/feed/ 0     Review The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner http://savvythinker.com/review-the-geography-of-bliss-by-eric-weiner/ http://savvythinker.com/review-the-geography-of-bliss-by-eric-weiner/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 01:42:07 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=8394
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    I wanted to read this book after I read Man Seeks God, even though Weiner wrote it first. Again, I got it from the library.

    Books about happiness have interested me, it seems like forever. This one is better than most and definitely more fun. It is not a self-help book. It is more like a travelogue.

    I laughed my way through it. And some of it is laugh out loud, that just begs to be read to the person in the room with you. In fact, I did. Weiner's sense of humor, his sense of irony, must be very much like mine.

    Weiner has, like his name as he points out (whiner) a low-grade depression most of the time. So he is definitely interested in seeking happiness. He learns that certain places have a higher happiness rating, so he goes to those places in search of the elusive happiness, to see if what he has heard is correct. Toss in assorted odd characters, plus ones who show him the ropes. Toss in his penchant for including interesting details, tidbits, sound bites of miscellaneous fitting quotes or just plain trivia that applies to where he is. I can't begin to remember all of it.

    His humor is never malicious. Sometimes it is dark, but not always, and he finds he holds love for some of the people he meets along the way that he would not have thought. There is a touching incident in Moldova.

    He begins in the Netherlands, then goes to Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova (the lowest happiness rating on earth), Thailand, Great Britain, India and America. In many ways, he finds that like Dorothy, home holds the heart.

    The short of it is that he finds that happiness is relational. It depends on friends, family -- and more. You could read the epilogue first and get a feeling for all he learns. (I didn't and wasn't even tempted -- unlike my usual method of reading.) Then you might not read the book, but you would miss a very good read, indeed.

    Have you read it?
    I rate it 5 star out of 5 star.

    The only thing I disliked was how much alcohol was imbibed along the way.

    It is available for Kindle:

    Karin
    www.savvythinker.com

    Geography of Bliss Geography of Bliss Paypal US $1.99 27d 13h 57m


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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/review-the-geography-of-bliss-by-eric-weiner/feed/ 0     Review Man Seeks God by Eric Weiner http://savvythinker.com/review-man-seeks-god-by-eric-weiner/ http://savvythinker.com/review-man-seeks-god-by-eric-weiner/#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:33:03 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=8390
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    I've been on a roll lately, reading, and finding books to read at the library that lead me to other books, and I've not been good about keeping up with mentioning them on my blog, so I will make a beginning.

    I thoroughly enjoyed this book -- a sort of male version of Eat, Pray, Love, minus the love affair. I liked it so well, I asked the library to get me his first book, The Geography of Bliss (review to follow.) And I took quite a few notes so I would remember what were to me some of the more salient points.

    Since I was reading Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner at the same time, it made me wonder if this title shares some similarities. If I hadn't been reading them at the same time, I doubt I would have seen it.

    Weiner's voice is funny, ironic, self-depreciating -- and I laughed my way through a lot of it. He is a whole lot easier to read than Winner.

    He investigates: Sufism, Buddhism, the Franciscans, Raelism (in Las Vegas), Taoism, Wicca, Shamanism, and Kabahlah.

    The book starts out with a personal experience that begins when he thinks he is dying, but it is only a severe attack of gas. The nurse asks him: what is God to you? In the course of the book, he tells us that he suffers from hypochondria; he loves books, he loves to underline in his books; he suffers always from low-grade depression; and he likes to watch life and religion from a safe distance, not really as a participant. His back story is that he was raised in Judaism, but he isn't involved in it. He is more of a secular Jew. He is married with a wife and daughter, adopted from Kazakhstan. He credits his wife a lot.

    If you ever wanted an interesting overview of the particular religions he investigates, easy to read, with lot of interesting sidelines and people, this book is for you. As I said, I liked it a lot.

    I give it 4 stars out of 5.

    Have you read it, or anything else by Weiner?

    It is also available for Kindle:

    Karin
    www.savvythinker.com



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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/review-man-seeks-god-by-eric-weiner/feed/ 0     Mean girls http://savvythinker.com/mean-girls/ http://savvythinker.com/mean-girls/#comments Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:48:55 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/2007/03/09/mean-girls/
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    Written in 2007:
    One of my girls got in the car crying yesterday. Mean girls. Mean girls. Don't know if she contributed some or not, but she is sweetly sensitive which sometimes makes you a target.

    She went off to school this morning hoping there wouldn't be a repeat.

    I told her about college girl's forays into mean girl territory when she was in high school and junior high. I told her some of what I had faced. I told her about books that have been written about this phenomena.

    And college girl came home last night for spring break so she talked to her too.

    And I asked her if there was anything she wanted me to do. Did she want me to talk to the teacher, etc?

    Meantime we had one of her friends over for play and dinner, which helped a lot. I encouraged her not to say too much as it sometimes comes back to haunt you. But this other friend said that mean girl had been really nice until she got with a couple of other girls.

    Well, you know how you don't think of things to say in the moment, but maybe years later.

    I got to laughing with college girl and her, and I said, laughing, you should have asked her if she had a kleenex.

    Why? said younger girl.

    I said, because then you could say because she was being a snot!

    My bad.

    So far as I know, this is original to me. When telling a friend and her 20ish daughter, her daughter thought it was funny and clever.

    I also told my girl not to really say this, but if she thought it in her mind, it might help her laugh about it some.

    She mentioned that to me in the car this morning.

    Two movies my girls love are Mean Girls and 13 Going On 30 . We talked about them too.

    They know the concept of mean girls, but it's different bearing the brunt of it.

    Have you had successes with overcoming mean girl syndrome?

    Written in 2012:
    The ultimate mean girls-grown-up show on TV now is GCB, based on the book Good Christian Bitches, which we are thoroughly enjoying. It is both funny and touching -- and over the top and a spoof in many ways. Amanda was the ultimate mean girl in high school, but she has now changed and is back in Dallas, but the three women who still are in Dallas don't realize it. Each actor and actress are skilled comedic players, with perfect timing.

    Carleen is played by Kristin Chenowith. Amanda's mother, Gigi, is played by Annie Potts. (This is especially funny to me, because that is what my grandkids call me -- name chosen by my son and daughter-in-law.) I love Cricket and Blake. What I've found is that all the characters have love for each other -- you have to wait until the last 5 minutes of every show, because there is usually a surprise. And there's always some singing, usually in the church choir.

    Here's Annie Potts on the View:

    Karin

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    Originally posted 2007-03-09 12:19:49.

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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/mean-girls/feed/ 2     The elusive nature of happiness, part 2 http://savvythinker.com/the-elusive-nature-of-happiness-part-2/ http://savvythinker.com/the-elusive-nature-of-happiness-part-2/#comments Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:30:58 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/2007/09/17/the-elusive-nature-of-happiness-part-2/
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    I think it's possible to have a certain level of happiness underlie all of our experiences, the good, the bad or the ugly, if we are aware of them. That's possibly what is meant by having a set-point for happiness. It's there, somewhere. I wonder if we can set our set-point higher with a little awareness.

    "Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air." ~ Georges Bernanos (1888-1948)

    Back to some thoughts from the article in US Airways:

    Psychologists have been studying happiness since the 1960's, but it didn't become a discipline in its own right until 1998 with the adoption of the term 'positive psychology.' There are now research centers such as a lab at the U of N Carolina or a center at U of Pennsylvania.

    Happy people live longer, enjoy healthier lives, achieve more success, and maintain stronger relationships than the chronically unhappy. "This doesn't mean that people need to be euphoric or ecstatic all the time, but rather that people who are in a positive state the majority of the time have an advantage in terms of success." Ed Diener, professor of psychology at the U of Illinois quoted by Liz Seymour

    It's a good thing happiness is not dependent upon being ecstatic all the time. It would elude me completely. Does fighting for a level of happiness count? I think it should. At any rate, what is, is. I don't think we should rate ourselves against other people but compare ourselves to ourselves. There are tough things in life. It would be too much to think we should go through them without a bit of sorrow. Sometimes sorrow shows our compassion.

    The belief is that anyone can become happier. So stay tuned to other parts.

    Meantime, the day that books leapt out at me in the library, another one did about happiness (now returned, so I don't have the title in front of me.) In this book the author tells the story of a concentration camp survivor who was too happy, according to her family, and they wanted her to see a psychologist. He is amazed at her capacity for happiness and in several chapters, he details her thoughts to him. In one instance, she points to the tattoo of the number on her arm and says that that is a sign of her happiness -- that others have signs too, but they might be less easy to find.

    Lest this sound too ethereal, she was grounded in reality. One thing she said was that during her camp experience she often held the hand of a man who would shake when the guards came by. Finding a sense of worth in the camps, doing something good for others, helped to save her. She says that he survived and waved to her from the truck that released him.

    I know someone who seems happy all the time. For her, it comes easily. Or maybe she demonstrated it over a long life and knows the value of holding on to it even in the face of tragedy, as she has had some. It does seem to come more easily to her than to me.

    What do you do to consciously bring happiness into your life, maybe especially if you are going through some hard times? Readers of this blog would like to know.

    There even comes a time when being like Scarlett O'Hara is not such a bad thing: resolving to think about it another day, because there isn't anything more that can be done today.

    Karin

    Originally posted 2007-09-17 08:42:45.

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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/the-elusive-nature-of-happiness-part-2/feed/ 2     Getting through the day if you are dealing with hard times http://savvythinker.com/getting-through-the-day-if-you-are-dealing-with-hard-times/ http://savvythinker.com/getting-through-the-day-if-you-are-dealing-with-hard-times/#comments Sat, 10 Dec 2011 21:56:08 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=7540
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    Someone once said that grief is self-centered.

    Having been there, done that, I have to disagree. For me, if it was self-centered, it wasn't self-imposed. I don't ever want to grieve again as deeply as I did ever ever, if I have a choice.

    How do you get through? in my own words in no particular order (and you may have other ways):
    - don't listen to ones who say really strange things to you in the name of trying to help
    - be good to yourself every day
    - hang onto the lifeline of spirituality and God
    - make choices for happiness -- choose small things that make you happy
    - look for any good that you can find
    - recognize the smallest happiness/good and multiply it, if you can
    - do this day by day, without fail, and somehow you get down the road a piece...
    - don't fault yourself for grieving (you have two problems if you lay guilt on yourself)
    - honor your feelings, they are valuable, even to God
    - don't listen to others who tell you that their way is better/you are at fault
    - use your life experiences to help others, if possible
    - do something to take your mind off yourself -- visit with a friend, read a book, get out into nature, volunteer your services...

    How are you getting through or how did you make your way through?
    or how have you seen others make it through?
    To some extent, each has to find and do what it takes to get through. Know you are not alone. And somehow, we do get through, as hard or as impossible as it seems.

    Here's a book that sounds interesting:

    In the book The Hidden Gifts of Helping: How the Power of Giving, Compassion, and Hope Can Get Us Through Hard Times Stephen G. Post tells how he got through a relocation crisis and how others can get through hardships or disappointments.

    Be bold if life throws you a curve ball or you are forced to make changes in your life.

    Throw yourself wholeheartedly into the journey...with a full heart...ready to give of yourself with compassion and forgiveness, never seeking the hidden gifts but finding them just the same. Stephen G. Post

    Buy: The Hidden Gifts of Helping: How the Power of Giving, Compassion, and Hope Can Get Us Through Hard Times

    Buy: (Kindle Edition) The Hidden Gifts of Helping: How the Power of Giving, Compassion, and Hope Can Get Us Through Hard Times

    Karin
    www.savvythinker.com



    Originally posted 2011-02-08 07:14:18.

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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/getting-through-the-day-if-you-are-dealing-with-hard-times/feed/ 0     The inspiration of nature http://savvythinker.com/the-inspiration-of-nature/ http://savvythinker.com/the-inspiration-of-nature/#comments Fri, 04 Nov 2011 08:48:11 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=1142
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    I enjoyed this short inspirational movie about the inspiration of nature. It is filled with hopeful quotes that will uplift your day.

    One way to watch it is to keep it on your screen, but pause it when it comes to a quote you like. Then restart it after doing a few emails. Stop it again. That way your inspiration is spread out a little and it doesn't take 4 minutes to watch at any one time.

    Enjoy!

    Karin

    Originally posted 2008-11-22 08:39:30.

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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/the-inspiration-of-nature/feed/ 0     Review The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster http://savvythinker.com/review-the-phantom-tollbooth-by-norton-juster/ http://savvythinker.com/review-the-phantom-tollbooth-by-norton-juster/#comments Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:07:10 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=7926
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    The Phantom Tollbooth is an adorable book. I don't know how I missed it when it first came out.

    While marketed for young adults or children, it is definitely one an adult will appreciate, perhaps more than a child. It is chock full of idioms, synonyms, antonyms, and other assorted word plays. Reading it to a child would be a delight for the adult -- and one where you'd have ample opportunity to define phrases and explain why it's so clever. And the child (or adult) would pick up many (or be reminded of many) clever, clever, clever turns of phrase.

    In some ways, it reminds me of the classic Half Magic.

    And it's a cute story, to boot!

    Anna Quinlan wrote a book report on it when she was 10 and said: "This is the best book ever."

    I have to agree. I give it 5 stars out of 5 stars.

    The story
    Milo is a very bored young man, totally glum. Learning for him is nothing short of useless -- why would he ever need any of that information!

    Ah, but he is about to receive a magic tollbooth that will take him to lands beyond where he will rescue the princesses Rhyme and Reason. Along the way he will travel in such places as: Dictionopolos and Digitopolos and meet the Mathemagician, among others.

    His companions are the dog Tock (who has a clock built in) and the Humbug.

    Have you read it?
    The author has also collaborated on a musical score and a libretto for an opera that is performed in schools and theaters:

    And he has written a number of other books that I will be looking into. One, The Dot and the Line, was made into an Academy-Award winning film.

    I got mine from the library, but bought it for my Kindle too.

    Here's something about the movie from 1970:

    Karin
    www.savvythinker.com

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    FICTION BOOKS


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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/review-the-phantom-tollbooth-by-norton-juster/feed/ 0     The Third/or Fourth Man Factor http://savvythinker.com/the-thirdor-fourth-man-factor/ http://savvythinker.com/the-thirdor-fourth-man-factor/#comments Mon, 17 Oct 2011 02:20:29 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=5178
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    The Third Man Factor is an interesting concept. Evidently it should be The Fourth Man Factor, but

    It was [Sir Ernest] Shackleton’s experience that inspired the term “Third Man factor” (although for his group it was actually a “fourth man” — T.S. Eliot misremembered the number when he wrote his poem The Waste Land, which popularized the idea). Geiger

    The new book out by John Geiger sounds like a fascinating read.

    Plus you can get this book for your Kindle.

    The Third Man Factor is an extraordinary account of how people at the very edge of death experience the sense of an unseen presence beside them who encourages them to make one final effort to survive. This incorporeal being offered them a feeling of hope, protection, and guidance, and left the person convinced he or she was not alone. There is a name for this phenomenon: It's called the Third Man Factor.

    If only a handful of people had ever encountered the Third Man, it might be dismissed as an unusual delusion shared by a few overstressed minds. But over the years, the experience has occurred again and again, to 9/11 survivors, mountaineers, divers, polar explorers, prisoners of war, sailors, shipwreck survivors, aviators, and astronauts. All have escaped traumatic events only to tell strikingly similar stories of having sensed the close presence of a helper or guardian. The force has been explained as everything from hallucination to divine intervention. Recent neurological research suggests something else. Amazon

    You can read a long excerpt from his book here. One of the stories he relates is of Ron DiFrancesco who was the last person to make it out of the South Tower alive. He felt such a presence. It came to him as a voice, telling him what to do, encouraging him to survive, changing the direction in which he headed.

    One of the interesting things to me was to learn this phenomena has existed in many places. I suppose I would prefer to think of the man as an angel or of Christ. It reminds me of the Biblical story of the three men thrown in the fiery furnace, but witnesses saw a fourth man walking.

    He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. Dan 3:25

    Do you find this interesting?
    Do you find it as interesting as I do to have a kind of substantiation of the Bible story by modern day experiences? I take things on faith, but it is good to have proofs of a sort anyway, not that all the proofs in the world would change someone's mind that is already made up.

    I can't say I've ever felt a presence per se, but I have had words come to me as thoughts. I have never been in any extreme survival situation.

    Karin
    www.savvythinker.com

    Originally posted 2009-10-19 21:31:14.

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    I appreciated the title and subtitle of this book for its cleverness: Forced to Be Family: A Guide for Living with Sinister Sisters, Drama Mamas, and Infuriating In-Laws. The author has also written a number of other books.

    I enjoyed looking through this book, reading whatever caught my eye. It has some good strategies, most of which are common sense, and a lot of stories from real life.

    If you've lived any of these scenarios, you know there isn't a one size fits all for the subject at hand. You may have already found a path that works for you, but if you would like other insights, this book might be an interesting place to start.

    Karin

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    Originally posted 2008-05-19 08:36:55.

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