Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Blue Clay People

Apparently I was born to research. I love to read and since we decided to adopt I am reading everything I can find on adoption and Liberia and related topics. I just finished "Blue Clay People" by William Powers. What an amazingly clear picture of Liberia just six years ago! Each one of the children at AoH have family, moms and dads that lived through all of that. Some of the older children lived through the violence and poverty. I know that some of that is still there now, though hopefully not the violence.

So being the ex-English minor that I am, I had to look up the words that I did not recognize. So here is your lesson for the day:
obsequiousness: compliant, deferential, obedient, dutiful (used to refer to the Liberians)

quixotic: chivalrous, romantic, visionary, impractical

tetra pods: four-footed (used to refer to hippos, I should have been able to figure this one out)

lebensraum: additional territory desired by a nation

koan: a nonsensical question to a student for which an answer is demanded, the stress of meditation on the question often being illuminating

"Like any good koan, the more you meditate on it, the more it unfolds like a lotus flower and makes sense." I feel this way about this adoption, and even about my walk with God. It feels as if this process is making things much clearer.

2 comments:

Amber G. said...

Ahhh, great "lesson" for the day! I love language. I keep my dictionary handy when I read and my thesaurus when I write... Words are so powerful and finding the right one to use at the right time is magical.

I loved "Blue Clay People". I also really liked "Tears of the Rain".

I bought a large book on the modern history of the African continent (broken into chapters dealing with specific regions) that I think is well worth having as a resource/reference. I've been reading through it chapter by chapter as I study other books about African nations (it's "The Fate of Africa" by Martin Meredith)
Let me know if you come across any other good ones! :)

Amber

Brandi said...

I LOVED this book!! I agree with Amber that Tears of Rain is your next read! It is SO good. . .but absolutely heartbreaking!

I think I'll order the other book Amber suggested from the Library!

Love ya,
Brandi