Month: September 2014

These past two months or so, there’s been a trend happening on Facebook where people post a list of their top 10 favorite/most recommended books and then send a challenge to other friends to compile their own list. I was not challenged to do it; just did it for the heck of it. This post is a slightly modified version of that list. I am not challenging anyone to make their own book list, although you can if you want. And I’m throwing in a few extra books for good measure. 🙂  So here we go.

1. Neither Wolf Nor Dog. Kent Nerburn. In which the author (a white oral historian) and a Native American elder build a friendship while sharing their insights into the culture clash between Native Americans and non-Natives. Out of all the books on this list, this one was the most eye-opening for me. For that reason, it is also my most highly recommended one. It’s long, at around 330 pages, but very powerful and compelling. Pick it up if you can. You won’t regret it at all.
2. Left to Tell. Immaculee Ilibagiza. The incredible memoir of a Rwandan woman who survived the Genocide of 1994 and forgave the man who killed most of her family. Mind blown.
3. Led By Faith. Immaculee Ilibagiza:. This is a follow up to Left to Tell and describes how Immaculee came to terms with the destruction of her homeland and the slaughter of her family which occurred during the bloodshed. It also tells of her work with the UN, her coming to America, and how she wrote Left to Tell.
4. Everlasting Man. GK Chesterton. Just read it this past year for the first time. Some of the most beautiful prose I’ve ever read, especially in the last chapter. OH MY GOODNESS IT’S SO GOOD.
5. Les Miserables. Victor Hugo. Time-consuming but worth it. An amazing tale of love, heroism and sacrifice. Just make sure you read the full version because the abridged version leaves out important parts. I learned this the hard way. 🙂
6. Invisible Man. Ralph Ellison. Also in my list of books with the best prose. Read it for the first time my senior year of high school and loved it.
7. The Things They Carried. Tim O’Brien. The author’s semi-autobiographical account of his journey into the Vietnam War and back. Also read this senior year in the same class that I read Invisible Man for.
8. Pure: Modernity, Philosophy, and the One. Mark Anderson. The author is a philosophy professor who taught me at Belmont. An interesting reflection on the purpose of philosophy and why we should study it.
9. Seven Storey Mountain. Thomas Merton. Merton’s spiritual autobiography. This book was recommended to me by a friend as she was converting to Catholicism, but it still gave a cradle Catholic like me a lot to consider. And if you know anything about the early Church Fathers, you’ll notice that the parallels between Thomas Merton’s life and St. Augustine’s life are eerily similar. They both grew up spiritually restless until they found a home in Catholicism, both dedicated their lives to the Church once they became Catholics, and both were hedonistic playboys in their younger years. Thomas Merton is pretty much a modern-day version of St. Augustine. Unbelievable.
10. Dead Man Walking. Sister Helen Prejean. Good reasons to be against capital punishment, told in story form. Since the early 1980s, Sister Helen Prejean has become well-known for her work in prison ministry, fighting against the death penalty, and ministering to murder victims’ families. Dead Man Walking is the story of how it all began.
11. The 5 People you Meet in Heaven. Mitch Albom. This book introduced me to Mitch Albom’s writing. It came out when I was in 8th grade, and I bought a copy that year on a class trip to Washington, D.C. I read it in just a few sittings and was amazed at the author’s imagination. I have since become a big fan of Mitch Albom’s work.
12. Flags of Our Fathers. James Bradley. The author’s dad was one of the men who became famous for raising the American flag over Iwo Jima. This is his story, as well as the stories of the 5 other men captured in that famous picture and statue. It’s another long book, at about 535 pages. But, once again, it’s worth it and very readable. It’s an interesting look at hero worship in America: considering who is truly worthy of being admired as a hero and why we should look up to those people.
13. The Soloist. Steve Lopez. This is the story of the author’s friendship with Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a schizophrenic homeless musician living in Skid Row in LA. Ayers was once a promising student at the prestigious Julliard Music Conservatory until he had his nervous breakdown. Lopez, a columnist for the LA Times, starts out their relationship interviewing Ayers for his weekly column, but eventually does everything he can to help him begin to put his life back together. I am reminded of life’s fragility, that someone who’s on top of the world one day could have everything fall apart the next.
14. Rocket Men. Craig Nelson. This came out the week of the 40th anniversary of the first lunar landing. It details all the hard work NASA put into our first trips into space and what the lunar landing meant for America and the rest of the world. It’s weird about me: I hate studying science. My mind is definitely geared towards literature and the arts. But I am such a dork about stargazing and things like that. There’s just something about the mystery and beauty of space that I find fascinating. Anyways, that’s why I enjoyed this book and I hope you will read it.
15. Have A Little Faith. Mitch Albom. This book debuted in 2009. It is Mitch Albom’s first non-fiction book since Tuesdays with Morrie, which was released in 1997. In this book, his elderly rabbi asks him to give the eulogy at his funeral. Since Mr. Albom has no clue how much time Rabbi Albert Lewis has left, he spends time getting to know him so he will be prepared for the speech and ends up re-connecting with the Jewish faith of his youth. In the midst of all this, Mitch also volunteers at an inner city church in Detroit and befriends its pastor Henry Covington. Through his relationships with these two men, Mitch discovers that religion doesn’t have to be such a divisive issue; that people of all faith and non-religious backgrounds can peacefully co-exist with each other and learn valuable things from one another.

These are my top 15 favorites in no particular order. They are probably the ones I would recommend the most to anyone, although that changes often because I read a lot. But these are a few to get you started if you ever needed reading recommendations. If you ever have a look at any of these, let me know what you thought. 🙂

A few weeks ago, the British scientist Richard Dawkins sparked quite the controversy when he was asked how he would react if it was found out that he was to have a child with Down Syndrome. His response? “I would abort the baby and start over.” I, like many others, was very upset to hear those words. Of course, many of those angered by Dawkins’ remarks are people who know someone with Down Syndrome. And that includes me. But that’s a conversation to have another day.

When I heard about this story, I was reminded of the most important reason that I am pro-life. It’s all quite simple. Either every human life has equal dignity and worth and should be protected from the moment of conception to the time of natural death, or else no one should be protected at all. Because if there is such a thing as an in-between, anyone becomes an arbitrary target for death.

Dawkins says we shouldn’t frame the question of whether an unborn child is human or not, but rather if it could potentially suffer or not. But any of us could potentially suffer. Consider veterans coming home from war missing limbs or having PTSD. Should they die just because they’re suffering? What about quadriplegics or paraplegics? Did Christopher Reeves’ life have less value when he became paralyzed after a horseback riding accident? What about people with cerebral palsy? My brother and I have both gone to school with people who have that condition, and they’ve both been inspirations to the people they know. Should they die too?

In order to be in favor of abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty, or what have you; you have to make the case that some lives have more value and worth than others. But think of the people who are hurt the most by these things, and the message it must send to them. You’re poor? You shouldn’t be here. You were conceived in rape? You didn’t deserve to have a chance at life. You’re elderly, terminally ill, or have special needs? You’d definitely be better off dead. You’re a vegetable. So one day a person like that is your grandma, and the next day she magically becomes a piece of cauliflower to stuff down the garbage disposal as you see fit. This is another problem that the most vulnerable among us have to face. And it’s an affront to their dignity.

But how should we treat the most vulnerable and weakest among us? For those of us who are Christians, let us consider the Stations of the Cross; particularly when Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry his cross. As we think of this, we must remember that Jesus was near death at that point. In His journey, He was moving closer to Calvary, where He would be crucified. Physically, He was exhausted, having been awake for more than 24 hours. He had been scourged until He was almost dead. He had been paraded in front of the Roman guard, the Pharisees, and a crowd who wanted Him dead, just so they could all make a mockery of Him. A crown of thorns is drawing blood from His head. And now He’s staggering along a dusty, crowded public road while carrying the instrument of His death.

And what does Simon do? He helps Jesus carry the cross. If Simon believed in euthanasia, he might have asked to stop the whole procession so he could throw the cross down and nail Jesus to it himself to end His suffering. But he helps Him carry His burden instead. And that’s what Christians are called to do. We help carry each other’s crosses when times are tough instead of nailing people to their crosses and leaving them to die.

But even if you’re not Christian or religious at all, why would you not want to treat all of your fellow human beings with equal dignity and respect, from the point of conception to the time of natural death? What standards do you use to measure the value or worth of a human life? That’s someone’s son or daughter in the womb. That’s someone’s grandma or grandpa battling cancer in the hospital. That person with special needs is someone’s brother or sister. I find it interesting that in this day and age, when so many emphasize loving and accepting everyone, no matter what, that many of those same people think some of their fellow humans are fit to live and others aren’t. Wishing death upon someone is the ultimate rejection notice. You would think that part of loving someone is rejoicing in that person’s very existence. But apparently, to some, it’s not. And I don’t know why.

To be fair, there is more that can be done to make life easier and better for those who are struggling. We need health care reform where the greatest number of people can benefit; particularly mothers, their children, and the poor. We need an economy that enables people to support themselves and their families financially. We need to make greater strides to integrate those with special needs into mainstream society. We need to ensure that the poor have access to secure food and housing. We need to create better palliative treatment for those who are near death. And so on and so forth. I just wish that all of our efforts to help the marginalized would go towards these things, as opposed to making some steps towards caring for them while simultaneously offering death as a solution to their problems.

This is not a condemnation of people who are pro-choice. Instead it’s a calling for all of us to love all of our fellow human beings as they ought to be loved. Because people’s lives depend on it.