Cultivating Wonder

Stradavari's Genius

It's been awhile since I've posted much of anything... We'll chalk that up to the fact that my second worksample is due on Wednesday.  Needless to say one needs a break once in awhile from the endless thoughts about electricity and magnetism.

For me one those breaks recently took the form of reading "Stradavari's Genius" by Tony Faber.  My new passion for the violin (or in my case the fiddle... they are really the same but the folks say that the difference is if you play an instrument where beer is served it's a fiddle) brought me to this book.  I was hoping for a beautiful coffee table book with players and instruments from all around the world... which doesn't exist.  Fortunately this was peeking out from the shelves.  It tells the story of four fiddles and one cello built by Antonio Stradavari, the man believed to be the worlds best violin maker.  As far as anyone can say nobody has ever built as beautiful a sounding instrument and his secrets went with him when he died in the 1700's.  I loved that this had enough data (the specifics of instruments) and story (the history of the hands that played them) that I could get into both.  It can be difficult for me to read technical data without story and 'get into it'.  I also find it frustrating that there aren't enough stories such as this!

All-in-all a great and enjoyable read, especially if you have a new obsession with the fiddle.

Tuesdays With Morrie

I'm slowly adding on books that are old classics or important reads in my library.  One of the most important ones is Tuesdays With Morrie.  I return to it whenever my life is going through turmoil and I need an anchor, a reminder of what's important and where I want to go as a genuine human being.  Here is one of my favorite quotes:

"Remember what I said about about finding a meaningful life?  I wrote it down, but now I can recite it: Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to loving your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."

Prodigal Summer: A Favorite

Prodigal Summer will forever be one of my favorite books, and Barbara Kingsolver will forever be one of my favorite authors.  In Prodigal Summer she weaves an intricate story between the natural history, cultural history, and community inderdependancy that floors me.  The language is powerfully rich and vibrant.  The book is steamy, sordid, decadent, heartbreaking, and encouraging all at once.  I read this book again and again and again.

I think that Prodigal Summer appeals to me because of its deep connection to the physical, cultural, ecological, and community world it is set in and the simplicity of its superb characters.  In some ways I am Deanna and Lusa.  Science Nerds unite!

The Essential Rumi: A Ramble

This section is for my addiction to books and to keep a journal of the things I've read as I finish reading them.  Being as I'm in graduate school finishing new things is going very very very slowly.  Unless, of course, I am reading them for school.  Some of those will also be added to this section.

I was thinking back on Rumi recently.  I read The Essential Rumi anthology cover to cover this fall.  Rumi has a meditative and reflective quality that I am very attatched to.  I read it as a sacred text or scripture, with a pen in hand to underline and make notes.  Sometimes the entire poem affected me while other times individual words or lines jumped out at me.  This fall and winter I haven't been doing that much journaling, it hasn't appealed to me with the amount of reading and writing that goes along with school.  Instead I've taken up the fiddle and read poetry anthologies as a method of reflection.  Only at the moment I'm reading a book about the French Revolution that's going quite slow.  I picked up my journal today and as the words flowed out a hankering to start the new Rumi text I bought a couple of months ago blossomed.  My poetry anthology of the season has been a collection of poems by Wendell Berry.  I think I might take a vacation from it and move back to Rumi for awhile.

Here is one of my favorite pieces from The Essential Rumi.  I hope that you enjoy it too:

BIRDWINGS

Your grief for what you've lost lifts a mirror
up to where you're bravely working.

Expecting the worst, you look, and instead,
here's the joyful face you've been wanting to see.

Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes.
If it were always a fist or always streched open,
you would be paralyzed.

Your deepest presences is in every small contracting and expanding,
the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated
as birdwings.