Month: October 2017

An Intro to Bosch World

I am late to the party. I don’t mind being late to new, to me, characters. I love discovering people I want to read about, learn about, and spend time with. Because when you are reading a book series, it is like watching a television or movie series. In visual arts, you are waiting for next week, or maybe next year to see what happens next. In books, we have longer, sometimes just months but often a year or more waiting to know what happens to our new friend. Even if the story is wrapped up in the previous book, the life of that person doesn’t end, like yours doesn’t, what comes next and will it be as exciting as the last thing that happened? I get to fly through some of that unknown when I come to a character late in the series. The biggest meaning I am not impatiently waiting to know what happens in the character arc next. The downside, for me, is that I am a pretty fast reader, especially when I am excited about new books, so I sometimes catch-up before the next in the series is ready. Then I am like everyone else, stalking author websites and social media in hopes of learning the exact second the next book becomes available! So, I am late to the Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch party, but there are quite a few, so I should be okay with filling my Bosch world cup without pause for a long while.

Michael Connelly came to my knowledge with The Lincoln Lawyer, which I enjoyed. I didn’t spend a lot of time learning about the author, though, else I would have found Bosch World much sooner. So, when I was perusing my library offerings for an interesting read, I came across a Michael Connelly book that I hadn’t read nor was it involving Mickey Haller. Mr. Haller is the main character in The Lincoln Lawyer. The premise was interesting and he had written something I like before, so let’s give it a try. The Black Echo, the book that introduces us to Bosch World, was a gripping read. I am not gripped by a book and its characters all that often. I love a lot of books and characters but I am not always losing sleep to see what happens next! I was hooked and am spending way too much time reading each book. I am currently on book three, The Concrete Blond. Mr. Connelly is on book twenty, so I hope I don’t get caught up too soon. Though, as I have found after book two, Mickey Haller and Harry Bosch have overlapping lives and I can’t wait to  reread the Haller books as they coincide with the Bosch books. It seems to be a vast and interlocking world and those are some of the best kind.

So, Hieronymus Bosch is a man intimately acquainted with violence and being alone. His mother names him after a Dutch painter and he doesn’t know his father. His mother is murdered when he is eleven and he spends the rest of his growing years being shuttled between foster homes and the state-run youth hall. He joins the army and becomes a tunnel rat during the Vietnam War. When he leaves, he joins the Los Angeles Police Department and works himself into a prestigious detective position. But, when we meet him in The Black Echo, he has been demoted and disgraced which sets up the characterization of Harry as a lone shark who is out for the truth, no matter the cost. It is costing him plenty and he seems to be accepting of this truth. Each book, so far, is written on a timeline closely following the previous one. This series writing is really fun because no matter the time between publishing, it feels as if you have missed nothing of the character’s life. You feel intimately connected to their lives and invested in what happens next. I would think it might be good for the writer too, it is like writing how we live, which can lead to an abundance of information and less room to make errors about the people we have written about. Bosch has a highly developed sense of right and wrong, he wants the answer, because the right answer is more important than the political line of the police force. He finds the politics and familial attitude of the department a bit stifling, beneath him, and really I think he has no real idea how to be in a family. He doesn’t have a lot of history of familial bonds, no way to transfer that kind of devotion to a job he sees as very black and white. Now, this in no way means he won’t bend the rules to get to the truth, but he seems to make sure that when he does, they won’t impede on prosecuting the culprit in the end. So, his separation inside the department is its own character because everyone else is in the departmental family, they don’t have any problem with the politics, they go along to get along. Harry being apart is an affront to some and no problem to others. How this impacts each book looms large in the first two books, I look forward to figuring out if it continues to play a part.

These crime thrillers are just the thing for a good story. The twists have been good, the back story is revealed a bit at a time, steadily giving us insight into Harry and how he lives his life and performs his job, which he will tell you is his mission not a job. If you enjoy crime thrillers, or if you are looking for something new to try, give Hieronymus Bosch a go, then let me know if he excites you too… or not!

Infant and Pregnancy Loss Remembrance

Today, October 15, is National Infant and Pregnancy Loss Remembrance Day, here in the United States of America. If you have been reading for a while, you may remember the story I wrote about Bereaved Mother’s Day that talks about pregnancy and child loss. Today, many families will attend ceremonies which include waves of light, or candlelight ceremonies to remember the pregnancies and infants gone too soon from their lives.

In our little city, we will attend a candlelight ceremony where our children’s names will be read and we can place flowers at the remembrance statue. Our statue, The Angel Of Hope, is one many cities have, that stands in memory of the children who have died. This statue is based on the one in a book called The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans. This small book talks about the death of a child and the visit to the grave where this angel statue sits. It isn’t a story of loss only, it is a small book with an inspiring story of remembrance and cherishing the here and now. After this book became popular, people would write the author wanting to know where they could go and visit the statue in the story, in order to mourn their own dead children. Well, there was no physical statue, only in the author’s mind. Afterwards, Richard Paul Evans had a statue commissioned and it was placed in Salt Lake City, Utah and dedicated in 1994. Since then, more than 120 areas have raised money to bring an Angel Of Hope to their town for grieving parents.

This August we reminisced on 6 years without our #2 son. Today, we will join other parents to talk, listen, and spend quiet time at the statue and in fellowship. In many ways, it is an atmosphere of celebration too. There will be cake and living children running around, along with decorating luminaries and families bringing balloons and other trinkets to place at the statue. A local florist provides roses for family members to place every year also. Yet, there will also be sadness throughout the evening. There will be way too many new families in our group, there will be raw feelings and lots of tears. Yet, I am usually refreshed afterwards. It is a unique experience to be comfortable about such a heavy topic with people. Some years this ceremony is just a lovely way to remember our son, other years it is a devastating reminder of our loss. You don’t know where your grief will have you year by year, but I am very appreciative of those in our community who fill this need yearly. Who reach out, through their own grief, to hug the newly grieving every year. I am feeling good and hope I can be a shoulder for those not doing as well this year. Be kind, be gentle, be understanding to all those who grieve in memory today.

Essay on Protest

What exactly is protest? As a noun, it is defined as ‘an expression or declaration of objection, disapproval, or dissent, often in opposition to something a person is powerless to prevent or avoid’. When used as a verb it can be ‘an earnest declaration or to make a remonstrance to or object to’. Protest against unfair treatment has long been the history of people wanting to get fair treatment in the midst of those in authority. I can think of one very large protest against authority which is celebrated today, the wryly labeled ‘Boston Tea Party’. This party of a protest was perpetrated by a group of men poorly disguised as the hated minority of the time, probably to take the heat off themselves, in order to protest the ruling authorities levy of taxes on imports. Plenty of people living at this time, were very disparaging of the protesters actions. But, 300 years later, history writers have sanitized this large protest, which was rowdy and took hours to complete, into a party of men righteously standing up to the abusive authority, for the good of all.

Does that sound familiar? It might, almost 60 years ago, the hated minority of the time were speaking up, taking a stand, halting work, public transportation, school, and homes in their bid to get a fair chance at living their best lives without being indiscriminately murdered. The ruling authority was both vociferously and quietly opposed at every turn. Spending public resources to impede, belittle, and harm those protesting the status quo. Polls taken during this time showed the majority of Americans felt the protests were unhelpful, disruptive, and unnecessary. People died, businesses and communities were decimated, and only after the famous face was murdered did anyone in authority push efforts to rectify the disparity prevalent in America. You know how we view this protest today? The ruling authority has co-opted this protest into a ‘we all worked together for what was right, those leading these protests were beloved and peaceable, and any protest not like this one, is terrible and detrimental to the greater good’.

Maybe none of those examples hits home for you. Let me talk about the resounding protest being waged against the ruling authority today. Now, many of the same minority populations of our past, continue to be harassed and denied and murdered indiscriminately. Like all civilizations, America has grown through the labor of all who come here. Both those brought here by force and those who come here by choice. This country has a long history of poor practices where those outside the established rule are concerned. Today, the marginalized populations are many and the ruling authority feels more threatened than ever before. Protests are never embraced by those it may negatively impact, no matter how just the goal. Today, people who may be negatively impacted spend an enormous amount of time loudly disclaiming wrongdoing and cleverly changing the narrative of protesters in order to silence and belittle them. We spend all our time defending ourselves, taking sides on issues that have nothing to do with the protest and telling those minority populations how they should tell their stories or that their stories or false. My story has nothing to do with the settlers who arrived on the Mayflower and I don’t look to tell that story, nor can I deny that story exists, in good conscience.

Protesting is akin to collective constructive criticism. They are meant to convey that something could be done better. Protests come when we cease to listen to the negatively impacted, when we dismiss their concerns because it doesn’t align with our experience, when we don’t give the courtesy we give ourselves. When in protest, you are saying I insist on being heard and seen. I have come to you dressed in my best for the appointment, with my meticulously researched and constructed ideas, so that we can brainstorm and implement solutions. You have said NO! Over and over again, you yell NO! I must be heard, I am fighting for my life, the lives of my loved ones, therefore I will make it extremely difficult to ignore me and thereby you can no longer ignore the problem. No one likes to admit to being wrong. It is hard to stand up to those who hold your livelihood in a stranglehold of oppression. Oppression is only the prolonged, unjust treatment or control of another. To be unjust is to not be right. This doesn’t have to be limited to one part of history. Oppression is systematic and pervasive and anytime you hold sway over someone, you have the ability to oppress them. The reach of the protester is vastly larger today than in the past. It is harder to hide and conversely easier to be mislead and ignorant of opposing views which may have merit, but are different from yours. Protests speak out because they want you to know that not everything is great for everyone, they are screaming out, “I have validity!” Difference of opinion does not equal hate. Changing the narrative of protest to hate is an easy way to oppress. A majority will only see the hate narrative, never know the protest narrative and then are unwittingly oppressive.

We need to spend more time finding and listening to the protestors narrative in order to make informed decisions on whether or not we agree, can change ourselves, or help change others. Those heard and seen by many are uniquely able to disseminate stories in a bid to bring productive change. Their actions and words are far-reaching and impactful. Let their impact be presented not changed.  Dismissing the voice crying out in defense of the marginalized will not bring you peace.

I wish you peace.