Novels

Nineteen Minutes

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Nineteen minutes is how long it took for high school junior Peter Houghton to enter Sterling High and kill ten people and wound another nineteen. However, it took his whole life from when he was first bullied at five years old to that point, having endured years of emotional and physical abuse from his classmates, to now, when he’d finally had enough.

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult is a complex, challenging, and astonishing read which covers many issues beyond the central focus of the school shooting. Bullying is the thread weaving the entire story together. The novel focuses primarily on one character, Peter, who could never seem to fit in. His non-stop torment began his first day on the bus to kindergarten when bigger kids threw his cherished Superman lunchbox out the window. Peter was five, and had dreamed of his first day of school. Josie, like Peter, and a good friend when they were young, had also always felt out of place until high school, when she became the girlfriend of a popular boy. Being bullied and treated abusively by him was the price Josie paid for her popularity.

Nineteen Minutes is about the many ways a child can be failed, even if unintentionally, by family, friends, and school. It asks what it means to be different in today’s society, and who has the right to judge another. It talks about how easily entire lives can be destroyed; how the truth comes out in the end; and how justice may be served.

Nineteen Minutes is also about individuals and families who are truly doing the best they can in trying to understand the young people in their lives. Ultimately, the book is about love, friendship, judgment, pain, redemption, and death, played out in the lead-up and aftermath of just nineteen minutes of violence.

Ms. Picoult has scrupulously researched every detail and aspect of school shootings and the myriad fields related to them, including forensics, court proceedings, the psychology of school shooters, and more. Her novel is also a consistently banned book, but it might also be the book that teens, their parents, and teachers most need to read.

Nineteen Minutes, published in 2007, is totally relevant today. It is incredibly impressive throughout, and packs an unexpected double punch at the end. It has left me thinking for days, wondering how, as such a supposedly advanced society, we are not doing better. Highly recommended.

This was a long post. If you’re still here, thanks for reading through to the end.

p.s. Last night, I continued to edit this piece, planning to post it today. When I opened my online news this morning, I found that there had been a school shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., Canada. Nine total were killed, including the shooter who took their own life, and twenty-seven wounded. That this was transpiring while I wrote about school shootings confirmed that I needed to post this.

Photo credits: Hallway by Yash Patel/Unsplash; Bullying from WeStockProductions/Shutterstock  

The Advantage of An Older Sibling

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There are often advantages for a younger sibling having an older (in this case) brother or sister. The one I’m writing about has had an unintentional and lifelong impact.

We grew up in a family of readers. It made perfect sense that we would be read to as children. Where the older-brother-advantage came in was when my Mom would read to him, I was also on her lap. I was likely only about 1 year old then, but I looked on, taking in every word on the pages.

As we grew, I continued to soak up the words and stories meant for an older child. I was three years old when he was seven, the reading level of the New York Times. The amazing and unintentional result? My Mom realized that, at the age of 5, I could read a newspaper! She was very quick to point out that it wasn’t with full comprehension, lest I get a “big head” about it, but the truth is, without my older brother, that never would have happened.

My point here? Never underestimate the ability of a child to learn at an early age. If you have kids or grandkids, keep the youngest one(s) close by while you read to their older siblings because they, like me, will soak it in and get a head start on both reading and learning.

Let’s always read to the little ones at bedtime. It’s worth making the time, even for one story. It undoubtedly helped that my brother and I were both read to each night before we drifted off to dreamland.

It also helped that our family were readers. Our parents and grandparents were always reading novels and/or newspapers. They were my role models. Do we really want our kids having the idea that the only way to read is on a phone?

Having a membership to the local library is invaluable. Bring the littles along whenever possible. Let them experience the magic of so many books at an early age, to feel the joy of `what do I want to read now?’

As I move along in life, I become increasingly aware of what our future needs. One of those things is adults who can think and reason, learn and have compassion, all of which are inspired by an early love of reading.

p.s. Did you know that reading picture books to children is proven to develop compassion? Read more here.

Getting Out of Our Own Way

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I saw this quote from Anne Lamott, and found myself pondering it a bit. it’s so true, and it would seem so easy to just step aside. If it were that easy, I suspect there’s be a whole lot more creative thinking going on in this world.

Speaking for myself, I let my creativity flow how I can, when I can, knowing full well that there are things inside me that want to be said, but not necessarily in words. I am always working on getting out of my own way, because I want to see what’s inside, too.

I love looking at all the fabulous art on Instagram because it inspires me. Then I wonder – because what I see is so amazing (and sometimes AI) – is it possible it also serves to intimidate me?

And I’m reading. I’m halfway through A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, and I will return to it, but I needed something else. I’m starting Thinking Out Loud by Anna Quindlen. I picked this up at the big library book sale, and although it was written in 1993, Quindlen has a gift for always being timely and relevant. Plus I’ve read a few of her books in the past, currently own one. She’s a good bet.

It’s Memorial Day weekend. In part, I feel like I should be doing something other than what I’m doing, but I’m enjoying some peace, seeing my home shine a little more, writing, reading. Isn’t this the kind of freedom those before us gave their lives to give us? Hope your weekend is going great, too.

The Quote that Inspires …

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My new copy of “The Last Unicorn” by Peter S. Beagle (mine is old, beat-up and yellowed.) Why this book now? I have not been able to concentrate well on a novel – just too much to do. Until …

I stumbled across a quote I love from this book in one of my own posts here on stilladreamer.com

“It’s a rare man who is taken for what he truly is. There is much misjudgment in the world. Now I took you for a unicorn when I first saw you, and I know that I am your friend. Yet you took me for a clown, a clod, or a betrayer, and so I must be if you see me so. The magic on you is only magic and will vanish as soon as you are free, but the enchantment of error that you put on me I must wear forever in your eyes.

“We are not always what we seem, and hardly ever what we dream. Still, I have read, or heard it sung, that unicorns when time was young, could tell the difference `twixt the two – the false shining and the true, the lips’ laugh and the heart’s rue.”

~ Schmendrick the Magician
 from “The Last Unicorn”

Sometimes all it takes is a few words, and we’re back in a book.

This magnificent and well-known tapestry: “The Unicorn Is in Captivity” (1495-1505 ) is one of the “Hunt for the Unicorn” tapestries, housed in The Cloisters, NYC.

The Importance of Showing Up

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There are many reasons why we, as artists, don’t do our work, whatever our individual expression is. In the end, it all comes down to fear. I don’t think I need to go into any detail. You know what your own apprehensions are about bringing your beautiful creations to light, or even revealing them to yourself.

But waiting for “the right time” can end up being never. I remember many years ago, analyzing all the reasons why I procrastinated about certain things (most likely my art), and then the comment was, “Sometimes you have to just apply your butt to the chair and just do it.” Point well taken.

So get your tired, unkempt, pajama-clad (if applicable), unfocused, resistant self to wherever you have to be to create and show up for yourself. For your creative self. As unready as you are, get there, and allow something to happen. You’ll be OK. I’ll be pushing myself to do the same.

Meet you at the desk.