Mother Love

A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine, desert us when troubles thicken around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavour by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.
- Washington Irving

Mother’s Day, 24 hours so fraught with love, anger, regret, humor, sadness and joy that it’s not surprising so many of us avoid the day in fear of somehow getting it wrong. For most it’s personal, a time to bridge the differences that divide us mother from child, to reflect on mistakes made, of things not said, expectations met and not met. Others dwell in sadness or joyful memory at mothers no longer here to share such regrets. For a few, Mother’s Day is a time for reflection on the meaning of motherhood in general. Some prefer to send a card and avoid the agony altogether. And for an increasing number, Mother’s Day is political, an opportunity to empower women by remembering the original intent of the day, an urgent message of peace from the heart of a mother in time of war.

However, for most of us, Mother’s Day is a time to reflect on those forgotten moments that so easily slip our memory as we hurry through life. For me, the sweetest were the simplest…

Sitting in the warm summer grass as my mother patiently taught me to tie my sneakers, over and over again repeating the movements of fingers and lace until I had that wonderful moment of recognition.

Listening to the reassuring calm of her voice as she read and reread my favorite stories and I trailed off reluctantly to sleep.

The warmth of my mother’s hand in mine as we walked in the chilly fall air, silent, only the sound of stones crunching beneath our feet, feeling as safe then as I will ever feel again…

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness – Honore de Balzac

Share your memories…

2009 Pulitzer Prize Reprise

Put it before them briefly so they will read it, clearly so they will appreciate it, picturesquely so they will remember it and, above all, accurately so they will be guided by its light.
~ Joseph Pulitzer

The 2009 Pulitzer Prize winners represent the best in Journalism, Letters, Drama & Music, a tradition begun in 1917 as a bequest of Joseph Pulitzer. Pulitzer, a newspaper publisher who spent his life fighting tirelessly to expose corruption in business and government, wished the Pulitzer Prize to exemplify that struggle; to be, in his own words, “an incentive to excellence.”

Journalism

It is perhaps in the Journalism awards that the spirit of the Pulitzers is best represented. The majority of these awards over the years have gone to newspapers and reporters who have battled corruption both on an individual and a global level. The following papers were honored this year:

Las Vegas Sun Los Angeles Times Detroit Free Press

East Valley Tribune St. Petersburg Times New York Times

History

In History, Annette Gordon-Reed’s The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family examines the controversial question of Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemmings, a young slave woman in his possession. Gordon-Reed presents a compelling if not conclusive case for Jefferson’s involvement with Hemmings; however, despite the evidence, we are still left wondering at his motivations. Jefferson’s actions so blatantly contradict his clearly articulated ideas on the very nature of freedom. In the end he remains an enigma and the book’s allegations an open question.

The Pulitzer Prize in History

Biography

   
Jon Meacham, author and editor of Newsweek, earned the prize in Biography for American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. Jackson, a Populist candidate who sought to overthrow what he perceived to be corrupt and moneyed interests, is a subject much in keeping with the Pulitzer tradition.

A History of Biography Pulitzers

Poetry

We are asleep with compasses in our hands

WS Merwin captured the Poetry prize a second time for The Shadow of Sirius. Merwin has journeyed from the anti-war sentiments of 1971′s The Carrier of Ladders to a balanced and sober reflection.

with the animals dying around us
our lost feelings we are saying thank you
with the forests falling faster than the minutes
of our lives we are saying thank you
with the words going out like cells of a brain
with the cities growing over us
we are saying thank you faster and faster
with nobody listening we are saying thank you
we are saying thank you and waving
dark though it is

Previous Poetry Winners

Fiction

In Fiction, Elizabeth Strout won for Olive Kitteridge, a collection of 13 short stories set in rural Maine. She joins a long, illustrious group of past Pulitzer Prize winners.

Drama

Lynn Nottage earned the Drama award for Ruined, set in the violence and chaos of the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Past Pulitzer Prize Winners for Drama

Photography

The two prizes in photography went to Damon Winter for his visceral coverage of Obama’s 2008 Presidential campaign.

Obama in Chester, PA ~ Damon Winter

and Patrick Farrell for
A People in Despair: Haiti’s year without mercy, a harrowing depiction of Haiti after the devastation of Hurricane Ike.

Woman in Cabaret Weeps ~ Patrick Farrell

View the Complete List of 2009 Pulitzer Prize Winners

The Original Environmentalist

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. ~ Henry David Thoreau

A Quiet Summer Evening by the Pond ~ Richard Lenat

Thoreau retired for a time to a tiny cabin in the woods to live simply, foregoing society and things, chronicling in words that resonate today the value of being and the sustaining beauty of the land. In many ways he anticipated our issues both environmental and personal as we struggle to cope with diminished material expectations and look for something deeper.

However mean your life is, meet it and live it: do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

Read the Thoreau Blog, a diary-like chronicle of his experiences …or take a virtual walk to Walden Pond and see the world as Thoreau saw it.

2009 Pulitzer Prize Winners

Obama in Chester, PA ~ Damon Winter

Obama in Chester, P.A., one of Damon Winter’s many visceral photos of Obama’s 2008 political campaign. The 2009 Pulizer Prize Winners include among them, Damon Winter for Feature Photography, Douglas A. Blackmon in General Nonfiction for Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II , and Annette Gordon-Reed in History for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family

Visit Pulitzer Prize Reprise for an expanded coverage of the winners.

Reducing Reading to Evolution

Jeremy Hsu analyzes the evolutionary basis for our love of storytelling in Why Dead Authors Can Thrill Modern Readers. Do we have an intrinsic desire to punish the bad and exalt the good? Literary Darwinists suggest that we are hardwired to enjoy storylines that enforce the rules of the tribe. Then why do we also have an equally perverse desire to champion the outsider, the rule breaker and the renegade?