There are some trends here. Ransom notes that definitely refer to cats and also talk about either golf ball, or, potentially, cat testicles if this is some ardent non-believer of fixing cats.
After each of the notes, queried friends and family. Honestly, we never looked past friends and family. No one claimed it.
And now we’ve got another note, this time accompanied by two ugly raccoon statues. This one reads, “Cats, rats, freedom. Let them go, I’ll be watching.”
Once again, this leaves me wondering whodunnit. No one is laying claim. But I have other questions. Where does someone find so many raccoon statues? And are they spending money for them? I hope not much! And the notes… they take time. Who cares enough to take this time?
Reactions when we show people range from laughter to people being creeped out. I’m pretty entertained, though a little troubled by our growing collection of ceramic raccoons…
I don’t know about you, but when stories about ISIS come on the news, I tend to change the station. It’s all dark, depressing stories of beheadings, cultural terrorism and people being cruel to people. But.
What I’ve seen happen in Facebook during the past week about Syrian refugees makes it obvious that we as a nation can’t have civilized dialogue about the situation and instead need to polarize it into an us versus them situation: Democrat versus Republican, conservative versus liberal, good Christian versus bad Christian, good religious person versus hypocritical religious person.
On the one hand, I’m over it and it’s barely started. On the other, this is clearly going to be a big issue for all of presidential candidates so I don’t want to check out too quickly. I want to be an informed citizen who can intelligently engage in the sort of healthy debate that our democracy was founded on.
And so, last night I attended one of the Insights Lecture Series at the Cincinnati Museum Center: “The Fight Against Cultural Terrorism: Disrupting the Trade in Blood Antiquities.” There was a lecture by Marion F. Werkheiser, a founding partner of the law firm Cultural Heritage Partners. The goal of the talk wasn’t to inform people about ISIS in general. Rather, it was to discuss how ISIS makes used of cultural terrorism and racketeering to fund their efforts and make their mark in communities they invade. I learned a lot and wanted to share some of that.
One of the first things Werkheiser shared was this video from ISIS destroying a museum in Mosul. It’s s terrible video in terms of the culture and history being lost, but it’s safe for work and includes no violence.
Werkhiser also introduced me to a new label for ISIS: Daesh. This is an acronym for Dawlat al-Islamiyah f’al-Iraq w Belaad al-Sham, the full Arabic term for what English speakers translate as the Islamic State. Doubly offensive to folks in ISIS. Acronyms are rarely used in Arabic so they sound ridiculous to Arabic speakers. AND, Daesh sounds a lot like the Arabic word “dais,” which means something that crushes or tramples. To folks in ISIS, that’s a horrible connotation.
Following Werkhiser’s lead, I’ll refer to ISIS as Daesh in the rest of this summary of her talk.
Because of my open-minded stance on news stories about Daesh, I was not familiar with what they were doing beyond terrorism to people. I had no idea that they were funding their work through the looting of antiquities. Shame on me for this because I was vaguely aware of hearing about the murder of archeologist Khaled al-Asaad a while back but didn’t put the pieces together on why he was killed. If you’re like me and need a recap, the overly abbreviated version is that al-Asaad had been leading work at Palmyra and was doing his best to preserve and protect that site. (Get more details about Palmyra and why it’s such a big deal.) Daesh doesn’t want to encourage dialogue between cultures or people identifying with an era before they were in power and so are destroying things pre-them and in the destruction of a place like Palmyra, they were able to loot antiquities, which they can later sell and fund their work (think weapons and ammo).
When Daesh takes over an area, they often charge taxes in the form of antiquities instead of cash. It’s more valuable. When they start looting a historical site (many UNESCO World Heritage Sites), one tactic they use is to build homes on top of the site and then do their digging through living room floors. Activities occurring in someone’s home are much more difficult to monitor.
All of this is terrible, but what does it have to do with those of us in the US? Guess where the stolen antiquities are being sold? Lots of places, but the US is high on that list. And the amount of antiquities being sold? It’s gross.
As one example, Sarah Parcak of the University of Alabama at Birmingham “and her colleagues examined satellite images taken before and after the 2011 Egyptian Revolution of two major sites in Egypt, el Lisht and el Hibeh. The team measured the extent of looting holes in each image and compared the results. In a case study published online by DigitalGlobe, Parcak “found a 400 to 500% increase since the events of 2011.”
If you want an example that’s a little closer to home, how’s this? The FBI is investigating the owners of Hobby Lobby, who are in the process of building the Museum of the Bible. (Source, Source, Source) While I applaud the museum on a very clever logo, it’s remarkably irresponsible if the museum is filled with stolen items whose purchase inadvertently funds international terrorism.
Werkhiser proposed a few things that could curb this cultural terrorism and racketeering. The one I most understand is a move to referring “blood antiquities,” building off of the success around encouraging to buy conflict-free diamonds. By using familiar terminology, it will be easier to help people to understand the problem with buying antiquities that aren’t certified as being an authentic, legitimate sale. Another is to not purchase antiquities, which to me sounds obvious but apparently more people buy them than I know. The last, which is potentially the biggest and most effective, is for the Arab League members to form a regional coalition that calls on countries like the US where antiquities are sold and to ask them to assist in stopping those sales. I’d like to think that countries would be super cooperative with this, but getting issues like this through our government has proven harder than it sounds.
In the meantime, organizations like CyArk are making 3D scans of precious heritage sites so people can see simulations of them. It’s not the real thing, but it’s something. Another preventive measure being taken is that museums threatened by Daesh are being emptied with items being sent to safe havens to protect them.
In college I went out with my friend Movie Critic for happy hour. Whatever the happy hour special was, it definitely involved beer by the pitcher. So, because it was such a good deal, we each got our own pitcher! I’m pretty sure we drank straight from our pitchers, thinking that was the funniest option. After happy hour, we went to our school paper Entertainment Staff editorial meeting and tried to play it cool, which last perhaps five minutes. Then from across the circle of writers I heard a loud HICCUP from Movie Critic and proceeded to collapse into a pile of giggles. Our editor was irritated with us, but pretty accommodating, considering. We definitely didn’t repeat our pre-meeting happy hours after that, but I’ve always looked back on that night as one of my fondest college memories.
Although thinking back to that night makes me smile, I don’t think it’s a great story in the retelling. Where did we go to happy hour? How much were those pitchers of beer that we decided we each needed our own? What made us think we were so hysterical that night? These are details lost to me forever.
My favorite memories are messy. I try to recollect each part of the moment and it’s hard. Usually because I was too busy enjoying the moment. Sometimes because I’ve enjoyed pitchers of beer individually.
On a recent plane trip I started reading The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. On the one hand, I didn’t particularly care for it and it’s long descriptions of the running of the bulls and bullfighting in general. But I also read it as a recounting of a wonderful time spent with friends and filled with the drama that accompanies drinking and crushes and friendship and enmity. Reading it as an outsider, as someone not invited to the party, it’s a little tedious and full of inside jokes.
Sometimes the memory is better as just that, a memory.
That’s not to say I shouldn’t have read the book. (My first Hemingway!) Or that memories can’t be shared beautifully. It’s more to say that I’m grateful for the memories where I can share the highlights and the emotions that accompanied them. I’m okay with forgetting the details if it means I was more engaged in the moment. And I forgive a storyteller for their bumpy retelling of a happy memory for the same reasons.
Is life getting you down? Do you find yourself focusing too much on daily drudgery rather than wonder? You can be helped!
A Prescription To Add Magic Back to Your Life
Week One: Turkish Delight
Yes, I know Turkish Delight is actually pretty disgusting, but no one said this would be easy! Buy yourself one package of Turkish delight and eat ne piece for each chapter of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis. Though you’ll likely gag your sway through the candy, the connection will make sense soon enough. Take your time reading this book. (And eating the Turkish Delight!) If you find you read the whole thing in less than a day, then read the rest of the Narnia Chronicles. Let yourself go on a week-long adventure with the Pevensie children.
Week Two: A Visit to Your Local Magic Shop
It might seem too obvious that I would recommend you visit a magic store to help you believe in magic, but trust me here. At the store, you’ll want to purchase a deck of cards and book about card tricks. Aim for something simple for your first trick. The purpose of this exercise is to appreciate the work that goes unto a successful sleight of hand. After you’ve thoroughly mastered one trick – and one really is enough! – then you’ll want to pick up The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Savor this book. If you need to stretch it out to two weeks, that’s okay!
Week Three: Up, Up, Up!
It might be a little tricky, depending on the weather where you live, but your next task is to go on a hot air balloon ride. Yes, I know it’s quite frightening to go up so high suspended in just a little basket, but do it you must. Once you find yourself back on the ground, pick up a copy of The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. If, when you finish, you find that you just must read the other two novels in His Dark Materials, go for it. The magic prescription can wait while you catch up!
Week Four: Make a Wish
Even if it means visiting several towns to do so, the next phase of this prescription means visiting at least three different fountains and dropping a coin into each while making a wish. It is essential that you visit at least three fountains. More is okay! Each fountain will bring with it it’s own magic. After your wishes are tossed out, get your hands on The Magicians by Lev Grossman. This book is also a trilogy, and as your prescribing practitioner, I cannot discourage you from reading the rest of this this series.
Week Five: X Marks the Spot! Get your hands on a paper map – they still exist – and go on a GPS-free trip. You need’t go far but far enough that getting lost is an option. After you’ve had your adventure, check out Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. (The second in this trilogy is also good. The third is sitting in my To Read pile so I cannot speak to its effectiveness in helping you reclaim a belief in magic.)
After five weeks, with some possible extensions added on for extra books, you should find yourself back fully believing in magic. Sure, everyday life might still get you down, but you’ll know that something more exciting might be just around the corner.
This post was inspired by the novel The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George, where Monsieur Perdu–a literary apothecary–finally searches for the woman who left him many years ago. Join From Left to Write on October 8th as we discuss The Little Paris Bookshop. As a member, I received a copy of the book for review purposes.
Monsieur Jean Perdu runs a literary apothecary on a barge on the Seine in Paris from which he prescribes for all sorts of ailments. (Sounds very much like my dream job of being a bibliotherapist!) Throughout the course of conversations with his customers, Perdu is able to tell if they need a prescription of books to make them cry, to make them stop crying, to help them believe in love, to help them sleep better.
As a reader of The Little Paris Bookshop, it is a bonus, but absolutely not necessary, to be well-versed in literary classics. I think it’s only important to love books and love reading! Over and over George writes magical lines that reiterate as much.
With all due respect, what you read is more important int he long term than the man you marry.
Reading — an endless journey; a long, indeed never-ending journey that made one more temperate as well as more loving and kind.
A bookseller ever forgets that books are a very recent means of expression in the broad sweep of history, capable of changing and toppling tyrants.
He calls books freedoms. And homes too. They preserve all the good words that we so seldom use.
I rarely stop to admire words on the page , but my copy of The Little Paris Bookshop has so many pages with corners folded over so I can go back and refer to quotes. And I have! The words are too pretty to forget.
Although Perdu is able to help diagnose ailments and prescribe literary cures, he can’t cure his own pain. He’s recovering from a love that he lost many years prior. His lover left him, leaving behind only a letter that he never opened! He gets by, but barely.
I read books — twenty at a time. Everywhere: on the toilet, in the kitchen, in cafes, on the metro. I do jigsaw puzzles that take up the whole floor, destroy them when I’ve finished and then start all over again. I feed stray cats I arrange my groceries in alphabetical order. I sometimes take sleeping tablets. I take a dose of Rilke to wake up. I don’t read any books in which women like — crop up. I gradually turn to stone. I carry on. The same every day. That’s the only way I can survive. But that than that, no, I do nothing.
I love that description. I relate to it in ways I’m almost embarrassed to admit. But when things get hard, focusing on a routine, no matter how tedious, does seem to help.
Eventually, Perdu does open the letter, which leads him on an adventure through France atop his traveling literary apothecary. He picks up travelers along the way and is able to chase love – both old and new.
In one particularly beautiful passage, Perdu’s old love writes:
When the stars imploded billions of years ago, iron and silver, gold and carbon came raining down. And the iron from the stardust is in us today — in our mitochondria. Mothers pass on the stars and their iron to their children. Who knows, Jean, you and I might be made of the dust from one and the same star, and maybe we recognized each other by its light. We were searching for each other. We are star seekers.
How can that not make you swoon? It’s gorgeous. And it feels big and romantic and yet so small and within reach. George does a beautiful job in writing this story. It doesn’t go in a straight line but instead twists and curves much as I imagine Perdu’s path along the Seine must have. There were moments in the story when I started to wonder where the plot was headed, but it always ended up someplace good. For me, the challenge was just that I loved the early portion of the book on the apothecary so much that I had to reorient myself to a story that was focused less on handing out book prescriptions and more on chasing love.
The Little Paris Bookshop was a wonderful book and one I’m excited to share with friends. I hope you’ll check it out. Inside, you might just find the perfect literary prescription fort whatever ails you.
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These are other quotes I loved from The Little Paris Bookshop but couldn’t work into my review. They’re too good not to share!
Fear transforms your body like an inept sculptor does a perfect block of stone.
All of us preserve time. We preserve the old versions of the people who have left us. And under our skin, under the layer of wrinkles and experience and laughter, we, too, are old versions of ourselves. Directly below the surface, we are our former selves: the former child, the former lover, the former daughter.
To carry them within us — that is our task. We carry them all inside us, all our dead and shattered loves. Only they make us whole. If we begging to forget or cast aside those we’ve lost, then… then we are no longer present either.”
Week One: Turkish Delight
Week Two: A Visit to Your Local Magic Shop
Week Three: Up, Up, Up!
Week Four: Make a Wish
Week Five: X Marks the Spot!
