BUTLER WOMEN OF WISDOM
BOOK CLUB NEWSLETTER
December 27, 2020
By Tammy C. Smith
(Photo: Dawn breaks on Stoneybrook Drive in Saxonburg, December 2020)
Introduction
The flow of time does not stand still. Its journey runs swift without regard for those of us who gasp to keep the pace! Over a year and a half of reading has rushed between us since I last published a book club newsletter. Add onto that, 172 books read in the over sixteen years since our club was founded. All the while, stained upon the pages are the stories of our lives. Simple and humble though we are, our book club is more about us than the books we share. For the hero’s tale is experienced before it is ever written.
Before COVID 19
It’s hard to remember a time before the Coronovirus arrived from China, but those innocent times did exist. Previous to the fateful Friday the 13th of March 2020, it had been months since I had written. My last newsletter was the summer of 2019 when we ended with a book discussion on Beloved at Cheryl and Greg’s house. Tony Morrison said it herself, “Some things you forget. Others you never do” (43). Soon we did forget the recently deceased writer’s haunting book of the unimaginable abuses of slavery. This was all before BLM, Black Lives Matter, and the accusations of white supremacy. Way back then, one of our own, Jody, was in South America helping the poor indigenous communities of Nicaragua.
The terrorist attacks of 09/11 were a distant memory when we read The Day the World Came to Town by Jim Defede that October. The small town of Gander on the island of Newfoundland, a province of Canada, did not think twice in helping the stranded victims of airlines, people from 40 different countries, who were banned from landing their scheduled flights on American soil. We all recalled our own stories of 09/11 after reading the memoirs of kindness, gratitude, hope and despair. How quickly this eventful day became immersed in our own personal history and the history of our nation. We thought little then of our government clamping down on homeland security from schools to airports. Security cameras are now everywhere, and this invasion of privacy has been with us ever since. We never questioned it, as we soon would never question lockdowns and COVID restrictions.
In November of 2019, our little book club of all white women had our eyes opened once again to the abuse of slavery through the novel The Kitchen House. Although none of us condone the suffering caused by those southern elitists, none of us have the ability to turn back time, to change any part of it. Should we feel guilty for the vile acts of others dead and gone? Should we feel less human for the atrocities? Should we atone for crimes we did not commit? After reading Kathleen Grissom’s book, we didn’t ask these questions. We didn’t know we should, but back then, we weren’t aware of “Karen” or the “Karen counter culture.”
January arrived with the birth of another grandchild for the Smith’s. We welcomed our first girl, Marilyn Rose. Not only was she our first granddaughter, but she was the first baby born at Butler hospital for the year and decade of 2020. Her birth had passed before visitors and family were banned from the hospital’s premise, before we knew that the virus overseas in China would reach American shores. As we read the entertaining conflicts of the Plumb family in the book The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, we were unconcerned that the other side of the world would ever directly affect us. Laughing at a dysfunctional group of characters was as serious as we wanted to venture in kicking off the New aYear.
Later in the month, our book club met at Eat-n-Park and marked the 60th birthdays of myself, Jody, Kathy, and Sharon with a lovely cake. We celebrated on the precipice of 2020. I remember a premonition I had that day, that something had changed. It was a spark I felt inside, just as sharp and bright as the candles on the cake. When we made our wishes, it did not blow out.
In February of 2020, although Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, it was becoming clearer that we as a nation were not. While Eleanor was quick to speak her mind in Gail Honeyman’s book, the long arm of social media was censoring ours. The month of February showed how completely perverse our country had become. My post on the NFL’s YouTube channel in abhorrence of the Super Bowl halftime “strip” show featuring exotic dancing by Jelo and Shakira did not remain long. My total defamation of the event was not to their taste, so mine was deleted while those who wrote praising the filthy gestures performed on stage were left open to “likes” and mutually praiseworthy comments. My first taste of censorship fed into the thrumming inclination that I had felt the month before. As I look back now at my journal from that time, I see there a passage from Romans 56, “They no longer have the ability to think correctly, to separate good from evil, or to judge what is right and wrong.” I added, I feel these are the end times and the sides are being decided - those who are with God and those who are not.
Before our book club would meet again, the world changed. The Chinese virus reached America, and the first deaths were reported as we read March’s book pick, The Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian. Unlike Zadoorian’s two ailing elderly characters, there was no running off to travel the country in the hope of escaping our new reality, a world pandemic. International air travel ceased in an effort to quarantine our cities and our country. Schools and businesses closed and the entire nation experienced for the first time lockdowns, social distancing, and living with the driving fear of contracting a deadly virus. As watching daily press conferences from both our president and our state governor became the highlight of our lives, our fears following the fateful Friday the 13th escalated.
Reading in Spite of COVID 19
The superficial life of Jane Austen’s Emma seemed appropriate to alleviate the stress of COVID isolation. In April, we discussed Austen’s book via our club’s first Zoom Meet. This newly popular form of communication between large groups, I was now using from home to administer remote instruction to my students. Our book club did not fully embrace this platform (or my book pick for that matter), but it was all we had with restaurants closed for public dining and the reluctance we all shared in opening up our homes to those outside of our family. We found ways to lift our spirits, however, especially when our club’s only nurse, Lori, retired from Butler Hospital after 43 years of patient care. We were so happy for her, and her retirement couldn’t have come soon enough as we feared Lori’s exposure to the dreaded virus.
After two months in lockdown, Governor Wolfe introduced Pennsylvanians to COVID color codes like green for reopening the economy. When our book club finally met for the first time since February on June 4 at Sharon’s house, I was not able to attend. It had been over 100 days since I had last seen my daughter and grandsons, and they were able to finally make the trip from Delaware for our long awaited visit. Ginnie’s book pick Season of Second Chances by Aimee Alexander, however, seemed a relevant title for our first socially distanced meeting. Hope was beginning to return as the positive COVID cases began to fall, families were reconnecting, and a few government restrictions were lifted.
The story of Lakshmi in The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi, gave our book club insight into the political and social life of India’s caste system. In July of 2020, it wasn’t hard to see how Lakshmi had to maneuver a “system” that was in place only to benefit the wealthy elitists. As the pandemic had begun to reveal the double standards set in our own society, we were beginning to see the evils of the left and their political leaders at work. While large groups were banned from organizing for weddings, funerals, picnics, and community events, it had become acceptable for violent protest groups to organize angry mobs to burn buildings and to destroy historic public icons, all in the name of Black Lives Matter and LGBTQ. But like Lakshmi discovered with Samir Singh, her lusting benefactor, some of us saw through the lies of the fake mainstream media, understanding that all is not as we think and those we trusted, we could never trust again. Our book club was now meeting outdoors, in the private residences of our members. Cheryl volunteered her home for July 28th where some of us came wearing the newly dictated masks and others chose to socially-distance by moving our chairs beyond the defined six-foot limit. We were indeed getting a sampling of Lakshmi’s India.
July ended with the passing of Becky’s mom. For Becky, she will best remember the day as a celebration of 104 years of living. In describing her mom, Becky called her “young at heart” and a lover of Frank Sinatra. Our book club has felt the passing of many of our moms, and through these events, we have come to understand that after such a loss our lives can never be the same.
Decidedly a tribute to the influence of mothers, our next book picked by Barb K. was Half Broke Horses. It characterizes the grandmother of one of our favorite authors, Jeanette Walls. In her book, Walls explains the history of her mother’s family before the time of her earlier memoir The Glass Castle. The novel reveals the grit of Wall’s grandmother Lily Casey during an era when, like now, the nation was vastly changing. Just as then automobiles and planes were replacing horses and trains, in recent months, we have seen online learning replace onsite education; working remote replace the brick and mortar workplace; and online shopping make visits to malls and retail centers seem obsolete. And in the midst of change, children are born. Like Lily’s daughter Rosemary, Wall’s mother, who came into the world on the heels of a nation in transformation, Little Claire, Ginnie’s second grandchild, was born on August 13, amidst the tumult of a country in both political and social upheaval. Claire forged an early birth into the pandemonium of a pandemic, on the shooting stars of summer, and on the feast of her patron saint. In our discussion of Wall’s book on August 19 at the Smith condo, we too were trailblazing, as we huddled on my small patio for our meeting. Boldly unmasked, the six of us in attendance defied COVID orders, just as we knew the rumors that were spreading, another “second wave” of the virus was imminent.
Our last summer meeting of 2020 was hosted once again this year on Sharon’s lovely porch. The book Water From My Heart by Charles Martin didn’t seem so far-fetched as we learned how money and criminal business transactions influence the day to day lives of naive citizens. As the race for our nation’s presidency was heating up for the November finish, we learned how one-sided our mainstream media truly can be. National press coverage continued to push the undeserving, unfit candidate Joe Biden and his far left running mate Kamala Harris onto the American people. As questioning readers and viewers, some of us speculated the obvious, the cutting and clipping of the truth to fit the progress of a liberal-socialist narrative.
As the election fires burned, the virus began to peak once again in late October. By then we knew that COVID 19 was only one crisis in a multitude that this country was facing. At the time of our book club on the 21st, the morale around the fire ring at Lori’s house on Bullcreek Road was beginning to plummet. As schools were closing, some never having opened, and businesses were again under duress to shut their doors to the public, the two-faced system of our state’s restrictions became apparent. What was good for one, was not necessarily allowed by another. Mistrust and suspicion had gripped us all. Social media became a hotbed for heated arguments between the left and the right. Like our October book pick Never Tell by Lisa Gardner, Facebook, Twitter, and their ilk are where truth and transparency are all but elusive. Lori witnessed this, the night of October 31, on the blue moon of Halloween when she showed her support at the biggest Trump Rally ever to be attended, lauding it as well-organized and inspirational. The ghouls of fake news, however, lied to the public (I did my homework) and destroyed the rally’s legitimacy by condemning the red wave and its MAGA followers. Where was this hateful reporting, CNN, when BLM destroyed our cities?
November passed in complete turmoil, for the 2020 election was stolen as everyone had expected. With mail in ballots falsely signed and corrupted voting machines calibrating votes to favor Biden, the reality that our country is about to be governed by left wing socialists is disturbing in itself without dealing with a second or third wave of the pandemic … I’ve really lost count at this point.
It is now past Christmas and the holiday was all but deleted as traditional celebrations were cancelled everywhere. No concerts, no musicals, no ballets, no holiday parties, no large family feasts. Although I did see Santas in a few different places, they seemed so unnatural from behind their socially-distanced plexiglass screens. That’s why Where the Forest Meets the Stars is a perfect title for November’s book. It’s symbolic of the irony of this 2020 holiday season. However, to make the title more fitting for these times Where COVID Meets Christmas may be somewhat more appropriate. And so as we seem to have hit a wall, to plan a new date for discussing the November book while the pandemic lockdowns are still in effect is senseless. Without a restaurant opened for our meeting, we are forced to wait until our state goes “green,” or whatever they’re now calling it. Our hope, therefore, lies strictly in God’s great mercy and his gift of a vaccine that is now being administered around the country. As first responders, hospital workers were first in line for the shots. Did Cheryl get hers yet, I wonder?
Once the pandemic is over, we need to have faith that our country can return to a time when family values and love of neighbor were practiced. Our future definitely lies in our children, and recently, Barb and Jim Direnzo added another generation to their family tree as they welcomed their first grandchild into this world on December 8. His name is Alexander David. Pray the airlines start opening up more flights for the new grandparents as they will be making frequent visits now to Monterrey, Mexico!
In conclusion, and on a positive note, we finished the year with a collection of $250 for our book club charity recipient. We thank Cheryl for arranging our donation to be paid to the Community Food Bank. With so many people out of work and hurting to make ends meet, may God bless them through the beneficence of those who have the means to give.
Sincerest wishes for a healthy, wealthy, and blessed New Year,
Tammy
P.S. I have also attached the updated list of book club books.
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