7934 - Zofia's Story

In 1994 I had the opportunity to travel to Poland and meet Joanna, the penpal with whom I had been corresponding for five years.  I planned to spend a week with her, travelling around Poland, and she asked me if there was anything I particularly wanted to see.  My father had a book from WW2 called A Soldier's Album in which were featured photos of the liberation of Auschwitz.  I was fascinated and horrified by these photos, and visiting Auschwitz while I was in Poland was unequivocal.  When I asked Joanna if we might go there, she said of course, and would you like to meet my friend Zofia, who was imprisoned there?  And that is how I ended up meeting Zofia Grochowalksa Abramowicz, a Polish Christian who was captured at the beginning of the war when she was taking information to Lithuania as part of the Resistance, and spent four years imprisoned at Ravensbruck and Auschwitz.  

Zofia asked me to tell people her story, and as a result of our meeting, I have come to possess originals of poetry that she wrote while a prisoner at Auschwitz, in agricultural camp Rajsko.  Since meeting her I have been working on her story, having the poems translated, and trying to figure out how best to honor my promise.  The first step happened a few weeks ago, when I emailed the producers of American Public Media's "The Story" and asked whether they would be interested.  They were, and last week I had an interview with Sean Cole, and it will be broadcast this coming Tuesday.  

Zofia's poetry is an expression of being a prisoner, of missing her husband, of being sure that Poland would survive and rebuild as a nation. Although there is much poetry written by former prisoners about their experiences in the camps, there is little to no poetry, except these, which were written while a prisoner.  Her own words are the best way to present her story, and I'm deciding how to do that.  But in the meantime, I will share some of them here.  

These poems were translated by Brian Arden, with whom I have lost touch.  I am looking for him, as he is the very talented writer who put Zofia's poems into such beautiful English, and I want to be sure he gets credit for that. 

The Fragrance of Lindens

The fragrance of lindens has awakened my heart, 
Frozen and faded from the grayness. 
The fragrance of lindens has infused my heart, 
Indifferent in its exile.*

Once again it so beats and pounds
Invoking the image of my country cottage
And again the memory lives 
Of how things were in distant years. 

My tiny house veiled by an orchard
Along the banks of a silvery lake
Pear trees chat in muted counsel
And the fragrance of lindens by morning . . . by night

Into water's depths sinks a scarlet sun
While a wave rocks a small craft
Fragrances flow, sweet and honeyed
I hear the whisper of your heart. 

And when darkness ignites the stars
Shadows trail in mist, above the meadow
An aroma, as of a censer, flows from afar
These are the lindens, the blossoming lindens. 

* Brian Arden says that this phrase translated literally means "Indifferent among foreign lands," referring to her heart.  As she is speaking metaphorically here, we chose to go with the alternate meaning of the Polish, which is "exile."  

Winter is coming.

I love fall and winter, and I love the cold.  I love cold weather clothing - thick wool socks, fleece vests, hats and gloves and scarves.  I love cold weather food - big pots of chili and soup, lasagna, pot roast with red wine and mushrooms, potatoes roasted and baked and mashed.  Pies, apple and sweet potato and cherry, with real whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Big fluffy comforters and warm woolly blankets, windows cracked to let the chill from outside nip your nose.  The dog snuggled up close to stay warm, the cat in the window to finally be cool.  Crunchy leaves and new-fallen snow.  A fire going in the fireplace (even if it is gas.)

I love it all.  I live in the South.  We don't get much cold here, but thankfully we get some.  Today it is in the 40s, and it is on its way towards cold.  I like it.

Science Fiction Reading List

Cherie Braun's recommended list of outstanding science fiction (and one fantasy)

This list is not comprehensive, but consists of the SF I've read that has had the most impact on my reading experience.  I haven't included a lot of dystopian literature because I know a lot of people find that depressing, but I have included The Gate to Women's Country because it's one of my favorites. There are definitely books missing, and I'd be interested to hear what ones you would recommend to someone who wanted a list!

Dune by Frank Herbert

This Hugo & Nebula Award winner tells a sweeping tale of the desert planet Arrakis, the focus of an intricate power struggle in a byzantine interstellar empire.  Dune is one of the most famous sf novels ever written. Deservedly so. The setting is elaborate & ornate, the plot labyrinthine, the adventures exciting. Five sequels follow, but you don't need to read beyond book #3.

Hugo Award for Best Novel (1966), Nebula Award for Best Novel (1965), Seiun Award for Best Foreign Novel (1975)

Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke

Without warning, giant silver ships from deep space appear in the skies above every major city on Earth. Manned by the Overlords, in fifty years, they eliminate ignorance, disease, and poverty. Then this golden age ends—and then the age of Mankind begins....

Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel (1954)

Darwin’s Radio by Greg Bear

Molecular biologist Kaye Lang's theory--that ancient diseases encoded in the DNA of humans can return to life--has become a chilling reality. The shocking evidence: a "virus-hunter" has tracked down a flu-like disease that kills expectant mothers and their offspring.

Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel (2000), Nebula Award for Best Novel (2000), John W. Campbell Memorial Award Nominee for Best Science Fiction Novel (2000)

The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer  by Neal Stephenson

The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. It is to some extent a science fiction coming-of-age story, focused on a young girl named Nell, and set in a future world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. The novel deals with themes of education, social class, ethnicity, and the nature of artificial intelligence.

Hugo Award for Best Novel (1996), Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1996), Arthur C. Clarke Award Nominee (1996), John W. Campbell Memorial Award Nominee for Best Science Fiction Novel (1996)

 The Gate to Women's Country  by Sheri S. Tepper

Tepper's finest novel to date is set in a post-holocaust dystopia that offers only two political alternatives: a repressive polygamist sect that is slowly self-destructing through inbreeding and the matriarchal dictatorship called Women's Country.  The rigid social systems are tempered by the voices of individual experience and, here, by an imaginative reworking of The Trojan Woman that runs through the text. A rewarding and challenging novel that is to be valued for its provocative ideas.

Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel (1992), Arthur C. Clarke Award Nominee (1998)

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Oryx and Crake is at once an unforgettable love story and a compelling vision of the future. Atwood projects us into a near future that is both all too familiar and beyond our imagining.

Man Booker Prize Nominee (2003), Orange Prize Nominee for Fiction (2004), Scotiabank Giller Prize Nominee (2003)

The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein

About a lunar colony's revolt against rule from Earth. Widely admired for its credible presentation of a comprehensively imagined future human society on both the Earth and the moon, it is generally considered one of Heinlein's major novels as well as one of the most important science fiction novels ever written.

Hugo Award Best novel (1967). Nebula Award Best novel nomination (1966)

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.

The eponymous Algernon is a laboratory mouse who has undergone surgery to increase his intelligence by artificial means. The story is told by a series of progress reports written by Charlie Gordon, the first human test subject for the surgery, and it touches upon many different ethical and moral themes such as the treatment of the mentally disabled.

Hugo Award for Short Fiction (1960), Nebula Award for Best Novel (1966)

Ringworld (Known Space) by Larry Niven 

A new place is being built, a world of huge dimensions, encompassing millions of miles, stronger than any planet before it. There is gravity, and with high walls and its proximity to the sun, a livable new planet that is three million times the area of the Earth can be formed. We can start again.

Hugo Award for Best Novel (1971), Nebula Award for Best Novel (1970), Locus Award for Best Novel (1971)

Rendezvous With Rama (Rama #1) by Arthur C. Clarke 

At first, only a few things are known about the celestial object that astronomers dub Rama. It is huge, weighing more than ten trillion tons. And it is hurtling through the solar system at an inconceivable speed. Then a space probe confirms the unthinkable: Rama is no natural object. It is, incredibly, an interstellar spacecraft. Space explorers and planet-bound scientists alike prepare for mankind's first encounter with alien intelligence.

Hugo Award for Best Novel (1974), Nebula Award for Best Novel (1973), Locus Award for Best Novel (1974), British Science Fiction Association Award for Novel (1974), Jupiter Award for Best Novel (1974), John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (1974)

Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle  

For millionaire Tim Hamner, the comet he helped discover is a ticket to immortality. For filmmaker Harvey Randall, it's a chance to redeem a flagging career. And for astronauts John Baker and Rick Delanty, it's a second chance for glory in outer space.

Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel (1977)

Ender's Game (Ender's Saga #1) by Orson Scott Card

In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.  BONUS: ORSON SCOTT CARD IS FROM GREENSBORO, NC!

Hugo Award for Best Novel (1986), Nebula Award for Best Novel (1985)

Red Mars (Mars Trilogy #1) by Kim Stanley Robinson 

For eons, sandstorms have swept the barren desolate landscape of the red planet. For centuries, Mars has beckoned to mankind to come and conquer its hostile climate. Now, in the year 2026, a group of one hundred colonists is about to fulfill that destiny. Brilliantly imagined, breathtaking in scope and ingenuity, Red Mars is an epic scientific saga, chronicling the next step in human evolution and creating a world in its entirety. Red Mars shows us a future, with both glory and tarnish, that awes with complexity and inspires with vision.

Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel (1994), Nebula Award for Best Novel (1993), Arthur C. Clarke Award Nominee for Best Novel (1993), British Science Fiction Association Award for Novel (1993)

Bumps in the Road

Well now.  No net, no wings.  If it weren't for occasional updrafts I might already have hit bottom, but so far only a few bumps against the cliff on the way.

1)  Two days after last post, I was visiting my daughter in New Hampshire, and while on a hike down Mt. Major (beautiful view of Lake Winnepesaukee from the top!) slipped on some some loose gravel and broke my left arm.  Had to hike about another two miles to get to the car, drove 45 minutes to the hospital, x-rays, pizza in the examination room, and "your arm is broken. See an orthopedist when you get home; they'll set it and cast it."  First day of plumbing class three days later, I can't do any of the hands-on learning, and the teacher tells me we'll discuss options after I see the orthopedist.  Dr. Andrew tells me the next day, "We need to do surgery to put in a plate; from the x-ray it looks like there are several different fractures, and since too much time has passed, setting it is not an option."  Surgery on Friday, and he recommends dropping the course as I will need at least 6 to 10 weeks to recover.  Teacher agrees, so Plumbing School is on hold.  Plumbing 01 not offered again until next fall.

2)  Went to Morgantown, WV for Labor Day "weekend" to visit with parents.  Mom is now in Hospice (congestive heart failure, kidney failure, two falls which leave her with bruised ribs and a broken pelvis) and it turns out they need more help than it seemed from a distance.  So I end up spending a week up there, helping Dad get everything in order (identify the meds Mom says she doesn't need, one of which is the pain medication, take the door off the bathroom and install a curtain so she doesn't get stuck in there, re-engineer the wheels on her walker so she can get through all of their narrow doorways.  Thank you Charlie for that one.)

3)  Sign up for COBRA.  I had been searching for cheaper medical insurance, but hadn't signed up yet as I figured I had time -- I hadn't been sick for 2-1/2 years, so I should be fine!  Ha.  Two days after the last post was also two days after my previous insurance ended, along with my previous job.  I had to wait for them to send me the forms, and they to receive my check for $338.00/month before any of my bills could be processed.  So now I'm stuck with COBRA for the foreseeable future, and a best-case scenario calculation looks like at the minimum I will pay about $4,000 (on top of the $338/month) for having my broken arm repaired.  Which leads to

4)  I hadn't calculated major medical expenses into my decision to take the time off to go back to school, so now I am starting a part-time job next week, at Hancock Fabrics.  Twenty hours per week at minimum wage (and for readers not in NC, here that often means Federal minimum -- $7.25 per hour).  That should just about cover my COBRA payment.  Looking for full-time but of course so is everyone.

So, step back and re-group.  Perhaps the broken arm is the universe's way of telling me, "NO! Not that plan!"  A good friend suggests that I am being told to stop and listen to what I really need to be doing, and so that is what I'm about.  I'm excited to get back into the sewing world for a while, and hopefully will be able to do some at home to supplement minimum wage (pillows, window treatments, alterations, custom sewing -- if you need any of that, let me know!)  Will continue here, though, and keep the blog name -- it works in so many ways, and we'll see what happens until the net appears.  Stay tuned.

Leap and the net will appear

Okay, August 11 was my last day at work at smart center Cary. When I started there in January of 2008, I thought it would be perhaps a year and then I would move into something more like a "real" job -- Monday through Friday, 8 to 5, holidays, sick days, etc. Then the economy tanked, finding something like that got to be a real problem as you all know, and at least I had a job. As my co-workers left one by one, the hours and uncertainty got longer, and pay got smaller, until I was working usually 50+ hours per week, at $7.25 per hour. I had THREE Saturdays off in over 2-1/2 years, and every Sunday or the one day every other week I did get off had a sense of urgency to it that was very unsettling. So, after the last rejection letter ("we decided to hire someone with more legal experience") I decided something had to change.

I have thought about plumbing or electricity as a career for a long time. I'm handy; I've installed a faucet and repaired a toilet, hung some light fixtures and installed dimmer switches, a programmable thermostat, etc., and have thought about hanging the "handy woman" shingle out a few times, with encouragement from a good friend. When I looked at the Wake Tech site and weighed the two options, I decided (perhaps erroneously, but we'll see) that one was less likely to be killed while plumbing, so applied and sent an email to the man who runs the program for more information. One week later I was registered, and classes begin next week!

So, I am unemployed but a full time plumbing student. I have some money saved and enough alimony to cover my major living expenses; will have to work out the health care issue (COBRA = $338 per month for medical, and another $28 for dental - yikes!) and eat a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but I'm excited and looking forward to something new. At the end I'll have a skill that should be pretty sale-able as well as handy, and who knows what the future will bring.

In the meantime, I'm going to try to make some extra money using some of my other skills, including my "mad" sewing skills (alterations? pillows? simple curtains? I used to specialize in flower girl outfits!) so if you need anything give me a call! And I'll be keeping this record of the journey, so if you want to follow along, I'd be glad to have you. I'll also be posting plumbing tips, as I learn them! :)

Thanks to my family and friends for all your support and encouragement.