Rebellion - Me and James Dean

 

Something about this last birthday pulled a trigger for me. I’ve finally realized at my advanced age, if I don’t want to do something, there’s often no reason why I should.

          On my actual birthday I decided I’d do exactly what I wanted to do, so I began the day without a fattening sweet roll provided by my excellent DIL. Then, instead of meeting friends for golf (one downside – I wouldn’t be seeing them) and slogging my way through a game I’m growing increasingly bad at, I’d head off for a game of pickleball. Which was a win (except for my scores).

          The afternoon was spent with friends playing Mahjong and drinking wine. Super win.

          Yesterday was my monthly book club meeting. I’m always honest and true about reading the book; I mean that’s the whole point of a book club – to take you out of your comfort zone. And I really did pick it up and read a several chapters. But then I realized I didn’t want to experience the travails of this character and I put it down.

          The book was The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, historical fiction about Belle da Costa Greene, the woman who helped J.P. Morgan build his personal library, and an interesting story. Greene was a Black woman passing as white, which meant that not only – after coming from middle class roots herself - was she trying to charter her way through high society, she also had to be constantly on guard lest her race be discovered.

          I haven’t sunk yet to the level of romances and bake shop cozy mysteries, but I’d like to limit my reading of unhappy and threatened people. 

       The good/bad news is there was little point in coming prepared because instead of discussing the book, we spent the majority of our time listening to everyone’s personal history of daughters-in-law from India, or that nice Syrian guy who was dating their granddaughter. 

       Somehow we even touched on the Hyundai plant raid. When one person dismissed it, saying they were just construction workers (speaking over another who’d pointed out that they were actually skilled engineers), I tuned out.